The Easy-Lift Sawbuck / Saw Buck

Also called a saw trestle, wood support, saw frame, or cross-cutter

(Basically, an upgrade of the Log-Lift)

Andrew Hilton

Don't you just hate to stoop down to cut those logs on the ground?   Don't you just hate to lift those logs up onto a platform, like a traditional cross-tie sawbuck?  Don't you just hate when you're cutting woodturning blanks on a pallet and try to cut between the pieces of wood to avoid the nails but cut through to a nail anyway?  Don't you hate to try and use some other logs to try and prop up the log your working on just to have those other logs roll around and be unstable?  Don't you just hate when someone keeps asking questions?!  Don't you just hate when someone writing an article will just get to the blasted point and move on! ..... Me too.

Well, here's an upgrade to my Log-lifter.  If you haven't read about that yet, please do.  We'll wait right here for you .... hmmmmm .... tweedle - deeeee -daaaaaa ..... hmmmmm ... hooooo ..... OK, ready to continue then? .... Me too.

So, here's the update to that wonderful gem of a tool for easily lifting logs onto trucks or splitters or whatever you want without breaking your back.  I wanted a way to bring those logs up to a better height so I could cut them.  Oh, sure, I could (and have for many years) just used pallets, other logs, a traditional sawbuck, or even the tailgate on the trucks.  Don't you just hate when you cut too far down and slice up the tailgate?  (Don't ask!).  But none of those was doing it for me.  It was either still too low, or a big hassle to lift those logs up onto other things, or things weren't very stable and I ended up having to spend more time keeping the log I was working on still and in place.

I started thinking (yes, a dangerous condition of mine that has caused no end of problems) and figured that as long as I was hauling that log lifter around, I might as well use that.  So, a little modification and some hot-chocolate later, I had something that worked.  It doesn't interfere with the log-lifting feature at all.  In fact, they compliment each other.  Still, the whole thing is (as one of my motto's goes...) "Cheap, Easy, and Effective".

All you have to do (see the pictures below of a 90-ish year old lady working a 95+ lbs soaking wet red oak log) is roll that log up onto the end, put the end-shelf of wood into the slot (so the log doesn't roll of the end where it came ... there are a few slots up there to accommodate different diameter logs) and lift up the end as you normally would.  Those two legs drop down as you raise things up.  Once you get it up aways, just walk up and place the brace against those drop-down legs.  Pull down that end sticking up in the air (that you just pushed up there) and your log raises up to a nice, workable height.  Very simple and easy to work.  The leverage that you get, both pushing it up and pulling it down, is a lot!  Very little effort to do it.  In fact, the hardest part is rolling the log up onto the log-lifter / saw buck and even that is only rolling it up onto some 2x6's.

Leverage is your friend!  Need to lift very heavy logs?  Lengthen the lifter.  I've used a long 16' aluminum ladder (heavy-duty) to lift some really large logs before.  I don't carry around that big thing all that often though.  But it just goes to show that all you might need is a little bit of a redesign.  "Give me a long enough lever ... and I'll move a mountain with my big toe!"

The future:  I think about the only thing I'll modify on this is to make that brace an automatic, ratchet-type of thing so all you have to do is just raise up the end and it'll automatically set the brace itself.  Just raise it up, wait for that brace to lock in, and pull it back down.  Even easier!