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Terry · 01-31-2010, 04:36 PM,

OK, the 500 pounds of trinitrotoulene in the video worked slick, but seemingly was hard on the lake. Boosted my bar length on my chainsaw from 20" to 28" (would of gone longer if Twin City Saw could of for my vintage chainsaw, I could see swinging a 4'+ monster would help), then took it down under a bridge on the Mn river to test it and it worked dandy, only to be looked after by a couple of fish and game officers, curious as to my plan. My question is, better to plunge cut (like with a sawzall) and skip the augered holes all together, (thats what I did) and make the cut close to all the way thru, to allow you and the saw to stay dry. Now dont get me wrong, I'm all about spending my free time dealing in a sloppy wet hole, just not full of ice water. Seems once the tip of the blade punches thru, the chain brings up enough water to dive in, making a big frozen mess, and the saw dosent seem to care much when the high energy side of the ignition has to be operating with flowing water over it. Probably just a bead of caulk over the seam of a cover to keep the ignition system dry would help, then finish up the hole by hand of with the chainsaw at a slower chain speed. Curious what you guys think,,,,,,, TRINITY

ballfrog · 01-31-2010, 09:32 PM,

I think you should think green and wait till May and use solar power to make the hole.

Hydro · 01-31-2010, 09:43 PM,

i would guess 'Cutting Ice the easy(iest) way' would be to have 3 saws going on the hole while i drink hot chocolate and relax.

Terry · 01-31-2010, 10:07 PM,

Joe, my young friend, you will indeed learn a lesson in your class this weekend then.

Hydro · 01-31-2010, 10:46 PM,

in all seriousness, i would guess the non augered hole would be easier to work around. i'd rather bring another saw than an auger, that is, if its feasible to have more than 1 going on a hole?

jeffberry · 02-01-2010, 08:06 AM,

I have seen people use a auger in 3 spot. Why I dint understand why.
When we cut I do the outline then the break pieces in the middle an then the out side. I Ground my chain to a 25 degree angle an that really worked good. Stander ed is 30 to 35 degrees.
But easyiest is watching some one else do it.

eelpout · 02-01-2010, 08:47 AM,

There are a couple of things that you could do the avoid the watery mess.

The first thing would get a chain for your chainsaw thatis specifically used for cutting ice, they have to gring down the rakers on the chain. The rakers are desinged to pull wood chips of the bar when youuse it on wood. you don't need it for cutting ice because there ice melts before forming any chips to clog the bar. The rakers, if not removed will pull water out of the water and take it out and it follows the path of the bar which is partly out of the water. So you are actually using the saw to pull water out if the rakers are still on.

The second thing would be to score the ice first, cut the hole pattern and just go deep enough (half way through)so you don't go all the way through. This will take experience using the saw. Once you have the whole scored in then cutting it all the way through will take less time because you have already cut the ice halfway through, thus the time spent getting wet will be less ;D.

I had a race a coupel of years ago. 18 inches of ice. 1 person Husqurvana chainsaw with 38" bar vs. 2 people power auger & Hand Ice saw. The 2 person crew with the power auger and hand ice saw won by 5 minutes. The key is to have a REAL hand Ice saw.

Been doing this Ice diving thing since December of 1978.

Jim

arcFlash · (This post was last modified: 02-01-2010, 11:53 AM by arcFlash.)

I've opened holes with both chainsaw (big and small) as well as auger and hand ice saw so I have a few ideas on how it's to be done.

If you have a big saw and a few people it's probably the least work. The sawer gets sore arms unless you have a lot of skill with a saw so help them out. I don't so I get tired. The down side is the over cuts. They widen and trap the rope so you spend a lot of time as tender pushing the rope out of line traps.

I like the combination. Auger 3 holes almost all the way. This gives a nice radius for tanks and no line traps and gives the sawer some perspective. IF you can recut the same line it's very easy. In my case, I fall off the track at the tip (bottom of the ice) and have a hell of a time.

Hand ice saw. If the ice is a foot or so the saw is king. I've cut 24 inches and it's a bit of work. The only ice saws commonly available have a poor design. The teeth are too aggressive. I reset mine and it helped but the hook angle is huge. 24 is the limit to human power with this saw. Drilling 6 holes helps but makes for a chunky hole so you clean up with the handsaw and it works fine. We've cut 2 holes in one afternoon this way. It's not that bad and it warms everyone up pulling on the saw.

Auguring all holes (no saws) works but it's a mess of a hole. If you have someone with a good gas auger, it's likely the fastest for deep ice. You also don't remove much ice block so that helps. Use a spud to split the ice block is commonly faster then cutting the block in two once it's free. If you have a hand saw, clean up the edge and it's just as easy to dive as all the others. You'll need to use the spud to clean up the hole at a minimum.

dkdiver · 02-01-2010, 03:39 PM,

I've sawn many holes for sturgeon spearing and for this application the oversawing isn't a problem. However for diving I think eliminating the groves at the end of a cut is the way to go. I've also removed all the rakers since for ice they are no help. Also I ground two teeth off for ever three teeth in a row. This way you still have every other tooth alternating with several inches in between. It helps to keep the saw from grabbing the ice and stalling out the saw. Not an issue when the ice is thin but I use a 36" bar so it can be a lot of work for the saw when there is more ice.

arcFlash · 02-03-2010, 08:54 AM,

Does anyone know if you can get an actual, good, ice saw these days? The common one from 'big box sports'' is truly awful. Anyone ever deal on an antique store and get it tuned?

I actually like hand cutting, it's makes almost no mess around the hole. I also don't care for the noise, fumes and wet legs, gas in the van and the risk it may not start or breakdown.

PS: This isn't Facebook so it doesn't need innuendo.