Checking Chain Brake? Also, new logger questions

[northmanlogging]

the grizzly versions are all bent up, and 7075 is pretty fricken tough to bend?

but 2024-0 bends like butter, then it just needs tempered to be more or less tough...

Anyway, leave a hole on the bottom for dirt to fall out of. only about half of the bottom is covered the rest is open.

 

[madhatte]

I have one of those but the rattling noise drives me crazy. Mostly it sits in the day pack for my linegear which is where wedges and stuff live, and protects the bag from the axe, which it does very well.

 

[GilksTreeFelling]

I picked one of those up ( grizzly axe holster) last year handy as heck, just make sure you measure you axe head and get one size larger then the heads actual measurement. The build quality is great on them.

 

[hseII]

I have one of those but the rattling noise drives me crazy. Mostly it sits in the day pack for my linegear which is where wedges and stuff live, and protects the bag from the axe, which it does very well.

I sometimes sing spirituals to the beat of the rattles.

 

[northmanlogging]

I have one of those but the rattling noise drives me crazy. Mostly it sits in the day pack for my linegear which is where wedges and stuff live, and protects the bag from the axe, which it does very well.

ear plugs, followed by a constantly running muff modded saw, the rattle will only be a distant memory.

that and if your hiking in somewheres, kick the power head over a wee bit so it supports the axe handle, keeps it from rattling around so much, can be hard on the neck though.

 

[Gologit]

I have one of those but the rattling noise drives me crazy. Mostly it sits in the day pack for my linegear which is where wedges and stuff live, and protects the bag from the axe, which it does very well.

I tried one but I agree on the rattling noise. Plus, I like a longer handle and I'm the exact wrong height to have the handle fit comfortably where it should.
I'd usually just stuff the ax through my belt if I had to carry it any distance. Otherwise I'd just toss it ahead of me to the next tree. Keeps things simple that way.

 

[rwoods]

For some reason at almost any job I, at sometime or the other, find myself falling on my tail with some force. Seeing you guys carrying an axe stuck to your back gives me the willies. Of course I don’t have a better suggestion.

Ron

 

[northmanlogging]

For some reason at almost any job I, at sometime or the other, find myself falling on my tail with some force. Seeing you guys carrying an axe stuck to your back gives me the willies. Of course I don’t have a better suggestion.

Ron

well it sits flat, and protects yer tail bone to some extent... so win win?

also, I really need a cage on my essavator, this one was leaning over the property line, not enough to tie too, and "high" value targets under it.

 

[rwoods]

NM, when I saw how easily you straighten that cab, I said to myself that I hope you heed the advice you were offered early on about guards. Hopefully the funds and the fix will come before another test. Ron

 

[northmanlogging]

to be fair, i did nearly roll the skidder just to straighten that little ding.

but yeah, a week off and several hundred in steel and welding rod would make me feel a little better about stoopid **** like this.

 

[rwoods]

Cats they say have nine lives. Not sure how many we have. I used up one last night in a crawl space when I drilled into a live 230 volt cable. Something tells me that you have used up a few too.

Ron

 

[GilksTreeFelling]

to be fair, i did nearly roll the skidder just to straighten that little ding.

but yeah, a week off and several hundred in steel and welding rod would make me feel a little better about stoopid **** like this.

If ya weren't o. The other side of the world I'd offer ya to stop by and pilfer my steel racks. Pretty sure I got a couple 25ft lengths of 2x2 square tube on the racks in the back.

 

[northmanlogging]

oh I've burned a few on dumber ****...

and my family has a habit of dying of... less then natural causes...

Violent death does not scare me, failure does.

these are not words of wisdom, and I strongly encourage others to not do as I do, but job needs done, someone has to do it... so take all the precautions you can, check for Valkyrie , and go.

 

[flying pig]

Northman, pretty sure the canopy from pretty well any Deere or Hitachi with that style cab would work. Those hoes are getting old enough there are a pile of them around being salvaged now. Should be able to get a factory made canopy pretty cheap I’d think. You may have to build mounts, most of ours up here mount onto pads on the catwalks. Looks like your machine doesn’t have catwalks though.


Canyon Angler, sounds like you and I have a similar experience level. I’m just starting out logging as well, and going on my own too. I do have a partner I work with every weekend and we are both critical of each others’ work as much as we can be. My dad also watches over us, he fell for 11 years up here in the same species we are logging and on similar ground as we are and will be.

I had run quite a bit of saw growing up on a farm and from a pretty young age (13 was when I first ran a saw). So that has helped. I’ve only been logging a few days a month, alternating between falling, skidding, and sawing lumber depending on where we are at in our operation, but I feel I’m learning a lot from hands on and from things the guys in here are saying and the information that is on the web from worksafe and other sources. I’ve been trying hard to keep these things in the back of my head as well as trying to identify what works for me hands on as well. I had a hell of a time figuring out how to lay my poplar trees down at first. Seemed like they wouldn’t go any one way. Then a couple weekends ago I took the time to go for a walk and look up lots, take notice of how things were set up. Trees will grow towards the light. Most of the trees in my stand are either leaning south east or topped heavy to the south east. The exception seems to be along the creek running through the property, and the last 50 yards on the edges of the willows lining the creek seem to want to lay that way, which for us is against the wind too. Anyway, what Westboastfaller said a few pages ago made that click for me.

I was really tense the first couple of days. After I learned to relax and slow down a bit, and concentrate on a system that worked for me things started getting better and my trees started landing where I wanted them more. Cover your bases, take your time. If it’s your show no one cares how fast your trees get into the landing. A green hand is dangerous in any profession, a green hand without guidance is really at risk, so watch your own bacon. Stop yourself if you feel something is out of your comfort zone. You can leave it and come back to that particular situation later. When things don’t go right take the time to figure out why and don’t make that mistake again. I’ve cut my hinge off a few times and trust me it goes sideways in a split second, usually because I’m watching my top and not alternating between watching the top and how far I am through the back cut. I’m learning to slow down a little there. Last thing I’ve been trying to do is focus on the basics and don’t try to get fancy. That really seems to help me at this point.

Fire away if any of this is out to lunch guys, I’m all ears.

 

[Canyon Angler]

Thanks for your reply Flying Pig. Your comment:

"Then a couple weekends ago I took the time to go for a walk and look up lots, take notice of how things were set up. Trees will grow towards the light."

reminds me of something I noticed while deer hunting several years ago. Around here, it seems like the bark on the trees all twists -- and it all twists the same direction. Then I thought about why. If the leaves follow the sun from E to S to W, and the twigs follow the leaves (as they must), and the branches follow the twigs, and the bark follows the branches, it will all twist counterclockwise as you look up the tree (at least in the northern hemisphere)...

Anyway, not to go OT, I appreciate your advice. I agree on listening to your gut...my Dad used to always tell me that. "If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't right, even if you can't identify why..." Also, if unsure of something, walk away and circle back around later or on another day. Often your subconscious will work on a problem while you sleep and suddenly the answer will appear to you and seem obvious when you were mystified before...

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[flying pig]

I agree 100%. I used to ride freestyle motocross and we used to live by that. If you weren’t feeling it and ride anyways it seemed like that was always when you’d end up in the hospital or on the ground at least.

 

[madhatte]

I'm a big believer in the old "stop-and-drink-a-beer-or-smoke-a-cigarette-or-whatever-it-is-that-you-do" school of interventional troubleshooting. Giving yourself a little distance from a problem buys invaluable clarity. Being in a hurry does the exact opposite.

 

[Canyon Angler]

Been cutting blown-down red maples and trying to drag them out of the woods, using 250' of 3/8" wire rope and chain chokers. Holy cow, what a nightmare that is! Set everything up with the wire rope going thru the snatch block attached to a tree with a strap, out to the truck on the road, put the choker on the log(s), walk out to truck, pull until it stops, walk back, use peavey to get log unfouled from standing tree or bush, walk back to truck, pull until it stops again, walk back, unfoul, re-choker, walk back to truck, pull until it stops again, lather rinse repeat forever. Meanwhile the flogging greenbrier (cat brier my dad used to call it, and it's like cat's claws) is like 5' high and it's like trying to walk through about 30 miles of unspooled concertina wire. NIGHTMARE! It fouls your legs, rips your clothes, and tries to trip you with every step you take, but you just slog through until it starts to feel like you have 50# of logging chain on each boot that you're continually trying to drag... I think omma buy about 55 gallon of brush killer for that miserable ****...

Does anybody have any secrets or tips or tricks for snaking these logs out through the woods without getting hung up every 10 feet? Also would like to hear any tips for ganging the logs up somehow, so you can drag more than 1 log (or 1 "bunch" of logs) with each pull...I was thinking about trying to rig a "log train" maybe by putting half-hitches of chain around logs in the middle (between the truck and the terminal drag)... any suggestions or tips would be really appreciated.

Right now, I'm just doing it for firewood but I never did this much work for a freakin cord or two of wood in my life! On the plus side, this AM 660 is running like a raped ape! Tons of compression, it just about rips my fingers off when I try to start it...

 

[flying pig]

We would always cut them into about 4ft pieces according to how much they weighed and carry them out. Buddy and I did 25 cords like that one fall. Sounds like you need a couple percherons.

 

[northmanlogging]

Get some lift.

Hang that block of yours high in a stout tree, 20' would be a good starting point (though realistically 10' works). Then try to keep the pulls short. Might be a good idea to put at least one guy line on that tree...

Getting the end up, will help prevent the logs from getting hung up on stuff.

Also plan as straight a pull as you can, snaking around standing trees, stumps etc is just inviting a mess.

As for hooking more then one at a time, you can get choker sliders (bailey's has em) these slip along the winch/pull line allowing you to pick a few logs in sequence. You can stick as many sliders on the skid line as you like, but realistically 2 or 3 is all your going to wan't to mess with. More power and more lift then it don't really matter how many chokers you have, you just have to have the patience to untie em all. You can also put an eye on the end of the skid line, and shackle 2 or 3 chokers together that way, though its not as nice as having sliders it does work.

You can also bonus logs, which is simply wrapping one choker around 2 or 3 logs (4 is doable, but doesn't always work) the trick there is getting them to line up in such a way that you can get a choker around multiples, as you don't wan't to be hooking the middle of any log ever, choker should be a foot or so from the end, unless you can't find a hole, then farther back is ok.

Last, start close and work your way out, unless there is a hill, then skid top down, preferably skidding up hill.