All Replies on Lost another Beauty Yesterday

If my day job didn’t keep me, I’d be down there with the chainsaw mill tomorrow. That is, at least, if there was some salvageable wood in it.

Be careful when you cut it free from the base. You could end up in a bad spot really quickly.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Damn shame. About all of it.

-- My dad and I built a 65 chev pick up.I killed trannys in that thing for some reason-Hog

Yes, be very careful, a friend of mine was hit in the head by a branch under tension, went into a coma, and never came out of it. He wasn’t even 30 years old!

-- "I never met a board I didn't like!"

Doss,

That tree will be here until at least next week as I have 4 other tree’s to dispose of.

We advertised all over offering free wood, firewood, logs, etc for two weeks with no takers.

I’ve been burning some beautiful oak for the last two weeks and finally got done with the sycamore a couple of days ago. These aren’t really big trees, probably 40” across average with 20-25’ trunks.

I really hate losing this wonderful wood, but my boss says it has to go!

Oldnovice, Yeah, I’m very careful around the downed trees. I’ve seen too many widow makers in my life to take anything for granted!

If anyone wants any of this, come and get it before it’s nothing but ashes!

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Mother Nature is surely Beauty & the Beast… Very sad..

-- Roger from KY. Work/Play/Travel Safe. Kentuk55@bellsouth.net

Check out this bruiser from the storm in WV. I couldn’t find a picture of the uprooted roots but the ball had to be 8’ plus in diameter.
.

-- My dad and I built a 65 chev pick up.I killed trannys in that thing for some reason-Hog

What really bothers me is that we’ve offered this wood to anyone that wants it.

One guy said that if we’d cut it up for him he’d take it.

Another asked if we delivered.

Still another promised to come by for a pickup load if we would cut it and split it for him.

Wife told one guy he could have all of it but it would cost him $25 for my gas, oil and chain on the saw…. He said that was too much as that was his weekly gas allowance.

HOw hard do you have to work to give something away and make life easier for someone else?

Sorry if I sound a bit sour, but I told one guy I was going to slab some of it up for lumber and he was shocked that I would do that rather than go to Lowe’s and buy their stuff. His idea of wood working was deck screws through the wood, (no pre-drilling), and selling some odd Adirondack chairs for $195 each.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

We had an oak about 4 blocks from me come down and trap 2 firefighters in their truck 2 days ago while they were responding to downed power lines after a nasty thunderstorm rolled through. The Tstorms seem to be getting worse and worse up here in new england.

-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty

It is pretty unbelievable that people don’t seem to be willing to work for almost anything these days. I would love to get my hands on that much firewood in one place! I don’t have access to a chainsaw mill, but that tree would keep my family warm on cold Ohio days for quite some time!
Sorry you lost a tree, I have lost a few biggish ones myself and they leave such a hole in the heart and the landscape.
Take care.

-- Central Ohio, Still got 9 and 15/16 fingers!

That’s too bad about the trees. I hope you get some relief from the drought soon. North Georgia is in a bad drought now.

helluvawreck
https://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com

-- If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. Henry David Thoreau

When I lived in Illinois we had a typical April storm with a little wind than normal but not even near tornado level. When it passed our neighbor across the street called and asked if we were going to have the tree removed off of the street. I was surprised when I went outside and saw our 30’ maple tree laying on its side and partially in the street.

This maple tree was thick with leaves and I believe that the wind came around the corner of the house, caught all those leaves and twisted it so much that it snapped the roots just below the ground. I really hated to loose that tree because it was just gorgeous.

I called one of my colleagues from work, who had a backyard lumber mill, he cut up the tree, took the pieces that were millable, milled them into boards, and put them in his drying shed.

One day there will be a piece of furnture or some turnings from this tree and at the least it didn’t get burned up!

-- "I never met a board I didn't like!"

The logistics are just too great for some people. Most people don’t have equipment capable of moving or processing even a medium-sized tree, let alone something that is 36”+.

Moving them into a truck bed or trailer is also a challenge. Then, storing it.

Sometimes, it’s even the smallest things like owning a chainsaw capable of breaking it down to manageable sizes.

Like I said, if I had the time, I would be down there in a heartbeat with my truck to load some up. We’re not allowed to cut down our live oaks on the Coast (I believe we’ve had this conversation before… maybe not).

I’m always looking for new trees to add to my milling collection.

It’s just a dang shame no one wants to even get some of it. That’s just a waste. Start cutting it into firewood and sell some cords. People will usually come then.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

What a nerve if someone offered me free wood and was prepared to saw it for a fair price my money of course .I would be onto it right away he wanted his gas money what a nerve. Alistair

-- excuse my typing as I have a form of parkinsons disease

Doss,

This is Texas, the closest town of more than 3000 souls is 42 miles away.

In every kitchen is a roll of duct tape, a roll of baling wire, (pronounced “Balin’ Waar”), and a can of WD-40.

Every one knows how to use all the above and you should see some of the fixes I’ve seen around here, LOL.

A lot of this wood is under 12” thick and most are already cut to 4’ or less except for the one that fell of it’s own accord. That one is about half gone today, as I got out at 05:30 and lopped a bunch of it up.

Most people have a chainsaw, or know where they can borrow one, likewise, they also have access to a pickup truck, and/or a 16’ flatbed trailer or a small horse trailer.

I believe there are more tractors than there are dogs here…. well, maybe that’s exaggerating, but every day I see at least 4 tractors and maybe 3 or 4 UTES and a few 4 wheelers going past our place headed to the local store for gas and a 30 pack of beer.

Within a 1/2 mile of us are at least 2000 head of cattle, 150-200 head of horses, 3 camels, (yeah, really – although one is for sale), 100 mules and 5 jack asses, although at the next election that may change.

4 years ago we got a stop light in our town and the locals are so proud of it! It has almost doubled the income made for the city. Our local newspaper, (Robertson County Press, one page and sometimes only 1 1/2 sides), made a major fete` out of the installation of that light by the state and that it didn’t cost the county or the city anything.

Up until 4 1/2 years ago, our “Now Entering” and “Now Leaving” signs were on the same post. They had to change that so the stop light would fit.

One of the gas stations in town still washes windshields and has a free air hose. Kids play with that hose at night after closing.

We can even write a “Counter Check” at the local grocery store and no one thinks about it twice.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Dallas, The times they are a changing. And not necessarily for the better. Everyone thinks they are “entitled” these days. Ahhh, now I feel better!

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm

I have the feeling you may be correct Andy.

It hurt my heart to see this old tree go down, but it hurt my sensibilities even more when everyone wanted me to do their work for them.

I think what hurts the most is that I have no way to save most of the lumber from these trees. The boss wants it gone yesterday and the stump cut back.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

ouch!

I don’t know if it’s just in my area or not, but in the last two years I have seen more big oak trees die than I have in the last 50 years.
They are ofter huge big healthy looking treeswith 2 to 3 ft diameter trunks and not wormy ot damaged looking. They are just green one year and dead the next.

-- Michael :-{| Diapers and politicians both need to be changed often; and for the same reason.

Dallas, I live in east Texas too and I’v’e got one about the same size, same thing, but it’s still standing. I’m thinking I’ll cut it down when it get a little cooler.

-- Darrell, making more sawdust than I know what to do with

Michael and Darrel,

It’s probably not just your area. A friend of mine up around Tyler has 500 acres that were mostly Oak, Red, White, Bur, Pin, Live, etc.

As of this spring he has a bunch of tree trunks, standing dead.

Another friend near Abilene has 40 acres and it was all cleared off about a month ago because of the dead trees.

Our Pecans haven’t put out a usable nut since at least 2004.. 4 years before we got here.

The boss has finally OK’ed a minor budget increase to try and save what trees I can. It’s not much, and I think it may be too late already, buy I’ll do my best.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

What’s the plan to save them Dallas?

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

The first line of defense is to secure a reliable source of water.

We are required by county ordinance to use the county water supply for our potable water. That means we had to deconstruct and remove any water pumps to our wells as proof of compliance.

We have four wells here, with possibly a 5th one long hidden that I’m looking for actively.

At the moment we will be placing two small electrical water pumps in a couple of the wells and in another well too far from electric service, I have a 3HP gas engine I can convert to propane. Adding a pump head and a couple of 300 gallon totes will supply water for our back 40.

Then I will use a product made by Bayer Chemicals that is suppose to kill insect, grub, ant and worm infestations.
I have an old fire truck pump on a 3-71 Detroit diesel engine that delivers a lot of liquid at a great distance, along with a 1 1/2” hose. I’m pretty sure I can reach 75-100’ in the air with it.

The problem is that even if the trees survive, they will probably have been so damaged that they will be shedding dead limbs and weak pieces for decades.

What surprises me is that even the Cedar tree’s are being infested with carpenter ants now… I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Dallas

The tree is not a waste, you can probelly sell alot of it to wood turners. Like the chunks of wood that the limbs split would have some nice curl in them.

Let me know if you want to sell some 12”x12”x5” chunks (They will fit in a USPS flat rate box)

Arlin

-- It is always the right time, to do the right thing. Lovinghandsmemoryboxs.com

Arlin, I don’t have a lathe and so, don’t do any turning.

I need education on how to make turning blocks and pen blanks and such.

Maybe we should start a thread on making turning blanks and blocks?

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Great idea Arlin and about the thread Dallas.

My trees are constantly shedding huge limbs to the tune of about 2 truckloads every year (small and big branches). It’s pretty annoying since I’m in the city and the waste disposal people aren’t a huge fan of me dumping dead branches in the trash cans.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Dallas, I had to cut down a pin oak this spring that was 37” at the cut line. I took it to a friend that has a small mill. He was able to cut all but the large end. Another friend has a chart on trees. He estimated the large end to weigh around 5000 lb. Be careful with that stuff. I am going to take down another pin oak that is around 24 or maybe a little larger. I am trying to save a 3rd tree that has really thin leaves. The extreme heat we had in SW Oklahoma las summer did us in. Lots of dead mature trees. I removed the first one because it was near my house and about 70 ft tall.

I can only hope that one will make a beautiful furniture out of that lovely tree.

Doss… We can’t send it to the dump. The pieces won’t fit in the dumpster, and if they did, the truck probably couldn’t pick it up without blowing anther hydraulic line. Good thing we are allowed to open burn.

Grandpa, with what’s left of this tree, most of it is about 7’ off the ground held up by 4 huge branches with all the weight resting on them. I’m kind of leery of lopping any one branch because the thing is obviously in tension.
My thought is to get my logging chains out and I happen to have a 13 ton commercial bus to hook them to, then pull as hard as I can and see if I can knock it off those upright branches, (Each is about 10 -14” across).
If that works, my life will be better and I’ll breathe easier.
As it sits, The rest of the tree scare the peewaddin’ out of me when trying to cut above my head. I’m use to nice simple trees like Doug Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Cedars, Juniper, Spruce, Cypress, Bodark, Elm, Alder, Poplar and a few different oaks, but this thing is so damaged, and has so many cracks in it it could snap anyplace.

Fishinbo…. I am going to try and save as much as I can, but my boss wants it all taken care 3 days ago. Downed tree’s make our commercial RV park look bad, and besides, it’s hard to mow around them and they draw copperheads.

The bar on my saw is only 20” so I won’t be able to take as large a slab as I would like, but they should be respectable.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

I walked around mine for a long time tryng to decide how to get it on a trailer to take it to the mill. The guy at the mill said, “oh just load it with a tractor. I do it all the time.” Sure he was loading 12 inch cedar logs. I ran across an old friend and he told me he had a boom truck and he could do it. I believed him and he was at my house the following Saturday morning. Worked great. It was a truck that was designed for utility work. It has a fiberglass bucket (cherry picker), extension boom with cable and an auger. It was an old city maintenance truck. He bought 2 and made one good one with some spare parts left. Fiends with neat toys are great. No charge to lift the log and no charge to saw the log. I am blessed.

At least I don’t have to worry about putting this thing on a trailer!

My plan if I can knock it off it’s pins with the bus will be to lop it in place into rollable rounds and drag them about 200 yards to the burning pile or 100 yards to the covered open shed on the side of my bosses shop where I can put them up on wood beams to air dry for a few years.

If the bus trick doesn’t work initially, then the plan is to hook the bus and chains up, use some 20 ton hydraulic jacks to take the weight off each pin and cut most of the way through the wood, then drag sideways with the bus.

I’ve got 5 30’ chains transport rated at either 5,000 lbs or 13,000 lbs. along with about 30 4” web straps and winches built to hold down oversized loads. O think I might be able to wreak some havoc on this tree with those!

I got my new 72LPX chains in the mail today… What a difference! While there might be a possibility of more kickback, The cutting ability sure outstrips that Oregon Safety chain. From 3 minutes to buck a 40” round, (2 cuts, one on each side), to 1 minute 20 seconds.
Ripping is much faster and smoother also, but I haven’t really measured the difference.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Dallas, remember not to yank on those chains and straps with the bus. At those lengths, they will act like giant slingshots and if they break you (or someone around) could be seriously injured or worse. I know with the big diesel I’m always tempted to yank on things when they refuse to come out. Are they Grade 70 or Grade 43 chains? And, the difference (in weight rating) is pretty huge in terms of safety.

Kickback is easy to forget about when you’re not putting the saw in a situation where it will normally happen. Then, when you do and you’re super-confident that it won’t happen, it’ll bite you.

There’s that word again… ripping. Is it cutting ribbons while ripping? :-)

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

I have to rip down the length of some of this stuff or the wife can’t lift the pieces to take them to the burn pile. And yes, there are some ribbons, LOL!

I never use the chains to jerk with. Those are for steady pulls. (G-70 chains), I do have a 25 ton recovery strap I used when I did heavy duty wrecker service. We call those “Snatch Straps” and they are built to take a small load and multiply it by stretching like a rubber band. I’ve pulled a loded semi out of a ditch using a little one ton wrecker with straps like that. Scary to use because you just KNOW that thing is going to snap when you hit the end of it!

I didn’t get out there with the bus today, some other issues got in the way, but when I do no one will be anywhere close but me…. and I’ll be 35’ away from the strap with 26000 pounds of aluminum and steel between me and possible mayhem.
I won’t even let the wife be anywhere close because I’ve grown kind of fond of her over the years and I would really hate to have to break a new one in.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Awesome Dallas (especially the wife comment, made me laugh).

Yeah, I know about the snatch straps. There are a lot of people that think every strap is a snatch strap though.

The car only weighs 3500 lbs. The strap is for 4000 lbs. It should be safe to give it 10’ of slack and then gun it… it’ll pull the car right out <facepalm>

This might be a great chance to use dynamite though or leave what you can’t use [safely] and burn it to the ground if you can.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Well, Buggers, I know better than this!

I had the burn pile going this morning and the wife was watching it until she had to go to town and do the mail stuff.

I decided to go out and consolidate the fire while she was gone and happened to forget my gloves.

STUPID!

I was watching every piece to make sure it wasn’t a hot coal. I even looked at the one I picked up, Almost all the way around! Turns out it had a hot bunch of coals about 2” long by 1/2” wide and I grabbed it with great Gusto!

I won’t lose any finger prints, but I’ll think Dammit for a few days!

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Those lessons we learn are most valuable when remembered.

Having almost learned the same thing you did, I always pick that stuff up with shovels or similar now.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Ribbons from the chainsaw:

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

HA! I want to see the angle you’re cutting at to get those. That ain’t happenin’ on a rip. LOL

Guess your hand is feelin’ better though.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Doss,

My hand has some ugly scabs on it right now, because I was out working the next day and broke the blisters open. It was sore for awhile and hard to get my glove off as gunk from the blisters stuck to the leather.

It really doesn’t matter what angle you cut at because those ribbons actually come from what happens as the tooth goes around the nose of the bar.
It doesn’t cut them at the top of the tooth but from the side.
This is a picture I took of a piece of Sycamore I was playing with. I stopped the saw and split the log in half with wedges to get the photo.
You can see as the chain went around, that there are ribbons being cut.
I was taught this method of sharpening by an old time logger back in the 1960’s. He would use the marks left (minus the ribbons) by the bar as hair on the heads and feathers on birds of his chain saw carvings. I was never really good at it and could only get short ones.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!

Very interesting. Good way to illustrate a point. I think this has more to do with your technique rather than the sharpening.

The tip of my saw never even gets in the wood during a rip for me. When I see-saw the bar, it produces larger chips though because of the angle of the teeth in relation to the woodgrain. With the angle I can envision you using, it would produce those ribbons like you’re seeing.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Your right, I don’t like burying the nose of the bar in the saw any more than I can help it. On little homeowner saws. Doing that is a good way to ruin the nose sprocket on them.

I still have the OEM bar on this one and overheated the tip a few times. I’ve ordered an Oregon Pro bar and a couple of chisel chains to fit.

So far I have about 70 hours on it and it still starts easily and runs well, although at times I kind of wish it would quit every so often so I could get a break.

-- Improvise.... Adapt...... Overcome!