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Sweet pics!

Vids are not working for me yet.

Right you are about losing concentration on the little ones. I see it all the time and have done it myself.

I have one ground guy that is alway pinching his bar bucking up branches and trees once they are on the ground. He is a big guy and can usually muscle the wood to release the bar. I told him if he invested a second of thought into each cut he would save time and frustration. He is trying, but is very used to just being a big ox and powering through.


Mr. HE:cool:
 
Cool vids Mat - that wind does look pretty convincing.
:rock:

Yeah Bob. When you can drop 479 trees and not need one single wedge you know the wind is helping!
Unfortunately we've had nothing but strong Southerlies, Westerlies, Northerlies, and everything in between. Would like some winds from the east for a change :)
 
Holey hell Matt man, 479 trees felled in one day.:jawdrop: Nice work Matt, but make sure and take care of yourself.:cheers:

Thanks Andy :)
I'm gunning for 500 in a day but the body is having trouble keeping up with the brain...
Left arm still giving me grief so hope this brace helps when it arrives later in the week otherwise there may have to be some drug assisted cutting this weekend :drool: Hoping to get 3 full days in as we have a long weekend in South Australia.
When I get that other 7900 off Brad you never know, I might crack 1000 in a day ;)
 
Try putting ice and then heat on the arm. Take some aspirin, it will thin the blood a little and help circulation in the arm that will help it heal itself. Rub it gently when every time you get a chance.

Very important to drink lots of water; looks like the world is your pisser out there so drink plenty. I have a strong back, but if I don't keep up on the water will bother me something awful at the end of a day. One of those people with a lot of letters after their name told me that the majority of work related health problems can be prevented by drinking plenty of water. I don't know beyond my experience which is that you almost can't drink too much.

Also watch the coffee. I don't drink coffee if I'll be climbing or felling or anything that counts as hard work. It sucks because I love coffee. I just have to save it for the rainy days when I'm working in the shop or office. Like today, it's raining and I'm having a big cup of coffee. Almost makes a fellow pray for bad weather. :hmm3grin2orange:


Mr. HE:cool:
 
. . . . Would like some winds from the east for a change :)

Me too - we're still waiting for spring here!
For us Southerlies means winds from Antarctica - cold
Westerlies means winds from the Indian Ocean - ie wet
Northerly means winds from the tropics - ie warn and wet
To get fine weather we need easterlies at least for part of the day.
September is usually short pants weather for me but so far haven't worn them to work once!
 
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Me too - we're still waiting for spring here!
For us Southerlies means winds from Antarctica - cold
Westerlies means winds from the Indian Ocean - ie wet
Northerly means winds from the tropics - ie warn and wet
To get fine weather we need easterlies at least for part of the day.
September is usually short pants weather for me but so far haven't worn them to work once!

Yeah Bob. I can't believe the wind we've been having lately. It's also been swinging around a lot which has caught me out a few times. I keep forgetting to look up as I'm relatively sheltered at ground level. I forget the top 60' odd of some of these trees is getting battered from a different direction than I think. These things have that much canopy area that they really do catch the wind. I've had some heavy leaners topple over against the lean with basically wind assistance only. I've been thinking that I'm going to have to double stack wedges etc.
 
Back again. Have spent the last two days felling trees again. Have been taking an Anti Inflammatory for my arm called Mobic (Meloxicam) that has been excellent. The physiotherapist gave me a brace bu it limited my wrist movement too much when sawing.
Have knocked over a couple of runs of trees the last couple days that would average out to some of the largest runs of trees on the property. Have been using the modded 7900 again with 32" bar. It's still running like a treat.
This thing has been using a serious amount of fuel with the bigger bar buried. Just yesterday I went through 9 tanks of in 78 trees. That averages out to 8.5 trees per tank. On trees under 18" I can drop around 40-45 before refueling with a 24" bar. In saying that though my stock 7900 wouldn't have used any less.
Have attached some more piccys and videos...

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These Jays were a bit upset with me as I think they must have had a nest in one of the trees. But as per usual, their anger didn't last and they decided to look for food instead.

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A fair sized tree this one. Around the 44" mark at it's widest point...

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Some bigger trees. This run was only 78 trees but took 5 hours to drop. It is from this run where the videos were taken that I posted below...

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And the mess afterwards.

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And the videos. My brother and his dog came along for a look and decided to video me. He has also added some commentary. Youtube wouldn't accept a video over 10 minute so I have split one of the vids into two parts as it went for 17 minutes. As you can tell in the vids I leave a lot of trees partly cut then fell them by using the following trees, particuarly handy for the leaners.


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I bumped the off switch at the start. Excuse the language as I didn't know what was going on for a few seconds...


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Dropped the fattest trunked Casuarina I've seen on the property today. Looked like a Boab tree! Got a decent photo and video too...

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Decided to post another video involving felling both bifurcated trunks using a 4 tonne strap. Good way to fell leaners in this siutation. Have used this technique successfully numerous times. You can see the strap about 2 feet above my head. I didn't cut quite deep enough on the first attempt :)


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Haven't posted for a while as I haven't been doing much cutting for the last month. Have had a few other things on then last weekend it was over 110°f here. I put in a few hours but I was recovering from a flu and just didn't have it in me. I think I dropped about 120 trees and pulled the pin, sweating like a pig with a good headache!

Anyway, was at it again over the weekend just gone. Conditions on the Sunday were absolutely perfect for felling trees in this situation. The wind was a pretty strong SW (around 20mph) and very few trees on the Sunday had to be wedged. I dropped 196 on Saturday in 5 1/2 hours having to wedge 80% odd. On Sunday I went nuts (and completely wore myself out!) but managed to drop 532 in 10 1/2 hours. I went through exactly 20 litres of fuel, or 5.3 US gallons on the Sunday alone (I have to record every bit of fuel I use for taxation purposes). I used a 24" GB Pro Top all day (rebadged as Total II) and GB semi chisel. I hand filed all day to 30° (7/32" Vallorbe and guide) as I've found the more I pull the bar off to swap chains the greater the risk of getting chips jammed in the bar oil hole etc. The sap and crap from these Casuarinas gets everywhere. Filing also gives me a bit of a rest. I only had to file maybe 8 times all day and the GB chain (rebadged Carlton, not the new Chinese crap) held up well.
Probably 40% of the trees I felled on Sunday were between 24" and 42" so it was one of the harder lot of trees I've done. I did have one small run of trees that averaged around the 16" mark and I dropped 64 in 20 minutes - impossible to average that all day but with the strong wind is easy to do on shorter runs.

I ran an 8 tooth sprocket on the modded 7900 (thanks Brad, still running like a clock!) and Saturday arvo leaned her out a bit as it had been progressively running richer over the last few outings despite cleaning filters regularly. This made a massive difference to power and smoothness in the cut and although highly subjective I feel like it gained about 10% more grunt after leaning it out - it went from 4 stroking nearly non stop to only 4 stroking a tiny amount in the cut. I'm no 2 stroke guru but pulled the plug to check colour after WOT and it looked perfect. Tough call but the power increase when I leaned it out a bit was very noticable! This saw just keeps getting better. The HD filter kit(s) also continue to impress (I have one fitted to my stock 7900 as well).

I've been running nothing but BP Ultimate fuel (98 RON) and Jakmax branded Full Synthetic 2 stroke oil (made in the US by ALCO). This is excellent oil, way way better than the price would suggest and as far as I'm concerned every bit as good as the Castrol TTS I was using - in fact probably better, the fumes from the Jakmax oil aren't as hard on the eyes, nose, and sinuses!

There is also a patch of largish Polonia trees on the property that the company wants dropped. I dropped a couple (see photos and vid) and the wood was as soft as butter. Softer than any other wood I've cut and it stank too - hard to describe but quite pungent. Good fun though and good practice too. I may leave the rest of the Polonias there so that the local chainsaw guy can use them when he holds the next large tree felling course (>6m height). He is having a hard time finding larger trees to run his course on. The wood looks to be useless although I have cut a couple of logs to leave to see how it fares in regard to splitting etc.

Anyway...

Polonia Patch...
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Dropped Polonia (one of the larger ones)...
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Video of Polonia being dropped...

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Some other photos...
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And more piccys...

This was a big run of trees on average. Most about this size...
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I count the trees in the run before cutting as they tend to end up on top of one another. Impossible to count after they've been felled...

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Images from top of the lookout in the centre of the property...

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And a video from the lookout in the centre of the main property (1000 acres). Have added commentary but is pretty windy and a bit hard to hear me. There are still a LOT of trees to fell. I've just cracked the 5000 tree mark on this property and doubt I'm even half way through them. The tree spacing are 2-3 metres with many of those remaining being at a 2m spacing...


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There are also other properties involved with this company that have Casuarina windbreaks that need felling. All up this property is just under half of their total citrus, avocado, and winegrape plantings.

The 7900 from Brad is continuing to impress despite hard, constant use. Out of the 10 1/2 hours of cutting I did on the Sunday it would have been running non stop for about 9 3/4 hours of this, and running pretty hard. On and off the throttle constantly. WOT then part throttle. It just laps it up and is still running like the day I got it. Many people will say that of course it should (and they're right I suppose) but it has not been covered in cotton wool or babied, its been getting it's arse worked off everytime it goes out. I love it!

Anyone that bags 7900's and doesn't believe they can handle real world hard work needs a girly slap across the face!!!

Anyway, sorry for the big posts!

Matt.
 
Very cool thread. Glad to hear the long term workout of the saw is holding up so well.

You know of course, the guy who spent years walking around that place planting all those trees is cussing you! I thought that was funny to think about.:greenchainsaw:
 
Very cool thread. Glad to hear the long term workout of the saw is holding up so well.

You know of course, the guy who spent years walking around that place planting all those trees is cussing you! I thought that was funny to think about.:greenchainsaw:

Yeah I know what you mean! One of the property managers I deal with organised the planting of these trees in the early 1990's and now he's the one telling me to cut them down. I haven't seen a tear in his eye just yet but it's probably coming ;)
 
great stuff!! I'm soo jealous but then it's not my bones doing the work:laugh: If I lived on the continent I'd be begging to help though:chainsawguy:
 
great stuff!! I'm soo jealous but then it's not my bones doing the work:laugh: If I lived on the continent I'd be begging to help though:chainsawguy:


Yeah my bones hurt a bit at the end of the day :)

Anyone who ever wants to come tree felling with me is more than welcome. It gets a bit boring all by yourself!
 
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