The old Jeep is at it again! Had to earn its keep!
The Buzz Saw
When the Willys wasn’t trying to fly it was put to useful work. It had to pull it’s own weight just like Dan. The family burned wood for heat in the wintertime and it was a constant struggle to keep enough cut ahead. One of Dan’s chores was to keep the home fires burning, so to speak. They had a chain saw but back in the ’60’s they were expensive to operate. They were also temper-mental and always seemed to need sharpening, or new chains, or new parts. There was a small woods behind the house with lots of dead trees and downed branches so availability wasn’t a problem, but getting the wood cut and split was.
His Dad had acquired a buzz saw from one of his cousins. To those not familiar with what a buzz saw is it was a device that would mount on a tractor or some power source and had a large saw blade secured to a 2″ diameter shaft that had a flat pulley on the other end. The shaft was held in place by two large bearings. There was a tray that pivoted at the bottom. When the branch was pressed against it, the tray moved toward the blade until the wood was completely severed. The tray was pulled back and the log advanced till the proper length was exposed on the other side of the blade then the process was repeated. This particular one was probably built in the ’30s when the tractors had a flat pulley that ran a host of farm devices that protruded from the side of most tractors. This particular one was set up for a Farmall F-20. By 1967 the old F-20 they had had just given up and could no longer power the saw. Dan’s Dad had mounted the saw in a stationary position using angle irons driven into the ground in anticipation of acquiring a different tractor. He knew whatever tractor it would be would have a flat belt pulley but the front mounting would probably be different. Money was tight so the family entered the winter of ’67-’68 without a tractor to cut their wood.
Before the tractor had given up they had managed to drag a huge pile of limbs up from the woods. His Dad also brought home skids from work that the materials were shipped in to the factory where he worked. The pile was huge so Dan decided to see if the old chainsaw would start. As long as he could remember he had operated this old saw. As soon as he was old enough to safely start and hold up the saw he was out in the woods cutting under the watchful eye of his Dad. He liked the power that it put in his hands. Trees that had started to grow before his Dad, or even his Granddad were alive were no match for the saw in his skilled hands. Piles of sawdust marked his path as he cut. The saw ran wide open, vibrating until his hands were numb from gripping the saw and the cold. Sadly in the ’50’s the Dutch Elm disease had killed every elm tree in the woods of any size. For years they had harvested the gigantic trees but now all that was left were 8-10″ elm trees that had grow long enough to reproduce but died in young adulthood. Everyone called them “piss elms” for the strong urine smell they gave off when cut or split.
He had put the saw in the house to warm it up in hopes of getting it to run just one more time. He cleaned the spark plug and checked the gas and followed all the protocols he had been taught but the saw would not fire. He pulled and pulled on the rope till he was breathing hard but the thing just wouldn’t start. It was as worn out as the tractor. While he was catching his breath he sat on the back step in full view of the old Jeep pondering what he was going to do to keep wood cut ahead when the idea came into his head. The Jeep had three army issue tire treads but the one left front tire had a normal truck tire tread. He started to imagine the jeep pulled up to the saw with that front tire lined up with the saw pulley. He was out of other options so he got in the old Jeep and fired it up. After much jockeying around he got it aligned. He jacked up the front of the jeep on the left side and chocked the right front and back wheels. When he had the correct belt tension he put blocks under the raised left front so the jeep wouldn’t jump off of the jack when it was under a load. He was about to get in and fire it up when it occurred to him that the back wheels would pull too. He got out of the Jeep and jacked the left back of the Jeep up so the tire could spin freely. The differentials of the Jeep would route the power to the tires with the least resistance. He put the back of the Jeep on blocks so it wouldn’t jump off the jack. He walked around the contraption one more time to see if there was anything else that he had forgotten.
He climbed in, turned the key and hit the button. The old Flathead engine roared to life almost instantly. It did roar. He had removed the muffler a few months back just because. A stupid seventeen year old thing to do but it did announce his arrival every where he went. He put it in first gear and slowly let out on the clutch. The Jeep settled down to a purr as the saw got up to speed. The belt stayed on! He got out and surveyed the invention. he walked around the the Jeep the long way away from the now moving belt. The saw blade wasn’t going fast enough for optimum cutting so he walked back to the Jeep and increased the engine speed. After the initial protest from the engine it settled back to its purr. He walked back and listened to the saw. The shark like saw teeth were slightly bent, one set one way and the next the opposite way to produce a cut slightly bigger that the width of the blade so the saw wouldn’t pinch and kick. This also displaced enough air to produce a high pitched whine. Like a piano tuner Dan knew when the speed was right by the sound of the saw blade. He picked up a small limb and put it on the tray. The tray pivoted at the bottom and was weighted so it kept out of the range of the teeth by inches. It was prevented from falling completely away by a chain that was adjustable to the users’ preference. That was pretty much the extent of the safety devices. He slammed the limb to the stop on the end of the tray past the blade. An addition His Dad had made because Dan seemed to get the pieces too long for the stove. With both hands he rolled the log to the backstop and pinned it there. slowly he pushed the wood into the saw. The 4″ diameter limb didn’t even slow the blade down! There was so many parts moving that the momentum kept the blade speed correct. A big grin crossed his face. He was pretty proud of himself. Out of the corner of his eye though, he saw the Jeep lurch forward slightly every time it was under a load. He walked around and shut it down. It was remarkable how long it took to finally stop. He went to the barn and got a long board, a big hammer, and two pieces of scrap metal. Back at the jeep he pounded the steel into the ground in front of the bumper vertically. he leaned the board against the Jeep at bumper height. He took the other piece of metal and pounded it into the ground against the other end of the board. He put his foot on the board and applied pressure until it was snug. The next time he needed to cut wood all he would have to do was pull the Jeep to the stop, jack it up, and put on the belt. He reached in and restarted the Jeep.
The saw sprang to life. He started to cut limb after limb. As fast as he could pull back the wood and advance it the saw cut. He stopped long enough to remove a layer of clothes. The wood always heated him twice, once when cut and once when burned. That was OK with him. It was wrestling season and this was good conditioning. He always pushed the limit. Some logs were so heavy he had to lock his back and lift for all he was worth to get it on the platform. Sometimes he would growl like an old bear, a guttural sound from deep within. It seemed to help the lift somehow. The sawdust swirled around his head like snow in the winter wind. He would have to stop soon and stack the pile of wood he had cut so he didn’t trip and lose some body part that was near and dear to him! After all, cutting wood like this was like teasing a coiled rattlesnake. As long as you had a ten foot pole you were reasonable safe. The trouble with this was his ten foot pole kept getting shorter until he was right next to the head of the snake (saw blade). At seventeen things that would terrify him later in life he took in stride. Fatigue set in so he pushed a little more. No pain no gain they say. Finally he quit for the day, picked up his jacket and an arm load of wood and headed for the house. He shut off the Jeep. The saw was still moving when he opened the back door. He’d sleep good tonight!