GASoline71
Mr. Nice Guy
That is so true, and you tend to remember when something hurts. But in this line of work, that can also get you killed dead.
Gary
What to bring to first day on job
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That is so true, and you tend to remember when something hurts. But in this line of work, that can also get you killed dead.
Gary
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This is one of the best threads I have ever read on AS. Maybe I should get out of the CS forum more often.
OP, if you can, stick with your union job. Your boss may not be the best, but the money is better, the bennies are better, the retirement is better, and the wear and tear on your body can't be any worse. I love the idea of working hard in the woods, and I am glad I own a farm big enough to allow me to be a weekend warrior. You are young and your think that $200/d is good money. It is until you have a kid in college, a mortgage payment, and start needing to go to the dr. more than once per decade.
OP, if you can, stick with your union job. Your boss may not be the best, but the money is better, the bennies are better, the retirement is better, and the wear and tear on your body can't be any worse. I love the idea of working hard in the woods, and I am glad I own a farm big enough to allow me to be a weekend warrior. You are young and your think that $200/d is good money. It is until you have a kid in college, a mortgage payment, and start needing to go to the dr. more than once per decade.
Joe46
ArboristSite Guru
I can guarantee that working in the woods will get you into the Dr. more than once in a decade!
4x4American
Got Sawdust?
Thanks for the advice!
But...
I done quit my union job already...I wasn't in the union yet, wasn't too sure on if I was going to be able to get into one or not...
If things in the woods dont go so hot, my plan b is to try and get into the teamsters union and drive truck, or try and get into a welders union and become a welder. I have friends in both unions that I'm sure would be more than willing to help me get into their union. I will be driving truck for the logging company, and I am planning on getting a gas or diesel powered mig/tig/stick welder/generator to do side jobs and to keep my welding skills sharp. I needed to get out of working in the big city and back into the woods anyways, and this move is helping me start a new chapter in my life.
My last day at the construction company is this thursday or friday. Bossman is letting me stay late tomorrow to build myself a nice headache rack for my pickemup truck as I'll be loading it with logs everyday at the new job. Gonna wire in some lights, make a new mount for my cb whip antenna that was previously on my toolbox...and he said they're gonna throw me a going away party lol. Gonna stock me up on brake clean, 15w-40, diesel fuel, ATF, power steering fluid, the whole 9. Then I'm done with the city and not planning on going back...well I might go and visit to fill up with fuel change my oil and work on my pickemup truck.
And I know what you mean about the chainsaw forum, I can't spend all my AS time on that one forum haha I like this one alot.
Anyways, thanks again for the thoughts!
Doug
twochains
Addicted to ArboristSite
With your welding background, your age, and knowledge of trucking...have you considered natural gas pipeline? For a young fellow like yourself it is a gold mine in the making! Maybe you could check into it.
This is my last post on this thread, so I am going to end with this little summary.
At the age of 39 1/2 :msp_biggrin:, I have done everything you seemingly want to do, and I am not ashamed to tell you that life for me is a struggle. I have an ol'lady and a 10 year old son. I just wasn't cut out for a "collar" job, can't take people so well. I tried college...managed 22 hours and told my parents I was going to save them some money...I dropped out and left home, left the state entirely. I have always managed to work enough to get by...I own a couple vehicles, I have 54 acres of woods...I live in a mobile home.
If you have cruised a thread I just started you will see that I am headed to another logging crew. In the thread you can read what people are telling me I am up against as far as self employment and taxes etc. At my age I shouldn't be worried about what is around the next corner... but I am scared to death! I have been logging 7 days a week for the last 3 weeks, this is going into my 4th and I am booked through weekends as far as the eye can see. I HAVE to do this to make my bills...and I don't even near live a luxurious life style, I don't even have credit card debt.
All I am saying is this is a rough life in the bush for me. I love it, but when it becomes necessity to do what I am doing now, it is hard! You should see my hands, not only the scars and callous from 18 years of sawmills, logging, hay hauling...whatever it takes, but you should see them from just this past weekend! Fricken shredded by green briars tattooing them when the chainsaw hit, locus thorns stabbed into my legs, cedar top stickers buried in my hands.... I am not complaining, I am just trying to give you a realistic idea of what I have had to do...actually I am not even listing a 16th of what I have done or had to deal with.
I think the hardest part for me is the fact that I have nothing set up for the future, I have to live week to week for now. I'm sure that other people prolly don't suck at life as bad as I do but I just had some stuff I wanted to tell you. Like I said, this is my last post on this thread (prolly not that you care) if you ever have any questions or anything just pm me, always like to chat.
Good luck to you in whatever you end up doing, I am sure you will be fine with your choices. One thing in your benefit is your age... I'm boxed in.
Cheers!
This is my last post on this thread, so I am going to end with this little summary.
At the age of 39 1/2 :msp_biggrin:, I have done everything you seemingly want to do, and I am not ashamed to tell you that life for me is a struggle. I have an ol'lady and a 10 year old son. I just wasn't cut out for a "collar" job, can't take people so well. I tried college...managed 22 hours and told my parents I was going to save them some money...I dropped out and left home, left the state entirely. I have always managed to work enough to get by...I own a couple vehicles, I have 54 acres of woods...I live in a mobile home.
If you have cruised a thread I just started you will see that I am headed to another logging crew. In the thread you can read what people are telling me I am up against as far as self employment and taxes etc. At my age I shouldn't be worried about what is around the next corner... but I am scared to death! I have been logging 7 days a week for the last 3 weeks, this is going into my 4th and I am booked through weekends as far as the eye can see. I HAVE to do this to make my bills...and I don't even near live a luxurious life style, I don't even have credit card debt.
All I am saying is this is a rough life in the bush for me. I love it, but when it becomes necessity to do what I am doing now, it is hard! You should see my hands, not only the scars and callous from 18 years of sawmills, logging, hay hauling...whatever it takes, but you should see them from just this past weekend! Fricken shredded by green briars tattooing them when the chainsaw hit, locus thorns stabbed into my legs, cedar top stickers buried in my hands.... I am not complaining, I am just trying to give you a realistic idea of what I have had to do...actually I am not even listing a 16th of what I have done or had to deal with.
I think the hardest part for me is the fact that I have nothing set up for the future, I have to live week to week for now. I'm sure that other people prolly don't suck at life as bad as I do but I just had some stuff I wanted to tell you. Like I said, this is my last post on this thread (prolly not that you care) if you ever have any questions or anything just pm me, always like to chat.
Good luck to you in whatever you end up doing, I am sure you will be fine with your choices. One thing in your benefit is your age... I'm boxed in.
Cheers!
Last edited:
4x4American
Got Sawdust?
wow great post! I have heavily considered natural gas pipeline, my buddy is getting into it now as an apprentice and he makes it sound not so great, same pay as the logging company, except, he has to go to class every night and dont get out til 9-ten pm! I know he's just getting started and its not going to be like that for a long time, but anyways, yea I think that being a pipeliner would be an awesome career. I'm full out into going logging at the moment, I could work for this guy for at least a year and see how it goes with him, raises, benefits, how selling the firewood goes, etc. Then from there I'm gonna take a look at the big picture and see if I'm gonna change my career path again.
Anyways, now that my current career path choice is settled, I gotta couple few three questions, so twochains you mights best wanna stick around for a fellow east coast american citizen....
1) Should I use my own saw?
Even though this guy provides chainsaws and gas and this and that....I like my own equipment better. Would it be a bad idea to use my 461r? I know that #### can happen to it and its expensive....but I like it better than the 372xt's he provides. I am less than impressed with their performance, especially compared to my 461...so would it be a sin to use my own chainsaw and bars + chains? I might just be a stihl head but hey, I like what I like.
2) What's wrong with 4 more inches? This is america, the bigger, the better!
He runs 24" bars for most felling operations, I would prefer a 28 incher. I'm 6'2" and the less bending the better and with a longer bar I can do more. My mind is purdy well set on this 28" spectrum of life.
3) What kinda chain should I run?
Now for chain, we're cutting mainly oak, ash, maple, elm, but mainly oak on this job, lots of oak trees. Anyways, he provides oregen full comp round ground chisel chain. I'll get it really sharp, and then after dropping and topping a tree it'll seem dull again. Would a semi chisel chain be better for cutting oak? and how about chain sequence? For my 28" bar I got 1 full skip round ground chisel loop, 2 full comp round ground chisel loops and one RSLHK loop that I have had for awhile but dont want to use it because I don't know how to sharpen it and haven't found anyone who can teach me how to or do it for me.
4) Should I carry a stump vise?
Is it worth the extra weight carrying a stump vise around or should I just saw a little bit into something for a makeshift vise? My back will get to hurtin if I sharpen in an awkward position and havin a hurtin back just aint no good for noone.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading through my long post, I spent a long time typing all that.
If you contribute anything, thank you in advance, I do appreciate it alot!
Doug
There's plenty of stump vises out there. Bore in a little ways on a stump or cull tree and file away.
If you don't mind traveling 9-11 months a year welding is a good career. I've done it since my 18th birthday but worked all as a journeyman out of welding school. I didn't come up union so I didn't go through apprenticeship and always have got paid top pay if you pass the test. You can't make as much money as you can spend if you're not careful. I've seen people get paid on Thursday and bumming lunch money on monday. If you're good at saving money you can work 6 months hard and stay home 6 months and live good. When I was single I thought it was the greatest life ever. Now that I'm married and have one daughter and another coming in less than 2 months now it sucks. Having to leave home not knowing when you'll go home without quitting the job you're going to is no fun with a pregnant wife and 4 year old saying don't go.
Just a little perspective from someone not working in the woods and in fields you're considering.
If you don't mind traveling 9-11 months a year welding is a good career. I've done it since my 18th birthday but worked all as a journeyman out of welding school. I didn't come up union so I didn't go through apprenticeship and always have got paid top pay if you pass the test. You can't make as much money as you can spend if you're not careful. I've seen people get paid on Thursday and bumming lunch money on monday. If you're good at saving money you can work 6 months hard and stay home 6 months and live good. When I was single I thought it was the greatest life ever. Now that I'm married and have one daughter and another coming in less than 2 months now it sucks. Having to leave home not knowing when you'll go home without quitting the job you're going to is no fun with a pregnant wife and 4 year old saying don't go.
Just a little perspective from someone not working in the woods and in fields you're considering.
4x4American
Got Sawdust?
Thanks for the good advice, sounds like fun til you get settled down
I would use my own saw, I get squeamish with other peoples tools, plus sounds like yer saw runs better, and being a tall bastard (I'm 6.0 in socks) having the exter 4" means less bending over and less back aching, (046-460's with 32" bars) lots of guys round here seem to run the 28's but there all short and tend to trip on the longer bars...:msp_biggrin:
As far as chains go... I don't mess with oak real often, but I've had better luck with stihl chains, just harder metal in em... and carry a bunch of chains with ya, one gets dull swapping it out is quicker than touching it up, get yerself a chain grinder if ya can afford it and save some time when you get home. I you can't afford a grinder... get an old beat to Hel bar and slap it in a bench vice with a comfy stool infront of it, works almost as well as having it on the saw without having to work around the power head... its dark outside otherwise I'd take a pikture...(no lights in the forge)
As far as chains go... I don't mess with oak real often, but I've had better luck with stihl chains, just harder metal in em... and carry a bunch of chains with ya, one gets dull swapping it out is quicker than touching it up, get yerself a chain grinder if ya can afford it and save some time when you get home. I you can't afford a grinder... get an old beat to Hel bar and slap it in a bench vice with a comfy stool infront of it, works almost as well as having it on the saw without having to work around the power head... its dark outside otherwise I'd take a pikture...(no lights in the forge)
redprospector
Addicted to ArboristSite
4x4American
Got Sawdust?
That's what I'm thinkin. I like my stihl chains better than oregon chains thus far. I have an oregon 511ax grinder so plan is to sharp them at night. There aint no way to accurately grind rakers with the 511ax is there? My boss at the sawmill grinds rakers with his chain grinder. I've tried with the 511ax, but I cant get them as good as I can by hand yet, but it would be easier to use the grinder ifen i could.
4x4American
Got Sawdust?
4x4American
Got Sawdust?
I assume yer still having fun?
Mondays and Tuesday's are usually always fun unless one or fifty of a billion things go wrong. But on a smooth week by Thursday its a little harder to say goodbye to the sheets when the alarm sounds. And Friday can be one of those days where you feel like time is going in slow motion. Every whip does its job of smacking you in your face or hanging on your ax, every vine does its job of wrapping itself around both feet at once. Mud slicker than ice sends you to the deck. Head leaners find a way to sit back, back cleaners that you back,wedge and face dify gravity and sit on your face cut before there supposed to,there is dirt caked exactly where every bucking cut occurs, the equilibrium takes the day off and either your jugs or your saw go bounding down the hill like they have legs. It's a great wonderful way to make a living though.
imagineero
Addicted to ArboristSite
Now you're loggin'
4x4American
Got Sawdust?
Monday and Tuesday sucked! I hated it. Monday was freezing rain all day whilst trudging through snow. Tuesday was just trudging through snow, and working side by side with this guy who's a jerk a-hole stupid thinks he knows it all type guy (supposed to be the log truck driver) but we couldnt send any loads out mon or tues so he was working in the woods with us making my day hell, guy thinks he's my boss cause he's been working there for 3 weeks and I've only worked 3 days. I watched him almost get crushed by a tree. I made a mistake, tried to get a pretty hard leaner to fall opposite it's lean. Reason was cause the other side was lots of rocks and the way I wanted it to go would put it right in line with the skid trail. The tree sat back on the bar, I got it out with a wedge, then I saw that my back cut wasn't lining up too good with the hinge, it was too low. I tried wedging it over, to no avail. Since my cut wasn't lining up, I had the bright idear to start another back cut that lined up. Well before I could get a wedge in the tree sat back on the bar. Tried for awhile, couldn't get it out. So I took off the powerhead. Then the skidder come by, riding shotgun in the skidder was the guy I can't stand. He got out and rubbed it in my face that I screwed up. Then the skidder operator decided to try and push the tree over in the direction of it's lean because he couldn't get around the back to push it over the direction of the cut. No luck pushing it over. Then he hooked a chain to it. The guy I don't like told me to get the hell outta the way, so I got the hell outta the way. Then the skidder started tugging on it while the guy I dont like stayed at the base of the tree for some reason I had no idea. Then the tree starts falling the way I cut it, and I see the guy I don't like running through the brush fast as he could holding the bar and chain. He's trying to out run the tree in the direction it's falling. The skidder operator is screaming run and everything got slow motion. I was screaming to run sideways cause I saw the whole thing I was like 200 ft from the base of the tree in the direction it was falling. The guy I don't like made it with a few feet to spare. If he fell or got tripped up he would have been dead or seriously injured. All to save a bar that was pinched hard from the skidder trying to push the tree over the other way. He then threw the bar and chain at me and said get your ####ing saw back together, which is when I found out that the bar was pinched. Then the guy who I don't like tried blaming his near death experience on me! It was his own damn fault that he ran that way and why would he even try to save a bar risking his life! You can buy more bars, you can't buy another life! So after that experience the guy I dont like told me that I was working with him for the rest of the day limbing and topping his trees. He gave me a whole speech about how I don't know anything and how he's the best cutter in the land. He said that he's been running a chainsaw since he was 8 years old and he's 28 now and this and that. I was thinking well if you're so damn good then how come I had to come get his chainsaw unstuck about 30 times yesterday and today? And how come 5 trees that he fell in a row got hung up when I didn't have one tree hang up or have any problems falling any trees right where I wanted them to go with the exception of the one I tried to defy gravity against. When the bossman found out that I was working with numbnuts for the rest of the day he said are you kidding me! I have hundreds of bars and chains at home them are pennies dont let a bar phase you that's how you learn, now keep falling. Monday and tueday really had me question my decision to switch career paths.
So today numbnuts was out driving truck and I worked side by side with bossman falling trees, limbing, topping and hooking the logs to the skidder from 7 til noon then he went to the landing to buck and stack logs. He gave me 4 trees to drop and top and limb and such and a mess of tops to go level to keep me busy for the rest of the day. I got everything did and bossman was really happy nothing was split and he liked the way I sent the logs to him nice and trimmed and non of them split. He told me that I was improving greatly and "by the end of the week you'll be a timber faller...eerrrr well an apprentice timber faller, which is 2 steps above a greenhorn."
Today was a great day, though I really dreaded parting with the sheets this am though. Was in the 40's and nice, but the skid trails got trashed today. The town might be shutting us down due to some frost thing in about two weeks and we still have 100,000 board feet to cut on this job. Friday we're working at bear mountain taking care of 40 acres of windfalls. Bossman said that we're trying to get our foot in the door because they have 40,000 acres of untouched timber that he wants to log.
I am growing more accustomed to the 372's we use. I dont like them as much as my stihls but they're okay I guess.
My body is still getting used to working the muscles that haven't been worked, my left arm I can tell is going to be strong than my right arm. I got a load of firewood monday. Bossman help me split it. I havent unloaded yet because I can't get to my woodpile since the field is snowed in, bossman says I'd better dump the wood off somewhere so that I can take home more wood, he said I should be taking home a face cord a day.
The money aspect is the only thing that kinda sucks, the max I can make here is 200/day, bossman said the last faller he had working for him worked there for 10 years and he maxed out at 200/day but also took home a cord of wood in his truck everyday.
Anyways, that's my update, thanks to anyone who cared to read through this.
Doug
The script writers from axmen will be calling for a better description to add to a show. You forget to yell look out.
Sounds like an idiot of a guy to work with. Maybe you won't have to work with him any more.
Sounds like an idiot of a guy to work with. Maybe you won't have to work with him any more.
ShermanC
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4x4American
Got Sawdust?
Hahaha! The guy I hate to work with would fit right in on axmen. If I didn't have to work with him anymore, I'd be very happy cause I'm about fed up with him. The bossman today mentioned him, he said you know he dont know how to be a team player, did you hear the way he was talking to me yesterday? If I was ten years younger I woulda jacked his jaw....Then bossman commenced to give me and the skidder operator this little speech: "Now, greenhorns, it's good friday and there aint no pope! (takes off his hardhat and spits on the top of it and replaces tin hat) I'm now the pope and I say god gave us this timber for us to cut down and whoever said that money dont grow on trees is a got dang liar! Now let's go make some sawchips! (starts his saw and revs it up a bunch and cuts a cookie out of a nearby firewood log, doing a fancy little jig dance move thing at the end of the cut looking like a real BA) Now you bring a stihl in and try to keep up with me boy I'll show ya who makes the better saw!" haha well after this inspirational speech we were all sorts of hot to trot to bring in the timber. His good friend also died this morn, he told me "well I seen him a few days ago, so I dont have to go to his funeral, I'll just stand outside and sell cigarettes" hahaha he had me laughing hard, he's a funny feller ..errr... faller
