Home made things for tree work

woodworkingboy

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Peter made his stump grinder, it's real cool to see it and how it progressed. I'm wondering what things people have made to assist in their work?

Coiling up wire rope is kind of a bother, especially when tired at the end of the day, and I use cable for pulling pretty frequently. This Tirfor cable has a solid core, so a little stiffer than most regular cable. Recently I made up this reel that you can crank to wind up quickly and with no twist. It adds a bit of weight to carrying into the site, but the comfortable handle much helps to reduce the effort. Nothing special, but it works well and I enjoy using it. The holes are where I can see to push the end into a hole in a small block that grabs for starting to wrap around.
 

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I use those quite frequently, Sean. I have one that is probably 15 years old, and a new one that I have only used a couple of times. I looked into the model with the Amsteel, but decided to buy one with cable. I bought a piece of Amsteel off WesSpur's remnants page and both together were cheaper than what they wanted for the come-a-long with Amsteel already on it. I figure I can use the cable a while and change it out when I get around to it.
 
Here's a handful Jay, throw line reel, throw bags, blocks, pulley, porty, wedges and a bunch of other stuff in the kit. Why buy it if you can build it? Are you a welder Jay? P3170610.jpg
 
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Thanks guys.

The Tirfor wire bought through one of their distributors here was pricey, but disappointingly it came on a wtf cheap very poorly made thin wire ring. The welding on the thing looks like it was made by someone in grammar school. If the wire came on something decent, I probably would never have gotten around to making my own, and the windup ability did turn out to be a plus.

Sean, I have two Tirfors, a 3/4 ton and a 1.6 ton one, found them being offered together used at an auction site here, but no wire or handles. I'd been wanting to get my own after borrowing a few. I also have the puller shown in your link, have used it for many years, one with cable. It's a good tool with that 2 ton capacity when you double back the line ant it comes with that small pulley attached to the hook to help facilitate that, but the endless line ability of the Tirfors makes life easier, haven't used it since adding the others to my kit. The Tirfors work real smooth and backing off your tension is also a lot easier than with the Wyeth-Scott which is something of a pain and rather slow. Not putting down the Wyeth-Scott though, it much helped me out on numerous occasions and much cheaper than the high priced Tirfors.

That's cool, Ray. I've got a tig and regular arc welder, but I can't call myself a welder with the infrequency that I use them. I do much appreciate real good welding when I see it done. I've got access to some surplus stainless pipe of varying dimensions that would be perfect for making a porty, going to try that.
 
Bow made out of Surinam cherry, arrows made from old fishing rod tips...for line setting pre-BigShot days...
 
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Agree, Bob, the Tirfors are really well made. For people that don't have experience with them, they have these replaceable pins that if you exceed the pulling capacity of the device, they break. Nothing gets buggered up, no bent handles. I haven't broken one yet even when pulling so hard that I thought i might.
 
I've got a tig and regular arc welder, but I can't call myself a welder with the infrequency that I use them. I do much appreciate real good welding when I see it done. I've got access to some surplus stainless pipe of varying dimensions that would be perfect for making a porty, going to try that.

I hadn't realized how toxic chromium fumes are till just recently. Be sure to stay out of them. Nasty.
 
Yep SS is a combo of nickel and chromium mostly and a few other elements.

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I can't take credit for the design that goes to Jerry B.
 
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Thanks for the head's up. I've done a fair amount of tig stainless welding, but was never aware of the toxicity risk. I took a tig welding course from Panasonic, my welder brand, and the instructor never once mentioned a fume hazard. Wonder if he knew? I had a couple day job once welding inside stainless tanks at a dairy products processing plant, putting in ladders, I must have ingested a good dose of fumes.
 
Ya, Steve, I let someone else do the welding due to the fumes. Welding fumes may be implicated in Parkinson's Disease, which my Dad had from 43 until 73. He worked for Rockwell Graphics, mostly selling huge printing presses. Maybe some exposure to solvents or something, over the years. Mostly he did office work though. Nobody knows really.



We used an 8 ton Tirfor. Luckily, it was a back country trail project, so we had to carry it all in by hand. Tirfor, cable, anchor chains, etc. Light packing. ;)
 
Tig welders are very handy..Broke my Pretzel CT after 2 months so decided to make my own fold up retractable saw carrier. Been going strong for 6 mo and it will handle big saws. It retracts with a built in spring loaded catch. Still need to weld a little eye on top for a shoulder sling for bigger saws, TreeMotion kind of sucks for support in that department. Great thread BTW
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