Hi guys, my father in law has found himself with 2 tonne of 12" logs that since having a new (smaller) woodstove fitted will no longer fit! he needs to cut them down to around 8-10" and im just wondering the best way to do this, the main problem i see is supporting the log safely and securly while cutting. 12" might be a bit short for a saw horse with a chainsaw attachment? also wondering the best tool, chainsaw? reciprocating saw with a long large tooth blade? any ideas?
A reciprocating saw would be safer than a chain saw. I use Makita 300mm coarse blades in saw here for cutting a leylandi, made short work of cutting it up.
Buy a log splitter. They Start at £30 but second hand ones about. Not sure what size is best but you can research or hire one for the day
Whats the girth of these logs? If its only slim, under 70-80mm or so, a cheap chop saw would be the quickest and safest way to cut them in half.
Yeah I thought chop saw too as this would be stable but some of them are pretty chunky and probably up to 150mm Looks like recip saw is probably the way to go, but how to secure them while cutting? As they are rough logs they aren’t easy to keep still
Log splitter sounds good but surely this would only split the width along the grain and not length? length is the issue here
A chainsaw would be your best bet, or use a handheld circular saw and go all the way around the log with the cut. Make yourself a jig out of 2x2 cut diagonally and fixed to a piece of ply so its shaped like an ‘M’, then rest your log in the centre section between the two fillets, crack on and watch your fingers.
S.F. do a log saw horse which grips the log at one end only whilst you saw off at desired length. Had one for couple of years now, does the job.
If you have a chainsaw then it is quite easy. All you need as well is a standard saw horse or trestle and a ratchet strap. Use the strap to fix the log to the trestle along its length with the excess hanging over the end. Then just cut the excess off.