I've seen pneumatic chainsaws used in shallow water. Quite loud
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Underwater Chain Saws
31–40 of 97 posts
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#32From the user manual on that page: > Maintain proper footing and balance at all times. Is this not supposed to be used in deep water? Or am I just swimming wrong?
Former chainsaw operater speaking. I cant imagine easily using a chainsaw underwater for the every action has an equal and opposite reaction thing. However, I notice that the front spikes on the saw are noticably big. When these are dug into the timber, they offer a fulcrum using which the operator can apply force onto the timber. This could lessen though not negate the issue. I gave up chainsawing the day I accident…
> Just that morning I had put on a pair of steel toecap boots for the first time. Saved my toes.
Amazing coincidence. Cannot help but think that it was not a coincidence, but you feeling your toes safe because of toecaps.
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#33Around $4100! https://www.amronintl.com/stanley-cs113no-hydraulic-underwat... Amazing how capable tools can be, in industries that simply cannot get their work done without them and are willing to pay a healthy amount. Sometimes I wonder how good our dev tooling would be if we were willing to pay thousands a year, as opposed to the time-wasting bug-fest that is Xcode. Not singling out Apple, I’m sure all are comparab…
Please also consider how much less inclusive and accessible computing would be if access to development tooling was placed behind such exorbitantly priced paywalls... The things we have at the moment aren't perfect, but I feel like the fact that the barrier of entry to programming is so low is an overwhelming positive that I couldn't see any level of bells and whistles justifying taking it away.
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#34While gas / electric chainsaws are unlikely to work underwater, I can't imagine a reason why a hydraulic chainsaw wouldn't work on dry ground with its superior weight to power ratio and lack of blue smoky exhaust. Probably quieter too.
Your intuition was spot on! I used to cut concrete for a living, and we had several hydraulic chainsaws. The torque on those things was incredible. They were quieter than gas chainsaws, even factoring in the diesel-powered hydraulic pump in the trailer nearby.
The main drawback, as other commenters mentioned, was portability. The saw itself was shockingly light (which made the torque that much more surprising) and portable - until you ran out of hydraulic line! Plus you always had to watch your lines to make sure they weren't going to get cut by a blade, pinched under a falling piece of concrete, or crushed under some piece of mechanized equipment.
Interestingly, there were three lines - hydraulic in, hydraulic out, and a water hose to spray on the cutting surface and keep the dust down. It's been a decade since I worked that job, but I still clearly remember the feeling of revving one of those things up, watching the water fly everywhere, and grinning as I just carved straight into a solid concrete wall - rebar and everything. It was a delight.
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I noticed it was hydraulic powered but didn't suspect it was for use under water I suspect a gasoline-powered chainsaw wouldn't work underwater... which made me wonder if maybe that does exist because you could feed it O2 from a supply tank just like the fuel, maybe even from the diver's own air tank? Now I want to know how bouyant battery-packs are and if an impractically-heavy battery-powered chainsaw work well u…
For the first question, according to [1] gasoline uses 9000L air per liter of gas and a liter of gas runs a chainsaw for an hour ish, something like 150 L/minute. This is an order of magnitude higher than humans or so, so a scuba tank that lets you dive for an hour would only let you chainsaw for maybe 5-10 minutes? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9504215#9505263
I’m always blown away by how efficient animals are. No wonder we get fat.
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#36Amazing, I actually saw one of these today at a flea market. I noticed it was hydraulic powered but didn't suspect it was for use under water.
> I noticed it was hydraulic powered but didn't suspect it was for use under water I suspect a gasoline-powered chainsaw wouldn't work underwater... which made me wonder if maybe that does exist because you could feed it O2 from a supply tank just like the fuel, maybe even from the diver's own air tank? Now I want to know how bouyant battery-packs are and if an impractically-heavy battery-powered chainsaw work well u…
I wonder if you’d get issues running an ICE under water if you went very deep, due to pressure changes on the exhaust system. Assuming you could seal up the system well enough to work at depth, and provide O2 as you mentioned.
Even the pressure going into the combustion chamber could be a complicated thing, right? Say you’re at 20 feet, that’s a fair amount of pressure. But what if you’re at 80 feet? Would it still be able to function the same way? I assume no, but I also know nothing about running ICEs under water.
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#37Around $4100! https://www.amronintl.com/stanley-cs113no-hydraulic-underwat... Amazing how capable tools can be, in industries that simply cannot get their work done without them and are willing to pay a healthy amount. Sometimes I wonder how good our dev tooling would be if we were willing to pay thousands a year, as opposed to the time-wasting bug-fest that is Xcode. Not singling out Apple, I’m sure all are comparab…
Visual Studio does cost thousands for some versions.
And yeah. It certainly is a better tool than Xcode.
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#38Around $4100! https://www.amronintl.com/stanley-cs113no-hydraulic-underwat... Amazing how capable tools can be, in industries that simply cannot get their work done without them and are willing to pay a healthy amount. Sometimes I wonder how good our dev tooling would be if we were willing to pay thousands a year, as opposed to the time-wasting bug-fest that is Xcode. Not singling out Apple, I’m sure all are comparab…
I worked at the company which used a proprietary compiler, IDE including debugger.. It was few thousands $ I believe. plus about the same amount for their proprietary JTAG adapter.
Worst software I ever used. Crashy, slow, critical features missing (example: debugger can show thread list... but not the stacks of other threads).
So no, I would not expect expensive commercial software to be better. It might generate 2% faster code or be certified, but the day to day experience would be terrible.
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#39While gas / electric chainsaws are unlikely to work underwater, I can't imagine a reason why a hydraulic chainsaw wouldn't work on dry ground with its superior weight to power ratio and lack of blue smoky exhaust. Probably quieter too.
Forestry harvesting equipment (those all-terrain vehicles with long booms) uses hydraulic chainsaws for the felling step. Of course then the hydraulic pump is on the massive vehicle so portable in that way.
Re: Underwater Chain Saws
#40not for the squeamish (but suitable for October): check out the manually-powered origin story of the chainsaw...