Tips for keeping long bars level

[Al Smith]

I think it's so seldom used unless a person lived in Vancouver island or some area of the PNW that a person would get proficient in the use of a long bar .

Maybe only 4-5 times has the bar in my avatar been used and maybe same the 42" for the 084 if that many .Fact I have a chain for the 084 that came from Baileys just yesterday I imagine will last for years and years unless somebody tries to cut a big rock with it .Kinda tough on chains to do that nonsense .

 

[Tucker943]

I use big bars constantly. I never had any trouble with keeping them straight. Stick the dogs in level, and start gnawing away.

 

[woodworkingboy]

This is either my little notch for starting a long bar back cut, or the smallest face that Butch has ever seen.

 

[SkwerI]

I like Burnham's method, that's definitely old school. I can just visualize some seasoned old wood rat doing it exactly as B described.

 

[flushcut]

I have to try that.

 

[Burnham]

I have been identified .

 

[woodworkingboy]

Assuming you have bark rough enough to hang on.

 

[Burnham]

If the chain is sharp, any bark will suffice, though a syc, a madrone, or somesuch would prove a bit more of a challenge, true.

It's not just hanging, you have to exert some pressure towards the bole, too. And it's not a static position necessarily, the bar can drag down slowly, which pulls the bar up into alignment. It's a touch, and acquired feel...a skill .

 

[woodworkingboy]

Gregg, at Baileys once gave me similar good advice on starting a cut with a long bar, sock it up tight near the tip then walk into the tree after it is cutting in a ways. I imagine that he has also seen a lot of big trees cut, perhaps done a number of them himself. My long bar has the old half inch chain with very large cutters, and really bites in, so I also relied on the advice he gave about making a little step first. It helps with that touch you mention, easier to work past the grabbing.

 

[Al Smith]

Well 1/2" on a gear drive gets a hell of a bite .If you don't hook a dawg it will pull you with the saw .

 

[woodworkingboy]

That is what I have for the big bar, Al, 1/2" on a gear drive 090. I heard that it can knock you on your azz, and I proved it.

 

[Al Smith]

The stuff files with 36 thou depth on the rakers .Pulls a hellish big chip if it's filed correctly .

 

[flushcut]

I have been identified .

As what being an old tree rat?

 

[Burnham]

Yessir .

 

[gf beranek]

Squaring a bar for an undercut or back cut is no less different than squaring it for buck on a slope. Unless in an awkward situation I seldom ever dogged in first.

For me it was align, start the cut, and then dog in.

With bars over 42 inches it's another thing. That's where bar droop starts coming into play, for me.

Oh yeah I had my problems early on.

But that's all behind me now. Thank, God.

 

[Al Smith]

While there is a certain novelty of cutting with a long bar as seldom as I've done it I gained great respect for those who did so on a regular bassis. Damn that isn't nothing but bull work .

 

[woodworkingboy]

Jerry, did you ever see people using helper handles on long bars, or perhaps yourself? I have one for my mill, but never used it when falling. I think it could be practical on very long bars.

 

[Al Smith]

What like this ?

 

[woodworkingboy]

Right, Al, pretty extreme example though. There are two types of helper handle, one just attached through a hole in the bar and has nothing to do with the chain, the kind for milling actually has a bearing in it that the chain runs around, no proper end on the bar for regular sawing. Without the handle, the bar is unusable.

 

[gf beranek]

No helper handles here, but I did use pilot cut a lot with some longer bars.

On can not level out an 84 inch bar to start a cut without throwing the chain. The ramifications of which could end your day.

 

[Al Smith]

A seven foot bar is extreme and likely there are very few people who have ever ran with one let alone even seen one .I have not .

 

[Al Smith]

Long long time ago maybe 1963-64 I was on the dumb end of two gear drives .A big old Mall owned by my uncle and some big old McCulloch owned by a small mill owner I helped part time . I think those were probabley 48" bars with helper handles .

Looking back that was probabley just about the swan song of the big geardrives which in retrospect I really wasn't a part of just a part timer who remembers it as a teenager .

 

[Burnham]

60 inches is the top end for my personal experience...for which I am grateful . That's plenty enough of a handful for a little guy like me.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Man, I've never runs those lengths and I hope to never!

I dunno though, it might be fun a couple times!

 

[Burnham]

Just to be able to say you did.