Beginners guide to rigging.......

[Adam Bourne]

Choosing your rigging anchor point and placing the rope........

 

 

Its not always necessary to have the highest anchor you can find but a well placed anchor will help in aiding your rigging i've chosen this anchor(picture 1) in this cedar because it was in clear view for photos but also allowed me to demonstrate what kind of anchor to look for,

Avoiding anchors like Deadwood and weak unions, compression forks are but a few, pictures 2 and 3 are anchor points to try and avoid the anchor in the 2nd photos shows a lateral limb drooping down which could cause the rope to slide down and when under load could break out the limb.

picture 3 shows a tight fork avoiding these will ensure that your system runs as smooth as possible. the rope being under load in a tight fork may cause the rope to jam up leaving the branch being lowered harder to move or not at all.

remember the tree will help you but it can't think for you.

[Adam Bourne]

lowering down by hand.....

 

 

when the line is installed its always a good idea to keep the friction to a minimal a way to do this is trying to keep the friction management side of the rope in a direct root to the ground this will insure that small/light branches come to the floor with there own weight, and indirect root to the floor may cause to much friction on the rope not allowing the branch to move with gravity.

 

heres a demo of a light dead branch being lowered on this system.

it had almost no weight to it but keeping my rope route clear made it travel nicely using myself to belay it to the floor.

[Adam Bourne]

friction managment using the base of the tree.....

 

 

when more friction in the system is required there are several ways to help as Mr Blair has already pointed out in his last post, use pretty munch anything to hand....

 

using the tree its self by taking the rope and making quarter, half and full turns around the base is a good way to ensure better friction when lowering heaver timber. the photos below show how this is set up, going down the photos demonstrates how to add more friction.

 

getting the wraps right first time is difficult but after a while you will know how much friction to apply. i couldn't lift a heavier enough log up on my own so only could demonstrate how its set up not executed....

[Adam Bourne]

i'm having a break:biggrin: anyone is welcome to add input, advice, pictures i'll cover the rest in a little while i got square eyes...

[mistahbenn]

Good thread Ad, keep it going.

[john p]

without wanting to pick holes if your aiming a thread to educate beginners,novices surely wearing a hard hat on ground is mandatory? God i sound pedantic!!!

[john p]

very good thread though!!

[Adam Bourne]

without wanting to pick holes if your aiming a thread to educate beginners,novices surely wearing a hard hat on ground is mandatory? God i sound pedantic!!!

 

 

no your right mate, and sorry. i needed it in the post above to keep the gopro in one position, just on this one though. i do put my helmet on later as i show how to use the tree to your advantage using pegs and forks as redirects.

[john p]

the one bit of advice i can give is once youve checked everything,check it again,many times just as im about to cut ive noticed something s not quite right,only takes a few seconds but worth every one of them

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I would personly like to say one thing, NO one in this day and age should be using the old school methods of natural crotch and stem friction control.

 

There is no excuse the kit is out there and cambium is more vulnrable than you realise.