Swinging alder...

[northmanlogging]

So greetings, got a job coming up with a few alders leaning over a house and wanted to get some input on the ins and outs, do's and don'ts. I know alder is prone to chair, and a little on the brittle side, I usually put a wrapper on em and let em go the way they want. However this time I can't, any help is appreciated

 

[madhatte]

I've had pretty good luck with swinging bigger (20"+) alders using various dutchman cuts. In the following video, I used a hard dutchman to swing it about 20 degrees against its lean, then bored behind the hinge and above the back-cut to relieve tension. In effect, it DOES barber-chair, but it can only go as far up the stem as the bore. I also nipped both corners of the hinge before committing to the back-cut. I don't know if all of this was strictly necessary, but you'll see that I put it into a pretty narrow hole with no hang-ups, so it worked well enough. I'm not a production faller so I don't mind if I take a little longer and save out a bit less.

[video=youtube_share;AGdAM3CDXBE]http://youtu.be/AGdAM3CDXBE[/video]

 

[tramp bushler]

If theres a chance you could hit the house you should rig and pull it .
I've swung many thousands of trees . All it takes is a 1 in 100 chance to go wrong and your screwed . And in reality , swinging a tree that has a pretty strong lean can be a big problem .

 

[Jacob J.]

Another trick with Alders is to use the wide open face, essentially a conventional and a Humboldt face together. This gives the holding wood a long time to bend before breaking, holding the stem on the stump a little longer.

 

[tramp bushler]

That does similar to a siswheel . The big hitch in the gitalong with swinging timber is the holding wood .
If its good there is alot of things that can be donethe problem is you can't know how good the holding wood is until you either use it or bore it out .

 

[paccity]

If theres a chance you could hit the house you should rig and pull it .
I've swung many thousands of trees . All it takes is a 1 in 100 chance to go wrong and your screwed . And in reality , swinging a tree that has a pretty strong lean can be a big problem .

yup, when theres stuff to hit on a sketchy tree a bull rope can be good insurance .

 

[Samlock]

If the Alders are anything like European Alders, the hinge will be gone as soon as it starts to go over.

Using a pull rope, the higher you get the rope, the better it is. Pressure on the butt will chair it on you. Alder is flexible, so it's possible to change the balance by pulling the crown without putting too much pressure on your cuts.

 

[northmanlogging]

Thanks gents, the plan is to use the gypo yarder and pull them over Its just nice to have a plan B... northwest alders tend to be a little brittle and the hinge wood goes away quick so using the siswheel on steroids sounds like a good idea

 

[Humptulips]

Maybe I'll show my ignorance here. Not sure what you're calling a siswheel.
I will say it helps to bore in to the holding wood with some vertical cuts. Keeps it from breaking off a little longer.
I wouldn't take a chance around a building though.

 

[tramp bushler]

Thats a siswheel . . Face it up , gun it a little high with the face gunned . Bore in vertically immediatly behind the holding wood side of the stump . I like to make the first bore cut 8" or so tall then
Cock the bar toward the face and cut up to the bottom of the butt .
Usually I put a kerf dutchman in , step it . Leave 2-4 fingers of holding wood and backcut from the folding wood side around.
I could have swung 5 bushel into its lay in the time it took to type this .

 

[tramp bushler]

Should read Holding wood . Not folding wood .

You want to stay withit when it comes around and get the holding wood cut . . It CAN pull a tree right sideways . But it doesn't always .

It Can pull about a third of the stump out of the ground too .

 

[ShaneLogs]

It looks like it fell pretty well. Good job! I'm proud of you

 

[madhatte]

It looks like it fell pretty well. Good job! I'm proud of you

Thank yez! Word of warning, though -- smaller alders are more likely to be livelier on the stump. Don't get complacent thinking a small tree is a safe tree!

 

[northmanlogging]

Kinda thought a siswheel was sorta like a crooked block cut, and its seems that the only ones I've had go wrong on me are the little guys under say 8"

 

[Humptulips]

Should read Holding wood . Not folding wood .

You want to stay withit when it comes around and get the holding wood cut . . It CAN pull a tree right sideways . But it doesn't always .

It Can pull about a third of the stump out of the ground too .

In this case folding wood sounds pretty good.:msp_biggrin:

 

[056kid]

Murphy will tear those important ones right off the stump.

 

[tramp bushler]

Ain't that the truth !!