"J. Clarke" wrote in message
...
Karl Townsend wrote:

I do a LOT of sawing outside in the cold, pruning apple trees. I've been
using a 24 volt Dewalt sawsall. Battery life is terrible and getting
worse
as they age.

I'm thing of trying a pneumatic sawsall or sabre saw. I found this one:
http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/cpt881.html

Chicago Pneumatic 881 - Saw Air Reciprocating Heavy Duty


Anyone know anything about these units, or can recommend a better one? Do
they take the standard sawsall blades?

Don't know if it's still the case but Florida Power and Light used to (40
years ago) use pneumatic chainsaws for trimming trees that were in danger
of contacting power lines. Don't know if they did this for safety reasons
or if the pneumatic saws were more reliable than electric or what.

If you google "pneumatic chainsaw" you'll get a number of hits including
some on sources that have other pneumatic and hydraulic tools for tree
pruning and related tasks.

Karl

We had hydraulic fittings on one of our bucket trucks for hydraulic
chainsaws.