warren

Pull up enough rope to reach the ground for retrieval then tie the butterfly ( uses up some of the working end) See .. The climbing arborist video srt canopy anchors. The last one which you can advance with is useful and I use an old cambium saver + krab to achieve the same thing. 

Accepting the fact this is HSE law and we should be doing it, let's gather photographic evidence of the goods(?) and bads of this new system.

What works, what doesn't.

Maybe if there are enough bads we can tell them to reconsider ...

Well, day 2 in the "big brother's watching you house"..

Medium sized silver birch reduction meaning I had to climb back up to my anchors and down again to do the next section (1 rope ddrt 1 rope srt). I feel so secure in the 2 ropes that I'm conscious that I'm not using my strop for work positioning as much as I did before. But the doosey today was having put slack in the system to climb over a branch to do the next part of the reduction and then drop down about 4ft .. I looked at my ropes .... (Pic 1 .What a mess).  And when i got down (pic 2). And yes they both did start out in bags.

Production rate still down. I'll persevere .. and keep making note's so that maybe someone somewhere may realise it's not the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Inexperienced (but not a virgin) with srt here so maybe a dumb question.

Every video I've seen regarding base ties shows tying the anchor line down the back of the stem (not worried about cutting base anchors here) and then ascending the free end that is potentially dangling in the middle of the canopy.

The other day someone threw his line in, then tied the tail of his rope as the base anchor and then ascended up the trunk ( the base anchor effectively went up the outside of the tree and the climbing end back down the trunk). We double man bounce tested the system before he climbed so it was ok.

It's the first time I've seen it done that way... Is that normal? Or horses for courses? 

What setup did he use ddrt or set or a mix? 

Posted this on another thread but should have been this one ...

https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/118191-two-rope-working-an-update/?do=findComment&comment=1758937

Well I bit the bullet and tried it today on a small beech.

I used a zz on ddrt and a hitch climber/wrench on srt and a strop.

The setup was as faff as I haven't done srt for a long time (I normally go straight for the zz).

Accessed the tree via a ladder, ropes dangling every which way. 

I had the srt set up with a cambium saver/carabiner so I could advance it and it was right at the top of the rope so I use it as a strop climbing up. (I could have just put a crab thou the spliced eye and used it that way).

Advance each system to the top. Rope guide for the ddrt and top tie the srt on separate limbs.

I had to climb above the anchor point to reduce the top which was a pain with slackening off the 2 systems and used the strop for work positioning.

Once back under the anchor points it was just like doing a limb walk with 2 ropes. Trouble is I felt so safe I didn't feel the need for the strop (which I think defeats the object of the exercise).

Rope management-wise it was a small tree so minimal friction on the ddrt setup but I think I may go for 2*srt systems.

negatives .... My tree overhung the direct path to the chipper so the groundy had a fine time dodging ropes. And dragging them with the brush but that's just the position the tree was in. 

Once down i had 2ropes to pull down and put away .. so it did slow the job down with the setup and take down but early days I guess..

Sorry if that was boring but I had to start somewhere.

On FB arbtalk (with I have just left) the guys that work for SSE and have been using a 3 rope system for years say they  use 1 rope and 2 strops.

I'm sitting here with a beer by the fire reading this ... Brilliant stuff. Long may it continue. 

Tbh. No idea. Seems a waste to waste it. Yes I could get 10years of firewood from it. Where/how I sell it after is another question. So many questions. Bloody jobs giving me a headache already.

Gents .. I've got 6*90' sweet chestnuts to come down . All straight. Be a shame to log it or worse biomass it. Is it worth getting a mill in? 

Found this at the edge of a field .. someone suggested it was burls .. my thoughts are that it's epicormic regrowth that's been nibbled back by livestock .. will perform a biopsy to find out soon .. if nothing special at least it's a natural bowl.

So .. if it is nothing special how would you go about 'cleaning' it up (thinking of Arbor plane disk)??? 

Dear auntie arbtalk.

As a tree surgeon.. at the end of the day I'd tip my logs off and run indoors for a shower... Now I find myself carefully taking them off the truck and stacking them and reaching for the PVA and a paint brush ... Help ...I don't know what's happening to me....

I find myself watching videos of strange men with monotonous voices talking about and caressing wood. Is this normal?

should i try this ... or run a mile ??? (berberis)

Was thinking of resin .. but it's all witchcraft to me  

Thank you 7d.

ok. As it happens i cut the hedges of the chairman of kent woodturners yesterday (i didn't know he was until i saw the lathe in the shed and asked his missus) .. anyway he suggested i stop the lathe and 'spot' sand the marks out then go up the grits to remove the sanding marks ... it worked. Previously i was just holding the sandpaper against the rotating bowl.

Now gotta get the tenon off without a jam chuck or cole jaws.

by the way, i'm fairly sure that the timber is yew not cherry.

yep - now that's just embarrassing :)

Thank you all. I was loaned a lathe last week and this is my first one. Seems simple now once someone explains that you use the tool to get a completely flat surface and the each grade of sand paper is to get rid of the previous grades marks. I've really only sanded skirting boards before - so this is a whole new bowl-game (!)

Depends on what you find acceptable, I personally switch to a scraper at this point, but many will tell you to go to 400 and some will suggest 600.  Hopefully you are damping the wood to raise the grain - sounds counter-intuitive but actually speeds the process up 

When do i stop? Seem to have been at it for hours and still looks like it needs more.

This is cherry and I've gone to 150grit. Do i keep going til the marks are gone with the 150 or lower then use finer grit?

And around the knot ... will sanding polish the dull bits (end grain?) out or do i need to do something else?

Ta

I'm a tree surgeon (no shit sherlock). I want to buy a lathe to turn bowls from the stuff i cut down (as a hobby to start with). Would hmrc throw a wobbly if i brought one through the company to use up my tax dollars rather than give it to them ???

I used too .. but as we all know it just composts and they end up with a lot of mud eventually.

So you wont want these then
...

I company i sub to have modified the shutes (on a 230) to fold down. I'll take pics Thursday.

... thats a long way down way passed my attention span . Cheers. 

Steve. How can i leave reviews for the tipsites ? Only feedback link takes me here. When i click.on reviews nothing happens. Ta. It was the delting one.