SW Nebraska GTG Pics Part I

[Wood Doctor]

What a wonderful get together this turned out to be! Carl met me a gas station and lead me to the wilderness site, about 200 yards from the Republican River, just south of Cambridg, NE. Glad I brought my Ranger 4x4. We decided to lay the saws down in a row for inspection:

Then Scott and Sid showed up and the row became a semi-circle:

In all, I counted 25 saws, and at one time or another, they all ran. Edwin (that's me, the cameraman) took the award for the oldest saws--his 1976 Stihl 041 and 1977 McCulloch PM 610. Scott's big saw, a Sachs Dolmar 133 was then put to the test to drop the biggest cottonwood tree we could find. The objective was to cut table top cookies. First he cut a perfect wedge:

And here's Scott at work on the felling cut, positioned perfectly above the wedge. You can't see it well here, but water was shooing out of the tree nearly 15 feet as he made this cut:

The tree dropped perfectly with a crash but only after everyone yelled, "Timber!" Time to measure the trunk:

I believe that's a 36" bar. I counted 110 annular rings, so figure the seed germinated back in 1900. The last 20 rings were really close together. Now it was time to make 6" thick tabletops out of the trunk. Here's Carl taking his turn:

We crowned Carl the king of giant cookie cutting. His were almost dead on square across. Now go to Part II for the conclusion (8 images maximum per post).

 

[Wood Doctor]

More Pics of the Fall...

By popular demand, here are a couple of more Pics showing Scott's procedure for dropping the big cottonwood tree:
The start of the wedge cut:

Sometimes you need to spend a little time making sure that the wedge is cut and removed to perfection before you start the big felling cut on the opposite side. This drop was not a piece of cake. Note that the tree appears to lean slightly opposite the wedge:

Now the wedge can be safely removed:

Finally, the felling cut. Now the tree finally starts finally to fall. It was a perfect drop.

Here's the gang working on the felled tree to be sure it stayed put while cutting all of the table tops:

 

[deerlakejens]

Looks like a great time. I used to hunt in that area, nearer to Curtis. Got my biggest mulie there. Go Big Red!

 

[WoodChuck'r]

Where's Jimmy??

 

[mowoodchopper]

Nice pics Ed I knew you had more!

 

[2stroked2smoke]

Awesome pics and story telling ed. One small detail though is wrong. That wasn't no dolmar falling that tree. That was my 064/066 hybrid stihl. Had a great time with you and can't wait to do it again.

 

[chopperfreak2k1]

great pix and narration also! give us more

 

[Wood Doctor]

Stake Target

Awesome pics and story telling ed. One small detail though is wrong. That wasn't no dolmar falling that tree. That was my 064/066 hybrid stihl. Had a great time with you and can't wait to do it again.

My error, Scott. Still was a great fall. The tree dropped dead on with the wedge cut. Can't ask for more than that. Perhaps I should have pounded a small stake in the ground for you to serve as a target. I used to fo that all the time and seldom missed.