Micro Chainsaw Gets A Much Needed Nitro Power Boost

When life hands you the world’s smallest chainsaw, what’s there to do except make it even more ridiculous? That’s what [JohnnyQ90] did when he heavily modified a mini-electric chainsaw with a powerful RC car engine.

The saw in question, a Bosch EasyCut with “Nanoblade technology,” can only be defined as a chainsaw in the loosest of senses. It’s a cordless tool intended for light pruning and the like, and desperately in need of the [Tim the Toolman Taylor] treatment. The transmogrification began with a teardown of the drivetrain and addition of a custom centrifugal clutch for the 1.44-cc nitro RC car engine. The engine needed a custom base to mount it inside the case, and the original PCB made the perfect template. The original case lost a lot of weight to the bandsaw and Dremel, a cooling fan was 3D-printed, and a fascinatingly complex throttle linkage tied everything together. With a fuel tank hiding in the new 3D-printed handle, the whole thing looks like it was always supposed to have this engine. The third video below shows it in action; unfortunately, with the engine rotating the wrong direction and no room for an idler gear, [JohnnyQ90] had to settle for flipping the bar upside down to get it to cut. But with some hacks it’s the journey that interests us more than the destination.

This isn’t [JohnnyQ90]’s first nitro rodeo — he’s done nitro conversions on a cordless drill and a Dremel before. You should also check out his micro Tesla turbine, too, especially if you appreciate fine machining.

Thanks for the tip, [Altome].

25 thoughts on “Micro Chainsaw Gets A Much Needed Nitro Power Boost

  1. I have subscribed to his channel for a while now and I love the stuff that he does. He is a real craftsman with a fantastic imagination. He always makes really cool stuff too.

  2. “powerful RC car engine” “1.44-cc”
    Yeah right. That is literally one of the smallest RC car engines you can buy, and might produce 500w under absolute perfect conditions. Judging by the sound he is only running it at about 100w output power due to suboptimal gearing, less than the stock motor…

    But anyone who has done a conversion like this would know that the point is not to get more power, the point is to get more awesome. Sure, you could have cut through the log faster with a hand saw, but it generates so many more youtube views to have a nitro-powered backward-turning 3d-printed chainsaw.

      1. Thank you… I wanted to mention the .010s. Really would have just rotated everything though. Even an .015 would have barely functioned. He may be runni g it at 1/5th power, (one did imply,) but even if 1/2 of its potential, it may have been runni g slower yo detune it. That job is a different load that air, and with less cooling. Great stuff though. Still needs to turn it upside down… ????

  3. Just the film editting even is great – Notice the SAFETY measures he takes to protect even his TIME to do this by NOT WEaRING A RING. Your First Safety Protocol!!! ???? Focus ALL your attention on your work!

  4. I bet that a few curses were modulated when he spotted that the engine rotation was the opposite of the electric one.
    If it was not for that cockup this conversions would have been perfect.

    Still an awesome result, that shows great skill and fantasy.

  5. I appreciate the craft, the video production, all of that. And I realize that this was a because-I-can project, so safety measures aren’t quite so important.

    But that upward cutting, yikes. Just a little terrifying to have that thing going towards you instead of away.

    1. Not so easy, this nitro engine has its intake controlled by a rotary valve implemented by a slot in the crankshaft. if you crank it the wrong way it just spits fuel at you and will not run.

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