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I put myself through school by doing tree work and now I have at least 7 chainsaws lying in varying states or running and repairable. I was wondered if any of you has ever put a chainsaw chassis onto a hand auger to make a power auger?
It seems that I could strip the saw of bar, sprocket, flywheel and cover, then bolt on a square tubular steel handle to the bar mounting bolts. From there it's a question of adapting the auger's ferrule to fit the drive shaft of the saw.
Even a small saw should have enough torque, but one might have a problem with the high RPMs.
Or will it be rotating the wrong direction? If so, is there such thing as a left handed auger? HA!
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I think you would have to have some kind of a transmission , or the auger would be turning all the time the motor was running ?
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Or, grab that farmboss, drop a 20" bar on it and cut the hole. Just don't cut any holes biger than 12" across. That's illegal.
I would try to keep the clutch assembly also. That would keep the blade from turning all the time and allow better control of the RPMs of the auger.
Maybe take one of the bars that has the sproket tips, shorten it from the back, shorten the chain to fit and put the auger reciver on the sproket tip.
I seem to remember this kind of rig going back 30 years or so.
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I'm pretty sure it would spin backwards. Don't know how you would fix that.
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I believe your best bet would be to sell or trade a few of your chainsaws for a power auger. I get brain hurricanes every once in a while and when it's all said and done either it didn't work or I've spent much more $ than planned. From a safety aspect, I think you're asking for trouble.
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Awesome idea and very helpful. I was thinking along the same lines, but to start from scratch with an old lawn mower or any old B&S engine. You have solved the clutch problem for me since I never thought of using a chain saw clutch, thanks.
Driving the bit directly off of the clutch would be ideal. The clutch may need to be modified for a lower stall speed which would allow you to bog the engine down and not have the bit whirling too fast.
As far as the direction of rotation and the high rpms, you might be able to use some bicycle stuff to get the bit speed right with sprocket ratios while still using the bar. I think folks are visualizing the cutting chain that would be replaced by bicycle type chain and I'm feeling safer already, far removed from the horror movie genre.
If spin direction is a problem, you might have to use the spocket bar configuration. A square hole in the center of the tip sprocket lets you turn either way by flipping the chain saw over, not that you need reverse.
If I see someone out on the ice with such a contraption, I will know it is you and stop by to check out your design. Good luck.
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I would have to agree with Smokeonthewater; you are talking about something that will either not have enough torque or too much ripping your arms off. I have an old Jiffy auger my granfathre gave and if it gets away from you it'll jump out of the hole. I cannot imagine an unregulated lawnmower; maybe a chainsw but be careful.
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[quote SmokeOnTheWater]I believe your best bet would be to sell or trade a few of your chainsaws for a power auger. I get brain hurricanes every once in a while and when it's all said and done either it didn't work or I've spent much more $ than planned..[/quote]
Both good points, but I AM one of those weirdos that thinks trying it out is half the fun.
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Overall lots of cool thoughts. I have a couple saws with 20" bars already, but was hoping to use a smaller, lighter engine.
Some of the logging supply catalogs sell kits that use the base of a saw to power a continuous feed rope winch, which looks slick.
Yeah, I'd totally have to keep the clutch, of course. The ideas about using the tip sprocket as a ready made assembly sound feasible.
Also, on Ebay, I saw the adapters for using the big Dewalt type drills. One of those would change the direction of the rotation.
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