The Official Work Pictures Thread

[lumberjack]

Yeah, 5.8t with the cab and angle blade, according to Kubota's spec sheet.

The increased tail swing with the power pack has me concerned in yards doing urban tree work. To counter that I am trying to devise a quick attach system. The quick attach connection portion is easy, but getting it on and off without a second machine is curious. I'm figuring the power pack could weigh ~1500lbs, and needs to mount high enough to clear the blade. Also the rear panel swings to access the engine. Perhaps some removable camper style jacks. The machine isn't big enough to practically mount a hydraulic system on it for lifting it off and on.


I do figure a shear is in my future, however a grapple should come first. Also if I build the power pack I'll need to sort out a stump grinder option for it. I also plan on building a dipper extension/second dipper to get a few additional feet of reach for all the attachments, if needed.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

If your looking at a grapple, look at a rotating grapple shear.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCFQ9fsnl4A

I suppose you have thought about putting the power pack on the blade..?

 

[Szajer]

Here's the oak removal that got me. Where I cut a branch midway and it snagged my saw then catapulted me around like a doll.
Not a giant in the least, but the pics don't do it justice either. Notice how crappy the weather was in the AM only to clear up later that afternoon. I love Florida in the winter!

 

[stig]

Crane job from last week.
49 poplars around a school that had been topped years ago and were in various states of decay. Most could be felled or pulled but these had to be done by crane.
Job took us 4 days to complete with chipping and cleanup.
Netted close to 500 cubic meters of biomass chips, which will add another couple of grand to the 20 we billed the job at.
Since Martin had finished his apprenticeship the week before, we let him do the climbing.

 

[Mick!]

Nice looking job Stig, and lucrative as well by the sound of it!
Quick question, is there any chance of the roots throwing up suckers or did you poison them?

 

[Thor's Hammer]

20 grand..? I'm assuming thats not Danish Kroner. Either that or you are way to cheap!

I'm sure you had your reasons, but I really dont like those knuckle boom cranes for that kind of work. give me 30 meters of straight stick any day.

 

[stig]

Those are $$$$$$$$$, Ed.

That crane was what was available locally. I'd have preferred something a bit bigger, but didn't want to pay for transportation.
It worked out ok. But you are right, they get hurt too easily by being rubbed by branches and stuff.
Having a forwarder on the job is just soooooo nice.

 

[lumberjack]

For a starter grapple, I'm thinking an HD BMG with a rotator.

What's the max capacity of a shear like that? I was thinking a shear with a grapple/accumulator to cut and stack small trees but at the moment it's not a priority as I don't have any work needing that at the moment.

Putting the pack on the blade would limit me to working over the final drives most likely, which is less than ideal.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

That shear is 8" capacity. As you can see it works perfectly well as a grapple too, in fact all they are is an overbuilt grapple with a blade attachment.

I work over my drives all the time, never really bothers me.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Those are $$$$$$$$$, Ed.

That crane was what was available locally. I'd have preferred something a bit bigger, but didn't want to pay for transportation.
It worked out ok. But you are right, they get hurt too easily by being rubbed by branches and stuff.
Having a forwarder on the job is just soooooo nice.

I have a 45 tonner coming tomorrow, I get that for £500 a day. On jobs like those poplars of yours we've lifted them out whole and done 20 a day easily. But I know you take whatever ou can get to get the job done.
You're dead right about the forwarder though. I miss having my own forwarder to put on jobs.

What price do you get for your biomass?

 

[Szajer]

Sweet pics Stig!

I get a little nervous with those big cuts looming over my head like that.

 

[stig]

Cranes are insanely expensive here, Ed.
That is why i hardly ever use them. We'll have to pay almost twice that for this little sucker.

For wet poplar we get about $10/cubic meter

Not worth dealing with unless you have a lot of it like we did here.

Tomorrow I have to go look at a bunch of huge ones up at the castle, apparently they want them gone.
That'll net some tonnage.

 

[lumberjack]

That shear is 8" capacity. As you can see it works perfectly well as a grapple too, in fact all they are is an overbuilt grapple with a blade attachment.

I work over my drives all the time, never really bothers me.

Working over the drives is ok when necessary, but I wouldn't want to take a 360* machine and limit it to 180*.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Cranes are insanely expensive here, Ed.
That is why i hardly ever use them. We'll have to pay almost twice that for this little sucker.

For wet poplar we get about $10/cubic meter

Not worth dealing with unless you have a lot of it like we did here.

Tomorrow I have to go look at a bunch of huge ones up at the castle, apparently they want them gone.
That'll net some tonnage.

Would be nice to have biomass up here.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Nice looking job Stig, and lucrative as well by the sound of it!
Quick question, is there any chance of the roots throwing up suckers or did you poison them?

Beware of translocation through root grafting. Treedimensional, a former Canuck poster, said he killed the nearer half of an adjacent poplar a decent distance away (don't remember how far) through stump poisoning (Garlon 4 maybe???). Cutting a trench through any overlapping roots might fix that, providing you aren't too close to the trunk/ CRZ.

 

[Mick!]

Beware of translocation through root grafting. Treedimensional, a former Canuck poster, said he killed the nearer half of an adjacent poplar a decent distance away (don't remember how far) through stump poisoning (Garlon 4 maybe???). Cutting a trench through any overlapping roots might fix that, providing you aren't too close to the trunk/ CRZ.

Had a situation near me where a contactor felled a half a dozen lombardies, short while later the roots (not the stump) threw out suckers, lifted paving slabs and Tarmac, big insurance payout, I always poison pops straight after felling.
Even grinding the stump may not prevent a small forest of suckers.

 

[stig]

I didn't see you question, sorry.
They'll send up suckers, most likely and the school handyman will have to deal with that.
We have some pretty absurd rules about pesticides and government property here, so I just let them be.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Carl, have you ever seen how big, usually older, excavators lower their own counterweights? They have two sheaves at the back of the machine and an eye on the back of the boom. They swing so that the counterweight is over the side of the tracks, lift up on it with the boom with a cable, unbolt, then lower by raising the boom. You would probably do something like that with the Kubota.

 

[Dave Shepard]

I didn't find a video of one where they used the boom, but this one on a Cat 385 is interesting. Maybe you could rig a cylinder on the power pack frame so it could self attach?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Nz-0EG4Fgfg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Szajer]

Had a situation near me where a contactor felled a half a dozen lombardies.

Years ago my father had planted six of those poplars as a natural boundary between properties. They were approximately 9' tall saplings. Within 15 years they reached nearly 80' tall — 24" diameter and were dying out. Cost him a bundle to remove. Those things grow like no ones business.

 

[lumberjack]

I didn't find a video of one where they used the boom, but this one on a Cat 385 is interesting. Maybe you could rig a cylinder on the power pack frame so it could self attach?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Nz-0EG4Fgfg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Yeah, I've seen that before. I'm not sure how I would go about it, but hydraulics would add a good bit of expense and complexity.

Talking with Scott N, getting a stump grinder for my track loader might be the smartest thing at this point.

 

[Dave Shepard]

It would certainly be simpler, and wouldn't require much time. The cable system would work better, in my opinion. Very simple.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I'm not fond of those type of cranes either, Ed.

 

[bstewert]

I wonder which is older, the tree or the house.

 

[woodworkingboy]

I know which is more pleasing to look at.