How'd it go today?

Justin, Interesting.

My day wasn't bad-Finished up the clean-up from yesterdays Monster Cottonwood prune (Tree is oval trunked-5' DBH the narrow way and 9' DBH the fat way) Went to today's scheduled job -deadwooded a Doug Fir and was making hay on the crown reduction (making customer happy) and deadwooding (making me happy) of 2 Black Walnuts when I blew a hydraulic line. Just a low pressure control actuator line but it ended my pruning for the day.
 
Justin, I broke 4 of those low pressure lines on my truck this week. Home Depot didn't have them but I was able to find the brass 5/16" couplers in Lowe's to repair the lines. Part number is A92-A in the plumbing supply area. Buy extras and keep some on the truck.
 
Brian, FWIW the local NAPA carries the Nylon tubing and couplers (But of course the couplers are also available at the hardware store.)
 
The low pressure lines seem to deteriate for several reasons .First by just having hyraudlc oil pumped through them ,flexing and exposure to sun light .

Parker Hannifan makes some better grade low pressure lines than the standard run of the mill tubing you buy at NAPA . If you all have the mind to retube your trucks I could look the number up at work . They also make
" push connect " fittings that work as well or better than the standard ferreled brass compression fittings .Besides than you don't need any tools to connect them,just trim the ends of the break square and shove them on .
 
I've used P-H push-to-connect, they work great! I'll never mess with another compression fitting again, if I can get the ptc's instead.
 
When I bought my truck, there were two 'push-to-connect' fittings on the brake air lines that were leaking (out of 6 connections). I'd lose all my air pressure overnight. Replaced them with threaded compression fittings and no more leaks. The shop said that those push-to-fit couplers were notorious for failure.
 
Were they Gates, or Parker? Parker makes the best fittings, I'm told. A friend of mine uses Parker air and hydraulic on some very demanding systems, they always perform. I've some Gates that I got for a project, they don't seem to be as good, but are DOT, although I think Parker also offers DOT fittings.
 
day 4 of five (figured on 2) pruning a 15' western red cedar hedge.... in the pouring rain.... I dont wanna talk about it. until after work monday, when we are hoping to be finished. bleaugh. I hate hedges, except for the fact that they keep growing and make me money. :)

I quoted on house to do their two property line hedges, inside, outside and tops, then I got the neighbor to the north's hedge, then I got his neighbor to the north's hedge, then I got the neighbor of the first house's hedge too. sigh. I gotta start quoting higher :D I have decent money on these jobs but I bet I coulda pushed a bit.
 
I used to hate pruning hedges with my old boss. Nasty hemlocks rittled with adelgid and scale, and white pines. Thousands and thousands of pulls on the pruner.

This year I've been playing with altering my estimate to find the sweet spot. At this point I think I've gone too far. When you send out about 10 bids and only get one, I think I'm too high now. :roll:
 
Oh say ,on that Parker tubing I mentioned it goes by the name of Parflex . I found some 5/16" od stuff on the net for 36 cents a foot and rated at 1000 psi . I think it's polypropelene or however you spell it . Some of the stuff is nylon 6/6 and some polyethelene or how ever you spell that one .

I haven't had any problem with the Parker push on fitting but have on others . Fact is at one time I replaced all the leakers on one of my Lincoln Mk7s' air ride with Parker fittings .No more leak down . If a person prefers brass compression fittings ,that's cool too .You can reuse them just buy a box of ferrils .

Actually it wouldn't be a bad plan to carry a few feet of tubing and half a dozen fittings stuck in your bucket truck ,just in case .An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure they say .
 
This week was good, but the lesson of this week has been, Andrew needs more gear. :)

This tree and the two speed line tree were yesterday and Thursday. The speed line screw up was disapointing... If Joe, who was filming had been on the control line it would have worked fine, but I tried to do the control and cut. Obviously got away from me, which let it swing on the other side of the maple. :X Goes to show what happens when you try and record your work. :|:

Here are two vids from them. Joe is the camera man. :happens:

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<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AMOY8Y3tZ_w&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AMOY8Y3tZ_w&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 

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Hotshot speedliner now, there must be something in the water in NC. Nice work dude.

How were you controlling the line in the tree...mini PW?

I wanna see the chipper eat wood.
 
Was there some valuable obstacle under the pine tree in that second video? Your speedline worked perfectly and the execution was sweet, but I'm not seeing why the top wasn't just jumped off into the road.
 
Today I cut up some old spruce and pine logs. I guess we are heating the greenhouse with wood this year. I know why I never want to do firewood, cutting up wood into firewood lengths sucks big ones. Set up a trap for the coon tonight, and ate pizza at the lady's. Tommorrow I go and drop the CORRECT tree from the mixup last weekend.
 
You can't tell, but there was about 50 ft plus a steep bank between the tree and the truck. The speedline just made it easier, though I wish the held in up a little better. It caught the top of that little pine more than I liked.

The control line was just through a figure eight. I though it would have way more friction, but I should have locked it off. I figured I could finish the cut, then slow it down before it got away. ...bad idea, and it was a pain to get it un-hung from the little maple.
 
Grab a mini PW, I have a small one I traded a rope for (Tblough, the guy who moved to China), it's great on a webbing sling for lowering limbs yourself.
 
maybe I'll get one. I definitely realized I'm a little short on basic
gear this week.
 
I'm beat!! Every muscle in my body hurts!! My azz REALLY REALLY hurts!!!
Finally finished the painting job this morning/afternoon. Came home, grabed the big saw and sliced up a felled Cottonweed that was bigger than the homeowner thought:? Ashlplund has been wrorking this area.
Then I came home and finished up the trim and siding on the outside of the new windows. Just have to do the interior trim now.
 
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