tockmal
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Everything posted by tockmal
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Where are there 230 ft Douglas firs in the UK?
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Its the oscillaing de-limbed stem I fear, the wood has never moved in that way in its life, one of the most unpredictable aspects of our work.
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I like it Ed, its got a certain innocent charm, those dodge cabs are cool. Hope spare parts are easy to find. Did you get a warranty with it?
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I do this a lot pete, it really helps to give you a feeling of having more control over the forces being exerted on the tree. I like the way the forces are dissipated through the stems creating a safer rigging option. The only thing with the Walnut was the obvious structural defect at the stem union, we didn't want to do any rigging at all. With a tree like that Walnut I think there is a slight chance when using the two pulley system (one in each stem) that the stems may separate due to the seesaw effect of the forces pulling and releasing on the stems when they are loaded.
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I've worked with guys that like that approach, starting by taking the top out first, I only do it if I'm working in a single stemmed conifer and its very windy. The main problem I have with the top down approach is the branches dropping onto the branches lower down and creating shockloading on the stem especially if they are bigger scaffold limbs, its unlikely that this would cause a tree to fail but I don't like increasing the probability of this happening. I would never rule it out though as you have to be adaptable to all circumstances and all trees in an infinite number of different situations.
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what do you mean? like what are the biggest trees that grow here? if so then its douglas fir 200ft
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Bowline, we took down a reasonable size Walnut last week, good heartwood nice and dark wood is really clean. Who would buy it? gunmakers for rifle butts? specialist woodworkers? here's the job and tree - http://www.arbtalk.co.uk/showthread.php?t=221
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Sounds good, just don't hold everything in London or the South East. Colin what ever happened to Russell Ball?
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I can't get this document to open up, is it anywhere else?
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Think its safe to say that we have a visible structural defect. Good photo.
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I'm not surprised!!
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We had to leave it at 4ft as it was riddled with nails, the wood in the stems and branches was clean and healthy despite signs of dieback in the top of the crown. Were you thinking Ganoderma? I've never seen Heterobasidion on Walnut either. But dats what it looks like to me.
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Yeah......done something similar with bull rope and block and tackle system for pulling and holding stems together while climbing. Good idea which can be applied to some storm damage jobs, like holding a hung up tree in place while the crown is distmantled.
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Thanks pete! I'm willing to pay top dollar as I'm sick of B&Q crappy tools always breaking!!! I'll check those out though, any other suggestions would be good.
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What is the best make of philips screwdrivers and flathead screwdrivers, the ones I buy always last about 3 months then break!
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As a climber I sometimes find it difficult to decide wether a tree is safe to climb or not, having climbed many dangerous trees in the past, particularly dead elms......I've become very wary of arriving at a job and just bolting up the tree without thinking about it like I used to when I first started climbing. I've also done many removals using a bucket truck/mewp. I prefer to use this method whenever there is obvious structural defects both visible and suspected like rotten roots etc. There is an issue with new climbers and their employers sending them up dangerous trees without the necessary experience. It happened to me many times - before I started to read up on structural defects and decay fungi etc. How do you make your decision on wether a tree is safe to climb or not?
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We made the decision that using rigging techniques on this tree was not an option - as applying any excessive loading on either of the two main stems could result in total failure of the tree. We did however feel it was safe to climb providing branches were cut small to avoid shock loading of the stems. We were lucky in that the understorey of the tree was relatively clear with a road on one side and large overgrown rhododendrons on the other. If, however there had been more obvious targets (house) under the tree, we would have used either a mobile platform truck or a crane. This last photo shows the tree midway through the distmantle...
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Further up from the wound with the Honey Fungus you can see another large wound at the union of the 2 main stems - an obvious structural defect.
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The other side of the stem we find another wound with evidence of Honey Fungus(Armillaria) ....with what looks like the start of another Heterobasidion mushroom (white)-
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The inside of the cavity - Heterobasidion fruiting bodies -
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On closer inspection you can see a large area of wound wood surrounding a small cavity at the base of the tree - with what looks like a fungal fruiting body inside....
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The following photos are of a Walnut removal and what decisions led us not to perform any rigging on this tree. The Walnut is in the foreground (twinned stemmed), behind it, is a smaller Hornbeam. The Walnut is between 45 and 50ft tall with 2 large stems forming the main structure of the tree.
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Think i'll buy the positioner with the swivel, its looks like a more refined micrograb, which is what I use now. Is it any different? The swivel is at the top- http://www.climb-art.com/positioner_parts.htm
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Are you all waiting for the perfect picture?
tockmal replied to Steve Bullman's topic in General chat
It was just an idea, I think that younger climbers/groundies need all the encouragement they can get what with the diabolical wages they have to live on. Suppose thats another issue for another thread some other time. -
Are you all waiting for the perfect picture?
tockmal replied to Steve Bullman's topic in General chat
That should be taken into consideration when judging the pics, a new climber/groundie will be on lower wages than a climber of 10 years or so. They should not have to go through the discomfort the rest of us had to when wearing the old style chainsaw trousers.
