Why would you ever want to cut wood slices out of a log? The answer is simple; to meet the growing trend of using the wood slices for decorations, table-tops, coasters, and many other purposes. It all depends upon your choice of why and where you would use these wood slices. However, the greater concern is how to have some evenly sliced wood pieces to use for the purpose?
Best quality chainsaws can be used for cutting purposes.
Compared to the old conventional types of woodcutters and axes, the chainsaws are electric, battery, or gasoline-powered advanced tools that can be carried along anywhere for cutting purposes. For that, they have a sharp set of teeth that are artistically attached to the rotating chain that is pushed to working by a powerful guide bar.
These chainsaws can prove to be the best ever tools to cut down the nice and even slices of the wood that you can use for whatever purpose of your choice. There are many ways of cutting the logs, but before moving ahead, let us take a deeper look into some important things that you must have in mind before moving ahead to the actual cutting process.
What size of the chainsaw is best for cutting wood slices? The choice for the size of the chainsaw purely depends upon the size of the log that you are going to cut down. Normally, for the logs measuring up to 18 inches or less, you can use any sharp and best quality chainsaw with a blade of 16 or 18 inches in size. This size of chainsaw is perfectly ideal for cutting these sized chainsaws.
However, if the size of the log you are cutting measures more than 18 inches, then we would suggest you use the chainsaw with a blade size bigger than 18-inches-almost 24 inches in size.
What things will you need while cutting?
Ending up finding some best ways to cut the wood slices, we have got to know that there are some most common yet important things that you must have with yourself while you have already planned to cut down the large wood logs into the smaller desired sized slices. Here are some things that you must have with yourself during the process;
- Chainsaw (of course): For cutting down the log into pieces
- Level: To verify the height levels of the marks that you put on the log for getting equal slices of the log.
- Wood Jig: To control the movements of the parts of your tools so that you can have an equally leveled cutting of each slice.
- Measuring tape: To mark the equal lengths, widths, and heights of the log that you need to cut.
- Orbital sander: For sanding and smoothing the pieces that you have just cut out of the logs.
Some other things to consider while cutting with a chainsaw
When you have prepared with you all the things that are needed for effective cutting, there are still some things that are important to consider. We would suggest you not to ignore these things as it can result in severe body injuries during the cutting process. Following are the things that are most important in our understanding;
Sharpness
Make sure that the blade of your chainsaw is very sharp. Whether the saw you are using is electric or gas-powered, this is an important thing to make sure. It will help you in cutting the log quickly and without putting in extra force and effort. If the blade of your saw will not be sharp enough, there are chances that your log cutting will take too much of your time and force; also, it may happen that the log will not even be cut at all.
Safety
Besides all the things that we have discussed so far, safety is the most essential and important thing to take care of. Obviously, you would not want to risk your life cutting the slice out of the log at any cost. So what you have to do is;
Use of Saw
- First of all, for better use of the saw, you should try out cutting some small pieces of wood beforehand to get a better feel for the saw.
- For better and easy cutting, we suggest you hold your saw with a firm encircling grip. This way, you can have greater control over it and will get greater chances to avoid any type of mishaps.
- Next, try cutting either from the top or the bottom of the bar.
- Then, you must make sure that you never carry your saw by positioning your hand at the back of the handle.
Safety Wearing
Besides learning the safe use of the saw, you must also take great care of what you are wearing during the whole cutting process. Wearing some useful and safe things can help you avoid any injuries that can accidentally hit you. To stay safe and secure during the cutting process, make sure to wear;
- Eye-protection: To protect your eyes against dust, chaff, and another workplace hazard.
- Ear protection: To prevent your ears from getting irritated by the noise, and on a serious note, to prevent a long-term loss of hearing and tinnitus.
- Sturdy gloves: To protect your hands from getting any cuts and bruises that you may get due to improper handling of the saw or many other reasons at the workplace.
- Steel-toed boots: To keep yourself safe from getting any injuries through slips and falls, cuts, punctures, and burns at your worksite.
- Chainsaw chaps: These ballistic fiber pants can keep your legs safe from any injury that you may get while accidentally getting caught into the chain or the engine by flying off and stooping the further accident.
- Long-sleeved shirts: To keep your arms safe from the excessive heat burns and various other injuries that you may get while carrying on your cutting jobs.
We suggest you not ignore considering these important things if you really want to complete your wood slicing task with greater success and satisfaction. As we have discussed the things that you need to consider, let us discuss the proper way that you should opt for while cutting the wood slices by the sharpest chainsaw that you own.
The proper way to cut wood slices by a chainsaw
There are three ways that you can try to cut smaller slices from the logs. Following are the methods that you should know;
Methods #1 Cut Freely
When you don’t want your cuts to be perfect and the edges to be completely fine, then all you should do is to grab your saw and cut down the log with a freehand. These roughly cut slices can be used for any DIY projects that you want to carry out in your home.
Method#2 Make a Chainsaw jig
Sometimes free cutting doesn’t help as the rough slices are not what you are looking for. Instead, you need some smoothly cut slices with fine edges for various purposes. For this, you should consider making a chainsaw jig. Here is how you do it;
Step 1: building up a basic square jig
This, you can create yourself by using a simple measuring tape and a level. All you have to do is to construct a basic square log by measuring the accurate size by using the measuring tape. Next, level it by using a fine level and make it perfect that could slip easily over your log.
Step 2: preparing up the chainsaw and the log
Half of the work is already done, and now you have to just follow the simple steps mentioned below to complete the slicing task;
- First, you have to cut down the log into a piece measuring a few inches longer than you actually need to have.
- Then, place the log upfront and slide the jig on the top of it to position your log inside the square jig that you have just prepared.
- Before cutting down the slices out of the log, you need to attach them up with the two thin strips of wood. You will place these strips on top of the sides of the chainsaw blade, and it will prevent your chainsaw from digging deeply into the jig. These strips will help you to slide along the jig while accurately keeping the level and cutting into the jig itself.
- Prepare yourself to make the cuts now.
- Now, when you use your chainsaw to make the cuts into the wood, it will smoothly slide across the square jig, cutting into the wood.
Step# 3 Cut the Slices
In the third and last step, make sure to keep your level stay in its position along with the rest of the square jig and run your sharpest chainsaw sideways along with the jig.
Method# 4 Cutting First then Leveling
Here we are with our third method that you can go for cutting the slices of wood. In this step, you have to cut the slices first and then level them later. Just follow the below-mentioned simple steps to get to the end of the slicing methods with greater perfection.
- Cut the log into the slices by eyeballing it. Make sure that you cut the log with the dimensions as close as possible to the original size that you need of the slice.
- Then, use a powder sander such as the orbital sander to level and even out the whole slice that you have just cut out of the log.
Some Final Words
We hope that our complete guide on the best way to cut the slice out of logs might have helped you a lot in picking out the best way for cutting. Whichever way you choose, we suggest you make sure that you do consider all the safety measures that we have mentioned earlier in the article.
Read our Buyers – Guide Best Chainsaw for Cutting Firewood – Buyer’s Guide
