GS850 shaft rpms?

[bwringer]

And, yeah, I almost forgot that we will have to add a cooling fan for the motor

I was wondering about that... it's gonna need some serious airflow to keep from melting stuff. You'll need a serious fan and some ducting.

This is either gonna be awesome or someone's going to end up getting beheaded... maybe both. Keep us posted.

[TheCafeKid]

Cheese 'n rice man what are planning on cutting with that?

If it's wood, wouldn't it be simpler to design and build a watersaw? Self cooling, no chain to sling across the woods and lop some poor spectators head off...and they're just damn cool. Cutting stuff with water...I really want a water jet machine.

[GS1100GK]

The harvester bars and chains are designed for that speed and torque. Oregon recommend 8000s fpm with their 18HX .404 chain (!)

And Yes, bwringer, gotta watch the plane of the chain on the front, have a steel guard and a polycarbonate shield (optional, but I'm planning on it) for the bar. Chainshot is real (piece of broken chain flies off) and is like a bullet.

Operator stays to the side of the bar and behind the shield.

Heat will be an issue. I originally hoped to be about 3k-4.5k rpms, but it looks like it won't be fast enough. The chain has a recommended min of 3k fpm.

This is for a firewood processor, up to 4 cords an hour. I'd be happy with just over 1 cord and hour, but it has to do with the size. Size does matter

It cuts the log, drops the log into the splitter, which drives the piece into the splitter wedge for multiple splits at one time (think cookie cutter or pasta machine) and then the conveyor loads it into the back of a truck (or drops into a pile for seasoning).

According to recent forestry industy publications, a single cord of wood is equivalent to $600 of heating oil (at $4/gal). National avg for a cord of wood is $300, though we tend to be just over half that here.

I woood rather have it all hydraulic, but there's no sense letting this 850 go to waste. The case needs serious polishing, but I wouldn't care about that. And I'm pretty sure this will be a "FIRST" as a GS powered chainsaw.

- JC

[Dogma]

I ran across this link today. It seems to be what you're planning, except mounted on a BobCat. John, are you planning to mount all this on your dozer's blade?

Bonus link. "Best fails of 2011", featuring plenty of "what were they thinking moments" and a nun looses control of a Harley.

[7981GS]

Dogma, great find! Excellent attachment for a Bobcat. They really thought that one out.
Here are a couple of pic's of a similar attachment that just plugs into the axillary drive hoses from a Bobcat that I saw near Lake Tahoe a couple of years ago:







Daniel

[GS1100GK]

A quick update...

We are going to go see a homemade processor sometime in the next few weeks and get into the power and speed Q's of various sized hydraulic motors.

It should give us a better idea how much we *need* to drive the saw. I haven't given up on the 850 idea, but on pause until we get more info....

- JC