Extending Pole Pruner

[clawnz]

Hi I have touched on this Tool before.
But I am now Happy that I have over come the Frail Nature of this tool.
I think it is a very usefull piece of equipment
Sthil do not sell a cicular saw for their Pole Pruner. Ehco do, but Plastic gearbox with bevel gears, is not very strong or long lived.
So after a bit of playing around, I took a chainsaw head to my engineer and got hime to make up a new shaft, so that I could mount a circular blade. (1x Mistake we did not think about, was the thread should of been 'lefthand thread.'
The blade spins the other way, due to the direction of the chainsaw has to go.
I have run normal blades as sold by Echo here in NZ, I did not try Tungstan blades to start with, as I thought they may add loading and damage the drive.
Well after I had the Mod done I went looking and found these 71/4in x 40 tooth cheapies. They make one hell of a nice cut, clean as you could ever wish for, and on a 12ft extending pole. This mod has made the tool a joy to use and cut down on the Down Time due to repairs.
I do have a drawing of the shaft if anybody wants it to copy?
Clive

 

[Sunrise Guy]

How does the weight of the new head compare to the chainsaw head that was on, before? It looks like the circular saw guard is still on the circular saw head, in one of your pics. Is it, and doesn't that get in the way?

 

[tree MDS]

Interesting. I especially like the integration of the "sweats" on the jobsite, lol.

 

[serial killer]

I use a Stihl pole pruner all the time with the stock chainsaw head, and have never had any problems. I really have no idea why this mod would be needed. I can cut limbs up to probably 8 inches in diameter easily, which is something you could never do with a circular saw blade.

 

[tree MDS]

I use a Stihl pole pruner all the time with the stock chainsaw head, and have never had any problems. I really have no idea why this mod would be needed. I can cut limbs up to probably 8 inches in diameter easily, which is something you could never do with a circular saw blade.

Its for "hatracking". Lol.

 

[clawnz]

Thank you for the replies

The Chainsaw head is a heavy compared with this set up on full extension. And is no good for hedging. Circular saw is very light and you can reach into the tops to make cuts more accurately than the reciprocating hedge trimmer blades.
From 12ft steps one can save a lot of effort with this set up.
I am not saying you have to copy this, but when it comes down to profits, I would not be without it.
The guard is fairly important, as without, it will throw bits of wood at you. It can come in handy just trying to hook small branches out of tops. Yes it does catch sometimes. But after trying a few different set ups, I stayed with it.

Serial Killer. The circular saw makes very clean cuts on wood upto 4in and the chainsaw will only tear on the smaller stuff, as it swings about to much.
Yes over 4in the wood is solid enough to use the chainsaw head, which works great.
I would also add that the reciprocating blade trimmers that go on poles are around 6lb and all seem to give trouble in the gearbox and the blades are not that good and are restrictive to access.
As I understand itThe original Pole Pruner was out of USA and was classed as a piece S**t. Echo made a few changes and I hope they will keep this up.
Both Sthil and Echo agree the extending Pole Pruners have limitations. I have not used a Sthil unit, but was told by those that have, that they suffer from vibration, more than the Echo. Sthil do not make a circular saw attachment, that I know off.
Clive

 

[serial killer]

Gotcha clawnz. I think I understand better the kind of use that you put this to. I don't do much in the way of "hedging," and use a pole lopper (the kind where you pull a rope to actuate the cutting end), and a pole-mounted Silky handsaw for a lot of smaller stuff. Different strokes for different folks. Nice little modification if it works for your purposes.

 

[Texas Traveler]

Gotcha clawnz. I think I understand better the kind of use that you put this to. I don't do much in the way of "hedging," and use a pole lopper (the kind where you pull a rope to actuate the cutting end), and a pole-mounted Silky handsaw for a lot of smaller stuff. Different strokes for different folks. Nice little modification if it works for your purposes.

As a side note. STIHL has a new different chest harness for pole saws.
It is supposed to help distribute the heavy weight better.

 

[serial killer]

Wow, a chest harness. I always figured that balancing the powerstick was just a way to develop your biceps. I have no idea why I never thought about that.

 

[clawnz]

Echo have a harness for theirs as well, I have 3x of them now! All new. any body want one?
Try using one and see how restrictive they are?
They are not very practical for use in the field, just a safety factor. I would love to see one of these demonstrated in use.
Harness for Scrub Bar yes, but for a tool you work with from your shoulders and above???????????????? Go figure.
Clive

 

[Pete M]

I do hedging nearly every day. The telescopic shaft is invaluable for lots of the tops where the hedges very wide and I'm up a ladder (yeah, I know Stihl say you shouldn't use hedgecuters up a ladder, but in real life we have to). The weight of the hedgcutter attachment is NOT an issue as it is balanced with the motor unit (just extend shaft, lock throttle on and find balance point - it's a piece of piss). There really is VERY little vibration - I don't see how anyone can comment unless they have used this set up and do this work. And just a few weeks ago also started using the special "Stihl Harness for Pole Pruners" - it fits securely on your back and has a support that comes up and over the should with an adjustable attachment that clamps onto the pole. It really does make for light work when the hedgecutter has to reach out a long way. Again, until you've tried it in the right sort of situation you really have no idea how much easier it can make the work. Seriously, you can spend a whole day cutting tall hedges from the ground and up the ladder and feel like you've done next to nothing as the weight is completely off your arms. Mind you, same is true when you actually balance the set up properly - holding it at the balance point and steering with one hand. The backpack thing can be restrictive at times though, so I tend only to use from the ladder for those large areas of hedge top, or from th ground for the high sides when a ladder can't get in there.

Anything too fat for the hedgecutter can easily be zipped through with the pole pruner chainsaw - even less than one inch stuff is easy to zip with that. Or else with long reach pole loppers. I can see the merit of the cutter disc for in-betweeny stuff, but then you've still got to have a tool change along the line whether it be from hedgecutter to pole saw, or hedgecutter to cutting disc, or hedgucutter to lopper so can't see the time saving. But I love the idea. The strimmer attachment with cuting disc works pretty well on the extending pole for this as well - albeit at an angle...but it's a pretty good angle when working from the ground.

I've been doing this day in, day out, (hedges and pruning) for years and years and so well up on what works well, and what doesn't.

 

[Pete M]

Clawnz, even when using equipment where the tool is above should height, the weight is still bearing downwards. The idea with the Stihl backpack harness is that the weight is taken by your shoulders and back, yet it still give excellent manouvrebility of the shaft. See http://www.hobuk.co.uk/acatalog/Brushcutter-Harnesses.html - its the 4th item down (£45 one) as opposed to the other harnesses...which I fully agree are shoite for this sort of work.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Seems that a safety gaurd would be the main obstacle for commercial production, but seems like it would serve your needs well.

For me, I hate holding any powerhead out that far.

Did you see a bigger version on this video at Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMQgt5YiD0w

Are you ready to upgrade to that beast yet?

 

[ClimbinArbor]

love pole saws!

but then again i have huge shoulders and arms lol

Edit: this design would be good for smaller limbs, seeing as how the stock saw head just chews up stuff under an inch or so..... BUT it would probably be limited to the application it was designed for.... switching pole saws all day would get very old.....

 

[Toddppm]

My father had just showed me on Friday where they trimmed the trees along his road up with the helicopter circular saws. I was meaning to look those up, crazy. His house is one of the last before the national forest on a gravel road maybe 1/2 mile long, said they did it in less than an hour. Beautiful cuts they make:blob4:

 

[rbtree]

I've used those with the circular saw attachment. Very slowwwwwwww, compared to my whiz saw. They've been out of production for years, and are only a fixed length shaft, and electric, but it turns many times the rpm of the gasoline powered saws. Mine is 6 feet long, and will trim the side of a hedge as fast as you can swing it up and down, and cuts so fast and clean that it will cut laurel leaves in half. They cut all on speed, not torque-will cut through a 2 inch laurel stem in a fraction of a second...just swing at the branch.

I don't do many hedges, or I would get a circ attachment for the ECHO (Mine is the older Power Pruner brand), just for the adjustability.