Why you shoulad always put on chain brake

[nomak]

well I learned after twice cutting my upper part of my leg really good almost enough for a hospital visit that the chain brake should always be put on the second you pull out of a cut if youre done cutting with it.. if your gonna walk around with it for a minute or two then cut again definately use the brake... I made mistake of not doing so and cut both of my legs pretty deep at just a idle speed..needles to say it a habbit now to use the brake and I turned down the idle to so that the chain wasnt moving when not being throttled...

 

[nomak]

Huskies are crap!!!

do you even own a saw I mean really...you were blowing me crap in another thread about cutting a tree down and all I was wanting was advice on safe way to do so and even in that thread you made some off wall comment.. no this about huskys, so again do u even own a saw...or are you one of these people that troll forums just trying to stir up crap...

 

[EdenT]

No and No!

My employer supplied truck is equipped with:
2 * Stihl MS200T
Stihl MS441
Stihl MS440
Stihl MS250
Stihl MS660
Stihl HT75 Power Pruner

All of which I use and maintain every day. I guess that's two people at least who consider Stihl a superior saw! Personally apart from a wisecrack comment, I don't care what saw anyone uses.

Incidentally WRT 'the crap I was blowing you', why did you cut down that tree?

 

[Taxmantoo]

I can understand the 'oops, it sounds like I'm cooking the clutch, better reel it in and shut if off'.

I can also understand 'let's see if I can free up the throttle, then I'll restart and see if it can idle, nope, didn't work, shut it down again'.

The part that shocked me was 'I'll disengage the brake and start it with a stuck throttle and the brake off while I'm up in a tree'. (maybe you weren't 100% sure the throttle was wide open until you did that?)

 

[nomak]

No and No!

My employer supplied truck is equipped with:
2 * Stihl MS200T
Stihl MS441
Stihl MS440
Stihl MS250
Stihl MS660
Stihl HT75 Power Pruner

All of which I use and maintain every day. I guess that's two people at least who consider Stihl a superior saw! Personally apart from a wisecrack comment, I don't care what saw anyone uses.

Incidentally WRT 'the crap I was blowing you', why did you cut down that tree?

well I can take a wisecrack so no offense taken there.. But the reason I cut the tree down is because its in soft ground and was leaning pretty bad and trees in my yard are notoriuos for uprooting when they start leaning like that.. so beings that tree was at a pretty substantial lean and it was 75 ft tall and the ground already bulging up on the back side of it well I figure it was time for it to go ...pluas it had tree rot in it at the top of tree so it was dying on a side note as well...

 

[Tree Pig]

huskies are crap!!!

+1111111111111111111

 

[tree md]

I never just drop a saw like that. I used to when I was starting out but I never just drop them anymore. An exception would be if I got surprised and had to grab the tree real quick or block a falling/swinging limb or something. I very rarely take a rough ride anymore. At least to the point I would have to get rid of the saw and hang on. I've got good rope hands who know how to run ropes and I try not to shock anything. When I do get rid of the saw I drop it and grab hold of the lanyard and let it ease through my hands until it's at lanyard length.

That was a very reasonable chunk you took there. Here's how I would have done it: I would have made a face cut an inch or two into the tree. Looks like you notched it, which is fine but unnecessary and time consuming for such a small piece of wood, I would have just put a kerf in the face then cut a little above the kerf in the face cut on my back cut. I would have cut until the log started to sit down on my bar, removed my saw from the tree, turned the saw off, lowered it to the length of my lanyard and snapped the chunk over; "snap cut". Very easy, safe and controlled cutting method.

I very rarely use the chain break in the tree. I turn the saw off. I very rarely move in the tree with the saw powered. If I have to do something real quick and don't want to turn the saw off I will engage the break but mostly I just turn it off in between cuts.

 

[Treecutr]

Ok first. Taxman, maybe your girl hands can't handle a full throttle saw in the tree???? seriously, I love the guys who rag on people with no real constructive critisim. I do see your point, at the time was really just wondering what the hell was going on. LOL Life goes on.

treeMd, thanks for the advice on the snap cut. I use it all the time when blocking down spar, hadn't really thought of using it other ways. I'm still learning. Perhaps it may have been nerves on that particular cut?? Hey after 16 years in the Army, I was still nervous when I got into firefights in Iraq, LOL guess maybe thats not guite the same??

 

[tree md]

Control will come with experience.

Wasn't trying to get down on ya. Just trying to give some constructive criticism. When I first started out I would rip chunks right off the spar, shock ropes and sometimes even drop the saw to get rid of it while I grabbed a top or limb and chucked it where I wanted it to go. Now days I work a lot easier with less shock. More brains and less brawn.

Hey, your up there doing it. And coming along nicely I would say.

 

[treeclimber101]

8 Grand, it has a plow.

Oh well thats a real nice number Dan , can we set up a time before that plow needs to go back on so I can have a look see, and don't worry tree climber can pay , in Benjamins ....

 

[outofmytree]

First things first. Congrats on having a helmetcam!

As for the rest.

On the plus side you are using rigging and not just drop and hope. You also used the chainbrake as you should. Two gold stars!

As to the bad stuff. Im with taxman on the no-brake-drop-start-in-the-tree. Not a good look. I may well have done it myself but I have never captured it on film so you cannot prove a damn thing!

With that piece I would have used a snap cut just as Treemd suggested. It gives you time to put the saw on your hip.

Have you used a lanyard like this one before?

I find it is very quick to cut, engage brake, pass the saw to my right hip and clip on. Then you have two hands to snap and push.

BTW did you not have a groundie to let that piece run? I used to shock load ropes that same way myself and have retired a lot of good rope far too early because of it.

 

[Treecutr]

Control will come with experience.

Wasn't trying to get down on ya. Just trying to give some constructive criticism. When I first started out I would rip chunks right off the spar, shock ropes and sometimes even drop the saw to get rid of it while I grabbed a top or limb and chucked it where I wanted it to go. Now days I work a lot easier with less shock. More brains and less brawn.

Hey, your up there doing it. And coming along nicely I would say.

Nothing wrong with what you originally said, I take the pointers well. I have been doing this less than a year, NO instruction prior to when I started slowly experimenting . I worked as a ground guy for a little bit, but that company only did lift work, no climbers at all. I fed the chipper, that was it. I tried getting instruction, but got the sense the tree companies around here were family or close friends only. So I bought books, watched videos, came here, now I feel pretty good, still learning as I said though. i'd love to go do some work with other guys and learn more, but doesn't seem to be in the cards.

 

[tree md]

Nothing wrong with what you originally said, I take the pointers well. I have been doing this less than a year, NO instruction prior to when I started slowly experimenting . I worked as a ground guy for a little bit, but that company only did lift work, no climbers at all. I fed the chipper, that was it. I tried getting instruction, but got the sense the tree companies around here were family or close friends only. So I bought books, watched videos, came here, now I feel pretty good, still learning as I said though. i'd love to go do some work with other guys and learn more, but doesn't seem to be in the cards.

That is the tough thing about working on your own, not having anyone to learn new stuff from. Before I went out on my own I worked for 3 large services with multiple crews in addition to working for a couple of mom and pop services. It's nice when you can watch and learn from other climbers. I was working as a climber myself so I didn't get to watch other climbers everyday but I did get a chance every now and then to watch and learn new tricks. When you work for yourself you have to read and study to keep up with new techniques. That's what's great about this place. You can see how other climbers are doing it and learn. Just not as easy to employ when you are learning on your own. Low and slow is not always feasible in a commercial operation. Sometimes you have to use an off day as a "training day".

Stay safe!