Noodle mods...I ported my clutch cover.

[BigJ]

and it worked better than I could have imagined. I got the wide clutch cover before I read that it doesn't clear noodles as well as the standard one, but had no desire to spend the bread on another. I can't imagine I'm the first to do this, but any of my searches came up empty. I just drew a line on the cover at an angle that wouldn't look all badgered up and went to town on it with a hacksaw and a file. 2 minutes later and I had this.

It clears noodles far better than even the standard cover with almost nothing getting thrown forward. chips out the back basically fly straight back so it may not be for everyone, but works just fine for my purposes. my noodle pile ends up 15 feet behind me rather than at my feet! I tried it on both green and seasoned wood with the 32" bar / 8 pin rim fully buried and had no clogging issues whatsoever. I guess I should have gotten video, though...maybe another day.

I make all my boards by noodlin...this trail has roughly an 1/8 mile of boardwalk like this.

Edit: oh yeah, I burned three tanks of fuel in the 200T on the ground and did not saw my face or even have a single kickback...just sayin. :msp_ohmy:

 

[smilin possum]

Looks good. I been thinking about doing one of my big saws that we noodle with. After this I may just do it and see.

 

[w8ye]

I have some old cracked 660 clutch covers. Wouldn't hurt to "bob" one for noodling?

 

[BigJ]

Looks good. I been thinking about doing one of my big saws that we noodle with. After this I may just do it and see.

Unless there's some safety issue that I'm missing, I don't see what there is to lose?

Honestly, I had forgotten that I had made the change when I got to where I was going. (1.5mile x 1500' vertical walk) Once I started working I was shocked at how well the saw was clearing noodles and wondered why I wasn't knee deep in fluff.

 

[WidowMaker]

Nice looking plank walk...

 

[064AV]

Looks like it may expose your gas tank to damage from a thrown chain...does that saw have the aluminum tank guard?
Upon closer inspection, I see it...

 

[064AV]

Nice looking plank walk...

I agree!

 

[Chris-PA]

Nice looking plank walk...

Yeah, very nice! What kind of location is that trail for - park, etc?

 

[Hank Chinaski]

if the cover works well who cares that it looks like polished mastermind butt? (j/k it looks fine)

I cut w/my 200t on the ground (safely) plenty. Don't understand where all the kick back kommando's are coming from.

That boardwalks is awesome! You nailing it together as well or how are you fastening it? burying the verticals? treating them/cement etc? (saw the 5 gallon buckets and barrow) if not how long will they verts last touching ground like that?

 

[2dogs]

You might find some pics of cut down clutch covers in the milling forum (I have not looked) on milling saws. I have seen several over the years. I have never thought about cutting a cluth cover myself but now I am wondering why not. I have several large D-firs on the ground right now that are headed for the firewood pile and need to be noodloed so they can be picked up and put on the splitter. I am going to cut my worst cover today!

 

[BigJ]

if the cover works well who cares that it looks like polished mastermind butt? (j/k it looks fine)

I cut w/my 200t on the ground (safely) plenty. Don't understand where all the kick back kommando's are coming from.

That boardwalks is awesome! You nailing it together as well or how are you fastening it? burying the verticals? treating them/cement etc? (saw the 5 gallon buckets and barrow) if not how long will they verts last touching ground like that?

This is a mountain bike trail in a "provincial recreation area". Not a park as it's still currently open season for oil and gas exploration, logging, mountain biking, hunting, etc...just no offroading (dirtbikes, bogging, etc..)

This section of trail is in a coulee where the run-off flow has been exposed by the erosion caused by use. The water only runs for about 2 weeks of the year and I would be fine leaving it as-was, but it's a visibility thing to the land manager. They concern themselves more so with the fish than the odd tree here and there. (even though this is miles from the nearest creek) It's hard to see further in the background, but there's about 40 feet of "sandbox" constructed where the trail was framed in and clay type soil was hauled in on top of about 6" of fist sized rocks..that's what the pails and barrow are for.

The vertical posts are pounded in with an 8lb sledge - these ones went in about 2 feet before hitting refusal. Once they're in, they don't move and dont seem to frost jack, either. The framing is usually nailed together with 8" or 10" spikes and all the planks are nailed on with four 6" nails. The planks in the pic are about 30% thinner than I would normally make.

To give an idea of rotting, etc...
The elevation here is about 6500' in what is essentially a semi desert...everything is frozen for 7 months of the year, kiln dried for 4.5 months and gets rained on for two weeks. Additionally, the soil drains very well. The last fire through the area was 1911 - none of that un-burned wood is rotten. There's a trail on the shady side of the mountain that has been there for 15 years...built to a much lower standard that this stuff and it's all still solid...it's really incredible how it just doesn't rot.

Take a look at the rings on the planks...this tree was from a "wet" area. I've cut some 12" trees that were well over 100 years old...

 

[rwoods]

Enjoyed your thread. Thanks, Ron

 

[Trailtrimmer]

Love the saw mod but love the board walk even more. Rather than just keeping it flat or following the contour of the ground below it putting the rise in the middle like a rolling grade dip should make it a whole lot more fun and interesting. Occasionally we get lucky and have good native trees around to do fun things like that, but given the climate here our natural built bridges are few and far between thanks to longevity and maintenance issues.

Nice to see some of my favorite things come together in a post, saws, trail building and bikes. Might be a good place to help recruit trail volunteers who like hiking and sawing.

 

[MattCrowe]

Mate thats some nice work, both on the cover and the board walk, i couldn't see a mill in the picture, may be out of view but if not thats some pretty sharp free hand work, cant imagine that the case mod would cause any issues what so ever either, its no where near the chain catcher, definitely not a safety issue, if anything safer because generally when ya case clogs with noodles ya grab a handfull and rip em out, you wont be doing that anymore (if ya ever did), so thats a plus. two thumbs up work...

 

[BigJ]

i couldn't see a mill in the picture, may be out of view but if not thats some pretty sharp free hand work,

No mill...all freehand. A mill would take far too long to set up and I think it'd take longer to cut, too? It takes three guys nailing to keep up if I have a decent tree/setup.

Once the source log is all set up...really just has to be sitting on another cross log. My technique is to make a cut on the outside of the log to square up the outside planks, then "score" two to three notches to judge if I can make three or four or five planks. Then I start by noodling 75% down through the motor end of the log, 0% with the tip, then lift the motor end up to allow that first cut for chip clearance and dog in to noodle with the tip..once I'm just through with the tip, I allow the saw to self feed in the path of the first cut and sometimes just pull the saw straight out so the tip doesn't rock out or catch anything goofy. I dunno...seems to work well.

 

[BigJ]

Made good use of zee sero six six this weekend. These are worth about 150 feet when all added up.

First cut wasn't very good...


This one almost broke my knee when it fell apart...I blocked the next ones up.


shame that I had to cut this one in half, but they do have to be moved by hand. Maybe I could wrangle some of the free range cattle?


Was pretty concerned with how the rootball was going to move, but it never did...not one bit. I'm sure it'll flop over when the ground thaws out.

 

[willbarryrec]

I guess I should have gotten video, though...maybe another day.

I make all my boards by noodlin...this trail has roughly an 1/8 mile of boardwalk like this.

Ya man! Do post some video of sawing and riding!

 

[stihl ms]

forget the saw, I like the trail/bridge combination it looks cool I may want to go there and do some hiking