Strip or Slanted Hinge

[Stumper]

Spydy, You've convinced me-I'm gonna hunt up a copy of Dent's book! I've cut enough trees to know techniques that work and I've tried to analyze things to understand WHY they work and learn the limits. BUT.... I'm still learning. The great thing about this site is learning from others.Keep the ideas churning!

The thing that often seems to get overlooked is that precise,effective techniques have a compounding effect. If you could dump a tree with a tag line and a sloppy notch. OR you could fell it with a carefully made notch and a triangle hinge carefully executed...Think how safely and precisely you could do it with the precise notch and hinge and the tag line!?! Spydy is thinking this way how about everyone else? Any little techniques you want to share?

Come on everybody-we don't want to have to resurect the Truck pull" thread.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

All the 'crazy' rigs i have tried to present, were evolved long after my tapered hinge for balanced machine (or closer to) principles were self instilled into daily practice.

They all make more sense, approach their tasks more fully and gracefully when working on a balanced machine (hinge load); as like any other machine; if it is out of whack anyway, adjustments and refinements fight the off balance, rather than specializing in their task of handling the load. That is why a first class lever is first class, for it has that balance.

Most evident to me is doing this with slower sweeping rigs in the tree with a wide face(allowing a wide sweep with enough support). In such slow movement slapping facecut faces and thier forces matter less as far as redirecting energy coming out of the face. They still cause the point of seperation as they meet, but with the slow speed, the balance of slap is less important, it is all in the hinge being 'happy' and balanced during the sweep.

In fact the self tightening rigs, self torquing and hinge pocket all share the common strategy with a tapered hinge. Each of these 4 stategies leverge a powerfull pull from the motion by directly opposing it to the opposite side in constraint. Then, each of these takes that "equal and opposite reaaction to the movement" and applies it at a leveraged point on the work, all in exactly the same route, all with pulling fibre directly opposing pull. So these 3 rigs not only are enabled by a proper hinge of balance, they share the same quiet, passive, self adjusting restrictive force as tapered hinge. Allowing the movement to set the self adjusted tension against itself, in each case. Just as a lifeline keeps you floating, your wieght pulls you down, the line pulls back from the opposite side self adjsuted to be equal, so you float. Same, self adjusting fibre pulling the opposite direction than the pull of gravity, showing passive power; physically and philosophicaly one of the most prevalent forces around!

The more float of balance on the hinge you can put into the motion, the more you can fully address and realize other factors effectively. The balance on this pivot of hinge, i beleive is that basic, and pre-dominate enough, that it must be the first addressed. After all it is the basis for the whole machine of the hinge pivoting sometimes easily in the range of 100's of tons of moving, leveraged force.

Climbers can test this in the tree at many diffrent angles, as fellers test it massively. A balanced machine is always superior.

Achieving this many times is as simple as watching what your doing and slanting the bar.



:alien:

 

[ORclimber]

Treespyder, your pressure rig is awesome. I used it to spin a big horizontal maple limb 180 degrees last week. I was contract climbing and called it before I did it, "8 ball corner pocket". I still haven't perfected the trigger. After I make the cut and get out of the way sometimes the groundmen give slack to release and sometimes it takes a couple cranks on the hobbs. I wish I had known how to do this when I was clearing the powerlines. The slow gracefull swings with the climber out of harms way are much safer than the cuts I used to use.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Thanks, glad the self tightenineg, hinge pocket rig floats a piece around for you like that.

The 'trigger' deal is hardly ever used by me; but is something that i came up with to initiate a slow fail in the hinge, to usher around the spar. It is only when the whole jig seemns frozen, and the backcut is proceeding to far. So i violate the stacked resistance, to let the fibres inside the hinge slowly fall into the created hole, dominoe-ing over, so you kinda have to wait for that slow failure sometimes.

i really like it when with these self tightening rigs, i can make this directional facecut, and backcut close to failure, and fall back while the groundie lets a lil slack, causing folding, then the integrity of the hinge takes over as the ground control geently allows the spar to fall into the face, with scheduled direction, and offside pulls.

If at first the groundie lets a lil shock loading to the hinge, then 'catches' load, the ground control can induce a stronger hinge, and very controlably allow it to flex over, as hinge steers with line pull, till faces of face cut meet, causing tearoff. Many times done with the climber clear, all by 'remote' control.

Here is a picture i sent to OR a while back, showing this 'triggering' by violating the stacked ressitance in a tapered hinge. This goes directly to showing how powerfull and important the stacked resistance is and how much it is releid on to fight offside pulls.

So it is directly on point with the tapered hinge effect, and one of it's underlying powers of stacked resistance.

This stuff works fellas, sometimes with grace and effortlessness, the perfection of the hinge is 'pivotal'; the outside constraint on the rest of the mechanics.

:alien:

 

[murphy4trees]

Here's the notch cut from a big tulip takedown... I did make a slightly taperred hinge with the backcut... The saw pictured is a 044 with a 24" bar... kind of deceiving 'cause I used an 084 to cut the notch... put the 44 in the photo for perspective. Using the gunning lines allows the feller to make the slanted cut first... then meet the two cuts exactly with the floor cut by looking through the kerf as the tip of the bar approaches the slanted cut.... nice little trick Mark Chisholm showed me.. Getting the notch right is the first step in a good hinge... I wish I could remember why I didn't make the face cut a little wider...

 

[murphy4trees]

Here's a big sweet gum that had been struck by lightning many years ago.. That's the tip of the 084 and I came around the near side as that was the driveway side.... Again the peek-a-boo through the kerf technique leads to a nice clean notch...

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Hey Daniel! Nice pix.

Sometimes i do all precuts (Face and some back portions) with a 'meatier' saw; then switch to a lighter/ smaller one for easier control.

The hinge is so important, making it like a craftsman like that truly pays off, especially as developed as a proffessional habit. Crossing the facecuts throws everything off, fitting them perfectly together like you say is so important, so as not to have a 'buried' facecut; a facecut operating for the hinge.......within the main face cut. If from time to time you are kinda 'sloppy' on this point, while trying to learn how to hinge, this inside face will keep throwing things off, and screw up your observations and their consistency!

i do the same thing sighting through the kerf to get cuts precisely right, only i try to make the 'slanted cut' (top), then the bottom cut (which i slant a lot too); but do it so i have to come back up to the top cut for final release, so piecut/chock from face doesn't end up on top of my bar, especially with bigger trees. Some people with similar concerns just cut the bottom first. i like sighting and cutting the top first as Daniel suggests, just sighting bottom cut to come right below top cut, so i have to continue top cut just a lil'further to release.

On stumps i'll even cut all the way across (almost) flat, maybe placing a stick in the cut where i started for support as i get close to coming out the other side. Then i'll come down into the end of that horizontal cut, so that when it releases, my bar is next to the stump, not under (like trying not to end up with heavy 'pieslice' of face ending up on bar when it releases). After moving the stump, i cut the last strip (here flat cut didn't reach all the way across). So i call it my 'reverse stump cut'; becuase i cut what would be the back cut first, then the face.

:alien:

 

[Stumper]

Spydy,Whats the saying?-Great minds run in the same channels----and fools seldom differ.
I use the same technique on big stumpcuts.

Nice pics Murph!

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

That is basically what i use it for. Especially if it has a dirty side, leave that high. Then take last piece out with smaller saw cutting from inside, maybe break through bark line finally with mini sledge laying ready with wedges. Least amount of dirty wood contact with cheapest/shortest chain. If grinding, just leave dirty part high.

On a massive stump, i might use the high wall as a stop to pound a wedge inbetween it and freed stump, then get a pry bar in there to slide the stump off the face. In climbing that high side can make a stop to pro-tect the climber.

i use it in the tree too sometimes becaause it doesn't let the weight end up on the bar. And if i pre cut a lil'ramp, i get a pivot placing aautomatically starting with some of the weight pulling the rest of the weight away from me, also a small slide. Some times this is jsut the ticket, for best control for pitching pieces out. Or even better, sliding down close to the trunk line, after slowly sliding it over ramp, pulling into the ramp to make it hold on as close to a 90 degree turn as possible before bombing it.

Not an everyday thing, but dang good lil'trix to have in yo'bag! IML,H,O

:alien:

 

[murphy4trees]

Here's the broken hinge on a mulberry I dropped today... I left the wide area of hinge to the right, to offset a side-lean... may have been a little overkill and it worked very well.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

i think that looks pretty good, especially done with a 'pulpy' mulberry, imagine what one could do with strong oak!

i like the picture of non-round, more realistic stump (glove for sizing nice touch too!); to open other discussions abouit hinge placement within the spar for different effects.

i think that the tons of force that our hinges usher to ground, and this type of control to boot is fascinating, and the humble hinge's crafting and placement in consideration to the C.o.B. greatly underrated.

Also, the best way to learn is experimentation in safe surroundings, forensically examining stump and fibre pattern within.

Dent used the terms "mechanical analysis" and "causation" to show that wem ake these decisions (realizing it or not), and are responsible for the mechanical instructions that we give this machine of the hinge as we pass the moving, leveraged weight of a massive tree into it.

 

[murphy4trees]

I used a taperred hinge the other day to drop a 35' tall, skinny Norway Maple about 75* from the lean. Tree was in backyard leaning directly at back gutter and ended up in the side yard, where we were chipping.
Now it could have easily been pieced down.... and it was sooooo much easier to drop it with one cut. I never would have even considerred trying it before I learned the secret of the taperred hinge....
And I thank you Spidy for bringing this knowledge to my attention... I use it with confidence and frequency.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

Heck, thanx! i just knew if i kept rambling i'd git sometin' write!

This is how i percieve other effects in this same stump shape, without altering shape, size of hinge; just adjusting placement of hinge in 2 dimensions to fine tune to other factors.

Also, IMLHO; the same shape of this hinge could be forced to have more supportive, controlling fibre; ie same shape tracing another line of fibre across the backside(in most leveraged position of support). To the end of yielding same steering, only more power-full.

Or something like that!

:alien: