dadio

if the pull line is high enough and the grain will split easily, they normally don't need vertical cut to break free.. it goes pretty quickly then..

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xEbjtEO2yU]YouTube - knox rd oak stump cut[/ame] I made this cut up. Have been using it for a couple years now.. works well, saves a lot of hassle, handling the round.. need to have a ready source of pulling power...

Thanks ... it was a fun job.. hard to see int he video, but the brush was getting lifted over a creek right behind the tree.

This was a job from last summer.. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isj8N5o6IkU]YouTube - large silver maple removal.mov[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0GjgMZwd10]YouTube - shoulder cuts.mov[/ame] Here's the latest.. A bit difficult to understand what is going because of camera angles and intereference..

Nice , I love the B&W effect

good question.. to tell you the truth .. I never really thought about it... I've never used one, though I own a couple and tried them once or twice.. they feel restrictive.. Only dropped a saw once in the last 10-15 years.. just a couple months ago.. a brand new ms 200... landed tip first and stuck in the ground about 6" deep... slight bend to the bar, which straightened right out.. LOL crazy huh? Had a contract climber come in and drop an older ms 200 from 35' on frozen ground.. totalled the thing... His first and last day. He packed up right after that and said he was getting out of the business. Works in a book store now. Anyhow, I know in certain scenarios its useful to be able to drop the saw and move, or drop the saw quickly and free up both hands... seems like the west coast conifer cutters (and aussi too) like to let the saw hang below their feet.. I have an accessory biner on my saddle, actually two, right be each side D, so I can clip the saw to either side.. Will often engage chainbrake and let it idle between cuts.. Might be good to hook up some little accessory line for the bucket.. what do you use?

Nice video.. really fun to watch.. better than the telly any day... Thanks!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXzhS6ww794]YouTube - locust off house.mov[/ame] dadi's idea of a good time!

you think so? oh well I guess I just gotta please myself

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr7FxOpsgyI]YouTube - tree climbing rigging 2 white oaks.mov[/ame] HI everyone at arbtalk.. Hope you all are well.. here's the latest video .. some fun cuts.. one more coming soon

Good stuff, really well done video...

All the time.. I call it "near balance point rigging".. Don't have time to look at the 7 min mark now, BUT I DO USE THAT TECHNIQUE A LOT.. makes things much easier to handle on the ground and can reduce shock loading greatly when done properly. Need good coordination with the guy running the ropes. I actually have a video called "near balance point rigging. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuBRXDTpzFE]YouTube - Near Balance Point Rigging 19" Oak Action[/ame]

Normally just throw the camera bag in the truck in the morning and if there is someone around to run it, then fine.. If we're busy and short handed then no shooting.. I don't mind stopping for a couple minutes to get the camera out on a potentially cool shot, but productivity comes first.. I've missed some very cool shots along the way for lack of tape, batteries and time...

Now that is the best comment I've heard yet on these videos.. dunno about speedlining the big tips out over the house, but much of the rest of the tree could have worked and saved time. Especially pre-tensioning the speed line with the skid loader.. could have worked well.. There have been a lot of views and you are the first to make that comment.. We don't speeling often.. mostly just to move the material out to an accessible LZ.. Comes in handy when needed, which is not often with the topography here... thought just never occured to me.

Many of the Americans thought I over rigged this job. The customer had made a very clear request that the ornamentals shrubs and grasses in the bed not get damages, so almost everything needed to be pulled over the bed with a tag line tied to the skid loader.. Bucket was maxxed out with some long heavy limbs going out over the house. it all worked and the job went quickly, as setting rigging from the bucket is generally quick and easy.. the skid loader fed the chipper so there were minimal delays on the ground getting ready for the next cut.. fun job [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30p_eyywYhM]YouTube - Bucket Rigging Part1 Sweet Gum.mov[/ame]

Take a look at these two videos.. This is three large tulip trees with over 90% of the cuts lowered, and maybe 10% bombed.. If you had to cut and chuck that much wood in 30 Kg pieces by hand from a bucket, I doubt you could get it done in a day.. even if you had a bucket tall enough to get to the entire tree. Keep in mind someone has to clean up all those small bits and moving the bucket around etc.. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpwDNQwKzFo]YouTube - Efficiency in Tree Removal pt.1 Daniel Murphy 3 Tulip Removals[/ame] [ame] [/ame]

I say "land of the free" in part with tongue in cheek.. Yes as Americans we enjoy a lot of internal freedoms that others do not have, yet more and more the freedom we cherish are becoming an illusion.... free elections... are free to the highest bidder, which has been codifies by a supreme court whose chief justice was put in place by a president that stole both elections... The paperless ballots in many states would not qualify for the basic minimal requirements of international election monitoring organizations.. Racism, calssism, poisined food, bankers, wall street, insurance companies etc.. robbing the working man blind.. terrible system of health care, man made diseases etc.. SO yes I enjoy the personal freedoms of America, but they do have any bearing on its foreign policy, which I despise... most Americans have been brainwashed as children to believe that the US governement is some benevolent force of freedom, justice and liberty.. as opposed to the an evil bully using its muscle to exploit the rest of the world's resources.. AND THEY GET VERY UPSET IF YOU TRY TO TELL THEM THE TRUTH so keep it quiet eh.. thanks

JOsh and I see things very much the same way... MUCH SAFER to get the tree on the ground in one cut, rather than put a crew through hours of rigging and bombing, fatigue, frustration, and much more exposure in the drop zone, or some piece coming back at the operator etc.. The only requirement is that the cutter know what he is doing in a way to make 100% certain that both he and the gropund crew are safe during the fall. There is just soooo much complex calculations involving weight and lean of tree, type of wood, condition of tree, communication with and source of pulling power, special cutting techniques, width and depth of notch, stump shot (height of back cut) etc etc etc... It would be nearly impossible to set up a test that could determine if someone is qualified to make a cut like that... SO barring any way to know who is and isn't qualified to make those types of cuts, it seems you've got limited options on the island... Land of the free, means I AM free to do it my way. Keeping cuts to 30Kg from a bucket would take all the fun out of the work for me.. Is thart really a safe working load that you are restricted to work within????? What's the point... be faster to climba nd rig a lot of trees.. save the mewp for pruning..

I give people more credit than that. Anyone that picks up a saw should have the sense to know that he is working with a powerful tool that has the potential of doing some damage. I think people have the sense to realize when a technique is beyond their skill level. And furthermore believe that these videos/explanations are far more likely to save a life, as they put valuable information in the hands of many that are skilled and smart enough to use it wisely.

The techniques are safe... If you don't think so, then I need to explain why that is, which is often because there was a lot more going on than what is shown or explained in the video. Based on many of the comments on the American sites, the other reason I need to explain why the techniques are safe is because the critics lack the skills and experience to understand the complexities of work done on this level. I have had to explain things over and over and over again, so many times to so many people, that I have had to conclude that there are a lot of cluless arborists on these sites. After putting up over 30 of these videos, it has started occuring to the Americans, that it isn't just luck, and I have recieved a few apologies, as people tried my recommended techniques and found them useful. Many of the more experienced American arborists that used to be harsh critics of my postings and videos, have learned better and come around to giving this body of work the respect that it deserves.

Josh, Hard to understand that question.. it sounds like you are really asking about the plunge cut.. when I got precticed and comfortable with using the plunge in falling either trees or spars, I think I have more control, becasue I can take my time setting the hinge exactly as I want it, in complete leisure. I can taper it or do whatever I want to it, while have more control over the exact height of the backcut, which is harder to do with a standard backcut. there are a lot of benefits to the plunge which I have explained a number of times, as well as the advantages of the step cut which was exaplined in depth in the siberian elm removal thread at the TH .. It gets pretty involved and more than I want to explain again.

Here's the answer to post 41.. Its a long answer so here it goes... combination of reasons: 1) dropping the whole thing in one cut after taking out the side limbs that would catch the english walnut in the neighbor's yard was going to save a lot of time over lowering, even with a mewp (finally figured out what a mewp is) mines an altec LR IV 55' workign height. SO time was the biggest concern.. 2) the money cut was fun to pull off and get on video. 3) dropping it in one cut like that put the majority of the mess in the street which is easier to clean up. it turns out that the chip truck had a blown transmission so I had no chipper that day. I was hoping to use this job as a way to get a day of work in, not having to wait for the transmission repair. with a big drop like that, all the dead brush that wold otherwise need to be chipped would just blow up into small pieces could be loaded into the F350 dump with the skid loader. 4) the backyard had three levels. Tree was on the lower level, I had no access to that level with the skid loader and it would have been very difficult to move much mass from that level. 5) slighly shorthanded that day 6) only acces with the mewp was from neighbor's driveway and I didn't have enough reach to rig the top of the tree easily.. Is that enough?

This is a point on which we disagree.. MY opinion: People think the techniques demonstrated are unsafe, risky, lucky etc.. because it is either over their heads (beyond their set of experieinces), or they misinterpret the videos and the explanations as they never give the full story. there is just far too much going on to explain and show it all on a shoe-string budget. I AM also glad to get the confirmation that prejudices from other American sites has bled throuhg to the conversations here. I have tried to be polite here, and not met met with the same by many. Glad there are a few here who take objection to this treatment and would like to carry on a respectful dialogue.

There were two pull lines set in the tree, both anchored at about 10:30- 11 o'clock to the desired direction of fall, as the tree had a slight side lean and side weight. So there was no way the tree could fall back, but if the hinge failed it could still go 90 degrees to the pull lines, which may have left some of the limbs on the back side of the tree able to sweep into the boom at its high point, so I wanted all parts of the boom out of the potential sweep, should the hinge fail. I also wanted to get a good camera angle for taping the drop. The first pull line was pretensioned from the ground, carefully watching the movement of the tree as the truck slowly pulled forward. Both pull lines were dynamic, which allows for a good bit of stretch in the lines, which combines with a high pull line, will spring load the pull from both the stretch in the rope and the bend of the upper limbs. The first line was to be the static anchor, which would only be used if the primary pull line didn't have enough pull to get the tree over. The primary pull line was only pre-tensioned after the notch was made. Again the tension was carefully set by watching the movement in the top of the tree to get a bit of spring loading, but not too much pull. I then made the plunge cut to set up the hinge. I usually stop once or twice as the plunge is through and approaching the desired hinge thickness, and walk around the tree to check the distance from the bar tip to the corner of the notch (which of course will be the thickness of the hinge). But in this case, it would take some time to swing the bucket around for a visual of the far side, so I just guesstimated the far side hinge thickness by using the top gunning line on the saw, to make sure the backcut was gunned to the same direction as the notch, which would ensure it was parrallell with the notch, and then cut up to the desired hinge thickness on the near side. When I did swing the bucket over to check the far side, I had taken a bit more than I wanted out of that side of the hinge, which was the tension side, fighting the side lean. Not good, but I was pretty confident that the offset direction of pull was enough to fight the side lean. I hammered a wedge in the compression side of the backcut for a little more help in that regard. Then I brought the plunge back towards the back of the trunk, leaving about 6" of back strap. I have used an offset back release cut very succesfully in the past, leaving a "fuse". This is done by making the back strap release cut 6-15" or more below the plunged portion of the backcut. Then the tree won't move until enough force is put on th pull line to break the fibers running with the grain, between the two portions of the back cut. Its a very sweet cut, which has a lot of benefits and allows the faller to get away from the stump before calling for the pull. I often run the camera on these drops. In this case, I was a little hesitant to leave so much distance between the two portions of the backcut, as I was concerned about not having enough pull to overcome both the back lean and the force needed to break the wood fibers between two cuts. So I made the back release cut a little higher than usual, at most 3" below the plunge. AS soon as the two cuts bypassed, the tree moved just a little bit, partially breaking the fibers between two cuts. The kerf of the lower back release cut opened up a little, and the tension in the pull lines went a bit slack. The spring loading of the two pull lines had done its job, but once the tree moved enough to unload the spring, it stopped, still holding on the hinge, with a slight back lean. This is shown in the video as the camera pans up and down the back of the tree from the bucket, just before the full speed fall. I just moved the bucket into position, switched the saw out for the camera and called for the pull. I apologize if this explanation seems wordy or preachy. It is just a reply to Josh's request with a thorough explanation that even a newbie should understand. Remember, that a lot of people come here to learn, though they may not speak up, they are listening.