Some sawing, logging and skidding pics and videos ......

[Metals406]

I love honey! It's the only food on the planet that never goes bad, it's super good for you (as far as a sugar goes), and it's extremely versatile.

I got a gallon from my folks, as they live on the east side, and have a hookup for it. Good sage honey, it's tasty!

 

[s219]

Honey is great stuff. I have been told it has antiseptic/antibacterial/antibiotic properties, and can be put on cuts, wounds, and such (replacement for an ointment like neosporin). Haven't tried it myself.

 

[Slamm]

Here is the 441 Mtronic's air filter after 10 tanks. I bought several pre-wrap filter covers from Outerwears.com. I like the material, but they need to work on the elastic that they use, as it is a pain in the butt to get it onto the filter. You have to experience it to understand. I will or would use them over the Stihl OEM pre filter from now on, as nothing will stick to them.

Of course the filter is the new HD2. Again notice that the baffle doesn't have the stud on it anymore like the older 441's use to have. Before the air filter nut was truly a nut, now it is a wing'd screw. This makes getting the filter on and off a little easier.

The fines you see in there just blew in when I flipped the saw up to get a better look, and the filter wasn't dirty, so I just put it back on and will run it some more.

Popped the chain off and the sprocket decided to eat the drivers on a good chain so I had to replace this small section.

This chain now has cut 58+trees, some cookies and a little firewood. I have sharpened it 1.5 file strokes per tooth and haven't touched the rakers yet. If I cut today I will likely give it a couple of file strokes, but this Stihl Semi-Chisel lasts a good while. Every tree I cut has silt on the bark, as the water gets upwards of 4 feet deep every year in this bottoms. Chisel chain would not last this long at all.

Knocked off early to ride horses with my little girl.


Pic of one of my bulldog pups thats 8 years old.

Some tree that the 441 Mtronic cut.

I'm waiting on the videos to upload as I photo'd or video's every tree I cut with the 441 Mtronic that evening, it was about 20 trees. Still have about 3 videos to go.

Later,

Sam

 

[Stihlman441]

Good stuff Sam,:cool2:aweigh ting for more.

 

[Slamm]

I video'd the 441 MTronic's first few trees down. At this point it had a few tanks of gas through it, either cutting some cookies or firewood to break it in and get a feel for it, before I do something a little more thrilling with it. It only has a modded Muffler that I took off of one of my other 441's. These photos and video's were taken a couple of days ago and took forever to upload, but at this point it has cut down 80ish trees, as I started to skid them out this afternoon. The video's and pics are taken in order from first to last, its every tree I cut that evening with it good or bad. Don't take much away from it by way of technique or safety.

If you watch all of them, I hope it kinda shows some of the different things that go on when you are cutting, good or bad, that just happen. I don't have the limbing in these as that is just too hard to and usually boring to video without help, and I hope you have high speed internet if you want to watch them all.


Here is this 441 MTronic's first tree down for the count. #1

Here is a leaner, we have a lot of them. This one didn't go so good, the roots pulled up in the back, provided some excitment #2

 

[Slamm]

Here is some simple Hackberry. #3

Here is a nice soft maple that wants to come towards me and the right a little, I need it to go straight to the right to crush some tops. I should have cut out those branches before hand, but figured I could get out of there without any undo damage. #4

Here is some box elder, they are about worthless, but they are footage that pays the same and easy to cut. #5

Here is a hard leaning box elder, that goes over pretty easy. #6


This ash looked more like a corkscrew and didn't go where it should have, but still fell in a good spot.#7

This is something that shouldn't be done, but happens from time to time. the worst one I did was 5 hung up in the 6th tree. Experience fighting bulls is good for situations like this, LOL. #8

 

[Slamm]

This is an honest maple that is leaning in the correct location, but it hits another trees and provides a handy "widow maker". #9


This is just some hard, ole, shag, bark hickory. #10

Here is a nice pin oak that needed to be angled just a little to the right. I dropped it right over the last Hickory to keep it out of the food plot area. #11


Just some easy ash that went over. #12

This is some Box Elder, remember this stump, because I called the hit on the next one. Sometimes, I get lucky, LOL. #13

Here is an Elm that wants to go more toward the left and I need it to go to the right and I call the hit on that last Box Elder stump. #14

Here is the top on the Box Elder Stump.

Here is a little Hackberry that I didn't put a face or notch in it, just cut. #15

 

[Slamm]

Here is another Hackberry that is leaning on a Soft Maple (I have seen this several times) where the hackberry is leaning on a soft maple, I don't know if it is love or they just like each other, but it happens with some regularity. The Hackberry is rotten of course and the soft maple was salvaged today. #16 & #17


Here I probably should have moved the ATV, but the tree was pretty honest, and I'm lazy. #18


This is another maple that just needed to go over, the butt was rotten. #19


At this point it was getting too dark for video. So I had to just take photos. #20

Another one. #21

Wouldn't make too much money if this was all we cut. #22

Here is the last one of the night at this point. Just a big nice maple. At this point it was black dark, I was cutting using only my 6th sense and smell, LOL. #23

And that is it for the evening.

Hope you have high, high speed internet.

Sam

 

[Metals406]

Thanks for the vids Sam!

 

[Stihlman441]

Good stuff there Sam thanks for the vids,i see your smilie cuts are small is there a reason for that,suppose less wasted timber ?.

 

[Stihlman441]

When you changed to the dual port muff on the 441C do you think it made any differance to the rich,lean running of the saw,it sounds very familiar to me.I have been using thoses pre-filters as well and they do help out on the HD2 filters.

 

[Slamm]

Andrew,

I only made a few cuts with the stock muffler, maybe, 10, but when I put the modded muffler on it, instantly throttle response (spool up time) was much faster, my little girl even new that, as she was videoing and she said "It sounds faster.", LOL.

I cookie cut with it, but didn't use big enough wood and the saw wasn't broken in so I probably won't post those videos, as it will cause a ruckus around here with no justification for it. My SS muffler doesn't even have any color marks on it as it didn't get used hard enough to get hot, before I changed it.

As to the small smilie (face cuts), I don't see the point in wasting that time on making them bigger if the tree had enough lean or weight to one side all you need is enough hing to not pinch your bar or give it a little direction, anymore and its just a waste of time, as a cutter is just double cutting the same wood for obviously zero gain of anything. Additionally, if for some reason I do split a tree which I have maybe done that 5 times in my life, and I can only really think of 3, I only slab some off the side, I don't really barber chair one down the middle and more or less ruin the whole log, slabbing the side is a minor loss of board footage and produces a wimpy barber chair, but if you cut a deep notch, you can barberchair things really bad and possibly lose your head/life over it, and the whole butt log is ruined.

Additionally, if you make a shallow hinge, like I do, if the tree is hollow, which in the flood damaged stuff it is, you are sure to be hingeing in solid wood not just the corners of a deep notch, so to me its a lot safer, too. I do deep notch them if I really, really need it to go in another direction and its straight enough up that I can use a little of the tree's trunk weight to help move it, but for the most part I can get them to go where I need them to go without a lot of fancy worded cuts, LOL.

Also, the shallow hinge will typically if not always being in better, stronger wood, it gives your hinge a lot more leverage or strength to hold the tree, if it wants to go the other way and you are going to push it over with a skidder, another tree or wedge it over (but it takes more wedges or you have to wedge from the side to get closer to the hinge for angle). Like in the below video I do a double and the 2nd tree is really leaning towards me, so here I want a shallow hinge to give the heavy leaner more strength to keep it from falling on me or breaking the hinge before its properly guided by the first tree.


I do have to adjust the top angle of the notch for the ash trees as they will blow up or slab if you don't give them enough angle to close before going over, but you can really cheat pin oak, soft maple and red oak ....................... Hickory, white oak and ash need more angle, closer to 90 degrees before they won't split or tear out on you.


Hope that makes sense, if I could draw pictures, I could explain it better, maybe I just say it in a video after I'm looking at a shallow hinged stump, because then it would make more sense as to why they are stronger from a leverage point of view. I think its obvious why they are stronger if there is hollow or rot to be dealt with, but a lot of people, even most loggers don't understand why its stronger from a leverage point of view, on some smaller diametered trees close to double the strength depending on how deep they hinge, but it might be more as I don't think the effect is linear, but more involute in nature.

Later,

Sam

 

[Stihlman441]

Thanks for explaining that and nice double there mate.

 

[Pointman]

Sam my step-dad has kept bees for decades (40+ hives). He strains honey through a NEW nylon stocking... No more bugs! Local or wild honey will ruin you for that store bough junk.

Thanks for keeping this thread running despite the trolling.

Jerry

 

[Slamm]

Sam my step-dad has kept bees for decades (40+ hives). He strains honey through a NEW nylon stocking... No more bugs! Local or wild honey will ruin you for that store bough junk.

Thanks for keeping this thread running despite the trolling.

Jerry

Thanks Jerry, as they say, don't let the turkeys get you down, LOL. I just got another 120ish acres added to my plate tonight and the landowner is a great, experienced bee keeper that actually lives down in Kentucky and was my machine shop instructor, so I have to give him a call and go see him again. I did just learn that every week I will loose my bees, as they try to remake the new bee hive back at the old location, so therefore, I was instructed that I have to move them 1 mile from their old location and then they wouldn't try to move back to the original spot. Our farm is 3 miles from where I am logging so I will put them their for now, or I will be going back to Kentucky maybe this weekend 3 hours away and want to take them home.

Here I moved them from the middle of the landing to next to my tool trailer. Notice I let the yellow monster do the moving, LOL, aren't swing booms great. Not every bee keeper has one, LOL.

Note my nice domed ash cookie I used for the roof, I think the bees liked the added touch, LOL.

Here is the swing boom lifting a log out of the middle of a "brush pile" of tops.

Here is a couple of angles of the swing boom lifting a pin oak that was already blown over by a storm and I just had to cut and top it.

Here I am standing on the root ball, checking to see if there are any other logs nearby, as I thought this was the last of them in this area, as I don't want to miss any.

 

[Slamm]

Here's a load:

Another:

Another:

Here I am picking up two heavy logs, with the boom too far to the right, just for kicks, I swung it around to the back and down the wheels went, and off we go. Notice for those that don't know this, that 518 has a rear axles that articulates up and down, where as others and all John Deere skidders have the front axle that does the articulation. Its feels weird to go from one machine to the other, as they take bumps different............. I like the Deere way, LOL.

Later,

Sam

 

[056kid]

You ever run any timberjack 450s sam?

 

[Slamm]

We got rained out awhile ago and had a bunch of stuff to do at the house before it gets real cold.

Family night for a little while has been working on the saws and projects, and the kids riding their bikes and scooters in the shop. Taylor wanted to play logger, so I fit her up with an appropriate model size for make-believe, LOL.

Who needs a decomp?

What is this hole for? This is the 084.

This is the 880's.

Other projects have included building a pyramid with Colton.

 

[Slamm]

Since we got rained out at the landing, Sammy was running the loader and I was bucking up, we quit and left for home 3 hours away.

Here are our bees.

At Porche965 (John's) recommendation, I made some wooden babysitters, LOL. These are Swedish Candles and they are really neat, and work great. I used some ash and hickory that was laying around. Kids loved them and they cooked me hotdogs all throughout the day, so we didn't starve while Karen is away.

Just take a chunk of firewood and cut it lengthwise into 4 pieces for smaller stuff and 6 for bigger stuff and light the middle on fire with whatever chemical of your choice. They burn for hours. Here is a video of make ours:


I used Kerosine and horse weeds to light the middle.

Here they are burning horse weeds in the fire.

Here it is hours later. I then took that piece and stuck it on top of the next candle and it burned completely gone. No mess.

 

[Slamm]

Oh the joy, core drilling 4" dia. 10 thick concrete, yeah.

Did a 4" for drain and 2" for a new water line going to the second house.

This is a big improvement over the mess that was before.

Another great joy, trenching.

Ordered some toys from Bailey's. I've never tried caulk boots, and the Danner Pronghorns are my favorite lightweigh boots, so I figured the caulked version would be good for a flatlander like me, this winter. Haven't tried them yet. Its deer season today so can't be in the woods, as per the hunters, LOL.

My dad, 80 years old is running the loader and I'm bucking up. We worked until dark yesterday, cut up 70+ logs, and while he was sorting those I pulled out another 20+ to get them out of the woods before hunting this morning.

By dark time this pile was about double.