Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[svk]

I've posted a few of these types of pics before. I cut 13'4 logs into 16" rounds for splitting. 9 cuts per log and this bar was approx. 150 logs so 1350 cuts. Because the logs are all close to the same size it wears pretty bad and because I cut them all in one weekend the saw, chain and bar gets pretty warm. Saw only gets shut off to refill and that only takes a minute or two. I might change out the chain once or twice but again only takes a couple of minutes. I keep a can of chain lube and soak the bar about every half tank of fuel.
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Oregon Pro-lite in the first pic?

 

[woodchip rookie]

two years of practice and I'm still not that good at it.

I cant destroy chains for 2yrs before I get this thing figured out. I got too much wood to cut. Winter is blowing in again as I type. My fickle 12" ash splits dont do as good as 18" oak or hickory splits but "it beats trying to heat with snowballs".

 

[woodchip rookie]

I dress my bars on a tablesaw.

Now I'm stumped. No pun intended.

 

[cantoo]

speeco, I use cheap laser bars and throw them away after 2 weekends of cutting. I get my chainsaw equipment for almost Dealer cost so it's cheap for me to just throw out and replace the bars, sprockets and chains fairly quickly.

 

[speeco]

Now I'm stumped. No pun intended.

Hey I put on a 7.25 inch abrasive blade on table saw that takes a 10 inch wood. Blade then I use a square. To set blade to 90 degrees to table. Then I grind bar rails. It helps to keep chain cutting straight. Plus I can get more useful life out of my bars.

 

[crowbuster]

Man fellas, I just use a file to dress my bars, I don't let em get that bad.

 

[MustangMike]

I use Stihl bars (mostly) and the $6 / gal TS Bar Oil, and I have not had a bar go bad on me in a long time, and I have done a good bit of milling large hard wood with them. Keep your chain sharp and properly adjusted, and use good bar oil and you will have few problems.

 

[svk]

Stihl bars last nearly forever provided bar oil is used

 

[chipper1]

dang buckeyes. (i know how they are i'm married to one)

Me too .

a couple of things and you guys chime in on my thoughts. looking at the tree with a big hole in one side.TROUBLE. i thought the saw dust from his saw was really fine. a sign of dry/rotten wood. MORE TROUBLE. cutting on his knees with such a large tree. DOUBLE TROUBLE. just my 2 pennies.

My guess, he knew what was coming, at least to a certain extend.
He flinches when it first starts to split, but he knows if he stays with it and it cut quick enough it won't barber chair, but doesn't make it in time to stop that from happening. This is one of the places a very sharp chain and a fast saw can help out(maybe), not saying his wasn't, but rather as a note to self/others that when working on a sketchy tree the ability to get the cut's made quick can save your butt. It's also nice to have a piece of equipment to "encourage"one to go where you want it to when it has issues .

 

[chipper1]

Keep your chain sharp and properly adjusted, and use good bar oil and you will have few problems.

That's right Mike.
It also greatly reduces the problems with the saw as well as the bar/chain.

 

[Cowboy254]

Got the call today. Yeah sure I can knock off work at 12 noon, why do you ask?



Good enough reason for me.



It's a small hydro dam but with five creeks running into it so it's a great trout fishery...on its day. Today, however, was not its day. Trolled around for a while, caught nuthin. Went up the top end of the lake and cast for a while, caught nuthin. Well, actually that's not true. Cal caught the same submerged stump three times. It's going to take Stumpy a while to live that down.



Eventually one of the fish on the sounder had a crack. Granted, not the biggest fish in the pond.



Trolled around some more, cast some more, and 6 beers later, eventually landed this monster. You might need to step back a bit from your screens to see it properly.



A 1 foot, 1 pound brown trout (yes, I do have mutant hands). Good enough for dinner, I say. Next week we're going to hit the biggest hydro dam in the system. Will, the boat owner landed 40 fish last time up there. Knowing my luck, we'll get donuts. Great day all the same, lotsa laughs, plenty of beers and best of all, the knowledge that everyone else was still at work.

 

[rarefish383]

I've posted a few of these types of pics before. I cut 13'4 logs into 16" rounds for splitting. 9 cuts per log and this bar was approx. 150 logs so 1350 cuts. Because the logs are all close to the same size it wears pretty bad and because I cut them all in one weekend the saw, chain and bar gets pretty warm. Saw only gets shut off to refill and that only takes a minute or two. I might change out the chain once or twice but again only takes a couple of minutes. I keep a can of chain lube and soak the bar about every half tank of fuel.
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I've wondered about the steel used in bars now a days. I had a couple 36" Homelite bars that were bellied like that, a little farther back from the tip. But, it took 20 years of commercial service to do it. We used to use the 1050's on big lot jobs where we had a groundie walking around with gas and oil. Both tanks are on the top of the saw, he'd refill fuel and oil with out turning the saw off, just idle back and stretch your fingers till he was done, then back at it, Joe.

 

[Cowboy254]

I've wondered about the steel used in bars now a days. I had a couple 36" Homelite bars that were bellied like that, a little farther back from the tip. But, it took 20 years of commercial service to do it. We used to use the 1050's on big lot jobs where we had a groundie walking around with gas and oil. Both tanks are on the top of the saw, he'd refill fuel and oil with out turning the saw off, just idle back and stretch your fingers till he was done, then back at it, Joe.

Wow, one slip with the fuel and he gets toasted. Me, I give it some time to cool down before I refuel. There's always branches to drag around, rounds to split or drop bears and tiger snakes to beat back. After a local couple both got roasted when he splashed petrol over the mower engine while she was sitting on it I don't fuel anything up until she's stone motherless cold. Or near enough.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Hey I put on a 7.25 inch abrasive blade on table saw that takes a 10 inch wood. Blade then I use a square. To set blade to 90 degrees to table. Then I grind bar rails. It helps to keep chain cutting straight. Plus I can get more useful life out of my bars.

Thank you for explaining. Sounds kinda hillbilly genius.

 

[woodchip rookie]

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Wow. I have never seen an air filter that bad. Is that dust or am I seeing that wrong?

 

[woodchip rookie]

After a local couple both got roasted when he splashed petrol over the mower engine while she was sitting on it I don't fuel anything up until she's stone motherless cold.

I have heard several stories like this, but when it's 10 Murkan with 10 Murkan wind it doesn't take long to cool a saw down. Especially the little ones like the 550

My year-old-not-even-broke-in-yet 445 got the call to duty as a backup to the 550 since I have been having wierd issues with it. Put a b&c on it, cleaned it up and topped the fluids, but it has a backward-filed chain on it so the next time I'm out (which may be today) I'll see how it does.

 

[James Miller]

Chain on backwards? I'm confused by backwards filed chain.

 

[rarefish383]

Wow, one slip with the fuel and he gets toasted. Me, I give it some time to cool down before I refuel. There's always branches to drag around, rounds to split or drop bears and tiger snakes to beat back. After a local couple both got roasted when he splashed petrol over the mower engine while she was sitting on it I don't fuel anything up until she's stone motherless cold. Or near enough.

Good advice for anyone, especially weekend warriors. I'm 62 now, this was back when I was 16-18 years old. We were a commercial operation, we didn't do a little here and then a little there. All the trees were put on the ground and the climbers went on to other jobs. The chipper came in and cleaned everything up so we could walk around. We found having brush all around your feet to be a bigger hazard. We were clearing building lots in a new development and for some reason several of the new home owners decided they wanted to keep all the fire wood. We tried to talk them into selling to a logger, that they would have plenty of smaller stuff left, but they said no. Most of the wood sat at the bottom of the yards for years and rotted. There are things that professionals do every day that home owners should never do. When a climber runs out of fuel in a tree and lowers his saw down to be refueled, it gets refueled now. For that matter, when anyone runs out of fuel, it gets refueled now. You can't have guys sitting down waiting for equipment to cool down for 15-20 minutes every time a saw runs out, and no you don't leave it running on the tailgate as you refuel. Back on that big lot job, if your saw ran out you waved the fuel boy over. The saw was in the cut like a vice. If you knew your saw was getting low you would cut down 10 inches and just let it idle. Some of those big old saws were a mother to restart. The big thing was not slopping fuel all over the saw. I guess keeping in context that these were big saws in big logs. It's not like we had an 028 and set it on a stump vibrating and dancing around. It's kind of like all the times guys here have posted pics of trees they cut down that went the wrong way, and they say they did every thing perfect and their wedge was set right, that it was a freak accident. Then I say if they had of put a rope in the top of the tree it wouldn't have twisted or what ever. They respond with, they don't know how to climb, they don't have a long rope, they don't have anything (truck or tractor) to pull with, they didn't have time to mess with that. I certainly don't advise to fuel running equipment, but we did it back then. If you slopped gas on a guys saw he would have boxed your ears. Even if you slopped "some" gas on the saw, how would you set a person on fire, unless you slopped the gas on them too? I've been working on race cars and had the carb back fire and burn my eyebrows off, but it didn't set my clothes on fire. The couple above, sounds like he had the filler neck in the tank and it started to overflow, he reacted fast and snatched it out, flinging gas everywhere. The tank on my JD is under the seat. I've been filling it from a 5 gallon can and look away for a sec, just to have it overflow, and when I snatched it out gas went every where, but it wasn't running and my wife wasn't sitting on it. Some old stories might be best left untold. Next thing you know some newbie with a half running Wildthing will try to refuel it running, because he read where I did it 40 years ago. Safety is a state of mind, we all need to move there, Joe.

 

[rarefish383]

Just looked out the back door, hope this pic looks as pretty as the real thing, Joe

 

[muddstopper]

Winter wonderland. But dont worry, in just a few short weeks, the grass will be green again and your wife can takes pics of you mowing.