How to saw a log into boards with a circular saw

Sawing a log into boards with a chainsaw: what it takes

Some people have the opportunity to take a certain area in the woods for logging to dissolve trunks, but how do chainsaws dissolve a log into boards if you have never had to deal with this? Those who have been logging for a long time can do it without any devices. they just have to hammer a longitudinal line on the trunk for the trimmer and use it to cut a log or board.

But if you have never done it, then you need certain devices, which we are now going to tell you about, and also show a thematic video in this article.

Sawing a log into boards with a chainsaw at the lumberyard

How to saw a log

Sawing logs is done with a sawmill, an electric or gasoline saw and additional devices. Look at the scope of your job as you choose your tools.

The cheapest stationary sawmill with all accessories will cost you at least 150 thousand rubles. Unless you plan to run a small business, it would not be a good idea to buy this type of equipment.

affordable tool. chainsaw. A chainsaw is more convenient than an electric one for several reasons.

• Uses no electricity to operate. makes it perfect for felling small clearings.
• It has more power as compared to the electric one.
• Has soft start and convenient speed control, which reduces the risk of chain breakage.
• Inertia brake operates faster than an electric saw.
• Long operating time without interruption. up to 1 hour.
• Allows you to work in wet conditions.

Saw a log longitudinally with a chainsaw will help fix the log, a special frame on the chain saw and guide.

The chainsaw is under great strain when cutting. An ordinary chainsaw will break down quickly. It is better to use a professional tool. A good choice is a STIHL MS 660 or STIHL MS 880 chainsaw. These models have more than 7 horsepower, which is enough for continuous operation under heavy loads.

A special metal frame is attached to the guide bar of the saw. The distance between the frame and the guide bar is adjustable, allowing the material to be sawn into boards of desired thickness.

If you have metal corners or legs from the school desk at hand, it is feasible to make the frame yourself.

The video shows how to make the frame with your own hands.

When working in stationary conditions, a rigid metal profile or a long flat board is suitable for the guide. The ends of the guide are fixed to the gantry, and a log is laid at the bottom. This method is only suitable for cutting trunks of small lengths, because there is a possibility of deflection of the guide. This will result in uneven sawing of the trunk.

Angle grinder or angle grinder

Some craftsmen advise to use the Bulgarian, if you have a large volume of work, low quality requirements.

Do not try this method at all. Bulgarian is designed to give a beautiful look to the welding seam or cut bricks and without a saw you just can not cope. Sawing Bulgarian boards is traumatic.

When cutting boards with this tool, craftsmen are advised to put a circular saw blade on it. Imagine that when you are working, the bolter grabbed a piece of wood in one of the gaps, you immediately let go of the power button (anyone who has worked with it knows that after turning off the disk will make a few more turns), and this is not where you find your tool after that half a meter from yourself or your body.

Or, for example, the disk heated up and broke, which is also quite possible, pieces of the hot cut-off wheel are scattered all over the area, and some of them may land on you. Other craftsmen use a disc with a winning tap, which can easily be in the leg.

Therefore it is better not to risk and to use the tool specially designed for this work.

Sawing a chainsaw log into boards with a fixture

When it is necessary to cut a log longitudinally with a small power chainsaw, you cannot do without special equipment and skills. Here’s how it describes the YouTube channel Carpentry with their own hands.

Logs for sawing

The basis of home-made device for sawing is the carriage, which is welded from profile pipe 25 mm. Two 30 mm guide sockets are welded to the carriage. To fix the height of the carriage, two M8 bolts are installed on each pipe.

The carriage with rails

The moving part of the device has a T-shape. It is also made of 25 mm sectional tube. Every bar has clamps that fix the guide bar of a chainsaw.

Supports with clamps

To allow the chain saw chain to move freely, 4 mm thick metal jaws with dimensions of 40 mm are welded inside the clamps.

Jaws in the clamp

The carriage when sawing must easily move on rails, so the bottom at all corners attached rollers. Inexpensive furniture casters made of plastic are needed.

Roller carriage

Assemble the fixture before placing it on the guide rail.

Assembled fixture

One section of aluminum ladder is used as a guide for the carriage. The carriage is placed on top of the ladder, and the rollers make it easy to move it along the guide rail.

Carriage on the ladder

This fixture is designed to work with a 3.1 kW Husqvarna 555 chain saw.

Husqvarna 555 saw

Select special chain for longitudinal sawing. It differs in the pitch of the links and the angle of the cutting edge. Match the sprocket on the chainsaw to the pitch of the links.

Comparison of chainsaw for rip sawing

The size of the bar determines the cutting depth of the log. The Husqvarna does not produce a bar with an optimal length of 55 cm, so you buy a Partner bar, and choose a chain with 68 links for it.

Partner saw guide bar

For the work the device is mounted on a chainsaw. First attach the guide bar to the guide bar and fasten it. Then mount the carriage on the uprights.

Saw with fixture installed

The ladder is attached to the log with staples and planks.

fastening the ladder

After installing the chainsaw with the device on the ladder choose the size of the cut and by this size set the height of the carriage on the rails.

Setting the size of the saw

Sawing is done by moving the chain saw carriage along the log on the guide rail.

Sawing a log

Sawing technique along

For a beginner, a longitudinal sawing is difficult. Really, the most important, responsible and difficult stage of the work is the first cut. The quality of the boards and the further result of the construction work will depend on this.

For the first saw cut to be even and free of defects, it is recommended:

• Securely set the guide ruler;
• place the log on its supports, fix it firmly;
• Check that the log is level;
• fasten the guide rail to the supports, using self-tapping screws.

Only after that can we saw a log. It is necessary to move the chainsaw smoothly, avoiding abrupt movements.

Sawing technique for crosscut

This is useful if you saw a log for firewood or to make decorative elements. Here are the rules for sawing.

• The log is placed horizontally on the supports. It must be at a height of 50 cm.
• In this position the log is completely cleaned from the bark.
• Make a marking on the log at an equal distance.
• According to these marks the log is sawn into log fragments. No special tools are needed for this.

Sawing your wood

Our sawmill works not only with our own raw material, but also with the client’s wood. In the factory we have the ability to saw any type of wood with maximum savings of material and maximum output of the finished product.

Imported disk lathes, which are installed in production, are highly productive and allow you to saw a log of any diameter. Ready-made lumber is dried in accordance with all the rules and requirements to ensure maximum safety, strength and durability of finished boards or beams, as well as to protect them from rotting, deformation and damage by mold fungi.

Materials ordered in the company are delivered daily in Moscow and Moscow region. Our employees are always ready to answer all questions of customers and buyers.

Sawing logs

Sawing methods

By planning ahead with time and effort it is possible to cut logs more efficiently. You can make this process the most effective, resorting to the following recommendations:

• Only sharp saws should be used when sawing logs. An indication that the electric saw has become dull will be to pull it up frequently during the cut, t. к. the blunt blade heats up and expands as. е. Loss of tension. Thus, the saw starts to walk, gets stuck in the log, and will create problems pulling it back out. A saw that is replaced on time will help avoid the following situations.
• Avoid rips. A daily inspection and lubrication of the sawmill is not as time consuming compared to the cost of replacing the bearings on the flywheels and the cost of replacement parts themselves.
• Prepare logs for sawing in advance. Before you start sawing trees, they need to be cleaned of dirt, using a metal detector to remove any possible nails driven into them that may have remained in the logs after the signs have been removed from them. Saving time will help before sawing logs, the procedure of trimming knots and protruding knots on it with a chainsaw, and it will also be necessary in advance to trim the end of the sawn wood, so that it fits as closely as possible to the cross-section of the log.
• During the cutting of the bar it is necessary to make its edging without delay. Cut the edges immediately after sawing the log into planks directly on the band saw: first on one side and then on the other, and so on until the last plank, until the entire process of sawing and processing of the log to be sawed is completed.

We suggest reading Lemongrass Chinese: cultivation in Siberia, care, methods of reproduction, useful propertiesIt is necessary to determine in advance the scheme of work.

One of the most important tasks of the sawmaker is to choose the most rational cutting scheme. This will determine the suitability of the materials for the intended purpose, the amount of output from a unit volume of wood and, as a result, the profit of the enterprise.

The master must have an impressive experience and a particular flair for the material, to determine in advance the order of the work, where to start and how to act in the process. This kind of skill only comes with time as a result of working long hours in the sawmill.

Sawing diagram	Special features
Circular	After removing the first slab, the log is turned over 180˚ and placed on the resulting face. Then it is turned 180˚ or 90˚ once more in the process, usually at least five times.

This is the most rational and economically advantageous method, but in the absence of mechanisms for turning when using manual labor, the resulting productivity may be reduced

Logging is done with a special tool. For normal by today’s standards work requires a special machine for sawing logs with their own hands, which is called a sawmill.

There are two types of sawmill: rotary and band saws. Circular saws use circular saws and are considered less efficient because they have a greater thickness of cut (6 to 9 mm), less accuracy and depth of cut.

A band saw is equipped with a different system: the saw is a strip put on rotating rollers. Cutting thickness is approximately 1.5. 3 mm, which is economic enough in terms of sawmill waste.

Modern models have high precision and productivity of work, they are automated and have a tilting mechanism for lifting and turning logs in case of circular sawing or beam sawing.

You can only cut a log in half with a chainsaw, but if you use a special frame, you can split a log into boards right in the forest.

Wood is a versatile material. Although we have wood in abundance in Russia, we still need to make sure that we do not waste this valuable natural resource when we turn it into lumber, and when we turn lumber into furniture, houses, and other useful things.

Remember: only logs of good size should be sawn. Your plans should be to saw as much high quality lumber as possible from that wood. You try to do it with as little waste as possible and at the same time want to achieve a high value and usefulness of the product you produce. How to do it?

I’d like to share with you the experience I’ve gained over the decades. I hope this guide will help you become more profitable and cut your losses as much as possible. Turning our precious, renewable resource into a useful and sustainable product that will last for centuries. trust me, you can do it.

With the help of this article you can choose the most convenient way of sawing logs on boards! I assure you, each method has its pros and cons! It is well explained here! So read it, understand it and enjoy your work. This is Andrew Noack with you. Read my articles, subscribe to updates. Also recommend them on social networks to anyone interested in woodworking and more.

Types of Log Sawing

There are two principal methods of sawing a log into boards:

Additional sawing methods are also possible:

Radial bucking is a type of sawing during which the axis of the cut goes through the heartwood of the timber and as a result the annual rings in the cross-section of the board form an angle of 76. 900. The sawn timber obtained with such sawing has a homogeneous color and texture. The timber barely deforms during shrinkage and does not swell in moisture because the dimensions of the timber vary mostly along the rings (across the grain). Radial sawn timber has annual rings which are arranged along the thickness of the board. Radial sawn timber has the highest performance qualities of all other types of timber.

Tangential sawing is carried out tangentially to the lines of the annual rings at a small distance from the core. The boards have a distinctive texture and a vivid, wavy annual-ring pattern. Such lumber exhibits higher moisture shrinkage and swelling coefficients than radial-cut boards. As a result, they tend to warp when exposed to moisture. Such boards are in demand for use in dry conditions.

Rustic (semi-radial) and mixed types of sawing have signs of two main types of sawing simultaneously: radial and tangential. They therefore exhibit average shrinkage and swelling coefficients. Rustic sawn boards are characterized by straight lines of the annual rings, which are in the angles of 46 to 75 degrees. to plates. Mixed-cut lumber is characterized by lines that change from straight at the board’s edges (across the board’s width) to curved toward the center.

The central cut is made right in the center of the trunk and contains the core. Considering the fact that the core of the trunk is the wood with the lowest strength values, center-cut lumber is characterized by a non-uniform strength structure.

Log sawing tools

Sawing tools and methods depend on the total volume of logs, length, thickness. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the quality of the future lumber. Log sawing involves working with different tools and specialized equipment. To get a small amount of sawn timber at home, the manual method of handling logs with a chainsaw or traditional hand saws with teeth for longitudinal sawing is suitable.

The sawmill is probably the most famous type of sawmill equipment. This is a woodworking machine, which includes frame saws. The sawmill is used to produce longitudinal sawn timber, such as edged boards or logs. Log saws are suitable for sawing logs with a diameter of 15 to 80 cm and a length of up to 7 m.

Sawing logs into boards on circular saws is done with a circular saw. These machines can be single-blade (single-blade) or multi-blade (multi-blade). The single-disk devices are suitable for small-sized and low-quality materials. Large-diameter round bars can be sawed with the multi-blade machines.

Band saws are the most popular today. They are available in two types: vertical and horizontal. Cutting tool in such equipment is a band saw blade, which is put on the pulleys. Working on draw frame machines guarantees high-quality longitudinal and mixed timber, such as planks and cants. This produces the least amount of waste.

Large industrial companies use wood sawing lines. They allow very high surface quality and precise geometry of the end products. These lines are characterized by the highest productivity.

In addition to all of the above-listed equipment, such types of highly specialized sawmill equipment as debarkers, edgers, band saws, and other types of machines are also used.

Types of log sawing

Sawing logs into boards is done in two basic ways:

In addition, additional methods are possible:

Radial Sawing. This is a type of sawing in which the axis of the cut goes through the core of the log and, as a result, the annual rings in the cross-section of the board form an angle of 76. 900 Lumber obtained by this cut has uniform color and texture. sawn timber hardly deforms when shrinking and does not swell when wetting, since the dimensions of the timber change mainly by the mowing line of the rings (across the fibers). In radially sawn timbers, the annual rings are arranged with a thickness of. These materials have high productivity rates compared to other types of lumber.

Tangential spraying is carried out along the tangential mowing line of annual rings at a small distance from its core. The layers of the obtained boards are characterized by a pronounced texture and a bright wavy pattern of the annual rings. Such lumber is characterized by higher shrinkage and moisture absorption coefficients than radial lumber. As a result, they deform strongly when exposed to moisture. Such boards are in demand for use in dry conditions.

Rural (semi-radial) and mixed types of sawing have signs of two basic types of sawing simultaneously: radial and tangential. Therefore, they exhibit an average rate of shrinkage and swelling. Rural boards are characterized by straight lines of annual rings, which are arranged at an angle of 46. 75 degrees. To the layers. Mixed lumber is distinguished by the fact that the trimmer saw blade changes from straight at the edges (in width) of the board, to arched to the middle.

The central cut is made right in the center of the trunk and contains the core. Bearing in mind the fact that the core of the trunk. Wood with low strength indicators, lumber that is cut in the center is characterized by a structure that is not strong on the level.

Tools for sawing logs

Tools and cutting methods depend on the total volume of logs, indicators such as length, thickness. In addition it is necessary to consider the quality of the future sawn timber. Log sawing involves working with various tools and specialized equipment. For obtaining a small volume of sawn timber at home is suitable manual

The way logs are handled with a chainsaw or traditional hand knives with teeth for longitudinal cutting.

Sawmill. Is this not the most famous type of sawing equipment. It is a woodworking machine that has band saws. The sawmill outputs longitudinally sawn planks, such as edged board

or bar. Band saws allow you to process logs with a diameter of 15 to 80 cm and length up to 7 m.

Sawing logs into boards with circular (circular) machines is done with a circular saw. Such equipment may be single-blade (single-disc) and multi-blade (multi-disc). Machines containing a single blade are suitable for machining small and low quality raw materials. Large-diameter rounds can be cut with machines with multiple blades.

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Most popular today. Band saws. There are two types: vertical and horizontal. The cutting tool in such equipment. It is a belt blade which is put on the pulleys. Working with band saws guarantees quality lengthened and mixed lumber, such as boards and planks. The smallest amount of waste is generated.

Large industrial enterprises use mower saws for cutting timber. These enable very high surface quality and precise geometry of the finished products. These mowing lines are characterized by high performance.

In addition to all of the above equipment, such types of highly specialized sawmill equipment as mark, edger, shearer and other types of machines are also used.

Technology for sawing with a chainsaw

Before you disband a log into boards in the home conditions, it is necessary to cut it competently in order to get the maximum number of quality boards with minimum waste. Rational use of raw materials is achieved by means of special sawing schemes. A marking is applied to the wood, corresponding to the goal and the type of planned lumber.

Before starting work, the workpiece must be carefully secured in order to achieve a high quality surface of the boards. Usually the logs are sawn horizontally. The advantage of cutting horizontally is that less effort is needed to hold the saw in place. You can cut a workpiece lengthwise with the chainsaw using a longitudinal sawing attachment. a wooden stop. a handmade attachment.

When using the rip-cutting head you must attach it to the chain saw. Before you start, you need to create a base surface parallel to where the chainsaw is going to cut.

To make sure you do not clamp the sawblade with the sawn-off edge of the board, put wedges in the longitudinal guide bar. Move the saw slowly, do not forcefully push it. It is best to saw a log with two people, as you need extra hands to move and hold the workpiece in order to insert the wedges into the guide bar.

Knowing all these subtleties and peculiarities, it is not difficult to saw a log or timber into boards yourself.

Safety rules for the work

Before you start sawing the workpiece with the chainsaw, you must take measures to make it safe to work:

• Make sure the attachment is securely fastened to the chainsaw as shown in the accompanying diagram;
• be sure to know the types of chain saw malfunctions and how to fix them;
• Carefully prepare the work area and make sure the workpiece is securely fastened;
• while working be sure to wear overalls, goggles to protect the eyes from small sawdust, headphones to protect against noise, a respirator to protect the respiratory system;
• The chainsaw is started on the ground and the chain brake must be released just before you start;
• Always have a first aid kit on hand;

Knowing and strictly following safety rules will allow you to saw billets with a chainsaw without any harm to your health and obtain high quality timber.

The amount of finished material, sawing price

The yield of useful material from softwoods and hardwoods differs in percentages. The following figures are characteristic of sawn wood obtained from conifers:

• provided that the operation is carried out by a professional and a disk sawmill is used, the percentage of finished wood will be the highest (80-85%);
• trimmed material, which is given by the machines, is on average 55-70%;
• Unedged planking leaves up to 30% of waste when working with a chain saw.

The figures are given without taking into account the finished rejected wood, the amount of which can reach 30%. However, such material is used for products with certain defects.

Finished wood products after sawing

Deciduous timber provides 60% of finished edged timber and around 40% of edged timber. This is due to the initial curvature of the round timber. It is possible to increase the quantity of the obtained production: for this purpose timber processing machines of different orientations are required. A certain kind of adjustment can increase the amount of lumber by 10-20%. You will need about 10 cubes of hardwood for one cube of lumber. The cost of installing additional equipment will pay off per cubic meter of boards.

Sawing map

Sawing map is a calculation of the optimal amount of finished lumber from a single log. It can be calculated independently for each specific log diameter, or you can use a computer program that greatly facilitates the calculation, and the price of which is quite affordable.

Or a regular sawmill reference book can be source. The result is a table, which is taken as a basis. Lumbering equipment should always be oriented to its data, in order to obtain more lumber of any species of wood.