iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Looking

Started by Peter Drouin, May 02, 2016, 11:43:27 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Satamax

I don't know how you work in the US.

But over here, most of the sawyers i know use wheel diggers and a grapple. Exept when they have a log yard with rails and a propper log arm.


I have never seen this on the forums, or sawmill programs we get from the us over here.

Saying this, just to shed another light on the job.

French CD4 sawmill. Latil TL 73. Self moving hydraulic crane. Iveco daily 4x4 lwb dead as of 06/2020. Replaced by a Brimont TL80 CSA.

4x4American

There's a thought, Satamax..

Funny, the sawmill up the road from me has a hood 24000 loader on a trailer and they move it around the yard with a payloader...You would think that a wheeled excavator  w/grapple would make more sense...or hood does make self propelled loaders. 
Boy, back in my day..

samandothers

Grapples are fantastic tools!  I have a 5' one on a 42 hp tractor. lift capacity is about 3600 I think.   The grapple is about 500 to 600lbs.  You do loose some capacity to the weight of the unit there is a balance to how big and heavy do you need for the job and sacrificed lift ability due to weight. 

I use mine for brush and rooting under small saplings almost as much as lifting logs.  I like the narrower width to allow more force under the saplings.  I did bend my single top grapple a bit.  I think I probably grabbed a log too much off center and torqued the unit.

peterpaul

I have had a grapple similar to the Frostbite, http://www.frostbitegrapple.com/  for 4 years.  I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of mine.  It is on a Kubota L4330, about 2000# lift capacity.  At first I was all in for a 72" root grapple like the Quickattach.   I was concerned with the off center clamping pressure of dual cylinder, single moveable top section as MM mentioned above.  Reason being is that I was concerned with "twisting" my loader arms with an unbalanced load, i.e., picking up a large rock one one side.   I move everything with mine, logs, rocks, stumps, brush and anythihng else that will fit in the jaws.   
The only frustration with mine (as with any grapple regardless of design) is that I use mine 60-70% of the time for firewood logs.  When I pick up a bunch of sticks, it seems there is always one left on the gorund :(
My hydraulic control is via a rocker switch on my loader valve arm which energizes an open center soloniod valve fed via the power beyond port on my loader valve.  The valve kit came from WR Long and is like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7jlivrfyzw
Woodmizer LT15, Kubota 4330 GST, Wallenstein FX 85, Timberwolf TW6, homemade firewood conveyor

Andries

PeterPaul - thanks for the link to the FrostBite grapple folks in Fargo ND.
I had no idea they were making a grapple like that.
Looks super strong for things like rocks, or for even one board at a time(pic 18 in their gallery)!
Like you, I want to be able to pick up a bunch of firewood, without dropping a lot, as I go to load it.
Also, on the six acre log yard that I share with my son's tree service, I'd like to be able to skim the ground with just the points of the grapple tines in the ground.
Do a clean sweep and drop all the small crud on the burn pile.
I'm not really that much of a 'neat freak', its just that after a season of milling and tree work, that stuff really starts to become a hazard.
LT40G25
Ford 545D loader
Stihl chainsaws

YellowHammer

If you're going to skim the ground, then look at the ones that have the round crossbar on the lower jaw about a foot back from the tine tips. It's used as a depth stop and basically it keeps the tines from digging into the ground too far when doing high speed root raking or scraping.  The teeth will dig in but the crossbar floats on the surface.  All the debris gets rolled into the bucket as fast as you can go.  The ground looks like it has been dragged with a harrow. 
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

peterpaul

Hey Yellowhammer,  I have a 72" Bradco rock bucket as well.  It has the profile and bar that you are refering to.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVpssWTmE9s  It is not a grapple, but does a fine job of collecting debris without digging in.  Tip it slightly forward and the points scratch the surface without submarineing.  Tilt it all the way forward so the tines point straight down, kiss the ground with a little down pressure, back up and it makes a nice landscape rake.  I use it as a makeshift screen to remove bigger stones and debris out of piles of dirt, stage rounds for my splitter or use it to load split wood into my trailers.  Thats what I would like in a root grapple if my tractor was bigger or I had a skid steer. 

Peter, your gonna love your grapple, amazing attachment and very nice set up.
Woodmizer LT15, Kubota 4330 GST, Wallenstein FX 85, Timberwolf TW6, homemade firewood conveyor

Peter Drouin

A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

Josh3760

Quote from: Andries on May 13, 2016, 10:29:55 PM
I've been looking too, and its been a good winter - milling wise, so, yup, I've been looking too.
At the "Another Project" - 4x4 and I must've been impressed the same DanG thing: when Jake just reached into the mill shed and snatched the top portion of a white oak offa the quarter sawing cant. (he's a middlin' strong guy, . . . I mean with his grapple  ;D).
I work alone most of the time.
I've got a manual mill, and I've been playing with 45 foot Red Cedar for three winters.
I've got a Ford 545D 1992, with a lift capacity of 5000 lbs. - 8000 lbs breakout force.
Hydraulics are soooo durn attractive . . .   for some reason.
So, I've been looking at this:

Anyone on the Forum have experience or onions on Quick Attach equipment?

I have several quick attachment units for my skid steer. My favorite is the snow blower. I also have one of their grapples and grader blade. They are all very well built and only the best on hydrauilcs. Eaton/charlyn valves and motors. I would never  buy an attachment from anyone else
Josh

Andries

Thanks Josh, good to hear your opinion on the Quick Attachments Co.
Peter: Does your grapple have the same hydraulic hook-up as described by Yellowhammer in reply #45?
LT40G25
Ford 545D loader
Stihl chainsaws

Peter Drouin

No, I have 2 extra remotes in the back of John and run 2 lines to the loader arms. I'll get some pics tomorrow.
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

Peter Drouin

How it works,


.

 
Ones on the right.

Then they run to the loader.



  

  

 
Handel on the left runs the jaw.



Cutting short pine today 8'



 

I still use the forks a lot.
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

barbender

     Peter, you need to vacuum John ;D
Too many irons in the fire

Andries

Thanks Peter, great photos.
So you've got two long hoses running underneath the tractor to get hydraulic power to the lids on the grapple.
I haven't seen a three point control with three seperate levers before.
Which puts the control for the grapple really close to the FEL joystick. Nice!
I'm picking up my grapple in Minnesota tomorrow, and I'll hook up my hydraulics the same as yours.
Two 1/2" hydraulic lines and I'm in the grabbing and pinching business.  ;D
. . . and if everything goes well, I may be able to move to the 3rd function setup that Yellowhammer has.
Tractors, attachments and sawmills. something like an addiction, hey?
LT40G25
Ford 545D loader
Stihl chainsaws

Peter Drouin

With all the Hydro remotes in the back like that, a guy can run anything on either end of the tractor.
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

YellowHammer

It hasn't been mentioned, but a grapple is a tree limbing monster, especially with species where the limbs snap off like poplar and pine.  The trick is not to pull back or use the force of the tractor, but to only use the grapples closing strength.  Mine is a double jaw and the top is a little narrower than the bottom jaw.  The idea is to approach the tree to the parallel side of the limb, right where it joins the tree.  Put the outside corner of the bottom jaw against the tree trunk to brace against, and then the top jaw goes over the limb.  This is where a slightly narrow top jaw gives a little clearance.  Hit the "close" control, and since the bottom jaw can't move because its locked against the immovable tree trunk, the top jaw will have to close, and will literally strip and shear the limb off the tree trunk with a snap.  All the load is in the claw, the tractor can be at idle doing and takes no load at all.  I've limbed many trees like this, not as clean as a saw, but a whole lot less tiring when doing a lot of trees on a fence line, in the cab of the tractor, with AC going, listening to the radio.   ;D
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

4x4American

Andries many farm tractors have remote hydraulics.  It's how u run functions like lift the tailgate on the manure spreader for example
Boy, back in my day..

tnaz

Quote from: 4x4American on May 20, 2016, 07:00:44 AM
Andries many farm tractors have remote hydraulics.  It's how u run functions like lift the tailgate on the manure spreader for example

You still need a control valve don't you?

plowboyswr

Quote from: tnaz on May 20, 2016, 09:56:36 AM
Quote from: 4x4American on May 20, 2016, 07:00:44 AM
Andries many farm tractors have remote hydraulics.  It's how u run functions like lift the tailgate on the manure spreader for example

You still need a control valve don't you?
Valves are built in the system. Our 986 IH has 3 sets on it of "remotes"  we hook 2 sets to the loader with the 3rd for other things. Most of our other tractors have 2 sets with the exception of the lettered series.
Just an ole farm boy takin one day at a time.
Steve

Thank You Sponsors!