Here are some pics. The equipment isn't as nice or big as yours but I'm in a different business. lol (The trucks right now are my buddies, I needed him on a job.) I'll try & get some of my stuff up. Hope you like them.
More.........
I'll have more for you later.
:thumbsup Nice pictures! How do you like that Manitex crane? We have a Manitex boom truck mounted on a Pete 357. Really like it. Its only an 18 tonner though. Some of them trees look like they were waiting for the right wind storm to come along.
Hey Jazak, thats some good stuff you got going on there. 2 weeks ago the neighbor across the street had 57 pine trees removed from their yard by a tree removal service. I was very entertained for a couple days, to say the least. One question though.......what brand is that blue and gray saw in the last picture. I picked out the Stihl and Husqvarna saws but have never see one with those colors like the one in the top row.
Is that teal one a Pullman? We used to have one around our sawmill. How do you like the Huskies?? I'm looking to replace a real beat up Stihl O41 with either a Husky or a Stihl what is your experience with them?
The crane is my buddy’s, its 125’; I don't know how many tons though. Its great though for dangerous jobs or if you want to get done fast.
They grey saw is a Makita DCS 7901 I picked up off a home owner for $400 (he used to cut down 10-12 trees & retails for $700). Its made by Dolmar. The saw though is super light at only 13.0lbs but has 79cc!!! The closest saw to it is the MS 460 @ 14.6lbs with only 76.5cc!!!
WOW! That is a old saw. Overall I like the STIHL's over the Husky's. I bought the Husky's this year because I had them back in the early 90's and heard that they have improved so I tried them out. I have liked them so far, but I think I'm going to go back to STIHL for my next purchase. I will say though that I disliked the STIHL MS 441. If you can buy a MS 440. (Tell your dealer you want one, he can get them. They're just told to take them off the shelf). IMO Oh, you guys should invest in the double post program I guess its called. It would cut all of these three posts I made into just one big one.
Thanks for the reply. You can reply to multi posts by clicking on the quotation marks next to the quote box. Click on each one you want to reply to then the last one hit the quote box to bring them all up.
Thanx for the info.
Heres a couple pic from a job I did yesterday. (And yes that is me in the picture.)
Doing tree removal in residential neighbourhoods is tough work that tree in the pictures needed to come down man the core was rotten If I have to drop a tree I stand on the ground I don't like heights The largest tree I ever dropped was a 40 inch at the butt cedar tree must have been atleast 80 feet tall. Talk about adrenialin (sp) rush never dropped a tree that large before. The largest trees previous 24 inch. I'am too out of shape now I haven't done any saw work in 2 years. When I was younger ie in my 20's I used to fall trees with a 051 Stihl and 28 bar. The 51 was so heavy it wore me out. I watch the local tree guys climb the trees limbing them then dropping them down in chunks. They deserve every penny they make its no working out of a bucket truck. Got the spurs on the boots and climbing. Then the grounds man pulling the branches to the chipper isn't a easy job. What drives me the nuts is you tell the home owner you better get that tree removed they say no we like the tree its not going to fall over. Next heavy windstorm the tree falls on the house What mostly happens is the home owner is told they say oh its fine then during or after the first windstorm its can you come and take the tree down :laugh
Those pieces of wood where located all the way up the tree at the "Y". It was the one going over the person's house! Here are a few more pics. (1st Job)
Couple more........ In the last two pics & using/holding a Husqvarna 3120XP (120cc!!) with a 36" bar!!! Oh I almost forgot the bucket truck is 75' just to give you an idea of how tall the tree is.
G,day Jaz, That Husky is a beast of a saw. We run the 3120K 16" Qwik Cut on stone/concrete and it just slays the other saws on the market for performance. Mine is actually 125cc...I guess they figured we'd need just a little more. I cut 4" concrete at twice the speed of my mates Stihl....but then again, he's too tight to buy a decent blade:beatsme
I'd like to see a pic of that beast.
Good lord,that one pic in that first set of pics,looks like that tree was severely rotten judging by that gaping hole!
Actually the tree cracked about 7' down all the way through both sides!!!
My bad, I thought you meant the very 1st picture. Yes that piece was severely rotted. It was also the piece going over two $450K houses + driveways & walkways!!! Will have more pics soon.
A have a question.. First of all I must say that what you do is dangerous and my hat is off to you, as what you do there is no room for error. I notice in the notching picture you..if it is you, are making the bottom cut first then followed by the angle cut. In most forestry training schools they teach to make the angle cut first followed by the bottom cut. It also shows this as the proper way in our OHSA. What are your thoughts?
I just had to chime in Grader4me on this topic, as my dad was a tree surgeon for over 30 yrs. with a good reputation, but a stroke ended his career early on while I was too young to take it over. As for the sequence of the notch cut, the bottom cut is the one made to "steer" the tree in the proper direction, followed by the upper cut. Why OSHA would say anything different is beyond me.:beatsme
Okay, bear with me here and I'll explain...I took a train the trainer course on chainsaw/thinning saw at a very reputable community college. Before I took that course when cutting out my notch I always make my bottom cut first followed by the angle cut, but according to them that is not the right procedure. This is why...On the newer model chainsaws you will notice two "sight lines" on the top of the saw. Hold your saw in the postion as if you was going to make your angle cut on your notch first. Standing behind the saw bring the saw back so that the bar is flush with the tree. Look down at the lines on the top of your saw and that will show you the direction of fall. Once you know your direction, angle the bar ahead and make your first cut (angle) followed by your bottom cut. Notch is made. The main reason though is lets say for example you are making a 70 degree notch or open face notch as it is refered to. It's easier to cut your 70 degree angle first followed by the bottom cut rather than vice versa. Also if making the bottom cut first followed by the angle cut there would be more of a chance of creating a "dutch" (I think this is the proper term) notch. You can "steer" the tree by the thickness of your hingewood (when making your backcut) on one side or the other, depending where you want it to go. Hope that I explained that well enough. It is early and I only have had one coffee Also I am by no means a professional chainsaw operator and the infomation that I just gave was taught to me. On edit..Any forestry training videos that I have watched (we get them from all over) they demonstrate cutting the notch as I have described.
Nice pictures jazak, thanks for posting. Looks like you can really burn some calories up in that tree! Hmmm.... "angle cut".... must be a regional thing. I'm not a professional cutter either, but here we generally use the "Humboldt", with the wedge of missing wood coming from the stump rather than the butt log. I'm familiar with the terms "face cut", "undercut", and "back cut" for the three jiggers. Generally, the face cut (flat) is first. I understand this is not an issue when taking out a nuisance tree.
I wasn't sure of the proper term as it could be "face cut". I was just trying to emphasize as to which cut I was trying to describe. So we can take "angle cut" out of the chainsaw dictonary. The "Humboldt" notch looks basically like the open face notch only upside down. Harder notch to make, but prefered by some because there is less waste at the stump.
I'm not trying to contradict anyone's theory nor undermine their education, just revisiting my childhood as a young, future tree surgeon who was dealt a bad hand with the unfortunate circumstances of having one of the best tree surgeon/arborists in this lifetime as a father, who suffered a major stroke in 1973, thus ending a career which was a lifestyle as well. Dad started in the tree business in the 1930's with a 2 man cross cut saw.(The kind with NO motor...) Affectionately known back then as the "Push me, Pull you, as I recall. ) Climbed trees well into his 40's, when in 1969 or so I remember him purchasing a 1964 Ford F-500 bucket truck with a Skyworker lift, the highest around New England in the day, reaching 55'. He took down some of the largest, most dangerous trees around southern Ct., and worked for several municipalities doing arborist work on the town greens, etc.We sprayed for several weeks in the springtime for various diseases, such as dutch elm disease, gypsy moth, etc. Had around 1,000 residential customers. We also did a lot of tree conservation, when someone did not want to lose a specific tree, we would go and perform several procedures to prolong it's life. If there was a major cavity down by the base, we'd carve out all the dead wood down to acceptable tissue, and dad would drive in a grid of 16 penny spikes inside the hollow trunk. My job as a whippersnapper of 6 or 7 yrs. of age was to mix up a batch of ASBESTOS, (that's right, asbestos..hasn't affected me as of yet.:dizzy) The asbestos was applied and used to completely fill the void, and troweled off smoothly. Then, if there was any splitting or danger of seperation up in the crotches, we'd go up there, drill straight through the limbs with a 3/4" bit, insert I-bolts and cable the limbs together in an X pattern, tying the limbs together to keep them from splitting off the tree.That was an "art" in itself. IN ADDITION TO THAT, down at the base again we'd drill 3/4" holes in an X pattern, and run threaded rod in those holes to keep the trunk secure from splitting. All this work, and if I remember right, the job cost around 300 bucks in the 1960's...Now they'd never go through all that, just drop 'em. Anyways, dad bought one of the very first power saws that came out, a 2 man, cumbersome Mall, with the motor on one end, a 4 or 6 foot long bar, and another man on the opposite end. Good for those giant dead elms and trees in excess of 5 feet in diameter back then. He then purchased a couple more Disston's, same concept. A 2 cylinder motor that was heavier than heck, and this one had an interchangable 4 and 6 foot bar, my job was to keep the bar oil tank full at the dummy end. Every single time that I watched these old time pro's like dad and his men get ready to make a cut, it was the horizontal one first. We loosened a band clamp on the Disston and rotated the bar 1/4 turn, and commensed the cut. Then, set the bar at a 45 degree angle, and do the "angle cut", as that's what they called it before political correctness was discovered. I've seen dad and these guys steer a 50 foot tall topped out tree where they had ample room to drop it on the ground, make friendly wagers amongst themselves. Dad would drive a stake in the ground where he predetermined where it was going to land, and bet the guys a 5th of Canadian Club that he'd hit the mark.That's where that all-important horizontal cut came in; that's the one used to aim, because you would make the cut in coordinance with the direction of fall by how far around the circumference you'd go.(Sounds like the college professor talking now, eh? ) There was a lot of free C.C. consumed by dad because of that little game...:drinkup Another reason why the upper cut was done last was, if you were to make the upper cut first, and then the bottom one next, and you happened to make a slightly bigger upper cut that you anticipated, then there was a good chance that you'd bind the saw in the notch once the tree started to lean into the cut, proving to be very dangerous if not fatal. By doing it bottom cut first, angle cut next, that scenario is eliminated. I've been around it enough to know enough to get in trouble, not trying to be a know-it-all, but again I think I was exposed to some of the most interesting facets of the tree business as one could wish for. I've done (and still do,) a lot of cutting and there's a lot of people that shouldn't be involved in teaching certain things without some real field knowledge of a vocation in my opinion. It would be like someone asking you Grader4me, what do you call it when you make the initial cut on the shoulder of a gravel road while in the process of regrading it? Would it be a "shoulder cut", or a "starter cut", or what? Some things are just better left alone.:thumbsup :yup I'm sorry about the long-windedness again. It's that threadjacking disease kicking in as usual. ointhead
I was just trying to explain how I was taught to make a notch :crying Also I was refering to trees that can be felled with one cut straight through. As said earlier I'm not a pro chainsaw operator. I have never cut a tree that is big around as a house. Wheww...getting hot in here...I think that I'm in over my head :Banghead Did I ever tell you the story of darn near killing my ex wife by falling a tree on her?...Let's leave that for another day On edit... Can this tread can still be salvaged?? I'll be quiet...maybe...
So how did you do it? Can you give us step by step instructions with an explanation of what went wrong so we don't make the same mistakes and end up at the darn near stage like you did?:naughty Just wanna make sure I get this right when I try it:angel Brian
Maybe I will share the story in the "safety competition" thread. That way I could list some of the things that was learned on that particular day :naughty
I'm the one that should be saying that...didn't mean to turn it into an autobiography. ops
Reqardless of who steered it away from the original topic, a lot of good information was put out there Lowboy.This is why I like this forum so much...Thanks for sharing your experience.
It has been awhile since I have done any falling. The notch shown in the pictures is for a little more controll when falling in cramped areas but you can run the risk of a barber chair. I use the other notch where you make your angle cut on the stump that allows the tree to fall a little more safer. I only do falling in open areas not near houses if I can help it I have done some residential falling. I try not to do any falling for residents call one of the local tree surgeons they can climb and limb the tree and drop it in chunks. The worst tree to fall is large Alder trees they got to be the most dangerous trees on the West Coast. They are so unpredictable because they will peal like a banana. You can get your birds mouth cut and start cutting the back cut but soon as you start hearing it start to split you have to cut the back cut as fast as you can. Even with alder trees you cut the birds mouth a little deeper than you would with a fir tree. B.C. brought in new regs couple years ago that requires fallers to be certified and have to pass a test. If they can't pass a test they won't beable to fall commercially. Anyhow most of the West Coast fallers have been falling tree's since they were kids. Usually their familly was in the logging industry. Some of these guys have troubles reading so they had troubles with taking the written test. I'am pretty sure the tests were written by guys that never dropped a tree in their life. It was another thing for WCB (workers comp) to cover their azz to make these guys certified. Its all these guys have done all their life they know how to fall trees. Mechanical falling (feller buncher) is used in areas where you can get them but when your on mountain sides where the wood is either helicoptered or grapple yarded hand falling is done. The fallers that work in heli logging operations do allot of work. They climb the tree limbing it on the way up lopp the top off climb back down notch the bottom of the tree so the helicopter grapple can grab the tree and snap it off the top of the stump. Tree falling is still one of the most dangerous jobs in B.C. the job that tops it is a hosipital nurse.
Tree Huggers The tree huggers around here are all saying that British Columbia has a really bad track record with permitting clear cutting and trashing old growth forests still. What's up with that?
The tree huggers are also gov't leeches. If the tree huggers seen the rules and regulations book that the logging contractors have to follow it will make you mind boggle. The rules and regs is something like 2000 pages. The regulations is making logging non profitable. I have no use for tree huggers I guess they don't realize if there is no logging there is no paper for their welfare check. Had some protesters down the coast protesting the logging the forestry inspector told the protester go count the rings on the stump. Their little protest ended when they found out the trees were second growth.
What most people fail to realize, is that clear cutting is actually the best way to encourage the forest to grow back in the strongest way possible. It's quicker too! But, it's ugly...so it must be bad....that's the only possible explanation. Brian
With the new regs the area is replanted not too long after its been logged. The big problem is in the Interior of B.C. where the pine beatle has devistated the pine trees up there. Its starting to be seen in Alberta which is not good. The pine trees have to be clear cutted to try control the beatle devistation. Old growth cedar is the only valuable wood because it is what cedar shakes and shingles are cut from. Cedar shakes are exported to the USA market mainly California. The shakes are treated with a insect repelant and a fire retardant.
Anyone else see the humor in this????:naughty
ointlaugh :iagree
I work for the gov't but I don't collect welfare checks and too lazy to get a job from the gov't like some of these protesters. What I really don't like is when the protesters start damaging the contractors equipment. One contractor had all the windows smashed in his old KW dump truck
Arrest the Tree Huggers That's when it's time to arrest the tree huggers. Vandalism is not acceptable. How about when they lie down in front of the tractors or equipment. That's a classic too.
When you start tampering with the equipment people are trying to make their living with should be jail time. These protesters get a slap on the wrist and they are back at it again :Banghead I think many of these protesters don't realize that most of the old growth was logged back in the forties and the wood harvested today is 2nd and 3rd growth. Anyhow enough hijacking the thread There are city tree huggers too they say don't chop that tree down they don't realize the tree is being taken down for a reason. I guess when a widow maker falls from the tree's canopy because the tree is dead and it hits somebody causing major injury to death a tree hugger will say oh I guess it had to be chopped down.
:crazy rofessor :lmao