Ruh Roh (post your goofs here)

[DarylB]

i bought a Stihl :bang: in july only got to use it 3 times, been in the shop for a month and a half

And this was due to operator error? How did you goof up?

 

[Poley4]

I was attempting to put the cylinder back on my Dad's Poulan 361 a couple of weeks ago when I broke the piston rings. Yeah dumb butt me forgot to rotate the rings around on the piston to line the end gaps with the pin in the ring grooves and when I compressed the rings,SNAP!:bang: Oh well, now he has a new set of rings in his saw.

 

[mbopp]

Years ago I had to cut a 24" white pine that was on the ground laying across a trail. After pinching the bar on the old Homelite Zip I spent an hour gnawing away at it with an XL-12.

Since then I've added "wedge" and "boring" to my vocabulary.

 

[kurtty]

easyest way to get a stuck bar out of a tree when you cant cut it out with another saw:
use a come-along (a hand powered winch type thing). chain it up to the tree the bar is stuck in and run the cable to another tree. tighten it up and the saw will fall right out. i often use it when i dont have room for a wedge. i always keep the come-along on my tractor for "just in case" situations. i never plan on using it but it saved my but many times. just last week i got a treen hung up really BAD and i couln't get the tractor around to pull it down due to the 3feet of snow i have in the bush. i would rather not salami cut the tree because its dangerouse and then i have to worry about skidding out ten 5foot long logs instead of one big one. so i hooked the come-along to the but end of the tree and just started winching it back, it finaly fell after about an hour. handy dandly tool.

 

[litefoot]

Logging has slowed to virtually nothing, so I get paid to clean up after storms.
Here's My Bad from yesterday. Things went very well, then the tree shifted and bar got stuck. This is the one day I did not have the Barbie Saw along as a backup. So, I got the wedges in, took the saw head off, then the bar came out. Had gone shopping on Wed. so had brand new extra chains. Touched the wood from the other side and chain was freed. Of course, soon as the saw got stuck, the weather went from light drizzle to downpour.

I might have tried to wedge the jack from your Ford under the tree and lift open the kerf.

 

[clearance]

easyest way to get a stuck bar out of a tree when you cant cut it out with another saw:
use a come-along (a hand powered winch type thing). chain it up to the tree the bar is stuck in and run the cable to another tree. tighten it up and the saw will fall right out. i often use it when i dont have room for a wedge. i always keep the come-along on my tractor for "just in case" situations. i never plan on using it but it saved my but many times. just last week i got a treen hung up really BAD and i couln't get the tractor around to pull it down due to the 3feet of snow i have in the bush. i would rather not salami cut the tree because its dangerouse and then i have to worry about skidding out ten 5foot long logs instead of one big one. so i hooked the come-along to the but end of the tree and just started winching it back, it finaly fell after about an hour. handy dandly tool.

You can always put in the backcut first. It works, done it many times. That is how my incident here happend, I misjudged and the wind came up. If my saw was caught in the backcut I would have got it out. If you forget or don't think you need a wedge, and then the backcut closes, you can get out of it. Take your axe and cut down in above the center of the backcut. You will be able to stick in a wedge. Done that a few times too.

 

[kurtty]

You can always put in the backcut first. It works, done it many times. That is how my incident here happend, I misjudged and the wind came up. If my saw was caught in the backcut I would have got it out. If you forget or don't think you need a wedge, and then the backcut closes, you can get out of it. Take your axe and cut down in above the center of the backcut. You will be able to stick in a wedge. Done that a few times too.

really? i always thought that i if i put a back cut in the tree first. then started cuttin on the other side of the tree the bar would get pinched before i even managed to get my wedge cut out of the tree.
ill have to give it a try sometime.

 

[clearance]

really? i always thought that i if i put a back cut in the tree first. then started cuttin on the other side of the tree the bar would get pinched before i even managed to get my wedge cut out of the tree.
ill have to give it a try sometime.

This is for small trees that are leaning opposite to the way you want to fall them, that you cannot get a wedge into because your bar is in the way.

I make the backcut, then I place a wedge (small one) in the backcut with my hand, I don't hit it with the axe. Then I cut the bark off where the holding wood is going to be with my axe. Then I saw the flat part of the undercut, making sure I leave enough holding wood, but not too much. Next I finish the undercut, then I start to hit the wedge, looking up often.

Of course you will have made escape trails, your saw will be full and sharp, you will be wearing all your ppe and all that.
Good luck, by all means try it, take your time, its easy to cut off your holding wood, especially on one side.
.

 

[Junkwrencher]

goof post

I was going to test-run a customer's 394XP after a piston/ring job for warranty, I didn't remove the bar cover, it fired on fast idle and shot the cover like an arrow nearly sawing it into.

 

[TooTall999]

Had both caps off at the sametime bar oil in the wrong hole opps

Almost as bad...put the oil in the right hole...put the fuel in the right hole...put the fuel cap back on...started the saw and started cutting...good thing bar and chain oil thickens up at -5F...didn't lose too much

 

[sa1970]

And this was due to operator error? How did you goof up?

dont know what happened to it , guess it wasnt really a goof

 

[Austin1]

Never really had anything bad happen wile cutting yet But I did leave the house once to cut some fire wood. I was Eying a really big dead spruce once wile grouse hunting said to myself I must go back and cut that tree down before someone else does It was 1995. I remember that year as we had allot of rain, So I load up the truck took my old 3.7 mac with me and drive 50 miles one way to cut up the tree I new would give me a stuffed truck load of wood at least 2' higher than the box rails. I get out there and go to fuel up my saw. Dam! I forgot to grab my gas can. Good thing I had a empty pop bottle with me. So I pull my fuel line off my old 68 chev at the carb and turn it over until the one litre bottle is almost full. Now I don't have any two stroke mix with me so I add some 10w-30 by guessing.I bet I was running 25/1 ratio. It being the second week of Sept and warm the mosquitoes were out and being a wet year they were really bad. I started cutting and with the rich mixture and blue haze that filled the air of a beautiful early fall afternoon I didn't get bit once. The saw was no worse for wear after that as well.But ever since then I make sure the gas can goes in the truck first!
P.S I had no room in the back of the truck to put the saw in so it road up front with me. The box was full up to the roof of the topper with firewood.

 

[Urbicide]

LOL Austin1! Mosquito fogger!

 

[2dogs]

I won't post all my screw-ups caused I'd get banned for exceeding the sites bandwidth. Here are a few I can remember. January 1974, I didn't have much experience and clearing ROW and power lines for PG&E electric after a 50 year storm. I cut into a broken off top that was laying on the ground. I cut through a spring pole that flew up and hit my borrowed hard hat just above the brim. It hit me hard enough to set me on my butt and caused me to see stars. No permanent injury, I think.


A few years ago had a big sky bound fir snag alongside a road. Ran out of wedges and had to cut limbs into wedgy shapes. End of the day, getting dark of course. It took several hours to get the tree down and it exploded on impact blocking the way out.

Towing a Brush Bandit 200+ with my tractor alongside a river. Tried turning around and buried the tractor with the chipper jackknifed. Fortunately there was a dozer working nearby and he p pulled me out.

Fed the cattle too close to the the truck, they got pissy at one another and one picked up another and slammed her into the side of my pickup. The insurance paid for the damage as a no fault collision since the truck was parked. Fast forward to last September, I was pulling some 16' pine logs from several trees I had just dropped in the sand along a river. The truck went sideways in the sand and ended up on big rock. The damage was exactly where the recent repir and nice fresh paint was. I won't turn this one in to CSAA.

I was taking down a 3' dead pine next to a garage. The tree had a slight lean over the building but nothing too severe. I roped off the tree to my truck with my old climbing rope that had been downgrading to a rigging line. I faced and backcut the tree and slip in a wedge. Nothing left to do but pull slightly with the truck. Well... the rope broke and the tree went back over the building but didn't fall! After changing my underwear I went back and wedged the tree over.

My good buddy Randy, great guy but a little bit of a scatter brain. 3 of us jumped in his F550 to go to lunch. He was backing up and talking on his cell phone and backed over and embankment and dern near rolled his truck. I don't know how it stayed on its wheels, we could barely open the passenger door on the uphill side. Once again heavy equipment to the rescue. We had an excavator working nearby and he was able to lift the truck up by the rear hitch and put it back on the road with only minor damage.

January 1982. Our county suffered through 12" of rain in 24 hours. All the river and streams flooded over their banks. I was working for the Red Cross clearing roads for the relief workers. I was cuttin a double trunked tan oak around 16" dbh that the river had deposited in a housing tract a day or two before. I was standing on top of an old redwood stump about 8'above ground and leaning out running my saw one handed, a Mac 120 maybe. When I had cut it about half way through it broke and twisted hitting me in the right thigh. Hurt like hell, couldn't walk, couldn't climb down off the stump. Long story short... nothing broken but one heck of a bruise. Codiene and crutches for 3 weeks and a limp for another 3.

 

[Austin1]

I won't post all my screw-ups caused I'd get banned for exceeding the sites bandwidth. Here are a few I can remember. January 1974, I didn't have much experience and clearing ROW and power lines for PG&E electric after a 50 year storm. I cut into a broken off top that was laying on the ground. I cut through a spring pole that flew up and hit my borrowed hard hat just above the brim. It hit me hard enough to set me on my butt and caused me to see stars. No permanent injury, I think.+1


A few years ago had a big sky bound fir snag alongside a road. Ran out of wedges and had to cut limbs into wedgy shapes. End of the day, getting dark of course. It took several hours to get the tree down and it exploded on impact blocking the way out.

Towing a Brush Bandit 200+ with my tractor alongside a river. Tried turning around and buried the tractor with the chipper jackknifed. Fortunately there was a dozer working nearby and he p pulled me out.

Fed the cattle too close to the the truck, they got pissy at one another and one picked up another and slammed her into the side of my pickup. The insurance paid for the damage as a no fault collision since the truck was parked. Fast forward to last September, I was pulling some 16' pine logs from several trees I had just dropped in the sand along a river. The truck went sideways in the sand and ended up on big rock. The damage was exactly where the recent repir and nice fresh paint was. I won't turn this one in to CSAA.

I was taking down a 3' dead pine next to a garage. The tree had a slight lean over the building but nothing too severe. I roped off the tree to my truck with my old climbing rope that had been downgrading to a rigging line. I faced and backcut the tree and slip in a wedge. Nothing left to do but pull slightly with the truck. Well... the rope broke and the tree went back over the building but didn't fall! After changing my underwear I went back and wedged the tree over.

My good buddy Randy, great guy but a little bit of a scatter brain. 3 of us jumped in his F550 to go to lunch. He was backing up and talking on his cell phone and backed over and embankment and dern near rolled his truck. I don't know how it stayed on its wheels, we could barely open the passenger door on the uphill side. Once again heavy equipment to the rescue. We had an excavator working nearby and he was able to lift the truck up by the rear hitch and put it back on the road with only minor damage.

January 1982. Our county suffered through 12" of rain in 24 hours. All the river and streams flooded over their banks. I was working for the Red Cross clearing roads for the relief workers. I was cuttin a double trunked tan oak around 16" dbh that the river had deposited in a housing tract a day or two before. I was standing on top of an old redwood stump about 8'above ground and leaning out running my saw one handed, a Mac 120 maybe. When I had cut it about half way through it broke and twisted hitting me in the right thigh. Hurt like hell, couldn't walk, couldn't climb down off the stump. Long story short... nothing broken but one heck of a bruise. Codiene and crutches for 3 weeks and a limp for another 3.

I like them stories! I put myself in the situation of the writer and can see the irony.

 

[2dogs]

I have to add this one that happened today. I opened the refrigerator door and leaned down to get a bottle of salsa on the bottom shelf. Just as I leaned over a spray can of whipped cream on the top shelf on the door tipped over and I caught the nozzle with my shirt. I sprayed myself in the face and shirt with whipped cream and spatter. My dog loved it, I put him in charge of clean up.

 

[slowp]

I had red aerosol tree paint go off in my cruiser vest. I still have the shirt and wear it but have to tell people that no, that isn't blood, it is paint. Have had aerosol paint go off in cab of pickup, have seen a coworker scream and take off running thinking the hiss was a rattlesnake...paint can be fun.
And there's always the paint cans exploding when burning the landing piles.
Shame on them bad loggers! Shame!

 

[palogger]

slowp another good one is when u break the end of a tape and it rewinds and u don't know about it, sounds just like a rattler, scares the hell outta ya

 

[Junkwrencher]

goof-ups

Just a saw tuning mess-up.I re-built a Shindiawa 695 and took it outside to test run it without the bar and chain, I fired it up but I forgot to torque the clutch and it spun off the crank when I let off the throttle, it took off like a wind up toy across the driveway and into the yard, it took me a good while to find it.Another time I was cutting a split cherry for a friend, I thought I parked my S-10 pick-up far enough away but I didn't, the tree caught the opened tailgate launching my vintage Lombard Super Commango 20ft into the air, truck and saw survived.

 

[2dogs]

This isn't really a foul up just one of those days. Yesterday morning I fed the horses at two ranches and also a half dozen bales to the cattle. When I feed the cows alone it is a stop-toss-and roll drill. That is stop the truck and jump in the back. Next toss out a dozen or so flakes of hay and roll 50' to the next point. It takes maybe ten minutes to feed off six bales, no big deal. Getting to the hay stuck means backing up in four wheel drive through about 6 or 8 inches of mud with a good solid base underneath. Again no big deal. There is no hay barn so the stack is covered with black plastic. If if is raining and or windy then the whole issue is a different story but yesterday was easy.

I checked on my buddy's cows on the way back down the coast. He 23 head at one small parcel right on the ocean cliffs overlooking a nudie beach that is in the process of closing down and selling off. All the cows were fine and the fences looked as good as it normally does. I came home just a little bit wet so I was looking at the laptop in front in the fireplace while I dried out. Then the phone rang. It was my friend Jose calling from his work, the property owner had just called him and said the cattle were out. I woke up the spousalunit and hinted that I could use her help but she didn't want to risk not getting back in time before work. After all a woman's place is in the home and she should go there directly after work. (I hope she doesn't read that.) I walked out to the truck with my dog and it started to rain, of course. I had to grab two bales of hay for bait so now that stack of hay wasn't so friendly. More mud.

Two calves had wriggled thrugh the fence, walked down the road and crossed a bridge heading toward the highway. Fortunately they recognized my truck and followed me through the gate and up a muddy steep hill my truck barely made it up. Dodge Cummins are horrible in the mud. Way too much weight in general and way way too much over the front axle. Another friend Tommy showed after Jose called him too. Tommy works for a grower harvesting artichokes, Brussell sprouts, and leeks. Unfortunately for Tommy he had changed out of his rubber boots and was wearing slippers kinda like Romeos and on his way into town for lunch when he got the call. We found one cow had gotten into an adjoining field the was laying fallow and she was a wild one. About then the rain really started coming down and the wind picked up. We were just yards from the ocean and the wind was blowing due east. I threw some hay as bait and cut the fence for the cow to come back through. Tommy was trailing her back in mud over the top of his shoes and I was just wearing a sweatshirt that was getting soaked. I ran back to the truck and found the wind had shifted a bit and the truck seat was soaking wet. I put on my Filson logger's coat but it was so cold and stiff I could only bend my arms enough to snap one snap. I had to flap my arms like some grounded goose so the fabric would lossen up enough fit like it should. Of course that scared the derned cow so much she ran right past the opening in the fence. I finally was able to snap the coat and cut some of the wind though my ears were cold as ice. I just got a haircut Sunday. I took off after the cow but the coat collar was up and was sawing my ears off. I had to stop and fix all the while Tommy is yelling at me to head the cow back to him. He's pissed cause he is missing lunch and now his socks are muddy and he is getting soaked. My dog is barking at me because I didn't leave the heater on for him. The cows tore up the road I just took across the field and I don't know if I can drive out now. Life is GREAT!

20 minutes later we were all done, fence repaired, dog warmed up, back on the blacktop. Another half hour and I'm back in front of the fire trying to convince my wife how rough I had it. She just yawned and waved and went back to bed.