Wedge Stacking?

[windthrown]

Yep. The mill doesn't care how the wood gets there. As long as it gets there and in one piece.

Well, the mill also cares about length. Too short and they will not take them. Too long, and they may charge for cutting them. That happened to a guy I knew in Roseburg. He had a load of logs rejected by the mill for being too short. So he cut his next load of logs long, and they billed him for the cuts! He was furious at them for that. Fortunately for him there were a lot of mills near Roseburg at that time ('04) and he was able to sell the shorties in Drain. He also found another mill to sell his logs to.

 

[windthrown]

Hey gypo, you sure get grumpy in the winter... maybe think about getting one of them happy lights? or maybe cable... Play some hockey, dig a tunnel to town...

Just sayin, rest of the year yer kinda fun...

Do not worry about John staying busy in winter. He is out making snow angels in the snow, nekked.

 

[northmanlogging]

Do not worry about John staying busy in winter. He is out making snow angels in the snow, nekked.

eeeheeww

 

[Bwildered]

I'm not disputing plastic wedges don't lift, they just don't lift much before they start to do everything but lift. I think the method with wedges stacked in bore cuts gets the most out of the poor little things safer, the negatives some have put up are a bit limp, like having to do bore cuts to a depth greater than the length of a wedge, if you're a competent Faller & that's an unsafe activity you're in the wrong game. Boring out the centre of the hinge isn't an unsafe practice or method either. Having to cut out the wedges after is a mystery as well, as a hit with the back of an axe on top of the mortise cuts will break them out easily, all I'm seeing is resistance to another method without any reasonable grounds.
Stanks

 

[KiwiBro]

I'm not disputing plastic wedges don't lift, they just don't lift much before they start to do everything but lift. I think the method with wedges stacked in bore cuts gets the most out of the poor little things safer, the negatives some have put up are a bit limp, like having to do bore cuts to a depth greater than the length of a wedge, if you're a competent Faller & that's an unsafe activity you're in the wrong game. Boring out the centre of the hinge isn't an unsafe practice or method either. Having to cut out the wedges after is a mystery as well, as a hit with the back of an axe on top of the mortise cuts will break them out easily, all I'm seeing is resistance to another method without any reasonable grounds.
Stanks

Get to it on a good sized back leaner and post plenty of pictures please.

 

[windthrown]

eeeheeww

Oh, I forgot to add that he is using a wedge making his snow angels. Nekked.

 

[windthrown]

Get to it on a good sized back leaner and post plenty of pictures please.

Too bad I never hosted a GTG at my ex's place, as many wanted to here. She has a dozen good sized pistol butts, a few dozen bad leaners, and all kinds of crap trees that needed to be dropped because the previous owner high graded or 'select cut' and left all the crap, snags and culls standing on her property. Those would have made for good videos, and lots of different techniques for bore cutting, off angle back cuts, stacked wedges, rope work, and the like. Glad I did not though, after what happend to Scotty and his wife at their later GTG. There is always at least one turd that shows up.

 

[KiwiBro]

Too bad I never hosted a GTG at my ex's place, as many wanted to here. She has a dozen good sized pistol butts, a few dozen bad leaners, and all kinds of crap trees that needed to be dropped because the previous owner high graded or 'select cut' and left all the crap, snags and culls standing on her property. Those would have made for good videos, and lots of different techniques for bore cutting, off angle back cuts, stacked wedges, rope work, and the like. Glad I did not though, after what happend to Scotty and his wife at their later GTG. There is always at lest one turd that shows up.

The chance to learn from pros in a bunch of challenging trees would be a great thing indeed.

 

[windthrown]

The chance to learn from pros in a bunch of challenging trees would be a great thing indeed.

At that time it would have been. I have since pretty much figured out the methods for doing bore and off angle back cuts to better control the falls in a lot of tall redwoods, leaning pines and twisted eucs down on California on a property that I help manage in Mendocino Co. I trade tree work for vacation housing, abalone, and top quality cellar wine. I posted some photos of the early redwood falling here back in '07 or '08, but the AS hack wiped them all out. I do not have backups of those anywhere.

 

[Bwildered]

Get to it on a good sized back leaner and post plenty of pictures please.

????? In our HWDs! I'll be successfully doing soft Dutchman cuts before I progress onto that next level of impossible.
Fangst

 

[bitzer]

I'm not disputing plastic wedges don't lift, they just don't lift much before they start to do everything but lift. I think the method with wedges stacked in bore cuts gets the most out of the poor little things safer, the negatives some have put up are a bit limp, like having to do bore cuts to a depth greater than the length of a wedge, if you're a competent Faller & that's an unsafe activity you're in the wrong game. Boring out the centre of the hinge isn't an unsafe practice or method either. Having to cut out the wedges after is a mystery as well, as a hit with the back of an axe on top of the mortise cuts will break them out easily, all I'm seeing is resistance to another method without any reasonable grounds.
Stanks

So removing more wood than necessary in the back cut of a tree is ok, thereby setting yourself up for more work and more material to add? Its time consuming and pointless. I wedge trees every day with no problem. If i know its going go need more than a double stack and it has to go one way then it gets jacked. The bore cuts and how deep they are is not the issue. Further compromising a tree when it is not necessary is futile. The tree will wedge MUCH harder when the wedges are in contact with wood instead of another wedge. They have to squeeze into that kerf you made until you drive them in far enough to break the wood away from the sides. Plastic wedges are meant for lifting trees, not breaking wood. I know ur aussie hardwoods are very soecial and can not be tamed, but here in the timid north we swing or wedge our trees with the help of gravity in a expediant manner. Don't worry, i will give you new reasons every day if you like. Whats your name by the way? I like to know who i'm debating with. I think we've arrived at that station eh mate?

 

[treeslayer2003]

windthrown, there is a big difference between a high grade and a proper selection. just saying, they are not the same prescription even if some greedy loggers did one for the other.

 

[windthrown]

windthrown, there is a big difference between a high grade and a proper selection. just saying, they are not the same prescription even if some greedy loggers did one for the other.

I know that, and her property was badly high graded. My original cruise assessment and several others confirmed it, including a guy named George Fenn who taught me a lot about tree management, and from the state that came out to do the forest plan. They took all the good timber and left all the crap trees. They also did not pay the federal taxes and stuck my ex with that as well. She was naïve when she bought that place. She had a choice of paying the taxes, suing the old owners for the taxes, or re-planting it and putting it under a forest plan. She did the forest plan and replanted thousands of trees when I lived there. If I stayed there I would have clear cut the bad parts 10 acres at a time and just replanted it, piece meal. There is just no fixing high graded stands. To get high quality Doug fir, you need to plant them in the sun, grow them as a stand and push the crowns up uniformly, and thin them at intervals to get high quality low taper. I went to tree school at OSU.

 

[northmanlogging]

I'm not disputing plastic wedges don't lift, they just don't lift much before they start to do everything but lift. I think the method with wedges stacked in bore cuts gets the most out of the poor little things safer, the negatives some have put up are a bit limp, like having to do bore cuts to a depth greater than the length of a wedge, if you're a competent Faller & that's an unsafe activity you're in the wrong game. Boring out the centre of the hinge isn't an unsafe practice or method either. Having to cut out the wedges after is a mystery as well, as a hit with the back of an axe on top of the mortise cuts will break them out easily, all I'm seeing is resistance to another method without any reasonable grounds.
Stanks

take a long hard look at that picture I posted earlier, there are multiple stacks of three, those where started before the jack came into play, if you have trouble using plastic wedges try aiming yer wacking stick a little more carefully, sort of the point of using an axe with a square poll is to not melt or have wedges get crooked.

like madhatte and several others have stated, removing material from the lift side just means more work to replace that material. It also means loosing more lift with the wedges you have, since they won't do anything until they compress the fibers on both sides rather then just one, for instance a stack of 2 wedges wedge on wedge only compresses fiber on the extreme sides of the stack, stacking into plunge cuts, compresses fibers on both sides of every wedge. Not to mention having to stuff an extra 2-3 inches of wedge into a hole before it even makes contact.

Also, boring is dangerous it invites a kickback there is no better way to get a kick back then boring, granted "professionals" with "professional" training should be able to bore cut without getting hurt, and I bore all the time, its just not something I use first, because its dangerous. Also the part you seem to be forgetting is that your talking to PRODUCTION cutters here, some more then others yes. Folks that hand cut professionally don't have time or energy to **** about with ****** methods and half baked ideas, we use what works and generally can see from 5 feet away what works and what does not.

Keep in mind the same ass hats that are demanding the OP use this method are also demanding and trying to force a rule change to require EVERYONE to rope a tree bigger then most Christmas/Yule trees. Its ****ing moronic peroid.

 

[windthrown]

Yeeeeeeeee haaaaaaah!

 

[northmanlogging]

That right there will be the start of more then a few brawls

 

[rwoods]

I have just one question for you wedge stacking pros - how much did Toyota pay you guys to star in the RAV4 commercial?

Oh, one more question did NM get his shirt back, or did Mr, Rav get to keep it?

Ron

 

[windthrown]

From the new movie, Tree Roping

 

[treeslayer2003]

Ron, lol.

WT, weren't bustin ya chops or nothin, its just that term high grade rubs me wrong.......i seen alot of it here. sorry, i would addressed you by name but for the life of me i can't remember it. happens more and more.....very frustrating.

 

[KiwiBro]

Treeslayer, it's Hank. And for the record, I still love my non-pro clamshell MS310 Hank helped me procure many years ago. My first 'real' saw (relative to the saws I had been murdering) and the first act of generosity I experienced from anyone on this site.