Australian skyscrapers in the SoCal desert.
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SeanKroll
Treehouser
Have you tried a triple hinge?
I seem to see the triple-hinge used on the tension side of leaners. A careful sawyer (maybe using a visual guide, such as a dowel set into the rear of the rear of the facecut and then the bore-cut between hinges, allowing parellel plunging) might be able to get more than one hinge across the entire width.
I seem to see the triple-hinge used on the tension side of leaners. A careful sawyer (maybe using a visual guide, such as a dowel set into the rear of the rear of the facecut and then the bore-cut between hinges, allowing parellel plunging) might be able to get more than one hinge across the entire width.
davidwyby
Desert Beaver
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- #58
I was gonna run over the neighbor's scale but it was busy. Maybe later. Felt like a little more than my 8,000lb pickup that I put on that trailer. Trailer is good for 10k, tires for 13,600. Towing with the 13,000lb 6x6. Euc is heavy for sure. I remember the first time I picked some up with the 16,000lb forklift...big old dry log was heavier than I expected for dry wood.
davidwyby
Desert Beaver
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- #59
So…last night removed some limbs to prep my buddy’s tree for removal. About 6” diameter and 20’ long. I got them to swing more than I expected. Then when I went to split them, they were the devil. Stringy and springy. Pointless with an axe. SO…is trunk/base wood more brittle than limbs? It sure seems so!
We use a blockbuster splitting axe for euc. Weighty and wide.
6" should split ok.
Larger rounds, smack them right near the edge of the round, get some splits starting. Once you get one piece to split off, work around the round, splitting bits off the outside until it's small enough to finish through the middle, if you get what I mean.
6" should split ok.
Larger rounds, smack them right near the edge of the round, get some splits starting. Once you get one piece to split off, work around the round, splitting bits off the outside until it's small enough to finish through the middle, if you get what I mean.
davidwyby
Desert Beaver
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- #61
Yeah...I should start a separate thread for my axe/splitting adventures. I usually noodle the big stuff until it's splittable with a maul, then smaller maul or splitting axe. Most of my splitting has been 20 years dried euc where the ring splits off, then kinda splits ok but crooked because of the twisted grain. Then there's usually some splittable pieces inside that..then the "hard core" which can hurt your wrists with shock....
The green stuff lately I've just been messing with a little here and there to try. Trick is it's getting hot and it's easiest to split while green...second is very dry and cracked and worst is in the middle. Sometimes I load them on our press and split them with a wedge. Want to make a splitter attachment to go on my forklift forks.
SeanKroll
Treehouser
Be wary of spiral grain mixed with tall hinges!
SeanKroll
Treehouser
Was this cut from both sides?
The uneven hinge will take more force to bend over than a straight hinge. If cutting from both sides, on a solid tree, you don't need the inner hinge as much as the corners (like hollow trees, and gutted hinges). If you dip the tip too far into the center, when double-cutting, it doesn't matter much.
Gutted hinges are easier to bend.
IF you are having trouble getting the hinge even across the middle, a skill-developing trick is to put a straight, thin stick/ dowel/ similar in the back of the face-cut, against the hinge, extending past the tree, which gives you something to gauge a parellel or angled bar in the back-cut relative to the front of the hinge.
davidwyby
Desert Beaver
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- #67
@SeanKroll Somewhat double cut, bar didn't quite reach. I always make sure I keep my corners and sometimes dip into the center, which is what I was working on when she started to leave, so I left. :-D
davidwyby
Desert Beaver
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- #68
I dropped a mess of euc this weekend, and got some hinge action vid. Not sure when I will have a chance to put it together. I biffed the vid on that tall skinny curved spar. :-/ I open faced it 90* to the trunk and parallel to the road, shoved it over with a forklift fork...it stayed on it's side of the road. Amount of lean and crown weight or lack thereof are big (duh). Also top weight vs. base dia. I dropped a 40" 30' 15,000lb spar that was leaning towards the road. I figured it would hinge a bit, break, and drop 45* between lean and lay. Lean ended up being irrelevant, it went exactly with the hinge along the fence.
davidwyby
Desert Beaver
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- #69
Pardon the poorly aligned back cut.
The fatty. Landscaper came from the other end of the property after the earthquake 😁
Yeah…that was too much hinge…8mins of slugging. Green Euc is wet and rubbery and spit my wedges out too, despite dirt and sawdust sprinkles. Note fence behind all stumps...why they are high. Mostly cut with 2188 and 36" bar from the other side of the fence.
The fatty. Landscaper came from the other end of the property after the earthquake 😁
Yeah…that was too much hinge…8mins of slugging. Green Euc is wet and rubbery and spit my wedges out too, despite dirt and sawdust sprinkles. Note fence behind all stumps...why they are high. Mostly cut with 2188 and 36" bar from the other side of the fence.
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SeanKroll
Treehouser
Re: spitting out wedges
I've been buying thrift store cutting boards to cut into stackers. I've only cut one so far.
Works great.
This is @stig 's trick.
Only one wedge per stack.
Bandsawing the mushroomed heads cleans then up. Easier than that can be to set the wedge well into a kerf and backchain off the mushrooms.
Re: too much hinge...'tickle' or 'gut' the middle of the hinge from the front when you have confidence in your corners and/ or "have it on the run" (COG over/ past the hinge). Takes a lot of force to bend the hinge on top of lifting the mass.
There are some barbed feeling wedges, as well. The. Barbs can mash down in hardwood. Probably not great in eucalyptus, for that reason. Not good for bucking, unless you're going to move the pieces.
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davidwyby
Desert Beaver
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- #73
I use the side of the bar of my electric saws to trim wedges in my vise. I also made myself some nice aluminum wedges with one way spikes but didn’t have them. I thought about tickling the face, I should have.
I think a bar that reaches through the tree and can make all 3 cuts from one side is nice, sometimes necessary, but I had a short bar/double cutting idea. Maybe @stig will like it. I caught myself walking in front of trees that were already face cut to check progress of bar tip on the other side (been working against fences a lot). It occurred to me that if the bar was pretty much exactly half the tree dia or a bit more, one could set the min hinge thickness on the outsides with the dogs and swing the bar thru until it pops out the face in the center, effectively gutting the hinge from both sides.
I think a bar that reaches through the tree and can make all 3 cuts from one side is nice, sometimes necessary, but I had a short bar/double cutting idea. Maybe @stig will like it. I caught myself walking in front of trees that were already face cut to check progress of bar tip on the other side (been working against fences a lot). It occurred to me that if the bar was pretty much exactly half the tree dia or a bit more, one could set the min hinge thickness on the outsides with the dogs and swing the bar thru until it pops out the face in the center, effectively gutting the hinge from both sides.
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Marc-Antoine
TreeHouser
The downside : If the cut(s) is a bit off, that reduces quickly the intact wood left for the hinge. Also, you can tend easily to almost nothing if the sapwood is punky for example. As a faller goes, I'm near a rookie, so I prefer to bore the center from the face, like the central third, or from the back cut if the bar's length is sufficent (a bit riskier with an odd trunk's shape).
