Is There a 12 Volt Chainsaw ?

[MrJimi]

That could be used on a tall boom pole ? That would be great. I'm thinking about getting a 12 volt inverter and use an electric el-cheapo saw, like one of the $60 ones
Jim

 

[UPRAISER]

Is there a 12 vold Chainsaw? Why yes! .....and I own it.

About 20 yrs ago a firm made a few of them. I own the first protype and it works quite well. I do not think they are in business any longer.

Mine uses a motor similar to the lift motors on boats, that is according to the guy that rebuilt mine. However it was designed for full time use not just short runs.

I won mine in a new Ford dealership grand opening. I heard about the party on the radio and I was passing through the town, stopped for a break and a snack, salesman wanted me to entry the drawing, the next day he called and said I won a chain saw.

It is a great saw with a 20" blade and I use it when I am camping and around the farm with my tractor for power.

I think there is a market for them.

Curt

 

[UPRAISER]

I got to thinking about your chain saw idea.

Have you considered a hydrolic tree pruner? My father in law used one. It had a 8-10 pole with a fairly heavy lopper shear. He ran it off the tractor hydrolic system.

These are fairly common in the Pacific NW for fruit trees etc.

Curt

 

[MrJimi]

Yes, I have and I'm not to crazy about that, my boom pole can be 29 feet tall, thats lots of hose?
I was thinking about a 110 volt saw with an inverter mounted on a spring and a hinge at the top and NOT rigid mounted, I could lower it on a limb and spring would push down gently, I think ?
And I could remove it for limbing and plug other 110 items in the inverter
What cha think
Here is a picture of my boom pole

Jim

 

[LoveLearn]

Makita makes a 12 volt chain saw. In the British market they called it a trimmer/clipper or something like that to avoid being subject to regulations governing "chain saws." Most electric "cordless" chainsaws use 18 volt battery packs. So unlike the Makita, they can't be easily connected to common 13.8 volt automotive-type charging battery maintenance circuits. 18VDC chain saws WILL run on those lower voltage systems but cut at a much slower rate and you'd need to pull their internal battery to avoid that 18VDC verses 13.8 volt conflict. Electric motor designs typically cool by brisk air flow. But if little DC motors designed to run at higher speed are heavily loaded and run slower overheating damage may occur. So both performance and durability issues argue against lower than design-voltage operation.

Some cordless chain saws have VERY short blades. User satisfaction is probably enhanced by discouraging them from undertaking sawing tasks which would quickly exhaust their saw's limited stored power reserves.

Driving 120 volt AC chain saws with inverters is a workable solution. But that introduces AT LEAST one more efficiency dropping step, often two efficiency dropping steps as I'll explain.

Typical low-priced inverters operate well below 90% efficiency and some dip below 80%, converting the rest to waste heat. The most efficient can convert about 94% of input power to output over the most-efficient part of their efficiency curve. Engine electrical systems are typically alternator charged and buffered by a battery sufficiently substantial to spin the engine's starting motor. That starting reserve is enough to sustain most inverter loads during short periods when drawing current exceeds alternator charging capacity.

Consider an extreme case, the tiny Kubota B5100D diesel's 35 watt alternator. Clearly the duty cycle that you could drive a common 560 watt 120 volt electric chain saw with an 85% efficient inverter is very limited. Yes, it will work, but you would need to let the little charging system catch up between saw-running periods. After all, that hypothetical inverter load is (85%/1) x 560 watts = 659 watts. So during sawing, 624 watts (659 - 35 = 624) of that power must come from stored power that little alternator output earlier into the battery at 35 watt charging rate. Making this chain even worse is battery charge/dischage cycle efficiency which is only about 80%. That second inefficiency step increases charge recovery time by another 125%. Taking both inverter inefficiency and battery charging/discharging inefficiency into account, that 560 watt saw load requires 824 watts from the alternator to sustain it. 35 watts/824 watts = a fair 4% duty cycle estimate describing usable sawing time per hour. 96% of the time the little electrical system would be recovering from those high-demand 4% use periods. If you're mowing and once in a while need to cut a branch or 4 inch tree, that duty cycle time is enough to sustain operations. But that low duty cycle time is a "deal breaker" that prevents scheduling a day of sawing.

A large machine with a large alternator probably has such a high duty cycle percentage that you can ignore it. But they can't run 8 hours on a gallon of diesel fuel as my B5100D can. Trade-offs everywhere.

The highest amperage draw electric chain saw of which I know is the 13 amp Milwaukee. It would need a heavy-duty charging system to run it. That little diesel's front or rear PTO could easily drive such a large alternator and a larger inverter making that quiet but powerful Milwaukee chain saw mobile over a large acreage. I can report from my experience with system this that total noise level is less than an electric lawn mower. At diesel's current $4.40/gallon, first estimated fueling-cost rate at high duty cycle use rates is be about $.55/hour. Or you can get out your ear plugs and fire up a howling smoker chain saw.
John

 

[RalphVa]

The DR people offered a rechargable chain saw in one of their catalogs about a year ago. In their more recent catalog, I don't recall seeing it in there.

If you get an inverter to use a 110 volt saw, carefully check the wattage requirement for the chain saw vs. what the inverter will put out. A lot of the more common inverters are probably too weak to do a chain saw.

Ralph

 

[Egon]

With enough inverter, battery and charging capacity you can surely make it work.

The falling limbs may be a hazard though.

 

[Harry c]

I tape my Dewalt 18 volt Recip saw with a 12" blade onto a long fiberglass pole. I use a 3/16 rope through the trigger to operate. I can limb about 20 feet up. I don't know why that wouldn't work on a boom pole.

 

[Rara Avis]

Sheyenne Tooling & Manufacturing

 

[Rara Avis]

LIMBHOG.com

 

[have_blue]

That could be used on a tall boom pole ? That would be great. I'm thinking about getting a 12 volt inverter and use an electric el-cheapo saw, like one of the $60 ones
Jim

It will work, but you'll need a monster inverter, and thumb sized cables from inverter to battery. The inverter will cost much more than the saw, and the cables aren't real cheap either. The cord runing up the boom pole needs to be heavy gage too, and will make the pole heavy.

A gas model is much lighter and cheaper in the long run, and has more power.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Yes, I have and I'm not to crazy about that, my boom pole can be 29 feet tall, thats lots of hose?
I was thinking about a 110 volt saw with an inverter mounted on a spring and a hinge at the top and NOT rigid mounted, I could lower it on a limb and spring would push down gently, I think ?
And I could remove it for limbing and plug other 110 items in the inverter
What cha think
Here is a picture of my boom pole

Jim

Power(Watts)= Volts x Current. 12V supply will need a lot of amps to run a ~1/2HP tool. That will entail big wire if going any distance. Better to put an 1kW or so inverter on the tractor as close as possible to the battery - that keeps the hi Amp wires short. Once power is converted to 110 the Amps that you need to feed to the standard 110V tool will be comparatively low [usually shown on the tool]. A 14Ga extension cord - or a 12Ga if long, will do this efficiently. This way you wont need the big lines going to the tool.
larry

 

[cisco]

Per the posts, it seems there are 12V chainsaws around. The actual utility of such saws (blade length, amp draw) is another matter.

I had a conundrum - my wife could not pull start our smaller (and very good, by the way) chain saw, a Stihl MS 180, but she sure liked to use it to trim stuff. So, aside from the spring loaded starter (heavier) version of that saw Stihl offers, the MSE 180 (14" blade, and it DOES cut through stuff nicely - I topped about 2 dozen 4X4 posts this weekend) seemed a decent alternative. The problem was the 15 amp motor, and the long extension cords (14 gauge) she'd need around our 7.5 acres. Yes, we do have power poles and water outlets spaced around, but it's on a 10 gauge line and over distance one loses voltage fairly quickly.
Hmm, my wife had a golf cart, and it turns out there's sufficient room in the battery/motor compartment to install a 5000 watt invertor. So, it worked. Now she's got an AC outlet on the side of her golf cart, and it has run the chainsaw, lights (a "campfire" site), a crosscut saw ..... whatever, and we've never had less than 50% power in the batteries when the cart was plugged into garage current each evening. If there's a downside, we haven't found it over the past 1/2 year.
Just a thought ...... I'm sure there's lots of creative alternatives.

 

[Skyco]

Small 2k or so generators have become very reasonable, in fact not much, if any, more than a comparable sized invertor. I've run a $99 Remington pole saw on my small generator several times, works great no battery drain. In effect a "gas" chain saw but the engine stays on the ground.....

 

[dnetherland]

Anybody thought of a simple way to control the throttle of a gas chainsaw from the tractor seat.

DN

 

[Botabill]

You might want to consider HYDRAULIC CHAIN/POLE SAWS just google search and you'll find them.

 

[IslandTractor]

Ryobi sells a 18v battery powered chain saw. It is strong enough only for 2-3 inch limbs though.

 

[California]

Ryobi sells a 18v battery powered chain saw. It is strong enough only for 2-3 inch limbs though.

I have one. Here is their info.

I would say it is suitable only for very occasional work, a gardener's tool, not a farmer's.

Example: every year I trim a huge acacia back that crowds the driveway. it's similar to a hedge but contains heavier limbs. 3/4 of that project is done on a 14 ft ladder. The cordless saw is very convenient. Most of this project is done with pruning shears (18 inch handles), and I reach for the Ryobi for the occasional larger limb, sometimes up to 4 inch. I get a dozen or so large cuts per battery. This is simpler than getting out the gas chainsaw and a lot less work than the bowsaw I used to use.

Note the Ryobi goes through a limb about a quarter as fast as a real chainsaw. It's not for the impatient.

Another alternative is the Ryobi reciprocal saw. I carry that on the tractor for the occasional limb I encounter in the orchard that needs to be cut. It's an ideal replacement for a hand bowsaw, or a curved pruning handsaw. And no chainsaw oil mess. But it's slower than the Ryobi chainsaw, no faster than working up a sweat with the bowsaw.

 

[js5020]

So what would everyones take be on running a 12v weedbeater off of a tractor? I have some small areas that need to be cut away from power and I really don't want to get another gas whacker.

 

[IslandTractor]

I have one. Here is their info.

I would say it is suitable only for very occasional work, a gardener's tool, not a farmer's.

Example: every year I trim a huge acacia back that crowds the driveway. it's similar to a hedge but contains heavier limbs. 3/4 of that project is done on a 14 ft ladder. The cordless saw is very convenient. Most of this project is done with pruning shears (18 inch handles), and I reach for the Ryobi for the occasional larger limb, sometimes up to 4 inch. I get a dozen or so large cuts per battery. This is simpler than getting out the gas chainsaw and a lot less work than the bowsaw I used to use.

Note the Ryobi goes through a limb about a quarter as fast as a real chainsaw. It's not for the impatient.

Another alternative is the Ryobi reciprocal saw. I carry that on the tractor for the occasional limb I encounter in the orchard that needs to be cut. It's an ideal replacement for a hand bowsaw, or a curved pruning handsaw. And no chainsaw oil mess. But it's slower than the Ryobi chainsaw, no faster than working up a sweat with the bowsaw.

I have the same two saws and basically agree with your assessment. I tried the Ryobi 18v chainsaw once and put it away. I suppose it could be useful for somethings but it is truly wimpy compared to a gas saw. The Ryobi cordless 18V reciprocal saw is more useful and I do use that with a wood cutting blade on bushes etc. Neither is a more than occasional use piece of equipment though.