guitarborist
ArboristSite Member
I work with another member on this site who goes by the handle "Spider", she lives north of town on 14 acres that are wooded and about 1000' higher than Missoula. We are thinning and selectively harvesting trees on her land to mill right now. She is getting rid of quite a few Doug fir trees (regrowth from many years ago, should be larch and Ponderosa) and cutting some beetle kill pondy's too. The trees are all 24-30" dbh and 75-100' tall, I think we are cutting about 30 of them. She plans on building a house with the wood. I come into the picture because I just happen to have a csm, lucky me, because I get half the wood for the payment of cutting the trees down and milling them.
I am adding to the csm for this project too. I ordered the parts to change over to 3/8 pitch form .404 and a 30" roller tip bar. Right now I am cutting the trees down with the 075 and a 42" hard tip bar, a wee bit overkill and very heavy. I ordered some larger extrusions and a linear bearing to make a beam cutter. So I will make the first cut with the mill and ladder for the guide rail then use the new extrusion and bearing a to cut the sides off the log. I should be able to make cants with out having to turn the log at all. This should speed up the hole process quite a bit. We are not skidding any of the logs, I am milling them where the tree falls so the easier the better.
The area where she lives is a wildlife corridor and mountainous. I am leaving my stuff there and tarping it. Over the last week it was visited by a bear, evident by the bear poo and tarp being pulled back. There is also many deer and elk in the area and mountain lion too. I am very excited about this project and it is a great area to hang out in too. It is lots-o-work but I really like the low impact of the csm (portable, no skidding) and the big deck I will build at my house from my half of the wood. I will post pics of the extrusion beam machine later and other stuff too.
I am adding to the csm for this project too. I ordered the parts to change over to 3/8 pitch form .404 and a 30" roller tip bar. Right now I am cutting the trees down with the 075 and a 42" hard tip bar, a wee bit overkill and very heavy. I ordered some larger extrusions and a linear bearing to make a beam cutter. So I will make the first cut with the mill and ladder for the guide rail then use the new extrusion and bearing a to cut the sides off the log. I should be able to make cants with out having to turn the log at all. This should speed up the hole process quite a bit. We are not skidding any of the logs, I am milling them where the tree falls so the easier the better.
The area where she lives is a wildlife corridor and mountainous. I am leaving my stuff there and tarping it. Over the last week it was visited by a bear, evident by the bear poo and tarp being pulled back. There is also many deer and elk in the area and mountain lion too. I am very excited about this project and it is a great area to hang out in too. It is lots-o-work but I really like the low impact of the csm (portable, no skidding) and the big deck I will build at my house from my half of the wood. I will post pics of the extrusion beam machine later and other stuff too.
