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Timber Harvest Methods & Equipment

Started by Ron Scott, March 24, 2002, 02:14:52 PM

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Ken

A chipping operation set up on the same road we are still trucking out of.  Had to wait a bit for them to finish loading today before I could get by.  A Tigercat 845 buncher, a couple of 748 Deere skidders and a Morbark flail chipper on this job.  This outfit does not take long to cut a block.   

 
Lots of toys for working in the bush

barbender

     Scenes from spring breakup






     Load ready to go, that's probably around 18 cords of black spruce-



     And today, starting a really nice pine thinning on sandy ground. Over half of what is cut is going for poles, it takes a very nice stand of wood for that

Too many irons in the fire

Clark

Quote from: barbender on March 23, 2016, 09:11:01 PM
     And today, starting a really nice pine thinning on sandy ground. Over half of what is cut is going for poles, it takes a very nice stand of wood for that



Holy! Is this state or federal ground?

Clark
SAF Certified Forester

barbender

     This is a state sale, right next door to the state nursery/research station at Bedoura so it has recieved a fair amount of grooming I think ;) This area has lots of well managed plantations, red, white and jack pine of varying age classes. It looks kind of like a pine garden :D

Too many irons in the fire

barbender

     Those poles are straight, I was using the panoramic function on my camera and it makes them look crooked :)
Too many irons in the fire

BargeMonkey

You guys put up nice piles of wood.  :D.

g_man

A change in scale. A little TSI job did last season. I put a tractor road in last July



 

Cut the fir and some firewood late December



 

This is what it looked like last week



 


gg




killamplanes

jd440 skidder, western star w/grapple,tk B-20 hyd, electric, stihl660,and 2X661. and other support Equipment, pallet manufacturing line

killamplanes

Everybody does things different as long as we make $ most the time
jd440 skidder, western star w/grapple,tk B-20 hyd, electric, stihl660,and 2X661. and other support Equipment, pallet manufacturing line

barbender

Quote from: killamplanes on March 24, 2016, 12:47:51 PM
Everybody does things different as long as we make $ most the time

     Isn't that the truth! I love seeing all the different ways we go about getting the wood out.

     G man, I love doing the type of work that you are. I wish I could be out with a saw in my hands more- I did get to drop 3 :o ;D trees today, I love felling timber.  If I could make a living around here doing small scale harvests with a focus on TSI, I'd be all over it.

     View down a strip




     Poles and bolts on the landing

Too many irons in the fire

coxy

on the poles how many limbs are you guys allowed on the bud whorl   all of the red pine around here has 5 limbs and they wont buy it I cleared about 2a of red pine for a house site some of the r pine was 20in dbh and straight as an arrow shame to let it rot away the 2 soft wood mills are packed solid

78NHTFY

g-man: nice lot, nice load!  Have been doing the same--just fun being out in the woods at this time of year without 3' of snow to wade through.  This Winter sure has been different.  All the best, Rob. 
If you have time, you win....

barbender

     Every time I get on a pole job, I start thinking about this video- https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fi7Fl76EyxI
     This is a very efficient forwarder operator- in Europe, I think they are very methodical compared to us in North America. They actually put operators through schooling before they ever get in a machine. My boss, I had only talked to him on the phone, he told me where the job was and where to find the keys on the machine :)  At any rate, I'm wondering if any of you other CTL operations handle poles much, and have any of you made an attachment like this operator has on his back bunk for skidding poles? I'll probably weld something up today, but I'm curious how others deal with poles with a forwarder. I'll just say, the way we do it works great until you have to turn :)

  Coxy, the pole buyer pre-marks the poles on the sale, with the length written on them. So we don't sort them ourselves, although I did quiz the pole cruiser as to what he's looking for. Mainly, the straightness, minimum diameter, branch whorls aren't an issue except for diagonal knots.
Too many irons in the fire

1270d

I have never cut poles.  That does look like a pretty simple and effective  way to forward them out.   Looks like it allows another pivot point for turning.    Seems like there could only be one row on that rack or the next ones would slide off.      How many can you carry at a time barbender,  three or four?    This guy looks like he could get eight or ten on.

barbender

     1270, if the landing is set up so I don't have to turn, I can put on 10 on that are size that are on this job (32', 37', and 42'). I guess I could fit mor, but I try not to push it as it puts all the weight on the back bunk, not to mention the strain put on the machine if you have to turn. If we get into big ones I might only skid 4. It all depends on how much turning I have to do. When I have long ones (47, 52,57, and 62' I don't think I've gotten into any longer) and turns, I sometimes just fill the "basement" with pulp or bolts, just so the poles can pivot and not bind up in the bottom of the bunks.  This is one of those situations where the mechanic and I keep talking about slapping one of these together, but then I get the job done and we forget about it until the next pole job comes up, 6 months later ::)  On this job however, I am having a heck of a time because the strips are laid out perpindicular to the woods road, and it is so tight I can't make the corner without poles on. I have to come out, stop and back up. So it is starting to get very tedious, and even the skidding plate won't completely solve my dilemma.
Too many irons in the fire

chevytaHOE5674

Last winter I cut some 40' aspen poles for a guys timber frame house. Forwarding them out was a real treat, basically we did did like you are talking filling the bottom of the bunk with some pulp and then putting the poles on top of them off the back. Trouble was it was winter time and we had some terrain to contend with so it seems like the forwarder guy was forever readjusting them or loosing them off the back.

Boss joked if we got into a job where we had to do that often he would go buy a cheap grapple skidder to move them around.

barbender

If we have a really big job with poles, we will have a grapple skidder on the job. This is just a 400 cord sale, and it's a long ways from our shop. So I'm forwarding them. I actually like skidding poles, it's just this landing is not set up for them at all.
Too many irons in the fire

coxy

how far is a long way from the shop  ;D

chester_tree _farmah



The old method. :) Thinning hardwood and feeding the deer on some high ground.
254xp
C4B Can-Car Tree Farmer
Ford 1720 4wd loader hoe

Peter Drouin

Is the black spruce cut into 2bys at a mill?
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

chester_tree _farmah

There is no market here for small spruce or fir at this time. No spruce fir pulp market. Just sawlog  and studwood. Some take whole tree but it has to be good stuff.
254xp
C4B Can-Car Tree Farmer
Ford 1720 4wd loader hoe

barbender

Too many irons in the fire

barbender

Quote from: Peter Drouin on March 28, 2016, 06:25:25 PM
Is the black spruce cut into 2bys at a mill?

     Peter, I didn't know if you were asking me or Chester, but the Potlatch stud mill will happily take black spruce stud bolts down to 5 1/2". Sometimes we sort them, sometimes not. It depends on how full UPM is on wood, but usually when we are in black spruce (winter) UPM is trying to get ahold of all the spruce they can. BTW, ine of Potlatch's foresters told me if they could run their mill on just spruce, they would love it. It goes through the mill faster and is cheaper to dry. However, probably 75% of their volume is red pine, with the remainder made up of jack pine, spruce, balsam, and white pine.
Too many irons in the fire

chester_tree _farmah

254xp
C4B Can-Car Tree Farmer
Ford 1720 4wd loader hoe

barbender

Too many irons in the fire

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