Trick To Cutting Stumps??

[KnotBB]

Instead of digging the stump out with a cat why not push the tree over with the cat and cut off the stump?  Just don't wait 'till the dead of summer when the ground is dry.

If your saw is cutting circles, i.e., downward slope, turn the bar over or have the bar dressed so the rails are flat again.

[Compensation]

Instead of digging the stump out with a cat why not push the tree over with the cat and cut off the stump?  Just don't wait 'till the dead of summer when the ground is dry.

Well two reasons. 1 the tracks spin that way and don't when I dig and 2 nobody has shown me how to. I am guessing you push up on the tree to put pressure down on the track. Another way I do it is rip one side of the roots out and push from that side.

[Sprucegum]

A D4 blade doesn't reach high enough up the trunk to give you the leverage you need to push a big tree over. Get 10 or 12 feet of pipe and some bracing to attach to the blade so the end of the pipe reaches higher up the trunk. Some where on this amazing forum is a picture of what I am describing - I just can't find it right now  :(

[Al_Smith]

Well as far as popping out a tree with a dozer it's always easier if the whole tree is there .Most straight blade dozers will pop trees but they really are not designed for it especially a little D4 .--but sometimes you have to kind of work with what you have .

I mean you can stump cut with a little saw too it just takes forever .

[HolmenTree]

The only Cat dozers [Komatsu too] I've seen successful for removing stumps was one equipped with a rear mounted ripper. Just like popping a Mexican beer cap. ;D

[Al_Smith]

They used to armor up D7's with plate steel and use a gizmo with a plow like thing that got under the roots plus gave a shove up about 6 feet in the air .Those dozers looked like they had been in a war zone after a few years of stumping .

Even that  a low oak stump about 36" in diameter would give a D8 a run for it's money . I think any more they just use a big track hoe because I haven't seen a dozer stumper used in years .

During the 80's farm land shot though the roof and thousands of acres of 10-20 acre nice woods fell to the mighty D8's .Sad but true. :(

[drobertson]

I take mine down close, and there will be some chain damage, but this goes with the territory I suppose, criss crossing and letting time takes its course is my method,  leaving them high enough for equipment to push over is an option, just left with a hole,  stumps are just stumps, not impossible just a chore, regardless, ones with grinders don't care, they set up an go for it,,, just time and money, it is amazing how long these rascals last when left alone,  I reckon this is where weed eaters come in handy,   

[Al_Smith]

Well yeah some of them can last a life time before they go to dust .I've got pictures of a cut made on my uncles timber lands that was felled in 1937 .Parts of those white oak stumps are still hard as a rock to this very day .

Fact one closer than that,white oak circa late 70's about 100 feet from where I'm typing this post that's about as hard as granite with the bark still intact on the buttress roots .

[gspren]

  Do any of the chemicals that are supposed to cause a stump to rot fast actually work?

[celliott]

I had someone tell me that he saves all his chains when they are down to having about one sharpening left in them, and he uses those for stumps. They're sharp, but they wouldn't last much longer anyways. Toss them when you're done the stump.

[Ianab]

Well that makes sense I guess. If you think you are likely to try and cut a rock, better to ruin a chain that's on it's last use and just bin it, rather than rocking a new chain and having to grind a fair chunk of it away to save it. I know some of the sawyers will save an old band that's almost worn out, or missing a few teeth, to use as a "metal detector" on suspect logs. At least if you ruin it, well you can shrug it off.

Ian

[thecfarm]

gspren,I have no idea about that stuff. But I do know salt will kill the stump. I cut a few aspen in the grown up pasture. I cut the stump kinda high and than cut a bowl in the stump and I fill that with salt and water. I keep a 5 gallon bucket with rock salt and I carry the water down to the stumps. I keep them full of salt and water for 2 years. I think one would do it,but I want to make sure. I don't need 1000 shoots from one stump.I did that with about 10 stumps. Deer like it too.

[Al_Smith]

If you just want them to disappear a very simple method works on some .Cut it low as possible .Wet it down and sprinkle a liberal amount of powdered milk on it .Carnation instant or any of that nasty stuff will work .Cover it with a tarp .In about week ,ten days it will have sprouted a crop of mushrooms which will in time eat it up .Takes a couple years .Lawdy don't get the bright idea to eat the darned things though .Hard to say what those toad stools are .

[thecfarm]

Interesting Al. I will have to try that. I just keep the suckers off the hardwood,maple, and in about 5-7 years the stump is all rotted. But those white pine will hang on for ever it seems. I know a red oak stump will and cherry too.

[bandmiller2]

Al,if their all running harness up all three D-4's with two of your friends make the stumps an offer they can't refuse. I've got an old backhoe with a lot of time can root out most stumps. It bites it no matter what you do then you have to dispose of the body. Frank C.

[stump farmer]

Something else to keep in mind is to be aware of kick-back potential from hitting a hard object in the stump, kerf pinch or if your bar tip is inside the stump. Specifically watch that you're not placing a leg over what is effectively the top of the bar while wrestling with the saw to get it to cut through.

[beenthere]

Good suggestion stump farmer. And not get caught kneeling beside the bar if the saw pukes back out of the cut, and along the leg just above the knee cap. Be sure to have the chaps on to save any skin and bones.

[deerslayer]

Cutting stumps is a great application for the old school saws that weigh a lot and don't have chain brakes, etc. The big engine, lower rpm but very powerful and torquey powerheads will run a very long bar. These saws can be acquired for a fraction of what their modern cousins cost. Examples would be Stihl 070/090, Homelite 750, McCulloch 125, etc.

The key to cutting stumps is a large saw. This is the biggest, hardest part of most any tree. Bigger is better.