Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[chipper1]

Good work

Thanks.
I was thinking of you today. Almost took a picture of the ribbons I was making for you, they had to be at least 3/16 of an inch on the real big ones lol. That dead locust is hard like a rock, you see a lot of sparks off it when cutting near dark.

 

[Lee192233]

Heading up north tomorrow so I sharpened a couple chains tonight and got the van loaded up. I'm bringing the 660, 400, 026 and the 180. We're going to get that oak cut and split. Then some quality family time.

• Reactions: Brufab, Logger nate, sean donato and 4 others liked this post

 

[Kodiak Kid]

The snag patches I cut were a live timber up until about eight years ago and have all been through a 5000 aceforest fire! Some of the trees reached higher temperatures than others making them harder and more brittal than others. Almost like kiln dried lumber. I only get about one inch ribbons out of the real hard ones. Instead of the regular three or four inches!

Some of the results of the wood affected by the fire.


Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

 

[chipper1]

The snag patches I cut were a live timber up until about eight years ago and have all been through a 5000 aceforest fire! Some of the trees reached higher temperatures than others making them harder and more brittal than others. Almost like kiln dried lumber. I only get about one inch ribbons out of the real hard ones!

How long does a chain last before needing to touch it up, I usually get two tanks on a standard cab saw with full chisel if I stay out of the dirt, or two tanks on an mtronic/autotune saw using semi, sometimes two on full chisel, but not normally.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

How long does a chain last before needing to touch it up, I usually get two tanks on a standard cab saw with full chisel if I stay out of the dirt, or two tanks on an mtronic/autotune saw using semi, sometimes two on full chisel, but not normally.

On average I'd say about five to seven tanks or three maybe four cords worth of rounds if stay in the wood and not the dirt. I've limbed and bucked up two entire three foot plus snags before needing to tune the chain. I've got two cords out of this 44' section from yesterdays snagg and I just put the chain on the grinder this evening. I cut a smaller snag a few days ago with the same chain without tuning it before I cut this three and a half footer yesterday.

 

[Kodiak Kid]

How long does a chain last before needing to touch it up, I usually get two tanks on a standard cab saw with full chisel if I stay out of the dirt, or two tanks on an mtronic/autotune saw using semi, sometimes two on full chisel, but not normally.

I most always run full skip chisel, but I'm cutting conifer too

 

[farmer steve]

Maybe @H-Ranch could get more done with 2 wheelbarrows.

 

[Logger nate]

View attachment 991045
View attachment 991049View attachment 991051
How do you scrounge firewood?

Cut safe, stay sharp, and be aware!

Nice work! Great pictures!

 

[501Maico]

But wait, there's more .
4th load, and it's the money shot, twin two wheelers.
View attachment 991124

How are the 2-wheelers for moving rounds and splits? I was about to order a new True Temper with a single pneumatic wheel. My yard is fairly flat with a few minor grades. Do these have pneumatic wheels? I bought a flat free for my old TT and it really sucks.

 

[JustJeff]

When I asked my local dealer if they had a dual port muffler or could order one for my MS460, they looked at me as if I had just got out of a flying saucer. I asked on here and MustangMike explained how to drill two holes on the cover as shown in my last pic, and where to start for retuning. Man that really woke that saw up. It's not much louder than stock, not enough to notice anyway when I run it next to my friends 046 which my saw handily beats. I've been seeing exile saw parts pop up on my Instagram feed. They make some cool looking covers. But I think I'll stick with the Mustang mod. Saw runs really well. I was cutting at a friend's whose neighbor owns a tree service. The neighbor came over and offered a "real saw" if we needed it. I was just about to make a cut in a 20" elm, so I did and when I finished he said "jeez you've got a saw there. Guess you don't need mine. He had a husky 390 in his hands. I never ran them side by side but I remember thinking that 390 didn't seem as badazz to me as it should have. Anyway the long and the short of it is, those two holes and a little more on the high jet really works. It will wake up a saw noticeably without making it ignorant to the operator or neighbors.

 

[WoodAbuser]

When I asked my local dealer if they had a dual port muffler or could order one for my MS460, they looked at me as if I had just got out of a flying saucer. I asked on here and MustangMike explained how to drill two holes on the cover as shown in my last pic, and where to start for retuning. Man that really woke that saw up. It's not much louder than stock, not enough to notice anyway when I run it next to my friends 046 which my saw handily beats. I've been seeing exile saw parts pop up on my Instagram feed. They make some cool looking covers. But I think I'll stick with the Mustang mod. Saw runs really well. I was cutting at a friend's whose neighbor owns a tree service. The neighbor came over and offered a "real saw" if we needed it. I was just about to make a cut in a 20" elm, so I did and when I finished he said "jeez you've got a saw there. Guess you don't need mine. He had a husky 390 in his hands. I never ran them side by side but I remember thinking that 390 didn't seem as badazz to me as it should have. Anyway the long and the short of it is, those two holes and a little more on the high jet really works. It will wake up a saw noticeably without making it ignorant to the operator or neighbors.
View attachment 991162View attachment 991163View attachment 991166

My Egan performance muffler cover will wake the dead. It sure did wake up my 462 tho. It will be getting some exercise tomorrow on the last huge maple i have to cut up. I'll try to send pix of the noodle pile.

 

[svk]

Most of my saws have muffler mods and I always wear my helmet with ear muffs so it doesn’t affect me. Obviously if I was routinely cutting in a resident area I’d want to run stock saws but I’m not.

One thing I noticed is the high revving saws like ported 346/550 really exacerbated my tinnitus. Even with muffs on.

Everything that you guys have said is correct regarding side versus front outlet. Also “Swiss cheese” aka lots of small holes are significantly quieter than one big one.

 

[Jere39]

My home is on a hill top, my driveway winds up the hill and through the woods where it parallels the actual road about 100 yards back, which puts it behind several neighbors with road frontage homes. I was asked by one of those neighbors to allow a tree service to set up a crane on my driveway and reach up over my utility lines, then down the hill to remove several dead and dying trees. I'm a neighborly guy, so I agreed. Then I learned the tree service would have the power company cut my power during their work day. I wasn't asked, just told. Oh, well, I like to exercise my generator every couple months anyway.

Yesterday was the day, and this tree service had the entire exercise planned down to the minute. They executed their plan perfectly.

Set the crane at 8:00 am per plan:



Had an commercial chipper with grapple to feed it:



Their climber didn't actually climb, he rode the crane cable up, then tied off and lowered himself to do the rigging and cutting:



The crane operator was very good (I guess they have to be), and set the large sections on my driveway where ground crew cut to keepers and chipper fodder:



They used that little skid steer with the articulated grapple to stack the keepers and drag the rest to the chipper.
By 2:00 they were stowing the crane and left a nice stack along my driveway:



Scout helped me assess the wood:



I was very impressed at the efficiency of this crew. I suspect I'd be equally impressed at the size of the bill my neighbor accepted for this work. All I got was a blocked driveway, about $2/hour genny fuel consumption, and a day of entertainment.

 

[SimonHS]

All I got was a blocked driveway, about $2/hour genny fuel consumption, and a day of entertainment.

Did you get to keep any wood?

 

[MustangMike]

Usually, when cutting hardwoods, I like to touch up the chain after every 2 tanks of fuel.

That is why I often bring several saws, so I can just keep going and do the maintenance at a later time.

 

[Jere39]

Did you get to keep any wood?

I was offered all of it. But, I have what feels like a limitless supply from the woods surrounding my place (Including the big oak that fell on that same hillside about 2 months ago which I did keep - see reminder picture below)I prefer to do my processing in the Winter without bugs, sweat, and tears. So, I passed on this. Also, I don't have equipment to move the larger logs and would have to process them where they are. Not in my Summer plans.

 

[chipper1]

On average I'd say about five to seven tanks or three maybe four cords worth of rounds if stay in the wood and not the dirt. I've limbed and bucked up two entire three foot plus snags before needing to tune the chain. I've got two cords out of this 44' section from yesterdays snagg and I just put the chain on the grinder this evening. I cut a smaller snag a few days ago with the same chain without tuning it before I cut this three and a half footer yesterday. View attachment 991132

Wow, that would be nice.
The last soft wood job I did was all pine and cottonwood, I was able to do most of the job sharpening two times, that was a three day job, probably three cords of wood cut. Then the flush cutting started, and I burned thru the rest of the chain, probably filed 7-8 times that day.
When I'm working I run 18x.325 semi-chisel on my 50cc m-tronic/autotune saws so I can get 2 full tanks out of a sharpening, except the ported 261, which I run 20x3/8 on. When cutting around the house or helping cut firewood I run full chisel normally, the only reason I ran the semi on the ms251 the other day is because that's what was on it when I bought it and will be on it when I sell it .

I most always run full skip chisel, but I'm cutting conifer too

Skip or semi skip can be fast, I prefer it on a 24 or longer bar. I see no need for it on anything shorter as I'd rather have the smoother/less grabby cut when limbing.
This is round filed semi-skip, it does alright, but no ribbons lol.

 

[chipper1]

How are the 2-wheelers for moving rounds and splits? I was about to order a new True Temper with a single pneumatic wheel. My yard is fairly flat with a few minor grades. Do these have pneumatic wheels? I bought a flat free for my old TT and it really sucks.

If you can lift it and put it in there they work great. The unfortunate thing is because the tubs are larger they also like to crack more because they get loaded up real heavy.
They come stock with pneumatic tires, but I have one flat free one on one of them. As you say, it does roll a little harder, but it never goes flat... Seems there's a give/take with most any product, whether it's functionality, quality, price, color(I like orange better than blue lol), service, that's why it's important to get what works best for you. The bummer is we usually end up spending a bunch of money figuring that out.
I really like the dual wheel wheelbarrows, they work great for me. Maybe you could head down to the local wheelbarrow dealer and then give them a test drive. The first time I used mine was on a large mulch job, I filled it way up(probably 2' higher than the sides) because I could lol. It was early morning and I proceeded to head down the incline to the first spot I needed mulch. When I got to wear I had to turn I tried to tip the handles like you would on a one wheeled unit, the wheelbarrow just kept going down the incline with me in tow slipping on dew covered grass. Sure would have been something funny to have gotten on video, I'm sure I was like .

 

[sean donato]

Congrats, I've got the 400 with a wrap kit. I've only had it for a little while and it's already one of my favorite saws. I build my muffler covers that are similar to a bark box, the Stihls really wake up with a muffler mod IMO...they're pretty choked up from the factory. If that wasn't enough, I just cut the squish, decked the cylinder, and did a mild port job on it. It normally runs a 25" lightweight bar, but I actually like running the 28 on it...just waiting on 461 oiler parts for it.




You just gotta catch them when they get a fresh shipment in. My local dealer is very much a pro-oriented shop and they were struggling to keep pro saws on the shelves. I bought my 400 several months ago and the 362/400s were the only pro saws they had in stock.

A few weeks ago, I got the go ahead to purchase a new saw for myself at work. I went to the dealer near where I work...they're mostly a lawn/garden place, so I wasn't expecting much. However, multiple examples of the entire Stihl pro line up were on the shelf...they even had more sitting in boxes in the back. Walked out of there with 462R model for work and a new 500i R for myself.

The dealer I ended up getting the stohl from said they had a very long wait list for the 500i if/when they come in. Offered to add me to the list lol.
You happen to have a part number handy for that oiler? I got a full tank through the 400 yesterday before I had to run for my daughter and it still had about a little over half tank of oil.

There are 2 things I've found I don't care for about this saw. The oiler is garbage, and barely oils the 20" bar on it. Even then I couldn't get oil to mist off it on the butt end of a log. And the exhaust is turning the clutch side of the case brown. Not real happy about that

 

[svk]

My home is on a hill top, my driveway winds up the hill and through the woods where it parallels the actual road about 100 yards back, which puts it behind several neighbors with road frontage homes. I was asked by one of those neighbors to allow a tree service to set up a crane on my driveway and reach up over my utility lines, then down the hill to remove several dead and dying trees. I'm a neighborly guy, so I agreed. Then I learned the tree service would have the power company cut my power during their work day. I wasn't asked, just told. Oh, well, I like to exercise my generator every couple months anyway.

Yesterday was the day, and this tree service had the entire exercise planned down to the minute. They executed their plan perfectly.

Set the crane at 8:00 am per plan:

View attachment 991192

Had an commercial chipper with grapple to feed it:

View attachment 991193

Their climber didn't actually climb, he rode the crane cable up, then tied off and lowered himself to do the rigging and cutting:

View attachment 991194

The crane operator was very good (I guess they have to be), and set the large sections on my driveway where ground crew cut to keepers and chipper fodder:

View attachment 991195

They used that little skid steer with the articulated grapple to stack the keepers and drag the rest to the chipper.
By 2:00 they were stowing the crane and left a nice stack along my driveway:

View attachment 991196

Scout helped me assess the wood:

View attachment 991197

I was very impressed at the efficiency of this crew. I suspect I'd be equally impressed at the size of the bill my neighbor accepted for this work. All I got was a blocked driveway, about $2/hour genny fuel consumption, and a day of entertainment.

Great pics.

I have a lot of respect for expert equipment operators. Armchair QB's can talk about pulling levers...but until you are the guy pulling levers you have no idea how difficult it is to do it perfectly!!!