Had to grind a big'un today.

[Topbuilder]

66 HP Deutz diesel bolted directly to a large hydraulic pump. That pump drives several different motors/rotors. You can see it in the pic above the cutter wheel. The motor has a splined gear that drives the poly belt. The teeth/cogs on the belt are at right angle to the direction of rotation. The cutter wheel end is a shaft/pillow block bearings with another splined gear. The smaller wheel end is supposed to wear faster than the drive end. It goes around more times but, I'm 6-700 hours on a gear set and it looks like the drive gear is 50% worn and more like 10% on the other one. I try to buy the parts peak season so I have them on hand when I need them.
This set up is frowned upon because of the higher rate of parasitic loss compared to the 2 belt setup. I have read the loss is somewhere around 25%. Knocking my 66 HP down to 49.5 HP at the cutter wheel. The advantages? Less belt maintenance/replacement? Not sure, the only two belt unit I've run is my tow-behind. I have not used it enough to justify owning it.

 

[Creeker]

Thanks tb, good explanation.
Belts certainly cost $$'s as do bearings, loss of power might be well offset by savings
in running with that Rayco setup.

Better luck next week with the grinding

 

[Topbuilder]

This is not all that big, but a first! The customer told me he had a Eucalyptus for me to grind? I thought, OK, it will be a Magnolia or Bodark ( “bois d’arc) ... Sure enough, it was a Eucalyptus. I did not even know they grew in Texas. I did not see it before it was dropped. It had low branches that were supported by 4 x 6's coming out of the ground. Some of the chips were buried in the hole. I wonder if our termites will even touch them?

 

[Creeker]

Good work Tb, I'm guessing 15 minutes with that machine ? and yes, termites love the
Euc's to the extent that I dislike them them within cooee of a house.

Sometimes get the Euc's here with more work chasing out the above ground roots than
the central stump mass.

 

[Topbuilder]

Good work Tb, I'm guessing 15 minutes with that machine ? and yes, termites love the
Euc's to the extent that I dislike them them within cooee of a house.

Sometimes get the Euc's here with more work chasing out the above ground roots than
the central stump mass.

No such luck. There was a curved "L" shaped, concrete border around 24" long under this stump. I had to grind down to it, then break it up with a hammer and work the pieces out of the void. It screwed up what should have been an easy job. My customer suggested I use a metal probe to find these objects before I start grinding...

 

[Creeker]

We have all the fun Tb

 

[Topbuilder]

Nice way to start a Saturday morning.

I would have thought this would be over a hundred fifty years old. I uncovered seemingly modern nail at almost the dead center. Lots of little popped up roots like the one at the bottom of the picture spread out in the yard. I put freshly sharpened teeth in the 1st and second position before starting. I bid it pretty tight, I figured it would be worth my time. (Thanks 'Jeff's Sharpening'!) The customer told me it was "Big" but I did not ask a lot of questions. I had been to his place before. He pretty much knew how my program.

2 hours trailer to trailer. Luckily there was a pretty large area that was dead. That part cut more like a sweet gum than a red oak. Also, the center section had almost zero stump below grade. I cut all the way to dirt in two passes. Of course there was a thousand pounds of shavings to deal with . I don't remove shavings, so what I do on these is cut below grade up to the front of stump, then fill it back in to finished grade. Dirt only. Then cut the stump and keep pulling the shavings back under the machine so when I'm done, all the shavings are in on huge pile under the machine, the dirt is already at finished grade and I did not have to move shavings very far. Good thing, I had a fence on one side and the house on the other.

 

[Topbuilder]

Big blow over oak. The top of the tree trashed a tree in the neighbors yard after crushing a van and taking out part of the roof on the garage. They counted 100 rings. The top of the stump was higher than my machine cuts. I used the shavings to build up the ground to get where I needed to be.
Every one of these is different. Different things that can go wrong. Roots go flying or want to get caught up underneath. At some point they all get loose in the ground and start moving. That's never good. They are hard to bid. I usually add an hour to what ever I think it will take. This one went quick. A storm rolled in, the last 10 minutes was done in a pretty good down pour. 30 miles one way... had to get 'er done.

 

[Creeker]

Well done again tb, 2 hrs on that biggen' 27/3 was a good effort !

 

[Topbuilder]

Well done again tb, 2 hrs on that biggen' 27/3 was a good effort !

Thanks Creeker!
How's the golden years going? Where's the fish stories and pics?

 

[Creeker]

G'day tb, it's 6.30am here, just saw yr post of 7 minutes ago, the fish stories might be like my stump stories, grow bigger in the
telling..lol.

Seem to have got tied into shifting house for family members, doing Garage Sales etc but got in some mountain bike riding on a new 29er, did you
know they have hydraulic disc brakes ? and generally bludging of course No fishing yet.

That big stump with the saw(?) on it for decoration, my Stihl would have whittled a foot off the top of that, I'll mail it over one day soon, help ya' out

 

[Topbuilder]

Yep, my kinsman call that FLFF. Family labor for free! A lot of that free labor will get you down. You just get over it faster when it's family.

 

[Topbuilder]

Another blow over, and another blow over that stood back up into its original hole when relieved of the trunk! This oak fell in between the house and garage. Never touched the house. Creamed the breezeway and garage. The root ball stood 12-15' before flopping back in the original hole. The grind area was about 20'.
I saw that fan sitting in the garage and put it to use. The air was nice but all the dust blew right back in my face.
Still dreaming of remote controls one day...

 

[Topbuilder]

This is one of the biggest I have had to do this year. It was taken down as a perfectly healthy tree. Quite amazing it survived the drought several years ago.



I did not see it before it was cut. A power line and fence had to be removed before the take-down.