Today's Job...

[MCW]

Back again. Been sick the last week or so and although still working have gotten home and just sat in the couch. Starting to feel better though and the best therapy is to simply go cutting again!
Anyway I picked up my new Stihl HT131 Pole Saw last Friday (it was on order) and used it a bit on the weekend. It's the first 4 Mix motor I've ever heard and it sound's like absolute crap! One thing for sure though is that it has some serious torque for a pole saw. It came with a 12" bar and picco chain. I did have to raise the idle a bit though as it kept on stalling. I used it to trim the bottoms out of the two larger trees I mentioned above that the company wants me to drop. I had the new pole saw buried in some of the Gum's lower branches and it ate them up easily. I'm impressed. I wasn't impressed by the USD$1500 price though but they are one of the best pole saws around. I also considered an Echo but the local dealer is a bit of a peanut.

One of the trees is a relatively large and gnarly Norfolk Island Pine and the other is a dead Gum, once again killed by Longicorn Beetles. The 3120 and 42" bar will be used for the Gum, it's hard stuff.

I'll have to look out for falling branches with both trees, in particular the Pine as it has branches hooked into a neighbouring Poplar...

The Gum...

The Norfolk Island Pine...

Trimmy trimmy (this is my escape path! It still needs further cleaning)...

I also had to cut the top of the Pine off of the neighbouring fence...

Wear a helmet! At least when I get killed by a branch my head will be intact...

Is it bad to drop trees on Good Friday? I hope not as that is when these are getting felled.

 

[Stihlman441]

Wear a helmet! At least when I get killed by a branch my head will be intact...

Nice one mate.....
Them are some crap lookin trees there champ,they must be payin ya good mate or your a little on the silly side.
That gum looks like hard as kineda stuff.
Have fun and keep that helmet on.
Andrew

 

[MCW]

Wear a helmet! At least when I get killed by a branch my head will be intact...

I joke about it to my missus that if I die when I'm felling at least I'll be wearing a helmet so I can have an open casket at my funeral

As far as helmets go I remember my dad had a saying from Vietnam about the steel helmets. "They'll slow an AK47 bullet down about 50mph before it goes through your head and out the other side".

Them are some crap lookin trees there champ,they must be payin ya good mate or your a little on the silly side.
That gum looks like hard as kineda stuff.
Have fun and keep that helmet on.
Andrew

Yeah they're pretty easy fells actually. Both trees are relatively symmetrical and quite simple. You can basically put them wherever you want. That Pine will take a lot of cleaning up though. It will be one of the most feral trees I've ever had the pleasure/displeasure of felling.
The gum is certainly hard which is why I've already got the 3120 setup with 3/8" semi chisel skip and ready to go. I think the 42" will pull up just short but the less time I spend dropping it the better. I was contemplating the 390XP and 36" bar but if this stuff is as hard as I think it will be I'd have to baby the 390 through it.

 

[willbarryrec]

That Pine will take a lot of cleaning up though.

Pardon my asking but how will you or do you have to clean that pine up?

I can't remember if you said if you had a chipper somewhere in this thread and i know you just mentioned that you work alone.

That tree just looks like a huge mess as soon as it hits the ground.:msp_scared:

Here's hoping you can drop it and haul ass out of there!

 

[MCW]

Pardon my asking but how will you or do you have to clean that pine up?

I can't remember if you said if you had a chipper somewhere in this thread and i know you just mentioned that you work alone.

That tree just looks like a huge mess as soon as it hits the ground.:msp_scared:

Here's hoping you can drop it and haul ass out of there!

Hi Mate. I don't have a chipper but luckily the bulk of the cleanup will be done by this company's employees. All I'll have to do is cut it into movable chunks and limb it The larger parts of the trunk will be moved by tractor and forks. Phew...

And yeah it will have limbs and garbage going everywhere when it hits the deck.

 

[8433jeff]

I will request a video of the ensuing carnage when you drop that pine, Matt.

The picture in my head has the last branch falling about 5 seconds after the trunk hits the dirt, and the dust and tree bits cloud blowing away slowly, large enough to be picked up on the weather radar.

Only good things happen on Best Friday, mate. All Fridays are good.

 

[MCW]

I will request a video of the ensuing carnage when you drop that pine, Matt.

The picture in my head has the last branch falling about 5 seconds after the trunk hits the dirt, and the dust and tree bits cloud blowing away slowly, large enough to be picked up on the weather radar.

Only good things happen on Best Friday, mate. All Fridays are good.

Yeah I'll do my best to get a video of it It is dusty that's for sure and soft as butter. Quite a crappy old tree actually. Hope the weather holds up and it isn't too windy.

 

[willbarryrec]

Hi Mate. I don't have a chipper but luckily the bulk of the cleanup will be done by this company's employees. All I'll have to do is cut it into movable chunks and limb it The larger parts of the trunk will be moved by tractor and forks. Phew...

And yeah it will have limbs and garbage going everywhere when it hits the deck.

Nice..Can't beat other folks cleaning up the carnage!

8433jeff

I will request a video of the ensuing carnage when you drop that pine, Matt.

I'd like to second that!
I want to hear those Huskys sing.:msp_laugh:

 

[Strelnikov]

That Norfolk Island pine reminds me of a big old dead white pine I dropped at my sister's place. When it hit the ground the shattering branches reminded me of a dropped glass breaking into smithereens. I cleaned it up the best I could but I told her I would need a garden rake to clean up the rest of it.

 

[MCW]

I'd like to second that!
I want to hear those Huskys sing.:msp_laugh:

The 390XP can do the singing and I'll leave the 3120 for the lower manly type vocals

That Norfolk Island pine reminds me of a big old dead white pine I dropped at my sister's place. When it hit the ground the shattering branches reminded me of a dropped glass breaking into smithereens. I cleaned it up the best I could but I told her I would need a garden rake to clean up the rest of it.

Yeah this thing will make one hell of a mess. Will also have to block a neighbouring road off from both ends for safety reasons. The tip of this thing should pull up about 1-2 yards short of some young orange trees if my hillbilly measurements are accurate

 

[MCW]

Back again. Was meant to have posted this last night and the video this morning but once again I forgot to disable a function on a Download Manager I run on my computer. The mongrel turned off my computer at midnight when I had a few hours left of uploading on Youtube - now I have to start again I'll get it up later and repost.

Anyway, all went well, didn't squash anything or kill anybody!
The gum didn't end up as hard as I thought and the crusty Pine ended up a real mess as expected...

The Gum...

My better half - she loves helping out and did the videoing...

The crappy Norfolk Island Pine. The wood in this was feral and very dusty. I feel sorry for you guys in the US etc cleaning up felled Conifer type trees. These things suck! Give me harder Eucalypts anyday...

Stump not too bad...

For those wondering what the little Husky is doing there it's a 353 and I bought it off a guy the other day for a steal. It had only seen about 6 tanks and as expected the guy had no idea. The saw was like new however apart from some scratches on the clutch cover due to some "sideway's balance" issues which I take it to simply mean it falls over easily! The 18" bar had been overheated (but is still servicable) and the safety chain was that blunt it wouldn't cut butter. It came fitted with .325" chain and a spur sprocket plus a spare safety chain. I chucked the safety chain and fitted it with Carlton K1 semi chisel.
Nice little saw to use, very well balanced (Sawtroll will be all over this one!), lightish, and gutsy.
To the best of my knowledge the only difference between the 353 and the 346XP is the Piston and Cylinder but if that's not the case please chime in.

My intial dislikes are...

1) Filter area shocking and worse than the 5100-S. It also blocks up just as quick. However it does stop the finer dust without being oiled, unlike the 5100-S.
2) Solid rod throttle linkage feels wierd in use as everytime you pull on the saw during a cut the throttle trigger goes in and out, fighting against your finger! A throttle cable would be much better.
3) The bar tensioner is a bit of a stupid idea with the screw being part of the tensioning stud.
4) Clutch cover a very "busy" affair with a lot of gear jammed in there.
5) Outboard clutch means that the clutch cover and chip ejection areas are very tight. Just today while cutting off some smaller stumps the chips completely locked up the chain a few dozen times around the sprocket - this doesn't happen unless the saw is on it's side.
6) It doesn't seem to oil very well however this may be specific to this saw. I ran fuel mix through the oiler today in case it needed flushing but it made no difference.
7) Although not a biggy it's a real mongrel to clean. I have never seen a saw with so many nooks and crannies in my life. There are about 2,000 places for woodchips and oily garbage to hide and unless you clean it well with the compressor the weight savings over a 5100-S or MS261 are null and void as it would hold an extra 5 pounds of crap over it's dry weight!

Other than that it starts extremely well, seems pretty fuel efficient, and has pretty good power for it's size however I think it would struggle with 3/8" chain. Tough call but I think I'll sell this and keep the 5100-S although I know they're not necessarily in the same class.

 

[RandyMac]

Nasty pine, I would have set fire to it, burnt in place.

 

[MCW]

Nasty pine, I would have set fire to it, burnt in place.

That is their plan Randy old son. I cut it up into moveable parts so they can push it into a heap. I was going to take the wood from the gum as it would make excellent firewood but unfortunately the Social Club for this company are having a bonfire night soon and have put first dibs on it. The bastards...

Also the whole bottom of the tree is one big burl. Possibly from being smacked numerous times by a line trimmer when it was younger. That explains it's fat bum. I may even steal some of it when they're not looking

 

[RandyMac]

I kinda figured you for a fat bum fancier.

 

[MCW]

I kinda figured you for a fat bum fancier.

Yeah I've been trying to spoon feed Tracy pure lard to fatten her up but unfortunately she has sharp nails and is a pretty tough farm girl, hence she is staying slim...

 

[RandyMac]

Yeah I've been trying to spoon feed Tracy pure lard to fatten her up but unfortunately she has sharp nails and is a pretty tough farm girl, hence she is staying slim...

I heard you could get somewhere with a plantain.

 

[MCW]

I heard you could get somewhere with a plantain.

I just Googled "Plantain" and for those that aren't aware they are a type of banana.
Not sure where you're heading with this Randy but I'm interested in what you have to say

 

[RandyMac]

I just Googled "Plantain" and for those that aren't aware they are a type of banana.
Not sure where you're heading with this Randy but I'm interested in what you have to say

They are the bananas you deep fry and cover with powdered sugar.

Oh my, what could you be thinking?

 

[ChrisF]

I heard you could get somewhere with a plantain.

And people say thread derailings are bad!

 

[8433jeff]

This ones not quite off the track yet.
Randy had two good ideas, the burn in place and the plantain.
They are a delicious treat, and somewhat addictive.
The OP isn't off track, its his thread.
But he place he was agoing is on a different side of the tracks, one we shouldn't throw stones at here on the glass internets.
You might hit me.