Is it worth buying a pto saw bench?

[Logan]

We use a balfor 700 with conveyor, with spare blade and some bits and bobs, del, etc it was about £3000 plus vat four years ago. I looked at many, and this seemed the quickest to use, being open to blade so you don't bring blade out far to saw log but I don't let many use it as must pull rocker back before tossing last log else will lose fingers/ hand...

 

For 20t that is about the valve of the finished firewood? But will last a while...

[Peasgood]

I wouldn't want to be standing on a pallet while using a sawbench.

Fell straight through a pallet yesterday with no warning whatsoever.

[Ashes_Firewood]

I wouldn't want to be standing on a pallet while using a sawbench.

Fell straight through a pallet yesterday with no warning whatsoever.

 

No chance I'm falling through it, it's one of those really heavy ones made from thicker timber. Doesn't even flex when I'm stood on it

[Peasgood]

That's what I thought about the one I was stood on.

[rowan lee]

Haven't used a saw bench before, but surely its faster to load a rack with billets and cross cut with a decent chainsaw? I have a rack that holds 0.3m3, It takes about 15mins to fill an ibc crate. For each log you cut, you have to physically slide the log on to make the next cut. Far too much work imo.

[Woodworks]

Haven't used a saw bench before, but surely its faster to load a rack with billets and cross cut with a decent chainsaw? I have a rack that holds 0.3m3, It takes about 15mins to fill an ibc crate. For each log you cut, you have to physically slide the log on to make the next cut. Far too much work imo.

 

That's intresting Rowan.

 

I have been using the processor for cutting up billits and found it surprisingly slow. I will try the rack to see how long that takes.

[rowan lee]

Yes Beau, Modify your old one, make it wider, shorter and open at both ends for ease of hand balling material. Like yours, I also alleviated the bending issue by attaching rack to a pallet so it could be raised and lowered on a set of forks on tractor.

[hiluxstihl]

Haven't used a saw bench before, but surely its faster to load a rack with billets and cross cut with a decent chainsaw? I have a rack that holds 0.3m3, It takes about 15mins to fill an ibc crate. For each log you cut, you have to physically slide the log on to make the next cut. Far too much work imo.

Green diesel, no bar oil, 2stroke, no chain to sharpen, no loose bits flying at you, no kickback etc, pros and cons for everything! sub 100mm id use the tractor saw, over and the chainsaw is more productive

[hawthornheavyhorses]

we wanted a system that would cope with anything from 3 inch coppice material to 4 foot diameter logs so we went down the billeter and saw bench route. I concede that theres a lot of double handling but there isn't a machine available to cope with the variety of material we have

 

That's exactly what we did, a Balfor self-powered billeter and saw bench to cope will multiple sized timber, and having spent 3 days at APF this year looking at shiny processors I still wouldn't change it. They easy to use, cheap to maintain and can cope with anything. We stack the billets to the yard and season them, and then use the saw bench to cut into IBC's or throw them directly into the truck for delivery.

 

Our saw bench is 3 phase so no fumes, low vibes and relatively quiet. I used to use a chainsaw but will never go back! I would like a conveyor but we don't really do the volume to justify the cost.

 

Of course if you want the really eco-friendly version you could get one of these

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvQVwR8DKU8

[Hotrod81]

Of course if you want the really eco-friendly version you could get one of these

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvQVwR8DKU8

 

No no no. Ha ha