Beginners guide to rigging.......

[Adam Bourne]

I'm currently working as an instructor at a university abroad, but am returning to the UK due to ill health in the family.

 

Whenever I try and teach something, I do the same as you...I ask..."Would I understand this? Do I understand this?" I've seen lots of people teach things and it gets complicated, boring, confusing, and ultimately loses everyone's attention and focus. I've found that keeping things simple, taking small steps building upon previous knowledge learnt is the key to having a successful lesson/learning environment.

 

You have lots of subject knowledge, you look at stuff from the learners perspective, plus have lots of enthusiasm. All key to being a great teacher.

 

Keep up the good work and credit where credit is due.

 

All the best on the family issue mate....

 

What are you instructing at the moment? will you be doing the same back in the uk?.

 

I think rigging has its place but if i went months on end without doing any it wouldn't bother me, but does not mean i wouldn't stay in tuned with whats new, being enthusiastic about it (i like to call it my hobbie:sneaky2:) helps me take my XP to another level this way i can share with others even if some of it is dribble...

 

i've taught a few climbers in the past but never concentrated on rigging just mainly climbing. getting to be a rigging and climber instructor i'm told is hard but i think it would be worth it...and its something i've always wanted to do....

[KingoftheRing]

Been abroad for a few years now, will PM you the details.

 

Have you considered being an instructor for the NPTC on chainsaws and such? I'm not sure if you have, but it might be worth contacting local Agricultural colleges as they often like to have guys who are in the industry come and do some demos/instructionals. Always great for students to chat to people who are working. Be a great way for you to also gain experience teaching. It a way you could find out what works and what doesn't work in regards to your teaching style.

 

I am looking forward to the next installment.

[KingoftheRing]

Thats ok, you dont have to reference my thread but it might be useful. Its probably my best so far in terms of taking time to explain things.

 

Rupe: Excellent pictures in your thread concerning pulley size and placement. Very informative especially when combined with the videos showing it all in action.

[Adam Bourne]

Butt tieing, Tip Tieing, and Balancing.........

 

 

In the next few posts i'll go through tieing of the branch or wood being lowered by using the above i will also give a few reasons why each one would be used in a given situation.

first of some of these techniques being shown will require certain Cuts of the timber to make them work right and get the timber to do what you want it to do.

once i've explained in simple terms i'm hopping to put a video together of a take down using some of the techniques shown through out the thread and hopefully explain a little more on different Cuts and where to use them. but this may take a while as the video is still incomplete.

 

Butt Tieing.........

 

The most common of all lowering is to just simply tie the rope to the butt end of the branch you are cutting, allowing the branch to fall brash/tip end first. making sure that the climber is positioned so that he/she does not come in contact with the rigging line or is a place to be hit buy the butt end. getting into cuts a little later but most cuts involve either a step cut, or a felling cut facing downward again different tree species and different weighted timber will react in different ways.

 

In Picture 1 there is a simple butt tie with the use of a hitch

 

Picture 2 and 3 is a butt tie using a sling, i find this way quicker as if you have several slings you can tie a few limbs whilst waiting to get the rope back from the ground. so when you receive the rope back, simply attach another sling and cut....

[Adam Bourne]

Tip Tieing.........

 

 

There are a few reasons why this technique would be used, the most obvious would be for making the sure the butt end goes towards the ground first, this way being easier to control and placed on the floor.

some trees have vertical stem growth and tip tieing from a rigging point above is more efficient and safer this way taking out shock loads on the system.

if you have a lateral limb that is weighted towards the tips, then tip tieing will then allow your ground worker to pull down on the rigging line tieing it of on the lowering device effectively tensioning and taking out the weight of the tips making it easier to place with your cuts with out it breaking of to soon or getting the saw trapped.also this allows you to swing the branch from an object or building.

this technique is hard to describe pictorially so will demonstrate in a video. This way i can show the cuts and the reaction of the timber of branch.

 

again making sure that the climber is in a position to avoid being hit by the swinging branch.

 

picture of a tip tie being lowered using only the rope and 2 slings.

[Adam Bourne]

Balancing.....

 

One of the most advanced ways to remove a branch or piece of timber and can be as simple as using just the rope which takes a considerable amount of experience to judge where the balancing point will be in each branch, or more gear and easier to to create a balancing point.

 

reasons behind this technique would be to ensure that the butt or tips don't go down first for an example there might not enough room from branch to ground or an object or building to butt tie, once the branch has been cut and is floating on the anchor point then a pre installed tag line can manoeuvre the limb away from an obstacle.

 

here are a few photos showing balanced limbs with the use of just a rope, 2 slings and both 2 slings and a Yale spiderleg balancer....

 

I've used 2 slings in one photo this stops the branch twisting/turning round when there is a fork in the balance point.

 

Picture 4 the Yale spider leg Balancer.

 

Picture 5 the Spiderleg in action......you can use several of these at a time ensuring no role on the limb being removed, although they take a bit extra time to sort out getting the balancing point is relatively easy with these as it does not matter if the tip ties are slightly out note how much further away the slings are on this photo to the original sling balance photo. being that far from the Balance point would make it butt heavy, the spider leg taking the wait means you will almost certainly hit the balance point every time.

[Rupe]

Adam, I dont think tip tieing should be done by actually tieing onto the tips of a branch.

 

Your tieing on to a potentially heavy branch at its weakest point. Half hitches at the end are ok to keep it aligned, but the rope (or slings) should continue along the branch until you get to a strong enough point. Much easier to achieve with slings than rope.

[Adam Bourne]

Adam, I dont think tip tieing should be done by actually tieing onto the tips of a branch.

 

Your tieing on to a potentially heavy branch at its weakest point. Half hitches at the end are ok to keep it aligned, but the rope (or slings) should continue along the branch until you get to a strong enough point. Much easier to achieve with slings than rope.

 

Yes sorry Rupe well pointed out......

 

will get a picture up illustrating what you have just said.....my bad..

[Rupe]

Its just that to get things to actually hang vertically you usuall have to go much further out than you think and into much weaker wood, or cut off more at the fat end to give extra weight which again means you deffo need a strong attachment.

[Adam Bourne]

Its just that to get things to actually hang vertically you usuall have to go much further out than you think and into much weaker wood, or cut off more at the fat end to give extra weight which again means you deffo need a strong attachment.

 

its a good job your here Rupe, it completely skipped my mind......