Ideas

PCTREE

Treehouser
Joined
Nov 3, 2007
Messages
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Location
Charlottesville VA
Ive been relaxing here at my house, all alone which is rare for me. Just started thinking about how I miss tinkering with projects to make them work. For me I became disenfranchised with the retail industry. I for one cannot afford the time nor money to do all the R&D on more products which would be doomed to fail because I can't market them. So heres my idea, have no idea how it would work, how about if we do an open source collaborative among many innovators and business owners who have a common goal which would be developing a tool to improve WORKERS lives in the tree world.

Since this would be an open venue it is public info. so no patents issues. We could all float ideas and see which would garner more interest then select one participant to undertake the project. Others could help in any way they feel, monetary, knowledge, labor or whatever. EVERYBODY gets to watch the progress and the frig ups and learn from it.

I have 2 main projects right now in mind, well 3 but one isn't tree related.

1 an industrial sized wood waste incinerator that turns wood chips into biochar with some of the released heat. The incinerator would be of a design as to be clean burning enough to meet current EPA standards and be capable of processing 20' logs . I have absolutely no idea how much char it could produce but the fact that it is disposing of wood waste "ONSITE" with minimal fuel (estimate 10 gallons diesel for 80 tons wood). Compared to what our area does which is grind it and make mulch which will release all its heat and CO2 in about 2 years plus the copious amount of diesel used to move it to dump, grind it then deliver mulch. So far we are ahead by a lot of diesel but then you add in that you can sequester a measurable % of the carbon from the tree. We might even be able to get tree removal a positive in the fight against global warming. We wouldn't get stink eye from the prius drivers.
Wild estimate to get a prototype running would be $20k but thats only allowing about $8k for the refractory lining.

2 wood processor that could be fed up to a 36" log and would split it by the time the worker cut the next round with a husky 395 and loaded it in top with a branch manager grapple. Very sparse design trying to keep cost to below $10k

To be clear these prices will only be attainable by being a cheap bastard and re-using many components that will be selected with time tested proof of durability. Basic redneck ingenuity that hopefully the suits cant steal.

We have a lot of good brains in our industry so lets put em together to make a positive effect
 
I don't have any real ideas for YOUR ideas, but if we can set and retrieve anchors and tie ins and rigging equipment, why not a saw? I'd love to be able to get rid of limbs in dead ash trees that had no good trees near them. I can't/won't climb them and have to resort to passing on the job or renting a lift if I can get a lift close enough. Surely we should be able to come up with a way to anchor above the limbs and lower a cutting head of some sort to cut them. If I'm not in the tree, I can't fall out of or with the tree. With the wireless technology we have now you could hoist it in to the tree, position it against the limb, have an arm rotate and lock it against the limb and then have the bar and chain rotate against and through the limb, kinda like a mini feller-buncher. Once it's cut, unlock the saw from the limb and reposition it for the next cut. It wouldn't be cheap, but it would be safer than climbing a dead tree because there's no other way to access it.
 
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Viwwetf0gU?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

.
 
I've seen that Butch! It's definitely a cool idea, but you'd have trouble clearing a path through little limbs to get the saw to the limb. One little 1/4" branch and you've got a really expensive saw-copter smashing to the ground!
 
I think a 60-80 ton log splitter with a 10-16 way box wedge, H frame press laid horizontal with wheels comes to mind
 
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  • #9
Not what I had in mind, you need a box to put the block in, with a blade 4" off the bottom to one side. The whole box pushes the block into the blade so the bottom 4 are cut off, big ugly blocks are easier to split the edges off right. So 6" back there are 4 or upright blades that split the bottom section into fire wood. Then the box moves back and block drops down 4" and the cycle restarts. Cycles are automatic so worker is free to cut block and drop it in again. Wood would be dropped out the bottom, machine can be on wheels with adjustable hight so when pile gets up to machine it just pushes itself along so producing long piles of split wood
 
I don't have any real ideas for YOUR ideas, but if we can set and retrieve anchors and tie ins and rigging equipment, why not a saw? I'd love to be able to get rid of limbs in dead ash trees that had no good trees near them. I can't/won't climb them and have to resort to passing on the job or renting a lift if I can get a lift close enough. Surely we should be able to come up with a way to anchor above the limbs and lower a cutting head of some sort to cut them. If I'm not in the tree, I can't fall out of or with the tree. With the wireless technology we have now you could hoist it in to the tree, position it against the limb, have an arm rotate and lock it against the limb and then have the bar and chain rotate against and through the limb, kinda like a mini feller-buncher. Once it's cut, unlock the saw from the limb and reposition it for the next cut. It wouldn't be cheap, but it would be safer than climbing a dead tree because there's no other way to access it.

https://youtu.be/GbMNpYJWFXo

theres this
 
Good find, Kevin...impressive. That video led me to this one:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x6QhD9_F3Jg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
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  • #14
Never seen that splitter before, looks awesome. Im still looking around for a high volume 2 stage pump for mine, used of course....
 
Bottom line, how much money do you need from an investor, and what rate of return could you promise, or at least under what timeframe before seeing said return?

Not to throw cold water on you Paul, but this is the place where the rubber meets the road. Of course, tolerance of risk is at the heart of our entrepreneurism capitalist system, so absolute guarantees are generally unrealistic, I understand that, but us little people are going to find it hard to put our assets on the line on a wish and a prayer.

I have some dollars available to invest, but I'm an old retired guy with real limits on what I can just throw out there in hopes of a "someday" payback; it has to pay out at least a modest return soon for it to be a viable option. I'm sure I am not alone.

I greatly admire your past work and hope I was able to play a very minor part in helping you proceed with the Wraptor. I think you are a truly brilliant thinker and inventor, and would love to help...but there is always that bottom line. I'm nowhere near wealthy enough to have a serious investment be on a charity basis. Most potential investors are the same, I expect.

This of course is the hardest part about generating investment money. I doubt it is possible for my questions to have satisfactorily reassuring answers, much as I'd like to support your ideas.

Hate to be the Grinch, sorry my friend.
 
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  • #16
B I have always shied away from investors as they want to control the process and reap ALL of the rewards. I really don't think that is what Im looking for, more just an inventors club kinda thing to further the advancement of products that are needed in our industry. Each individual would make their own product for their own use once the design is ironed out so there will be no financial profit, but also no patent laws would be broken. I was thinking the other day about the viability of 3D printing an Akimbo, maybe pay Jamie a fee and everybody could make their own......

Like I said these are just ideas that Im throwing out to try to benefit the workers NOT Sherrill.
 
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  • #19
B the bottom line is I feel bad for the guys entering our industry and pretty much any industry really. I hired a guy this week as a trainee ground guy. He seems like a good dude and his wife just quit work to have their first child. I agreed to pay him $15 an hour. How can he support a family on that with today's costs.we had a good week so I paid him 20. A good percentage of the jobs we go the people are home. They aren't working because their investments make them enough so they don't need to work, I'm not talking about retired folks I'm talking about a good percentage of our population that live off of dividends from the stock market. If you at this point haven't bought in you are SOL because now the corporations have to extract money out of you to pay their shareholders. B you grew up in a different era where a good life was attainable, I fear for many now it isn't . Greed has become a virtue.

I guess I don't know either B but something has to change as I don't see how our current track is sustainable, I would rather make a positive influence in somebody's life than not and if more people started contributing then maybe we could start a trend. This doesn't make financial sense but IMO that doesn't make it a bad idea

Yes I've been drinking but this is the trend of my thoughts lately. We need to support the population not the corporations.
 
Greed is not new, Paul.

When I was 20 years old I didn't think there was much future for me either. Land was too expensive to buy, housing costs exceeded my ability to pay and save anything at the same time...just like today. Also not new.

But I was wrong, it just takes time and concerted effort over a long haul. I don't like to think it's no longer possible for others to get ahead...maybe I'm mistaken, I sure hope not.
 
I like and appreciate the concept Paul. I know most tree guys and gals are thinkers, trying to be more efficient and devise better and more efficient ways to do things. I would bet most have an original idea or two that they have either built themselves, modified an existing product to better suit their needs or maybe it just exists in their mind for now. A great thread to bring some of those ideas to light.
 
B the bottom line is I feel bad for the guys entering our industry and pretty much any industry really. I hired a guy this week as a trainee ground guy. He seems like a good dude and his wife just quit work to have their first child. I agreed to pay him $15 an hour. How can he support a family on that with today's costs.we had a good week so I paid him 20. A good percentage of the jobs we go the people are home. They aren't working because their investments make them enough so they don't need to work, I'm not talking about retired folks I'm talking about a good percentage of our population that live off of dividends from the stock market. If you at this point haven't bought in you are SOL because now the corporations have to extract money out of you to pay their shareholders. B you grew up in a different era where a good life was attainable, I fear for many now it isn't . Greed has become a virtue.

I guess I don't know either B but something has to change as I don't see how our current track is sustainable, I would rather make a positive influence in somebody's life than not and if more people started contributing then maybe we could start a trend. This doesn't make financial sense but IMO that doesn't make it a bad idea

Yes I've been drinking but this is the trend of my thoughts lately. We need to support the population not the corporations.

Great post.
 
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  • #23
Burnham greed is nothing new but when I was a kid it wasn't a virtue... Wasn't something admirable. I once read the cause of pretty much every civilizations demise is excessive leisure time. There is a certain amount of labour required to sustain a civilization. The less some do the more others have to. Our system is seriously skewed to the idle that reap benefits from the hard workers
 
Oddly though, many of the workers idolize, love and revere the rich and famous individuals and lifestyles.
 
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