Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[Lightning Performance]

The two things I struggle with:
1. Finding a good mechanic to do the work.
2. Accepting the cost for that good mechanic.

I see your point from the other side of the fence.
Excepting new customers who will listen to reason and proper procedures.
Find the ones who can pay and don't question every single thing you need do.

YouTube mechanics are everywhere now yet they understand nothing about diagnostics. Three videos can't be wrong, right?

 

[beaverislander]

Only ford i want is 70's f series 300 I6 4spd 4x4. keep your big block FE they got torque on the lower end and it works in a wood hauler.

I had that exact truck back in the day, 1970 that I paid $1,000 for in either 1979 or 80. I cut and hauled my share of firewood with it too.....it was a good old truck until I let my brother and Jack Daniels use it one night.

 

[MechanicMatt]

View attachment 1121184

My wife always knows….

 

[WoodAbuser]

I had that exact truck back in the day, 1970 that I paid $1,000 for in either 1979 or 80. I cut and hauled my share of firewood with it too.....it was a good old truck until I let my brother and Jack Daniels use it one night.

Welcome to the forums. I have it on good authority that Jack never passed his drivers license test.

 

[MustangMike]

Some eye candy for you classic car (+ Ford) guys: FYI, I had a (very rare) factory 428 SCJ with the 4:30 drag pack option. Fully restored I've seen them auction for over 1/2 million. They don't know how many of them were produced (approx 2,200), as no one kept track of how many of these became GT-500 KRs (and how many were specifically made for that purpose).

The 1968 GT-500 KRs were real performers, the other (1967 + 1968) GT-500s were running 2 - 4 barrel carbs through 390 heads ... just a stupid idea. It was all just for show.

Wish I had known about this in advance!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/ent...TS&cvid=0cfc039506ce4d7a879f2292d48f85ad&ei=7

 

[Lightning Performance]

Food, fuel and ammo.

Security, water and food.

 

[MustangMike]

There was discussion regarding plastic wedges.

I generally like to use the 8" ones, and have some from Timber Savage that are good, but recently got some even better ones from Notch. The Notch ones are colored yellow and orange like a candy corn!

One of my local Stihl stores sells them.

 

[Lightning Performance]

There was discussion regarding plastic wedges.

I generally like to use the 8" ones, and have some from Timber Savage that are good, but recently got some even better ones from Notch. The Notch ones are colored yellow and orange like a candy corn!

One of my local Stihl stores sells them.

White Oak is still the best wedge I've ever managed to pound into an oak tree or a locust tree and get it to fall over without the damn things popping out

 

[singinwoodwackr]

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

View attachment 1121296View attachment 1121297

 

[MustangMike]

White Oak is still the best wedge I've ever managed to pound into an oak tree or a locust tree and get it to fall over without the damn things popping out

I have a bunch of White Oak scape from building a deer stand, I may just make some! (was going to make it into firewood)

 

[Lightning Performance]

I have a bunch of White Oak scape from building a deer stand, I may just make some! (was going to make it into firewood)

Cut the wedge smooth on the grain on one side of the flat. Make the other side look like cathedral or feather grain. Select a large limb peice with a slight curve in it. Bake them at 400°F for four hours whenever you're baking something like cookies or whatever. I have two of the four I made over a decade ago. Cut mine all 3x2x8. Still using them so they are in my truck toolbox now.

 

[singinwoodwackr]

Cut the wedge smooth on the grain on one side of the flat. Make the other side look like cathedral or feather grain. Select a large limb peice with a slight curve in it. Bake them at 400°F for four hours whenever you're baking something like cookies or whatever. I have two of the four I made over a decade ago. Cut mine all 3x2x8. Still using them so they are in my truck toolbox now.

Pics?

 

[Squareground3691]

I'm waiting for his braze and HT paint pics .
Hoping the little ms170 welders I got will do some nice muffler mods. I've had a decent torch I could have probably done them with, but the welders should do a great job on something that thin? We'll see.
I may weld on a part that's all wobbled out on the exmark today. I still need to make another part to fix the pivot on the other side, that should be real easy since I now have a template(the one I already made), and the new cobalt drill bits. Sure is nice having a place to work on some projects under cover, can't wait to have the electric and air all done, but I think I'll focus on getting the walls and doors done first lol.

 

[Squareground3691]

View attachment 1121338

 

[Lightning Performance]

Just make heartwood blocks on the bandsaw and dry them out some. Likely a good idea to seal the ends with paint or cut longer and burn them. If you slice those in half diagonal one side makes a good pounding wedge. Use the other for slabs and bucking or they brake in half. Watched a guy make some when I was kid. He just did his at the fire pit cooked in hot ash after being dried out. Heartwood is obviously the toughest part. Flares cut off the base work good in a pinch felling but they need to be soaked in epoxy and cured first to hold up for pounding in. They get used and then burned most times. My white oak one is nearly black now from oils of every kind.
Red oak cracks like this.
3×4×10 for lifting big trees up. Just the wrong wood here. It does ladder wedging now for first cuts.

The feather grain goes up. You can grease the bottom I'd bet. The bite is in that grain angle it seems.

 

[Cowboy254]

And u managed to have some trees in the fotos you posted. Awesome job Cowboy! Will you be doing another?

You're an absolute machine! Congrats on the finish.

Cowboy, nice to see you carb up after the event! I'll bet it hit you like never before!

We used to do a 5 mi run every year sponsored by a local fire department. At the end of the run, no gatorade (etc), there were beer kegs on tap!

I used to joke with the other participants it was in case we had to help them put out a fire!

Thanks fellers. I'd do another one, maybe next winter. It's something to do when I'm not scrounging.

 

[Cowboy254]

Now, about that scrounging...

Mitch texted me on the morning of the marathon that he had a tree down. Big bifurcated candlebark snapped off at the base. Took a big branch of a blue gum and a peppermint on the way down. On a bit of a slope too. Definitely met the key criterion - ugly.



I mostly cut the branches and piled up the junk. Would have been very good for bonfire material for the initial flare up but next bonfire is too far away in May.





I think I'll use most of the big stuff for bonfire core. Candlebark wood is ok for firewood but the bark is thick and full of ash so unless you want to clean out the fire box every few days you need to debark. Since I currently have access to an enormous amount of dead peppermint, I won't bother with that. Tidying this up helps Mitch out. He is going to use the excavator to bring the big stuff down once the ground is dry enough. Ended up with this for the morning before I had to go to work.





Scrounge on

 

[Squareground3691]

I'm waiting for his braze and HT paint pics .
Hoping the little ms170 welders I got will do some nice muffler mods. I've had a decent torch I could have probably done them with, but the welders should do a great job on something that thin? We'll see.
I may weld on a part that's all wobbled out on the exmark today. I still need to make another part to fix the pivot on the other side, that should be real easy since I now have a template(the one I already made), and the new cobalt drill bits. Sure is nice having a place to work on some projects under cover, can't wait to have the electric and air all done, but I think I'll focus on getting the walls and doors done first lol.

View attachment IMG_2125.mov

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

any fishermen here that like to also go m/c riding??.....

we figured it out:

just another AS WTF'r... heading on out on a m/c ride... or is it to go fishing?