Making your own sawhorse for sawing wood
A chainsaw makes the hard work of preparing firewood much easier. When using it, productivity increases many times over. Without a chainsaw, large and damp logs make the cutting task even more difficult.
Goat designs
The classic sawhorse design allows you to use a chainsaw when sawing logs. In this case, a significant problem arises - clamping of the cutting part of the saw at the end of the cut.
The part of the log that protrudes from the side beyond the edge of the sawhorse can be sawed off without difficulty. When cutting occurs between the posts, clamping is inevitable.
In order to avoid this, the log must be rotated. Such exhausting, unproductive work takes a lot of effort and time, and in the absence of assistants it becomes the main difficulty in collecting firewood.
Some designers have developed and patented devices that prevent clamping of the cutting part of the saw.
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Goats for cutting firewood with chain saws
But still, when we are dealing with large volumes of firewood, torturing ourselves by manually sawing logs is a wasteful activity in terms of time and physical costs. Gasoline and electric chainsaws speed up the process tenfold and reduce physical labor.
But traditional sawhorses are not suitable for working with them, due to the high risk of injury and tool breakage when clamping the saw bar in a cut. Of course, you can only saw logs that exceed the dimensions of the log, but you will not achieve rational cutting of the logs. Therefore, other devices were invented to work with such saws, which, by tradition, retained their old name, although they bear little resemblance to their grandfathers.
The simplest sawhorses for working with a chainsaw have a similar design.
Heavy stable base and a pair of horns for fixing the log. What else is needed? Sawing takes place outside the dimensions of the structure, and the log is held in it by the foot. Productivity is low, but such goats are quite functional.
For sawing thin logs, the most suitable, in our opinion, are sawhorses of a similar design:
Their only drawback is that the logs of the bottom row are not sawn, but for large volumes this design flaw will not be fundamental. And you choose the dimensions of such trestles depending on the length of the firebox of your stove, the length of the bar and the power of your saw. Their undoubted advantage is quick disassembly, which makes it possible to simplify and speed up the removal of lumber.
A similar design of a trestle, but with the ability to saw bundles of logs to the end, due to the presence of transverse supports that provide a gap between the woodpile and the base of the trestle, is shown in this video, but the lack of the ability to quickly disassemble to a certain extent neutralizes this advantage.
Although you can turn it over on the end side, however, with a little more effort.
For thicker logs, a similar design is suitable, but with them secured in a sawing container, which will prevent the logs from pinching the saw.
And the size of lumps obtained in such goats can be minimal.
Not the most successful, as it seems to us, but a quite workable version of the device for sawing not very thick logs is shown in this photo:
The most valuable thing in such a trestle design is the stop template, which allows you to maintain the ideal height of the chocks, which is extremely important for small-sized stoves.
Making a goat for sawing logs with a two-handed saw on your own
The height of the sawhorse is of great importance for the convenience of sawing logs with a two-handed saw. It’s not for nothing that such a saw is called “friendship,” hinting both at the most famous chainsaw in our country and at the friendly joint work of two sawmills.
It is recognized that the optimal height of the trestle with this method of sawing is 0.9-1.1 m. At such a height, when it is not necessary to bend and squat significantly, the muscles of the back and legs do not become overstrained and do not hurt the next day.
If the height of the goat is abnormal, the work of collecting firewood turns into an unattractive activity, and the back and knee joints of workers are subjected to excessive stress and cause pathological changes in them.
Basic requirements for goats
When making goats with your own hands, it is important to remember that the main thing in their design is stability and strength.
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Strength is necessary in order to withstand the significant weight of the logs being cut, as well as the constantly changing, structure-shaking forces applied by those involved in sawing firewood.
For this reason, square beams of at least 10 x 10 cm should be used in a cross-shaped trestle base.
The following describes how to make a goat for sawing wood. Required materials:
- Wooden beams with a cross section of 10 x 10 cm and a length of 110 cm. They are used to make the base of the trestle. Smooth, dried, not thick logs are also suitable.
- 4 wooden beams with a cross-section of 5 x 5 cm, length 110 cm. They are intended for the “legs” of the structure.
- 2 beams in section 5 x 5 cm, length 35 cm. They are intended for the upper parts of the structure.
- 2 wooden beams with a section of 5 x 5 cm, 110 cm long for fastening the “legs”.
- Bioprotection agent for processing structural parts.
12 cuts should be made on the main beam, from which 6 grooves 2.5 cm deep are then cut out for the upper (“horns”) and lower (“legs”) parts of the structure.
Please note that the width of the grooves must be made approximately 2 mm less than the width of the beams. With this method, the beams will be compressed by the walls of the cut, and the entire structure will gain additional strength.
Using a chisel and a hammer, grooves are made into which sections of beams for 4 “legs” and 2 “horns” are driven and fixed with screws.
The ends of the beams that serve as “legs” are cut off at the required angle so that the entire structure is stable. This completes the work of assembling the base.
Types of finished goats
Goats that have existed since ancient times in the form of several X-shaped supports connected by crossbars turned out to be so convenient that they have not changed to this day. When buying such sawhorses for sawing firewood, you just need to take into account several criteria:
- your own height and the height of the equipment, so that you don’t have to bend or squat when working;
- the maximum load on the sawhorses and their length, correlating them with the type of wood most often sawn;
- the ability to fold and unfold the structure if there is no space to store it in the working position.
This design not only folds, but is also adjustable in height Source garden-machinery.co.uk
Let's talk about some types of sawhorses for sawing firewood using the example of several popular brands.
CHAMPION
This brand produces some of the most budget models made from profile pipes. They come with two or three arms. The bolted connection of the supports allows them to be folded and stored away.
The design does not have a horizontal beam under the crosshairs of the supports, which is convenient for working with both a hand saw and an electric or gasoline one: the saw chain does not come into contact with the frame. It is also possible to secure a log or a package of several logs with a steel chain.
Three-horned goats Champion Source illeon.ru
This simple model can serve as a template for those who are thinking about how to make a goat for cutting firewood from a metal profile with their own hands.
YATO
These goats are manufactured in Poland and structurally differ little from the previous model. They are made of galvanized steel with a thickness of 1.5 mm, have a folding design and an easy-to-work height of just over 90 cm. The maximum permissible cross-section of logs is 25 cm.
Instead of a cap chain, the logs are fixed in them with teeth cut at the upper ends of the supports. Being held in a stable position by them, the logs do not tend to fall, pinching the chainsaw blade.
Improved tine model of traditional goats Source vigorus.lt
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Golfstream
Universal folding equipment, which, when folded when not in use, transforms into a shelf for storing a chainsaw or other tool. Unlike previous models, it is equipped with two support shelves for the material being cut, forming a reliable bed. But sawing firewood can only be done when the end of the log is extended beyond the support. However, this is done easily and quickly thanks to the smooth shelves.
The structure, made of corrugated pipe and OSB, is durable, reliable, ergonomic, lightweight and convenient in size. Its “carrying capacity” is 200 kg.
Transformable goats Gulfstream Source prom.st
Note! The height of the product is only 75 cm, so it may be uncomfortable for tall people.
Oregon
The peculiarity of the design of the Oregon goat, as well as Wolfcraft (Woflcrafn) and Elmos (Elmos), made from a round pipe with a diameter of 25 mm, is the increased height of the upper part. Expanding from the crosshair, the “horns” bend at a certain point and run parallel to each other. You can load a lot of firewood into such a stand at once, fill it to the top, clamp it with a special stop, and cut it in one go. Such sawhorses are very convenient for sawing firewood with a chainsaw, which can be used for a long time without stopping the moving blade. Moreover, crossbars with measuring marks are attached to the lower supports, which allows you to prepare logs of the same length of 25 or 30 cm.
The design is foldable, folds and unfolds easily, in just a couple of seconds. When folded flat, it is convenient to store until next use.
Leg binding
The bars are attached to both sides of the bottom of the trestle supports. These details will not allow the “legs” to move apart. To increase the stability of the structure, cross beams are used, which are also fastened with screws.
The protruding ends of the beams are sawed off at the required distance, flush with the surface of the “legs”. After impregnation with biological protection agents, the goats are ready to perform their function.
Goat design options
The traditional material for goats is wood. However, there are trestle structures made of metal. When deciding what to make a goat for sawing wood from, you should proceed from the following.
A metal structure has less weight, and its service life is longer than a wooden one. The initial components for such trestles are metal rectangular profiles with a minimum side size of 5 cm.
To be able to disassemble the trestle, their design should include bolted rather than welded connections. After disassembling, the sawhorses will not take up much space in storage areas.
It should be noted that the goats must have significant weight. Otherwise, they will not be stable enough when sawing logs. It is also necessary to make the structure taking into account the height of the sawyer.
When manufacturing metal trestles, profile sections are fastened at an angle of 45°. The three resulting parts in the shape of an oblique cross are fastened for rigidity with the same metal profiles diagonally and horizontally.
If you have difficulties choosing a material and design, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with photos of firewood sawhorses posted on the Internet.
The article you just read showed quite convincingly that making goats on your own is not difficult.
When making a goat, you will not need scarce, expensive tools and materials. The main task in their creation is stability, strength and ease of use.
Homemade goats
When planning to make a sawhorse for sawing firewood, you can choose any of the designs described. But if standard X-shaped stands can be made from both wood and metal, then clamping stands can only be made from metal. Metal ones of any kind are lighter and more durable, but also more expensive, especially if you consider that wooden trestles can be assembled from waste material - bars and boards left after construction, pickets, thick branches.
The simplest goats consist of two intersecting supports, the connection of which is shifted upward from the center. They connect at an angle of about 45 degrees. But if you make the mount movable, you can change both this angle and the working height of the equipment. But to prevent the legs from moving apart, you will need to come up with a stopper. This can be strong twine or chain.
Advice! Double-horned sawhorses for firewood are not reliable and convenient; it is advisable to strengthen them with one or two additional supports.
Homemade four-horned goats from bars and picket fences Source proraboff.rf
