SW Nebraska GTG Pics Part II

[Wood Doctor]

Sorry I could'nt make it to the GTG. Down in Missouri over that week end. Me and Wood Doctor need to have a GTG here in Eastern Nebraska sometime.

OR, I pick you up in the Ranger on the way to Cambridge, NE.
:greenchainsaw:

Carl's site may be impossible to beat. I know Sid's stories can be beaten by no one.

 

[Sprintcar]

OR, I pick you up in the Ranger on the way to Cambridge, NE.
:greenchainsaw:

Carl's site may be impossible to beat. I know Sid's stories can be beaten by no one.

LOL, we need to have lunch one day.

 

[Bill G]

We need to get all the cottonwood haters to come down! We could open their eyes! I think Ill start a new social group the cotton wood burners club! LOL

So where are you located ? Your sig is "NE Where the Big Cottonwood Grows" Is that Nebraska or the Northeast? In each that is a big area. Heck maybe I will ask ST as he knows all.

Bill

 

[SawTroll]

OK, so you start a thread as the OP and add 8 Pics. Then you reply to your own post and add more Pics, etc., etc. Just keep replying to your own thread in increments of 8 and you can have all the Pics that you want. I'll have to remember fascinating technique... :monkey:

That is how it works.....

 

[SawTroll]

Part I;

What a wonderful get together this turned out to be! Carl met me a gas station and lead me to the wilderness site, about 200 yards from the Republican River, just south of Cambridg, NE. Glad I brought my Ranger 4x4. We decided to lay the saws down in a row for inspection:

Then Scott and Sid showed up and the row became a semi-circle:

In all, I counted 25 saws, and at one time or another, they all ran. Edwin (that's me, the cameraman) took the award for the oldest saws--his 1976 Stihl 041 and 1977 McCulloch PM 610. Scott's big saw, a Sachs Dolmar 133 was then put to the test to drop the biggest cottonwood tree we could find. The objective was to cut table top cookies. First he cut a perfect wedge:

And here's Scott at work on the felling cut, positioned perfectly above the wedge. You can't see it well here, but water was shooing out of the tree nearly 15 feet as he made this cut:

The tree dropped perfectly with a crash but only after everyone yelled, "Timber!" Time to measure the trunk:

I believe that's a 36" bar. I counted 110 annular rings, so figure the seed germinated back in 1900. The last 20 rings were really close together. Now it was time to make 6" thick tabletops out of the trunk. Here's Carl taking his turn:

We crowned Carl the king of giant cookie cutting. His were almost dead on square across. Now go to Part II for the conclusion (8 images maximum per post).

 

[SawTroll]

More from part I;

By popular demand, here are a couple of more Pics showing Scott's procedure for dropping the big cottonwood tree:
The start of the wedge cut:

Sometimes you need to spend a little time making sure that the wedge is cut and removed to perfection before you start the big felling cut on the opposite side. This drop was not a piece of cake. Note that the tree appears to lean slightly opposite the wedge:

Now the wedge can be safely removed:

Finally, the felling cut. Now the tree finally starts finally to fall. It was a perfect drop.

Here's the gang working on the felled tree to be sure it stayed put while cutting all of the table tops:

 

[2stroked2smoke]

Ed , another fine job of picture taking and narrating. Don't mind troll, he's just an old man that has nothing better to do than be a critic to everybodys threads and posts. I appreciate the fact that we had someone in our group who could document and share our gtg with everyone.

 

[mowoodchopper]

So where are you located ? Your sig is "NE Where the Big Cottonwood Grows" Is that Nebraska or the Northeast? In each that is a big area. Heck maybe I will ask ST as he knows all.

Bill

sw ne

 

[sunfish]

Nice pics, guys! Looks like a great time. That was a mighty large cottonwood!

Oh, and thanks to Sawtroll for adding part 1 pics here.

 

[Bill G]

sw ne

I assume you are in a river bottom? Here the majority is controlled by the USCEC so cutting is limited

Bill

 

[2stroked2smoke]

It's the Republican river bottom. We were only about 100 yards from the river when we downed that tree.

 

[sbhooper]

I somehow missed this thread before I went to Texas for a week.

Those are great pics, Ed! I am glad you did such a good job, since I managed to forget my camera.

That was a great gtg and I hope that we can continue having one once in a while.

That cottonwood was awesome! I have never seen a tree that big get cut down. It was a blast cutting the giant cookies. That big saw of Scott's is a beast. I think there was enough water running out of that tree to water most of Arizona for a month!:jawdrop:

 

[WoodChuck'r]

Who the hell is Jimmy?

Dude you don't know Jimmy from Nebraska??!? Are you frikkin' kidding me?!? :jawdrop:

 

[mowoodchopper]

Dude you don't know Jimmy from Nebraska??!? Are you frikkin' kidding me?!? :jawdrop:

Hell no I dont know Jimmy!

 

[sbhooper]

Isn't that Chucky's cousin? The fat kid with the spaghetti arms?

 

[WoodChuck'r]

Isn't that Chucky's cousin? The fat kid with the spaghetti arms?

Chuck?! Chuck passed away 15 years ago you mook!

Chuck and Jimmy were good friends back in the day though. I remember.....

 

[sbhooper]

Oh! That's right! Chucky wasn't using a safety chain on his Poulan and cut his left leg off while he was cutting cottonwood. Now I remember.