Tapered Hinge Question

[chris_girard]

I've got a question for you guys regarding using the tapered hinge technique on a tree with no side lean.

If I want to use the tapered hinge in tight stops on a tree with no side lean, what is a good rule of thumb for additional holding wood to use on the good side.

I.E., a 20" DBH tree, I was thinking of leaving 2" (10%) on the bad side and 3" (1.5 times the thickness of bad side) on the good side. What do you guys use?

 

[BigJohn]

I don't understand why you want to use a tapered hinge. In the case that you have no side lean you have made your face cut in the exact direction you want the tree to fall? The tree will fall perpindicular to your back cut thus its not gonna end up where you wanted it. Unless your notch wasn't where you wanted it and your back cut is. There is no science to it yet. The taper is just to allow more holding wood so the lean doesn't snap the trunk off and it falls into the direction of lean. You could not taper it and just pull extra hard and get the same affect but it fall as far opposite of the lean. There are to many variables involved for each situation. Type of wood, climate, health of the tree and living tissues, history of the tree of growing seasons. Every tree is different. You can't put a number on it. You have to feel it.

 

[NeTree]

Originally posted by BigJohn
I don't understand why you want to use a tapered hinge.

If there's no side-lean, you would only want to if there was an issue of decayed wood. Even then, I probably wouldn't bother, either.

 

[BigJohn]

What is a tight stop? I would worry about getting the conventional notch right first. Use it and learn. One day you may look at your end result on the stump and say lookie there a tapered hinge and say I meant to do that.

 

[chris_girard]

I ment "tight spot" not tight stop. I was thinking of using it where a tree is close to a house and you need to lay it parallel to the house so you may want to use the tapered hinge (along with a holding line) as extra insurance.

Kind of what Murf mentioned in his TCIA article.

 

[BigJohn]

Yeah that is what I thougt to but if that was the case you would want it to go where you wanted it to. It would have to be a little more accurate. How would that work nothc it where you don't want it to go then use a tapered notch to steer it back to where your really want it to go?

Don't go hateing me but that sounds stupid.

 

[glens]

Chris,

My take on a tapered hinge is that it's compensation for some undesirable factor.  Its purpose is to ensure the fall follows the face-cut.

Trying to steer the fall via the back-cut, to a different direction than was faced, doesn't make a lick of sense.  And facing to some other direction in an attempt to compensate for some undesirable factor while using a parallel-sided hinge makes not a lot of sense, too.  There's a bit of voodoo in guessing the correct proportions for a tapered hinge, but there's a far sight more in the alternate-direction-face method.

Glen

 

[chris_girard]

I don't hate anyone who gives me sound advice. Maybe I'm just being too cautious about what can go wrong.

 

[TheTreeSpyder]

In the cross pulls of the hinge before faces close, there is some self correction to gunned center; then when the faces close, the oload comes off the hinge pull as the face push carries the load. But this phase is self correcting too. The Left side pushes Right, and the Right side pushes Left.

If there is Left side lean, Right hinge side is more loaded, and thus pulls more center. Likewise, the Left lean side hits harder, so throws/ pushes more right to correct.

A tapered hinge; is to further offset side pulls of lean in assistance to the Natural corrections of the hinge. On a balanced tree with no sidelean, Nature would not correct, you shouldn't have to either. The whole idea is to get the tree to ride balanced across the hinge to the target. If you already have that, why mess with it?

Far better i think to make a perfect, perfect hinge; wide enough for the sweep, and full face inspection for rot, any dutchman catches/steps; then force hinge stronger with tension at first folding. Do it right, like an old man carefully crafting something, and accepting no mediocrity in your wake.

Or something like that,
:alien:

 

[wiley_p]

If your corners are sound then a normal face in the intended falling direction is all thats needed. If you suspect decay by physical indications you see visually or by boring, and there is a concern about quarters playing with any variation of the standard facecut/backcut needs consideration hopefully based on good experience. If you have a pull line and the tree is balanced stick with t he fundamentals.

 

[murphy4trees]

Nothing wrong with a slight taper to give some added protection as long as you have the room in the landing zone... I think the above advice is all good... Straight tree will fall into the face if all is cut properly, and the time to experiment with how much taper to use is NOT when your dealing with an obstacle...

Make sure there is no bypass in the face cuts and you'll be OK...