Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Buckshot00]

Small scrounge today. Sycamore-I know it's not very high on the list but it was blown down and free.

 

[Deleted member 149229]

My scrounge today went south, bad. Went to the neighbor’s horse farm to drag out some dead trees behind her barn so I could drag them to the burn pile. Then I would have access to get the big maple that went down. In 4wd and pulled into the edge of the field so I could back up to begin the dragging process. Got into the field about 30’ and felt the front of the truck slide and before I could do anything the truck STOPPED. Hit the gas and nothing but a brown stream shooting in the air. Stuck, understatement, opened the door and water was running over the running board. Slip my way to “dry” land, no rubber boots on, and head to the farm house. Her husband was coming out the door, “ Didn’t Lannie tell you there was a spring there? That’s why it ain’t mowed.” Great. He gets the tractor and tries pulling me out, he’s digging holes. He pulls up to the gravel drive at the barn and all my straps just reach. Finally get out and 30 minutes power washing a half ton of mud from the truck and all is well. Guess I’ll go back when we get a good freeze.

 

[cantoo]

I just bought the conveyor, it's not mounted to a truck. I do have a few leads on guys who want it for roofing but I was thinking it would make a great kid launcher for a swimming pond. You can speed up the conveyor pretty good and launch up pretty high too and it has a 1000 lb capacity at the tip. Need some volunteers 1st.

 

[pdqdl]

Put them in a couple 5 gallon buckets for starting the wood stove.

The 590s will push noodles out the if they won't go out the bottom. Haven't been able to clog that saw.

You can't stop the Husqvarna 3120 with noodles in the cover, but you can certainly plug it up if you are close to the ground. I am running .404 chain, which cuts deeper than .375, and it is running full comp chain, too. It will build a pile of strings about a foot deep in about 1 minute when noodling. When you are getting somewhat close to the ground you must keep stopping to shovel the noodles out of the way.

When I was a boy scout about 45 years ago, I won a "flint & steel" fire starting contest at a jamboree using "Excelsior" wood fibers & 0000 steel wool. The goal was to burn through a string suspended at 18" above the ground. I burned through in about 30-45 seconds! Apparently my technique was so fast no one else believed that it was possible, so I had to do it again after they inspected my starting materials. I think the next closest time was around 5 minutes. Nope! Those starting materials weren't in the boy scout handbook, but they were perfectly legitimate tinder.

So yes, noodles work fine as a fire starter, but only if they are fluffy & dry. Pine noodles would really go fast.

 

[Deleted member 150358]

My plan for the day went south too. Nothing really bad just that Honda g200 on the splitter giving fits. I had to walk away. Dragged n cut some smaller stuff with 011 again. Hated dragging it in the dirt but want to be able to get at some smaller stuff farther in.

Tomorrow the Honda... If it doesn't run I have an old like new Kawasaki on deck!

 

[pdqdl]

Brought in two loads of dead Oak today. First load was a couple 10-12" trees. The second was a little over 20" and I had to skid it out of the woods first. Hope I get the pics in order, but if I don't you can figure it out. Threw the tree in the only open spot in the woods. Hung two snatch blocks in trees to skid out to driveway. The first block had to pull the log to the left about 20' to clear the stump and another tree. Took the rope out of that block and pulled the log back about 50' to the right. That lined it up with the drive. Continued to pull the rope up till most of the log was off the ground. Put a couple big cinder blocks under the log and lowered it back down. Bucked up the log and loaded it. Then tied the rope on the top of the downed tree and snaked it out, ready to get next trip.

You might want to consider getting one of these:



That rope will last a lot longer if you put it on a pulley instead of a shackle. That looks like the rope is too expensive to tear up just pulling a log out of the woods. Not only for reducing friction, you can double your force for those really big logs.

I have several; one even has a permanently attached chain for anchoring to trees. They were real cheap, too, but that vendor doesn't have them any more. (Northern Tool)

 

[JustJeff]

Yep, like Ron said , it is a Plumb. I have several Plumb axes, including the pretty one that Multifaceted hung for me. It's on a hand shaved octagonal haft. The one in the picture is the perfect weight for splitting straight grained wood. It has a thin handle that gives quite a bit of whip to it, very good axe speed. Unfortunately, it has a small crack in the eye. I might try having it welded.

Here's the cruiser that Multifaceted hung for me. It'sthe 3rd from the left.

Grind it out and weld with 11018 electrodes. Use a slight preheat (200f) and allow to cool slowly such as laying it between a couple pieces of insulation.

 

[Ryan A]

Great night trick or treating with the little ones. Now making good use of the scrounged uglies

 

[rwoods]

We’ll stay in safe waters with this question. A couple times a year I get really big trees given to me so I want to get a bigger bar for one of my 7900. The bar won’t be used all the time, just on the big donations, usually 3’- 4’ dia oak, occasional maple. Should I get a 28” or 32” bar and what chain. Probably going to Nate’s shop to bounce it off him and make my purchase there but would like to hear your opinions. Thanks.

I guess I might be the odd man out here, but if you are just bucking 3 to 4 foot wood I would go with the 28” or shorter with a 7900. Though my 82cc saws easily handle a 33” bar running 3/8” full comp chain, I believe I can buck faster with a 25” bar. Especially in the 3 foot range and in situations where the working space is cramped. A steady diet of 4 foot plus is easier handled with a bigger old saw that you basically just sit down and keep the trigger pulled after your first cut. Even there I usually limit myself to a 33” bar though I have 36”, 42” and 50+” bars. A 28” bar will cut 4 foot just as fast as a 32” bar. And will handle better. And likely be less tiring. If you are cutting over 4 1/2 foot wood then go for the 32”. If you were falling 3 to 4 foot trees, I would say to go with the longest bar your 7900 can pull with authority.

Not sure there is much performance difference between skip and full comp chains unless you are running .404 or an 8 pin assuming the performance of a 7900 is not significantly greater than my 82cc saws.

Take my opinions for what they are worth - maybe not much, but I dare say compared to the typical weekend firewooder I cut a lot of wood of this size.

Ron

 

[dancan]

The only thing that I scrounged this week so far is a pair of Bekinas https://www.bekina-boots.com/en/boots/industry/thermolite
Brand new for 45 Canadian frog skins .

 

[chipper1]

The only thing that I scrounged this week so far is a pair of Bekinas https://www.bekina-boots.com/en/boots/industry/thermolite
Brand new for 45 Canadian frog skins .

That seems cheap based on the claims, they are around 85-90 online here.
Have you used them before.
I am watching for a good pair of similar boots myself.
Does that pair have the steel toes or the composite.

 

[KiwiBro]

I guess I might be the odd man out here, but if you are just bucking 3 to 4 foot wood I would go with the 28” or shorter with a 7900. Though my 82cc saws easily handle a 33” bar running 3/8” full comp chain, I believe I can buck faster with a 25” bar. Especially in the 3 foot range and in situations where the working space is cramped. A steady diet of 4 foot plus is easier handled with a bigger old saw that you basically just sit down and keep the trigger pulled after your first cut. Even there I usually limit myself to a 33” bar though I have 36”, 42” and 50+” bars. A 28” bar will cut 4 foot just as fast as a 32” bar. And will handle better. And likely be less tiring. If you are cutting over 4 1/2 foot wood then go for the 32”. If you were falling 3 to 4 foot trees, I would say to go with the longest bar your 7900 can pull with authority.

Not sure there is much performance difference between skip and full comp chains unless you are running .404 or an 8 pin assuming the performance of a 7900 is not significantly greater than my 82cc saws.

Take my opinions for what they are worth - maybe not much, but I dare say compared to the typical weekend firewooder I cut a lot of wood of this size.

Ron

Bucking 4' means climbing on it to get a smaller bar to eat enough of the far side to make it through from the one side of the log. Otherwise have to swap sides to finish the cut. I find that gets old pretty quickly. Maybe because I'm vertically challenged and my lil legs don't like climbing up on 4' logs much. 36" isn't difficult or that tiresome to handle when bucking. Felling, sure, but bucking, not in my experience. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. For giggles, I've run a 42" on the 7900 bucking pine. But had to take it easy because it was full comp chain and stock oiler!

 

[Deleted member 149229]

Bucking 4' means climbing on it to get a smaller bar to eat enough of the far side to make it through from the one side of the log. Otherwise have to swap sides to finish the cut. I find that gets old pretty quickly. Maybe because I'm vertically challenged and my lil legs don't like climbing up on 4' logs much. 36" isn't difficult or that tiresome to handle when bucking. Felling, sure, but bucking, not in my experience. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. For giggles, I've run a 42" on the 7900 bucking pine. But had to take it easy because it was full comp chain and stock oiler!

I’ve got that short leg syndrome too, plus needing a hip and a knee replaced I don’t want to be doing any mor climbing than needed. Probably when I go see Nate I’ll get a 32” TsuMura and a full comp chain, if I have to I’ll go to semi skip. Those 7900 are pretty gutsy saws. Thanks.

 

[rwoods]

Bucking 4' means climbing on it to get a smaller bar to eat enough of the far side to make it through from the one side of the log. Otherwise have to swap sides to finish the cut. I find that gets old pretty quickly. Maybe because I'm vertically challenged and my lil legs don't like climbing up on 4' logs much. 36" isn't difficult or that tiresome to handle when bucking. Felling, sure, but bucking, not in my experience. Guess we'll have to agree to disagree. For giggles, I've run a 42" on the 7900 bucking pine. But had to take it easy because it was full comp chain and stock oiler!

Good point. No argument from me that if a log is too big for you to reach over then you need a bar long enough to make up the difference. I don’t know how tall Dahmer is nor how long his arms are. Four and a half feet is about the height when I start to encounter the issue you raise. No matter how tall you are a true 28” is about maxed out at that size with dawgs. Some 28” bars are actually closer to 27” even before you consider the dawgs.

Ron

 

[Deleted member 149229]

Good point. No argument from me that if a log is too big for you to reach over then you need a bar long enough to make up the difference. I don’t know how tall Dahmer is nor how long his arms are. Four and a half feet is about the height when I start to encounter the issue you raise. No matter how tall you are a true 28” is about maxed out at that size with dawgs. Some 28” bars are actually closer to 27” even before you consider the dawgs.

Ron

Good point on the dawgs, especially the Makita dawgs, they’re on steroids. You definitely lose bar length with those eagle talons sticking out the front.

 

[James Miller]

@Dahmer if the biggest bar you've used is a 24 a 32 looks huge. That's my 7910 in chambersburg with the 32 looks small in the picture

 

[Deleted member 149229]

Dang, looks like I’ll have another short “bar”. I’m getting a complex.

 

[Deleted member 149229]

You running full comp? Your Dolly is ported ain’t it?

 

[James Miller]

You running full comp? Your Dolly is ported ain’t it?

Stone stock doesnt even have a muff mod.

 

[Jeffkrib]

Dahmer I run a stock 20” and 28” ES light on my 7900. Make no mistake it has ample grunt to cut full depth with a 28.
If I need a bigger bar down the track I’ll buy a 36” ES light with skip tooth. Having three bars in 8” increments would be pretty handy.
I had read people on here saying they prefer skip chain on long bars even with a big powerful saw as skip chains don’t fill up with chips as much. A full comp chain is more likely to cause a top bind shooting the saw into your leg.
I’m sure some of the pros on here may disagree with that, it’s just something I had read.