This Taint' You Fadda's Chainsaw!

[Like The Woods!]

I planted 20,000 pines in 1980-81. The ground was old field, no rocks and flat. The recommendation at the time was to plant 6' x 6'. Mighty crowded. They should have been thinned a long time ago but....there is not really a good market for pine pulp. Selling it would just about make costs back, so nobody interested in cuttin' it. I didn't have the time or equip. over the years, and really was quite discouraged because the White Pine Weevil has played havoc with these trees.

In the past couple of years I have pruned about half of them. Good silent meditation work. Sooths the soul.

So now I have a harvester cutting them. He is taking 2 rows out and leaving 4. As he moves along he is also cutting culls out of these 4 rows. He cuts and leaves piles behind him. These piles will be skidded by rubber tire, grapple skidders, to be fed into a whole tree chipper. Chipping should commence next week, I think. That sucker should wake up all the babies in the county.

When the harvester cuts a tree, there are two sets of arms that latch onto it and slide it back on the piece the orange flagging is sitting on, (see pic). He then goes to the next tree and cuts and one set of arm grabs it while the first tree is being held by the other set of arms. He slides this second tree back against the first tree and through the miracle of hydraulics, (or aliens), both sets of arms end up clutching both trees. He cuts as many trees that will fit on the bottom plate they sit on. I have seen him cut as many as 6, 10" - 14" trees, before swinging them behind him, (mind you the trees are standing straight up), and piling.

To some of you perhaps this is old hat, but I thought that maybe some would be interested. As for myself, I have seen harvesters before, but not working.
To me, it is quite an impressive operation. But...of course I don't get out much.

 

[StIhL MaGnUm]

Yup it's a Timbco probably a 425 or 445 , looks exactly like the one we have at work.. Gotta love a buncher , they put a chainsaw to shame , sad yes but very true . Well nice pics and good luck with your thinning .

 

[Like The Woods!]

To continue: Is this like the square ground teeth that you use?

This "saw", for lack of a better word, is some animal. It seems to cut a foot of pine a second. 12" pine hardly makes a noise, it is cut so fast. Saw him cut a couple of 36 inchers. Took about 3 seconds a tree.

I don't know what the rpm's are, but when he comes off of idle and before commencing to work, he lifts the boom and and holds the saw in the air for about 20-30 seconds with the throttle open while it builds rpms. Holy ole' baldface! :jawdrop: That thing just screams! He then keeps the rpms right up. Talk about torque. Those teeth don't slow down at all as far as I can tell.

 

[Like The Woods!]

Yup it's a Timbco probably a 425 or 445 , looks exactly like the one we have at work.. Gotta love a buncher , they put a chainsaw to shame , sad yes but very true . Well nice pics and good luck with your thinning .

Well you were close. "Buncher" is certainly an appropriate name. Now why didn't I think of that? :monkey:

 

[StIhL MaGnUm]

Looks like he needs to flip his teeth on the saw , one too many rock hits by the looks of them . We had a 415 at work before we sold it to get the 425 D with 22" saw head on it . Awesome machines none the less they are actually called a Feller Buncher , a Harvester has a different head set up on them were the actually cut , delimb , and process into log lengths in one operation .

Later Rob

 

[Like The Woods!]

I did check out the teeth when he got here. They were not pristine, but were almost new looking. How they got to this condition is a mystery to me. All that he has cut so far has been on old field that I planted. Flat and no rocks. It has been chilly, so I assume trees are frozen, but doesn't seem that would cause that much damage to the teeth.

He did have to replace a couple of track sections. There are 5-6 sections that are still damaged. I would assume the cold temps might have played a part in this.

I will have to ask him more questions about the machine. We have spent probably 3-4 hours together this past week, but it was all involved in what, where, and how I want trees cut. Tomorrow I am having some minor surgery that apparently will lay me up for 6 wks., so I wanted to make sure he understood what I wanted to accomplish.

 

[keith c raymond]

Definetly good pics!I find these and other machines quite facinating,since I run equipment myself . I wonder though,why the did not have some sort of hybrid track,with a combination of rubber and steel.I have seen some excavators with these.Perhaps it would not work seeing the weight of those machines.

 

[Like The Woods!]

Here is a pic. of a couple of trees in the "buncher". Handles 12" as if they were match sticks.

Concerning the pic of the tooth attached. The edge that is ragged and beat up, is in towards the inside. I would think that the other edge - the outside edge - that meets the wood first would be the one with the wear on it.

So, just another example of what I don't know....maybe my wife is right

I will add that I am quite thrilled to have this done. From what I can see so far it will be big improvement in growing conditions for these pines.

Half of my land is an excellent site for growing white pines, except for the Wheevil. I have some natural stands of pine that are actually thicker than these 6' x 6'.

In hindsite, I would not have planted these pines. I have some plantation srpuce that is also on it's way to devistation from the White Pine Wheevil. Consulted a Forester before planting the spruce and he assured me that they would be fine.

I think that diversity is the key. Have some areas that were clearcut before I purchased. Now have some large popal, and a mix of other species comming along. It's not nice to mess with Mother Nature. I should have just let her take care of the planting.


Hopefully I will be able to take more pics before all this is done. I don't think the surgery will effect my mobility much, so maybe I will take the time to study and photograph some more. I find it amazing that since I retired I have been right out flat. Always a hundred things to do. I love it!:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[StIhL MaGnUm]

We have been having track problems also on our 425 pads wont stay tight , bolts keep snapping or just loosening up constantly , but we have been on some very rough rocky lots this past year.

As for his teeth getting damaged like that , trees are not the issue unless they have metal in them ,chains , nails etc..Most likely it is from contacting rocks . The teeth on Quadco saws are flipable , and no you are correct about the placement , the outside edge front , top , and bottom is what is doing the cutting , just saw that they have damage on them thats all . Good pics hope it comes out they way your hoping it to.

Later Rob

 

[Urbicide]

LTW,interesting thread and good pics. Hope your surgery and recovery go well.

 

[jimmysisson]

How does it work, though?

The only one of these I've seen work was a guy who clears lots for us, and his rig has a chain saw that swings into the tree as he lifts. The pix you show has a circular saw but I can't see how it retracts or advances into the stem. Does it pivot? Does the operator grab the stem with the upper arms and swing the saw into the base of the tree? Nice pictures, and good luck with the doc.
Jim

 

[StIhL MaGnUm]

Jim ,

Sounds like the machine you are talking about has a Bar Saw head on it , with a Hot saw (disk head) you cut the tree and grab it with the top arms as you cut or right when your about through it , the other set of lower arms are just accumulators so you can hold a tree and cut another one . The hot saw is stationary just rotates at high speed . Go to Quadco's website and you can see videos of them at work .

Later Rob

 

[StIhL MaGnUm]

Jim ,

Sounds like the machine you are talking about has a Bar Saw head on it , with a Hot saw (disk head) you cut the tree and grab it with the top arms as you cut or right when your about through it , the other set of lower arms are just accumulators so you can hold a tree and cut another one . The hot saw is stationary just rotates at high speed . Go to Quadco's website and you can see videos of them at work .

Later Rob

 

[Cummins_ISB_5.9]

I must say nice pics. That must be the model year after Valmet (Komatsu Forestry) bought out Timbco. Now Timbco is no longer, Valmet has taken on their design and called it their own, Same as John Deere has done with Timberjack.