Underwater logging

pantheraba

More biners!!!
Joined
Jul 31, 2005
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Location
near Atlanta
Interesting saw....

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GWP9thPs_mM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Embed problem...try this: https://youtu.be/i2d8PdKlSmA



They got a cool log here:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BHMRvL5xEOc" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Embed does not seem to work...try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHMRvL5xEOc



This is a Vimeo embed...not sure about Vimeo:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/17491840?color=1aff00&title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/17491840">Underwater Logging</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/hegedusworld">Hegedus World</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
 
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  • #5
And that's interesting...another training video said the blade is supposed to run opposite how we run ours...so that you are always "back-chaining" which shoots the chips away from the saw to minimize clogging underwater:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GWP9thPs_mM" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Embed not working still....try this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWP9thPs_mM
 
Lol that is hard to watch slow hahahahha. I actually almost went to school there, was gonna weld underwater for a trade. Applied, was accepted, and then an old timer talked me out of it (thank God!!!), due to not as much money as you typically hear of and the life expectancy at the time of a whopping 9 years. Apparently most of them work in dry docks and other shallow waters, with constant crushing dangers, and they make less than I do now. The ones who end up making a killing are doing submersion diving, where they go to extreme depths, under very high pressure with special air mixtures to keep them "safe". Since it takes too long to decompress, they live in a small pressure tank for weeks on end, at those elevated pressures. Wrecks havoc on the body, and greatly reduces lifespan and quality. Most die by rigging problems. Buddy that I was supposed to go with went, and he does what I do now (actually he moved up to management stuff). I still sometimes think what would have been, and then am sooooo happy I didn't lol.

https://youtu.be/slq9lkHWs0I

https://youtu.be/M3-6PYbLraI
 
Don't you think there is also some form of chainsaw tooth "hydroplaning" going on under water? I know when cutting a floating log as soon as the cutters get into the water cutting efficiency goes way down.
 
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  • #12
Kyle that 2nd video was disturbing. Terrifying for those divers. Probably best you are working in normal air these days.
 
Lol you are right Gary, I have a hard enough time as is! I can't even imagine being that totally helpless and dependant on other people for my continued life, and I don't want to imagine going out like that. Diving is such a hard job that I almost want to give them a pass for being so horrible with a chainsaw :lol:
 
So Gary, how long have you been a commercial diver? Terrifying story about getting stuck on a bolt and almost drowning in 5 feet of water...a
 
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  • #16
That river job was in 2011...that was my start. None of the jobs since have been that involved. That job took about 4 different phases...recon to figure out how they wanted us to help reinforce approx. 1830 constructed bridge piers (also called "bents"...working in coffer dams a couple of times placing sandbags to contain the concrete they poured inside the coffer dams to reinforce the failing concrete...and helping cement all those boulders together.

It was really a great adventure, way different from anything else I had done. Some of the diving was surface supply, no scuba. That was when I was working inside the cofferdam to place sandbags and scuba wouldn't fit. I'd figure out how many sandbags I needed for an opening, back up a ways, bang the number on the metal dam plates, watch the bags appear as they dropped down from above, then I'd go insert them in the voids. Interesting work with sandbags.

When we installed bags outside the dam, they would lower a pallet at a time in an area and 3 of us would swim/drag them over to the dam and place them. I couldn't believe I was getting paid to have that much fun!
 

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  • #17
And some shots of the small coffer dam area where I used surface supply...some of it was probably 24-30 inches wide...only about 20 feet deep. Ends up I was the only one that could fit into the small space between the bent and the dam plates. All the close diving like that was me...I shamed the other two for being too big for their britches. But I really enjoyed that part of the job...and shaming them made it even better.:D

The outfit we worked with used the big barge mounted excavator to move VW size boulders out of the way sometimes...that was mind boggling to me. John, one of our divers would go down and put chains around a boulder and the excavator would drag them across the river bottom...makes some crazy noises.

My son, Alex, was there for some of the action. He tended ropes and divers...he's in two of the last 3 picts. We always had 3 divers, sometimes an extra tender like Alex. I'm posting a mess of pictures because I know you said you considered comm. diving before. I probably have WAY too many pictures of the job...but it was unique enough that I just shot away. We got some video of underwater inspections if that grabs your fance...not real exciting but it does show the bottom where the coffer dam bet the river bottom...logs, boulders...one log I thought was a cannon at first. The bridge we worked under was the site of the last battle of the Civil War.

OK...bed time here.
 

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  • #22
Amazingly good...the Chattahoochee here around Atlanta is abysmal visibility...zero. Down there, as long as you didn't silt things up, it was several feet.

Here are some underwater shots I took that show visibility, some wedges I had to drive to keep their boards from sliding when they poured the concrete, gaps and sandbags filling gaps, etc.
 

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  • #24
Ha! some of the best money I have made. The clock ran from the time we left the team leader's house until we got back. About 2 hours drive to the dive site, work approx 8 hours, sleep on the way back.

The jobs since then have been smaller...check out an underwater valve in a pond (a couple of those)...the other two guys have done some dock repairs, small jobs. Majority of diving I do now is for the dive team...looking for weapons, sunken cars, drowning victims. No visibility for those jobs, all dark, silty water...no money either...but that's OK...we do get a T-shirt!!
 
Tell me about the money. I worked a few hitches ferrying a team of divers around the gulf.

The had some cool stories.
 
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