How'd it go today?

Big cottonwood job in Neche, North Dakota. From the top of this tree, I could see 15 miles into Canada. We were 1 mile south of the Canadian line, just a bit southwest of Winnipeg, Manitoba. This Cottonwood tree had been surveyed by 6 different tree companies, all of which turned down the job. David Scigliano and I decided that we could handle it.

Every limb had to be rigged down. This tree was removed and cleaned up by two men. It took us 5 days. The Wraptor allowed us to get into the tree, remove a few limbs, come back down and do the cleanup chores, before re-entering the tree to remove a few more limbs. The GRCS was put to good use. We also had two Port-a-wraps employed at the same time. Three rigging ropes, several climbing lines. Most of the work was accomplished by using two climbing lines at the same time. Love the new T-Rex rigging redirect tool purchased from TreeStuff. Finally down and done. Joel
Cottonwood Removal Leeds, ND2.jpg Neche Cottonwood.jpg Neche Cottonwood2.jpg
 
Good for you Joel. Doing the tree nobody else wanted soon gets around. Hope you get some referrals out it.
 
Good work, Joel! Shows what can be accomplished by a competent and intelligent crew of two...but, without the Wraptor and GRCS, it would have been a tad bit more tedious, with all the up and down.

Quick anecdote. Summer of 1975. A few months before my first tree job. Around the morning coffee sitdowns, when I was hired in the fall, much talk was about the 2.5 day cottonwood removal that Steelhead Bob York had been the lead on. It was bid at...hold on....$250!! Five feet wide at 80 feet was the talk....
 
Brendonv,

All of the wood went to the city landfill. Many people were interested in it, but nobody had the equipment necessary to handle it. The local tree guy in Neche, Tim Stegman, owns an older digger truck used by utility companies. It is equipped with a 14,000 lb crane. He's responsible for the removal of the wood. Tim also owns a sawmill, but none of this stuff will go through it. It's all too big.

I was responsible for getting the tree cut into manageable pieces suitable for the crane. Tim directed me as I made the cuts. He figured that a piece 10 feet long would weigh about 7000 pounds.......which is about 3/4 the capacity of his dump trailer. The city landfill is less than a mile away.

Happy to be back in Cando. 4 trees on the removal list at one residence tomorrow......a spruce and three green ash. I'm looking forward to doing something a bit less rigging intensive. Whew....that was a massive bugger.

Joel
 
Gary,

The 395XP with the 42" bar was just able to make it halfway through the stump. I took the stump down to as low as the root flare would allow me to go, which ended up being about a foot above ground level. Cutting the stump down took me about 20 minutes and three tanks of fuel in the 395XP. That is an amazing saw. It can go just over 7 minutes on a tank of fuel. Tim Stegman will remove the stump. He's equipped with a tow-behind Vermeer grinder. That job will take quite a little time.

Side note......the homeowner told me that she's been wanting to have this tree removed since she moved in, over three years ago. The project drew a lot of attention by the local people and we were pretty much the most excitement the town had seen in a long time. The former homeowner stopped by to visit with us while we were cleaning up and he told us that he had wanted to take that tree out every single day for over 20 years. The roots have heaved the garage floor and the door will no longer seal to the floor. The concrete sidewalks and the driveway concrete is also badly heaved and cracked. The broken concrete will now be removed so the roots can be ground out. New pads will be poured after all evidence of this tree is finally history.

Joel
 
Excitement is good. I was wondering if you might of had to fill out a questionnaire why you are cutting it. Nice saw, rebuilt it's little brother once, gas had no oil in it.
 
Woodworkingboy,

I know Husky makes the bigger 3120XP, but I honestly don't know what I would need it for. The 395XP is impossible to properly describe. It's not TOO heavy, but it has all the power I could ask for. What an amazing cutting machine.

We used the Husky 562XP while aloft. HolmenTree's review and comments convinced me to purchase it. Super happy with the choice. We fitted up the 562XP with a 32" bar and found that it was just a bit too much for it with full comp chain. Skip tooth chain would be a good choice for the 32" bar on the 562XP.

The 395XP.....she just don't care one little bit. The 42" bar is a perfect fit for that beast. I'm truly impressed. Makes cutting big logs fun work.

Joel
 
Mistahbenn,

I own several cameras, a Go-pro, and a few computers......but I never take the time to film any of my work. The photos from this job were sent to me from my co-worker's wife, who was kind enough to take a few pictures of us after we finished up the job......otherwise I wouldn't have a single picture to share here. It's one of my downfalls......of the many more I could list here. I promise to try to do a better job of it in the future.

Joel
 
Thanks Holmen.

I've got a few used 32" chains in my stash box. I'll pull one out and get it sharpened up. Now I'm both curious and anxious to give that a shot. The 562XP is my favorite saw, and I want to personally thank you for taking the time to help me make that purchase. Your advice was worth a million to me.

Joel
 
Good basic tree work. Interesting you had to cut thru that vertical union between the two leads...have not had that situation before.

Wrap that left thumb.
 
HolmenTree said:
Thanks, your welcome .
I got my 562 converted to .325 running Stihl 23RS chisel chain, with a 7 tooth rim sprocket. You can replace the 3/8 sprocket nose tip on your 32" bar with a .325 nose.
The .325 rim is a good bit smaller then the 3/8 rim so the 562 is putting out quite a bit more torque pulling that chain through bigger wood, and you still have lots of chain speed for limbing thanks to the Rev Boost.
Also make sure you drill a 3/8" exhaust outlet hole next to the present outlet. You can put the screen back in.
Saw runs cooler plus helps hot restarts and puts out more power.
Click to expand...

Willard if you get the chance could you post a picture of the holes in your 562 exhaust.
I've got one and a 560 (same saw basically) and they're well out of warranty.
Do I have to put the spark arrest screen back in?
 
Mick, I haven't worked on that particular muffler, but I'd suggest removing the muffler from the saw before working on it. Removing the filings and if you can gat in there from the front and rear with a countersink or file to deburr the edges of the holes, that is good too. Some little piece breaking away from vibration and falling into the cylinder obviously as best avoided. A small wire handled wire brush can help smooth things out if it can get in there.
 
Wrong thread! :)

Fiddler said:
oh fudge...looked all over for a jam to get into today and came up blank.
Click to expand...

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/537HszGnsPs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

8)
 
It's freaking WWIII here! Waiting to hear the fire sirens...dry as a popcorn fart.

Hope it quiets down soon...I work at sunrise tomorrow.

At least all the explosions don't seem to bother Otis much.
 
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