pneumatic sabre saw

I do a LOT of sawing outside in the cold, pruning apple trees. I've been using a 24 volt Dewalt sawsall. Battery life is terrible and getting worse as they age.

I'm thing of trying a pneumatic sawsall or sabre saw. I found this one:

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Chicago Pneumatic 881 - Saw Air Reciprocating Heavy Duty

Anyone know anything about these units, or can recommend a better one? Do they take the standard sawsall blades?

Karl

220 0 article Path: finder4.readnews.com!news.astraweb.com!finder4.readnews.com!fnd01.iad01.newshosting.com!textbe01-ams!hwmnpeer02.ams!hw-filter.ams!hwmnpeer01.ams!hwmnpeer01.lga!hwmedia!news.highwinds-media.com!newshub.sdsu.edu!elnk-nf2-pas!newsfeed.earthlink.net!stamper.news.pas.earthlink.net!newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net.POSTED!5798dcd9!not-for-mail From: "Karl Townsend" Newsgroups: rec.crafts.metalworking Subject: pneumatic sabre saw Lines: 17 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 17:48:16 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.68.199.42 X-Complaints-To: snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread2.news.pas.earthlink.net 1142444896 69.68.199.42 (Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:48:16 PST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 09:48:16 PST Organization: EarthLink Inc. --
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I do a LOT of sawing outside in the cold, pruning apple trees. I've been using a 24 volt Dewalt sawsall. Battery life is terrible and getting worse as they age.

I'm thing of trying a pneumatic sawsall or sabre saw. I found this one:

formatting link
Chicago Pneumatic 881 - Saw Air Reciprocating Heavy Duty

Anyone know anything about these units, or can recommend a better one? Do they take the standard sawsall blades?

Karl

222 79085 body I do a LOT of sawing outside in the cold, pruning apple trees. I've been using a 24 volt Dewalt sawsall. Battery life is terrible and getting worse as they age.

I'm thing of trying a pneumatic sawsall or sabre saw. I found this one:

formatting link
Chicago Pneumatic 881 - Saw Air Reciprocating Heavy Duty

Anyone know anything about these units, or can recommend a better one? Do they take the standard sawsall blades?

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend
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For pruning an apple orchard? Ya, get a small gas chainsaw, and a good pair of pruning shears.

Reply to
Dave Lyon

"Dave Lyon" wrote: For pruning an apple orchard? Ya, get a small gas chainsaw, and a good pair of pruning shears. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Probably good advice. The question about a pneumatic Saws-all is air supply. A moderate size portable tank will probably give you less run time than the batteries. You will need a gasoline powered air compressor. Or, how about putting two 12v car batteries in series, and cobbling up a connection to your electric saw?

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

That's what I was thinking. I call for a vote: Raise your hand if you think he should use car batteries.

Reply to
Rex B

Ain't that nice?

Nick

Reply to
Nick Müller

Reply to
machineman

I maybe should elaborate a bit. I prune 30 hours a week with a two or three man crew. Mostly with air power pruning shears run off a portable air compressor on the tractor.

Large cuts are done with a small chain saw. I go through ahead of the main crew and make the major cuts.

About once every five trees there is a branch a bit too big for the shear. Its very handy to just gab the sawsall. The 24 volt electric is not quite up to the task.

Seems to me that it would be possible to have an air power saw.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

I have an import version of that. It doesn't have nearly the power of an electric one and it stalls easily. A more expensive one like the one you show might work better -- but I would think that an air line would be a lot heavier to drag around than an extension cord even though the tool itself weighs less than an electric one.

Milwaukee has a new line of cordless tools called V28 that use

28-volt Lithium Ion batteries. They are claimed to last twice as long while being considerably lighter in weight -- but they are pricey. List is $755 but I see them online for about $360. Extra batteries are about $125.

I have a compound-action bypass lopper that easily lops off branches up to about 1-1/2" dia. The brand is Corona.

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They claim up to 2". Maybe, but that might be a struggle. 1-1/2" branches are easy.

A small lightweight chainsaw makes quick work of thicker branches. I have a little Stihl that I like a lot because it starts and runs very reliably. If I did a lot of chainsaw work I'd probably invest in an Husqy.

Reply to
Don Foreman

Don't know if it's still the case but Florida Power and Light used to (40 years ago) use pneumatic chainsaws for trimming trees that were in danger of contacting power lines. Don't know if they did this for safety reasons or if the pneumatic saws were more reliable than electric or what.

If you google "pneumatic chainsaw" you'll get a number of hits including some on sources that have other pneumatic and hydraulic tools for tree pruning and related tasks.

Reply to
J. Clarke

We had hydraulic fittings on one of our bucket trucks for hydraulic chainsaws.

Reply to
ATP*

20+ years ago, our 62 year old secretary, who lived in the country and had a backup 3kw generator to operate their sump pump during power outages, wanted to prune trees on her ten acre "estate". She took me up on my suggestion and borrowed my electric chain saw, put the generator on the trailer behind the riding mower and climbed around in the trees sawing off selected branches as she went. Just wish I had been there to take a few pictures to prove that such things do happen in real life. Gerry :-)} London, Canada
Reply to
Gerald Miller

Think of a generator, a small compressor and a tank in a truck / 4 wheeler - with say 200' of 'hose' trailing to the man sleeping under the tree :-)

Martin

Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Dave Ly> "Karl Townsend" wrote in

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

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5/8" stroke, looks long enough to drive a 6/8 TPI wood blade. And I-R doesn't make junk.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

BINGO!

Just what I was looking for. Thanks

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Can your tractor-mounted compressor deliver 21 CFM, Karl?

Reply to
Don Foreman

"Don Foreman" wrote: Can your tractor-mounted compressor deliver 21 CFM, Karl? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Probably not necessary, since a person climbing in trees with a saw is going to have a low duty cycle. It's only necessary to have a tank large enough to get you through each cut. (And a hose large enough to deliver 21 CFM.)

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

The compressor is big enough, but my wallet isn't. $2100 for one of these.

I'm buying a $375 version from MSC. If it don't work out, I'll have another shop toy.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

I have that Stihl saw and it really Rocks! - it is intended to be an arborist jr. saw - as the model it was based on it like triple the cost. 6.6 pounds :-)

I got it to do overhead work on Hurricane trees (new species now) - and I cut not only limbs but trunks. Starts on one or two pulls and tires me out before the tank is.

I also have a Husky 50 20" bar - and it is good on the big stuff but is heavy to whiled.

Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Nick Müller wrote:

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

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