The Official Work Pictures Thread

[cory]

For this reason (I think) very few PNW fallers tend to use shims, and when they do, they just cut slabs off of other logs to use.

This.

 

[woodslinger]

Clear enough for me to get it

 

[HolmenTree]

Aisin 6 speed Willard?

No Dave the Aisin trannies are only available on the 3500 models with the HO Cummins 850 ft lb torque engines. I think in the 4500 and 5500 their standard.
My Cummins puts out 800 ft lb which in my opinion is more torque then I will ever need. It's 6 speed auto is so much better then what my old 2007 had. Silky seamless shifting.

 

[Sgriff]

👍Totally thorough explanation! Thnx Jed,i never thought of using a sliver of wood.
The hard head wedges i use have a nive waffle pattern on em,a little dirt may or may not help when stacking em but,they do rather well compared to others I've used.

 

[HolmenTree]

Depends on the length of your wedges whether they can take a shim or not.
12 inch wedges doubled up can take a shim as a third lift, but you won't have much luck with 8 inchers.
I don't see any use shimming only 1 wedge when 2 stacked will do the job, first started with a gap with a 3rd wedge which is driven into the back cut first.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Man, I literally had my wife go to IKEA and get me four nylon cutting-boards that I cut-up into shims. It will be interesting to see what Stig says.

Where arborists usually place a rope in the tree to get leverage to pull it over, timber cutters usually get leverage via plastic wedges beaten into the back-cut. When you run out of angular lift, you can stack two wedges on top of each other, but this can overdo the leverage bit, and the wedges can spit out, and you can loose the pig over backwards. Shims (flat pieces of plastic under one wedge) can jack the tree up higher without overdoing the leverage incurred from too steep of an angle that stacking two wedges can produce, so they seem good in theory; HOWEVER, this method of jacking up with shims can ALSO lead to a mismatch in the angles of the top of the wedge, and the butt of the log, which results in harder than necessary driving. For this reason (I think) very few PNW fallers tend to use shims, and when they do, they just cut slabs off of other logs to use.

Clear as mud, eh? Man, I'm bored tonight. Stig? Stig? C'mon, man... where ya at bud? Come on, man... it's only one in the morning over there!

That's a great post, brother.

It bears repeating...

 

[stig]

Jed, I have never had a problem with that misaligned angle.
Richard, however, always places the shims on top of the wedge to avoid that.

When I run out of nylon shims, I'll cut a piece of wood, too.
Beech is great for that, being hard as hell ( Like Madrone)

 

[HolmenTree]

Stig made the correct point of putting the shim on top of the wedge as the textured bottom side of the wedge needs to produce traction against the stump to prevent spitting out as the tree is lifting.

But I have no problem driving 2 stacked wedges if their barbed on one side, even the 8" ones. Stack them so one barbed side is against the stump and the other barbed side of the top wedge against the butt.
For bigger wood 12" Husqvarna textured wedges drive easier and don't spit out stacked in pairs.

 

[Jed]

That Bear bears repeating. I'm going to show that to Agnes, our three-year-old.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Fiona"s picture is awesome. Really happy she made the calender this year .
Still have yet to use my wewedge plates regular. I need to take them out of the truck more. We often still use 1/2 PLUS insurance on most learners though

 

[stig]

That is IMO one of the major differences between logging and arborist work.
No time to set a line, when you are falling to scale.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Spent a few more hours up the tree. About three climbing stints of 4+hours to date with this big cottonwood. Wraptor saves a LOT of time, both in getting up there, and having more energy and mental focus to produce.


One intact high leader left, over the shed, all to be roped off. Rigging point off to the side on a seperate lead. I think that the tree is the weak point in the situation. Hard to say. Cottonwoods can be SOOO Big and Hollow, yet put up with howling wind. At State parks we took one down that was 4-6" of hollow shell, all the way around, at felling height, and 6-7' wide, but put up with wind off a lake.

One more day of climbing should put it all on the ground. Not much brush left to chip, logs can stay as they are, but am trying to keep the working area clear by moving and consolidating them. All the main trunk wood will stay in place. It doesn't taper much before branching out, unfortunately, so I will probably be double cutting with a MS 660/ 36" combo, from spurs. Yay! Considering buying a longer bar. MAGIC CUT!

 

[Mick!]

It's a beast for sure, how many of you on the job Sean?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Damn!

 

[pete mctree]

Big tree Sean. Glad it. Is going to plan.

 

[Limbrat]

Definitely a big nasty Sean. Slinging that 660 up there should be fun . I'd have to eat my Wheaties and a can of spinach.

 

[HolmenTree]

That's a fat cottonwood alright. Biggest cottonwood here in Manitoba registered as a heritage tree is at the 8-9 ft diameter mark
.
Anybody who says trees don't get that tall here on the prairies haven't seen the stands of spruce I deal with up here at Thompson.
This spruce here I felled a while ago down the middle of a customers driveway maxed out to 125 ft, and his neighbor has bigger ones.
Can't get the picture to stand up. Got to be a way to edit it.
Used my 562XP with 18" .325 b/c.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

Two groundies, mostly, and the mini (3 groundies worth). They did a lot of standing around between drops and rigging. Start and Stop. Too much loose bark and deadwood for them to work a lot under different parts of the tree. Loose bark from 80' with a wind, can travel a long distance. Gary and the now-ex-new guy ( 5 days on the job) probably chipped two solid hours while I ran over to another bid/ job with Gary's fiance. Sounded like a quick job to do at the time of the bid, homeowner clean-up. She helps a little with odds and ends, carrying things, bagging ropes, untie a basal anchor, tying on the big saw... The was a bit of help on the cottonwood, with a bit of dragging, plywood highway.

This tree is a bit too big and nasty for me to want to spend more than 4-5 hours in it at a time.

The leads all reach horizontal by the time they're at their tips. I've been dropping a lot of limbs and trunks with Golden Triangle, Coos Bay, and "square" cuts because of barberchair potential. I don't know the name for this "square" cut. Its like bucking a log to prevent it from splitting where you cut a kerf all the way around 4 sides of the log, leaving an inner heartwood square, then cutting the tension wood. Like a Coos Bay, but with a kerf on the bottom to prevent tearing down the trunk.

One Golden Triangle where i didn't get one corner of the hinge cut off, quite. I could see where it was starting to split. I'm going to move up to a larger, faster cutting saw for the remaining leads.


I'd like to buy something like the Husky 246xp or a bit bigger. I don't know the current (or old) Husky lineup. I read talk about the 550xp, maybe. A little help, guys?


The new guy had previously worked as a groundie for some climber who didn't know much about tree work. Groundie studied up and went to some training seminars, and surpassed the owner/ climber's knowledge, so became the climber. Probably easier to be the best in a very small fishbowl. He said that the job wasn't as "fun as I thought it would be".

 

[Mick!]

Two gmen and a skid sounds about right.
550 is a good saw. I've a 560/562, never had a single problem with either.

 

[HolmenTree]

Some more sideways pics.
I had to use a guyline with a pull line to get this poplar with heavy back and side lean over a house down.
Felled its twin a half hour earlier then realized I had my phone in my pocket .
This job and the spruce job are the ones I like, just put them on the ground with no cleanup.

 

[Grendel]

Hey Willard, what was that Poplar guyed off to?

 

[pantheraba]

So sorry to read of your current distressing circumstances, Gary .

Been considering a trip that direction for M and me, myself...care to post up a link to your cabana, if you think it's worth recommending?

Probably not many people we know that would stay where these cabanas are.... http://www.belmond.com/la-samanna-st-martin/ rooms range from $1500 to $10000 per night...yep...10k. I am staying at a condo owned by a member of the group I am working with down here. My friend down here owns the watersport venue at the hotel...he runs the cabanas..boats..jet skis..scuba and snorkeling trips, etc. I will put you in touch w him...he has lived on St. Martin 25 years and can help choose where to stay. He said he will be glad to work with you...he can help you know best season to go. I will PM you once I am back and get caught up. Rattle my chain if I don't have you some info by Friday.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Oh, wow. I have never seen anything like that.

Hope your having a good time Gary.

 

[Burnham]

Looking forward to your pm, Gary...yeah, $10k a night is beyond what even my nearly unfathomable wealth can carry .

That's a nice used Jag a night, more or less .

 

[Burnham]

Burnham doesn't know shit about beating wedges, axes belong back in the dark ages before the chain saw was invented ( Man, I hope he sees this. We've been discussing that for ages)
Get a Gransfors maul and you'll be set for life.
Then pair it up with Hardhead wedges and nylon shims and no tree will be safe from you.

Man, I'm just crushed to read your dis of my wedge beating knowledge.

Oh, and I think your very pretty and certainly old wedge driving maul design (and the equally pretty Gransfors version) might very likely predate chainsaws, just sayin'.