How'd it go today?

I NEED A CLIMBER WHO KNOWS HOW TO CLEAN PALMS! Our top climber will be out for 3 weeks with a workmans comp back problem, our other climber left for Haite yesterday because his mom had a stroke and the climber we flew in from MI is leaving Sunday.:whine: So, unless the climber we flew in can stay another week, all I have is a bucket operator. :whine: HELP NEEDED!
 
Palms grow from the top. New fronds form in the head and sprout straight up. Once the fronds mature, they can also send out a seed pod. There is usually one seed pod per frond, which sprouts when the frond is at about 45 degrees from vertical. As the palm grows, the fronds eventually start hanging sideways and then straight down as they die off.

Standard palm trimming is done by cutting off all the lower fronds. This includes all the dead fronds as well as all the ones which are starting to decline. For appearance, the seed pods are all removed as well. The easiest way to remove the seed pods is to cut off all fronds with a seed pod. This method has resulted in the industry standard for palm pruning being a '10-2' cut. If you imagine the face of a clock, you cut off everything below 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock.
 
The grinder was running like a bastard today, knocked out $700 in stumps in 2 hours and I was the low bid by $120 bucks or so. Went to the second job, had about 10 minutes in, 20 minutes left when this put a damper on my day. It's not much fun grinding on 75% power. Luckly the local shop has one in stock and set it out for me to pick up this evening.

DSC05919.jpg
 
lumberjack said:
The grinder was running like a bastard today, knocked out $700 in stumps in a little under 2 hours [...]
Click to expand...

Well I was all proud of myself till I read that, but you pretty much smoked me.

Did a $350 TD in just over an hour this AM... cake job. I bid the thing back when I was too flush with work so I bid high and the guy took it anyway without getting any other bids.
 
The job was 26 miles from the house, but the grinder was sure running like a top. It was 2 jobs, and I was the low bid on both by about 60 bucks each. My regular is $200/hr, when the grinder isn't breaking, it grinds like a bastard. That video I posted yesterday was about $75 worth of stumps (freebie) and it took 10 minutes.

That little part and the 2 bolts are just under $140, and I put $65 in the truck and $25 in the grinder today, although I didn't burn near that today.
 
Nope, that blows away my top rate.

Another easy day trimming today. A couple high dollar residences in Winter Park (where a quarter acre on the water can run $1million or more) and it was sweet being able to whip the truck into the driveway without worrying about leaking oil. I worked till slightly past lunch and cleared $400.
 
It has always amazed me how much you can make grining stumps, I just walked in from grinding 2 stumps for $200, took 20 mins to grind, hour with drive time. More money than tree work and no employees or insurance:? Makes no sense.
 
My stump guy has three machines (a big Vermeer tow behind and two 352's). His cousin works for him running a 352 and Bobby pulls the big one. He drives a brand new 2009 F350 four door Lariat with all the options. He works about 3-4 hours per day and never works weekends. He is so cheap on stumps that it's hardly worth buying your own machine. On that last huge removal I did, he charged me $100 for grinding the stump and $250 for running his loader moving stuff and loading logs for 4 hours. The stump was almost 5' across.
 
We have guy like that around here, used to grind all Bartlett's stumps until his best buddy, a Bartlett climber quit and started his own service... the Bartlett manager never gave him another job so now he's scrambling to build his on customer base. He charges $2 per inch of diameter at grade with a $75 minimum.

Has really nice equipment, nice new F-350, his 2 primary grinders are remote controlled, so is his trailer gate. He can grind without ever touching the machine.
 
I don't know about your grinder, but mine requires a bit of maintenance from time to time. :lol:

This past downtime I replaced the broken timing belt ($1.1k at the diesel shop, $200 for the parts, $100 for the required tools and I DIY), hydro oil and filters ($220), engine oil and filter ($50), fuel filters ($10), air filters ($70), serviced the teeth ($600 for a new set of pockets and teeth, held on with $120 worth of bolts), and I welded up the belt cover. In the next 20 hours or so I'll have to replace the polychain's sprockets and (maybe) belt for another $700.

But yeah, good money can be made grinding stumps. Turning the wrench yourself keeps alot more of the money in your pocket. Paying someone else to do the above would easily turn into $3k or better bill.

Got my part, fixing to go throw it in, adjust the valves, and fire her up.

DSC05920.jpg
 
Ha,there is this guy O'Brian that had a nice Vermeer and he did pretty good until health problems forced him to retire .

O'Brians stump removal,no stump too plump .:lol: Cracked me up .:lol:
 
I flat out don't understand why someone would want a tow behind grinder. On usual work I grind twice as much as my competitor's Vermeer 1102 with 120hp in a given amount of time.
 
I hate grinding, it should pay well as it's so freaking boring!!!! I ground three stumps today, it just makes me miserable.
 
It might be boring but old stump too plump O'Brian made a fortune doing it .He landed big municipal jobs like in Cleveland or Columbus and ground stumps for months at a time . Actually O'Brian was a tad plump himself .
 
If I had to grind stumps for months at a time I'd end up throwing myself under the wheel. Dusty, boring, dusty, boring. Bahhh, I only do it to land the rest of the job. I rarely to never take on just grinding.
 
Rocker stand is in, valves adjusted, ready to kick some mo ass tomorrow.

Grinding would be alot more enjoyable if it's all I did. Today was pretty enjoyable, get in a cadence and you can let your mind wander somewhere else. It is a bit tough running it with one hand while carrying on 3 conversations texting with the other hand.

Grinding a couple/few hours a day is alot better to me than the 14 hour days my father used to do.
 
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