Just how important is speed ?

[Jacob J.]

Howdy guys- Rob you hit the nail on the head with using small, lightweight, and fast saws. In our company cutters routinely fall and buck 250 trees a day. The important factor for a saw here is smoothness and how the saw handles, you'd want the saw to be easy on your joints and back. A lot of the speed of cutting can be mitigated by keeping your chain razor sharp and always having two or three extra sharp chains handy. Switch them out immediately when the saw starts to become "wood dull". The rule of thumb here is to use the smallest saw a guy can get away with and still cut a lot of wood in a day. The human factor is a big component of running chainsaws- You can only pull the trigger so many times in a minute when limbing, or get your footing carefully when cutting on steep ground. Lining up face cuts also require a bit of attention that detracts from the saws ability to make woodchips. I'd say it'd be prudent to spend some time hopping your body up as well as your saw.

 

[Ryan Willock]

Well said JJ!! That is also a BIG reason for running a modded saw in the first place, more power lighter package!!

 

[HUSKYMAN]

I like speed for bucking and most cutting, and torque for stumpin. I use the 670 for the speed and the 920 for the torque. I think it has a good mix. Faster than the older 056 and Homelite 650's and 750's, but not quite as fast as the newer 385XP's and 066's.

 

[trimmmed]

Jacob J - 250 trees down and bucked in a day sounds like a heck of alot of fun. How big is the crew size required to accomplish that task? And is there an expected board ft or typical board ft tally for the day that you shoot for?

 

[Tony Snyder]

The question is too non-specific to give a precise answer. But, generally, no load speed is relatively unimportant, but speed thru the cut equals productivity, which is important.

The question also begs an explaination of whether you are interested in long term productivity or show.

 

[Jacob J.]

Howdy- trimmed- yes, there is a specific board footage or tree count we're expected to meet on a daily basis. In a commercial thin sale it may only be 8 thousand board feet, and we'll get paid $30/thousand. In an old-growth sale or a sale with residual big trees, we may shoot for 30mbf a day at a pay rate of $12/mbf. The usual crew size is 4-6 cutters working a single unit in pairs. That way if a man goes down there's help close by. On the tree length jobs, we'll cut as many as 350 stems if its' small diameter second growth. A lot of guys will actually cut more wood on Monday and tuesday, but will save some of that scale to put on their tickets later in the week so they can work shorter days on thursday and friday. The best way for a guy to up his numbers in small wood and do less work is to run two Spencer tapes, one on each side of you, and then put several trees on the ground at a time. Then you can measure, buck, limb, and scale a whole pile of wood in one step rather than doing each tree individually. The logging crews like this because it sets up "turns" for them to rig up and makes the job faster for everyone. That means guys have more time to drink beer on the ride home.