The Official Random Video Thread!

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I didn't understand a word the guy said either, but the point they're making in that video was fairly apparent. When cutting a log that's under pressure, certain techniques are employed that will reduce the risk of injury, or worse. It would be much better if translated into English though. Sorry about that.

Joel
 
I attempted to translate the word "Spannung". I believe the word means TENSION. If so, it's a tension simulator.

In one of the attempted undercuts, you see that the saw operator gets his bar pinched. They had to relieve the tension in order for him to remove his bar from the log. I believe the point being made there was that it is very important not to cut into the log too far when making the undercut. Am I wrong on that?

Joel
 
I can't believe all that engineering and money went into building a contraption like that just to put a bind on logs just for training purposes.

Yowsa. :drink:
 
OK......after a bit of research on this topic of cutting a log that's under tension, here's what I've discovered.

In the training video above, a log is inserted into a contraption that puts pressure on one side of the log. The side of the log that the hydraulic jack is on is being compressed. The side opposite of the hydraulic jack is under tension.......or being stretched.

Making a cut on the tension side of the log will cause it to split violently, as demonstrated early in the video. By first making a relief cut on the compression side, the tension is also reduced.

The goal of this training is to demonstrate a much safer method of making a cut on a log that is under tension, while at the same time preserving the value of the timber being harvested.

Hope that helps.

Joel
 
I would have to believe that the tension contraption was made for 'classroom' instruction at a forestry school, or possibly for a government timber worker safety class, such as our own OSHA might use.

Bob Underwor may have used something like this at the Bottineau School of Forestry, here in North Dakota. I wonder.

Joel
 
They use it at the Danish forestry school.

It is not a "joke" but the closest simulation to the real thing that has been made so far.
Every once in a while we get a major blowdown that'll take a year or so to clear. ( Remember the picture of the HUGE stacks of timber, Magnus posted a while ago, that was all from a blowdown).
With that amount of timber on the ground and the beetles ready to move in and ruin it, all available personell is needed.
So we try to train our loggers in how to deal with it in advance.

In the 1993 blowdown in Germany, they used a lot of East German and Eastern European workers, who didn't have the necessary training to handle timber under tension, so the casualties were in the hundreds.

In 1999 we had a big one in Denmark that took well over a year to clean up. Thanks to a common agreement between forest owners to use skilled loggers and the forestry school running a gazillion of storm clean-up classes, we kept the casualties down to one!

So don't badmouth the wood tension agregate or you may be reborn as an untrained logger in a storm clean-up:lol:
 
Stig,

Thanks to that video in a language I wasn't able to understand, I spent a whole evening researching the lesson being taught by those folks. I learned a whole lot from that video.

I appreciate your input on the subject. Your comments tie this entire discussion together, giving great meaning to the class being taught, as well as the reasoning behind creating that teaching aid.

Many thanks.

Joel
 
Spring poles are a huge danger to someone inexperienced in logging. I myself have had a running 066 thrown right into my hard hat by one when I first started logging. My boss at the time had the scars to prove having his scalp peeled from his forehead, to about 5" over the top of his head from his younger days. Spring pole

If I have time tomorrow I'll take a pic of my hard hat with saw tooth scars across the top of it from when I get educated. It really shook me up for a little bit. It was a Friday afternoon, hot week, one last hitch of trees to top and skid to the landing.......
 
Tucker943,

I've been logging for firewood for many years. I've learned what to look for when sizing up a downed tree, but this was the first time I've come across a dedicated classroom instructional video depicting the potential hazards when attempting to cut a limb that's under tension. I had no idea there was a real science to it.

The information I found was very interesting to me. It all makes perfectly good sense to me.......now.......but this one aspect of it really caught my attention.

Imagine taking a 1/2 bite out of one side of a hotdog. That half-round removed from the underside of the spring-pole limb is very important. And making that series of cuts at the proper location (where the two lines intersect) was something that I've never seen demonstrated or discussed anywhere. Making the cut dead center in the radius of the bend will prevent all but a very small amount of the limb from whistling through the air.

I'm going to attempt to attach a very crude drawing I just made, with hopes of adding some clarity to the description I made above.

spring pole.png

I look forward to seeing those pictures of your hard hat.

Joel
 
Of course there is a real science to just about any part of wood cutting, be it common sense or schooled, or loggers have been only been thinking about their beer for a very long time. Check out G.F. Beranek's fine text and instructional videos. I still think that the machine and explanation is of limited value as an instructional form, other than informing that there is danger and of the very basics when circumventing it. In the field is where the myriad of different situations have to be assessed and learned from, with the combination of terrain, binds, etc. As a professional, safety procedures more often than not, have to be combined with speed, nipping away at something like a bunny on a carrot isn't necessarily adequate. Wood cutting is a thinking person's trade.
 
I like your diagram. Im a strong believer that the best learning in this trade is experience and gut feeling. That is NOT meant to discredit other methods. For me, Ive learned my lessons, and lessons yet to come, from mistakes and close calls. Literature, and resources like this website have helped me greatly, and will continue too. But the lessons Ive taken heart, never to be forgotten, came from fear and/or pain, in a moment of bad judgment.
 
Tucker943,

My dad was a school teacher, computer programmer, and majored in math and the sciences. When I was a little kid, he'd take me by the hand and lead me to his bookshelf loaded with books. I learned at an early age that there is no sense learning anything the hard way, when thousands of people before me have written about their close encounters and the errors they made along the way. Of course, I was no different than most other kids...........

Now that I have children of my own, the conversation goes something like this........"Don't do it that way, you'll get hurt. Do it like this............and please don't ask me how I know that."

Joel
 
I love these guys.....
Now about that auto complete in the search....
Oh... and did anyone notice the "I Feel Lucky" applet in the Google search? It spins and offers other options... go head.. tryit
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