Mt St Helens and Husqvarna Saws.....

[Aaron Grolbert]

My father told me when he was helping with the clean-up after Mt. St. Helans blew up in 1980, that when he would go into Woods logging Supply in Longview, WA to buy cable for the dredge he was running.

Well he would talk with all these loggers clearing the rivers and the only saw anybody was buying/running was Husqvarna because the volcanic ash would clog all of the other saws air filtration systems up and they wouldn't run.


And how I understood it there was so many trees down and clogging up rivers/streams and lakes that caused all this flooding which created this mad rush to get these trees cleared.


I will say …...must be one hell of a logging shop if they sell cable in bulk.


I tried searching Google about this but couldn't find anything about it anybody else hear about this....

 

[RedFir Down]

What just happened here?? I was reading this thread and all the sudden everything was erased!

 

[Stihl 041S]

What just happened here?? I was reading this thread and all the sudden everything was erased!

Yeah??
Prove it. Lol

 

[RedFir Down]

Yeah??
Prove it. Lol

Well I can tell ya I see it with my own 2 eyes!

 

[alderman]

Even 100 miles away the ash got in the nooks and crannies of the trees and would dull a chain while limbing.
I was just in Wood's shop the other day buying a couple loops of chain and looking at their Huskies.
They've always treated me well even though I spend more time looking then I do buying.

 

[Stihl 041S]

Well I can tell ya I see it with my own 2 eyes!

The mods did everyone a favor.
Best way, everybody reflect.
Start over.
I think there were Poulan Pro 655 Boost Port saws there.
But sadly, none in my basement.

 

[Stihl 041S]

Even 100 miles away the ash got in the nooks and crannies of the trees and would dull a chain while limbing.
I was just in Wood's shop the other day buying a couple loops of chain and looking at their Huskies.
They've always treated me well even though I spend more time looking then I do buying.

Relief work after hurricanes is the same.
Dirt everywhere. Just bought another Silvey for just such occasions.

 

[Stihl 041S]

Even 100 miles away the ash got in the nooks and crannies of the trees and would dull a chain while limbing.
I was just in Wood's shop the other day buying a couple loops of chain and looking at their Huskies.
They've always treated me well even though I spend more time looking then I do buying.

Are you anywhere near Grants Pass?
There was a racer at Bonneville from there.
Saw his rig run for several years.

 

[watsonr]

That ash hit the gulf stream and made it to my home town in Idaho. They plowed the streets like snow and put it into piles. It ate anything with an engine and made the sky look like night.

 

[Gologit]

My father told me when he was helping with the clean-up after Mt. St. Helans blew up in 1980, that when he would go into Woods logging Supply in Longview, WA to buy cable for the dredge he was running.

Well he would talk with all these loggers clearing the rivers and the only saw anybody was buying/running was Husqvarna because the volcanic ash would clog all of the other saws air filtration systems up and they wouldn't run.


And how I understood it there was so many trees down and clogging up rivers/streams and lakes that caused all this flooding which created this mad rush to get these trees cleared.


I will say …...must be one hell of a logging shop if they sell cable in bulk.


I tried searching Google about this but couldn't find anything about it anybody else hear about this....

There were a lot of Huskys. There were plenty of Stihls up there, too. And it didn't really matter what you ran, you carried a bunch of spare air filters for it. The ash ruined everything...chains, sprockets, bar tips...if it had a moving part or a bearing the ash would find it's way in.

The reason that the blow down was harvested so quickly was because downed timber has a limited life. They needed to get it to the mills and cut it into lumber before it deteriorated.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

There were a lot of Huskys. There were plenty of Stihls up there, too. And it didn't really matter what you ran, you carried a bunch of spare air filters for it. The ash ruined everything...chains, sprockets, bar tips...if it had a moving part or a bearing the ash would find it's way in.

The reason that the blow down was harvested so quickly was because downed timber has a limited life. They needed to get it to the mills and cut it into lumber before it deteriorated.

All that ash had to make the milling a nightmare too. I guessing a lot of wash down, and triple the sharpening.

 

[Gologit]

All that ash had to make the milling a nightmare too. I guessing a lot of wash down, and triple the sharpening.

I don't know about the mills...I'm not a mill person... but you're probably right. Even if you washed all the ash off you'd have the problem of cleanup and what to do with the ash afterward. I imagine the debarkers really caught hell.

On our shovels and wheeled equipment the ash would work it's way into every nook and cranny. We were replacing pins and bushings constantly, even with an accelerated lube schedule. We tried every kind of air filter we could think of and the best thing we found was using panty-hose as kind of a make-shift pre filter.

LOL...the guys that really made money on that whole deal were the ones selling us the stuff we needed to keep going. After the timber was salvaged there was a lot of logging equipment for sale but nobody who knew anything would touch it. I heard that most of went to Mexico or South America.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

The mechanics probably did OK at making money.I'm sure there was a lot of overtime for them.
I was still in aviation at that time. That ash was a real pain for us. It was corrosive to aluminum, abrasive to the engines, and stuck to everything. The FAA was over whelmed by it too. We were supposed to take action to protect the planes from the ash, but they couldn't tell us how to do so.
Yep, it was nasty stuff. Glad it is gone for now.

 

[Jacob J.]

LOL...the guys that really made money on that whole deal were the ones selling us the stuff we needed to keep going. After the timber was salvaged there was a lot of logging equipment for sale but nobody who knew anything would touch it. I heard that most of went to Mexico or South America.

A lot of the equipment ended up in Asia as scrap. My dad went up and cut salvage for a time after the blast, and he said the service life of a saw was about 40-50 days- regardless of how well you maintained it. He carried a whole box full of sharp chain but some days, he'd just pack files with him and round file out on the slope. He took all of the big saws he had at the time and none of them made it back.