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Sawing into metal!

Started by clww, July 29, 2011, 12:07:37 PM

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clww

So there I am yesterday finishing the final bucking. This on a residential Willow Oak I've been removing for a paying customer that is going to end up as firewood. The final section is about 12 feet length and 52 inches at the widest; "tapers down" to 47 inches on the small end. Too much tree for my MS 290 with the 20 inch bar, so I break out one of my bigger saws: the 084 with 36 inch bar. I'm bucking it into firewood lengths-16 to 20 inches long. Buck to length, then rip each of these into 4 quarters so I can get it wrestled onto the splitter. I'm bucking the 5th piece, about halfway through one side, and the saw starts bucking and jumping like crazy, so I know I've hit something. Set the chainbrake, shut it down, pull it out. I knocked off 9 teeth on one side!!! $53.99 in the Bailey's catalog. Later on I find out that there were 2 old square nails, about a foot deep in the trunk. The customer is buying me a new chain and sharpening 5 others I've hit hidden metal with. This was agreed upon at the job start. Oh well.....today I finish splitting the last of it, then hauling several trips to my house this weekend.
Anyone else with similar memories or experience?
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

lostyooper6

Very common when cutting old trees near a residence, I find stuff like that nearly daily cutting in hedgerows between farm fields.  A lot of the sawmills around here won't even cut a log without hitting it with a metal detector 1st.  You'l  find everything from nails to pieces of fence to rocks deeply embedded around here.  I go through a lot of chains.

Firewoodtroll-

Hello, >:(
A few yrs back I was felling some very big Cherry trees-24,36 at the stump I was using my
   372 XP -WOW !!!!! I hit a old cross cut saw blade in the middle -broke my chain threw it about
30 ft-stuck in a Ironwood tree,talk about a Rush ! Not uncommon in the UP of Mi. one day I hit
a old chainlink fench on a woodlot-that took the saw right from my hands,slung forward and broke
the gas tank.Must be carefull-I have felled thousands of trees and always beware.

               Paul
Those That Perfer Safety OVER FREEDOM Deserve Neither.

             Ben Franklin

quietrangr

Quote from: Firewoodtroll- on July 29, 2011, 08:17:41 PM
Hello, >:(
A few yrs back I was felling some very big Cherry trees-24,36 at the stump I was using my
  372 XP -WOW !!!!! I hit a old cross cut saw blade in the middle -broke my chain threw it about
30 ft-stuck in a Ironwood tree,talk about a Rush ! Not uncommon in the UP of Mi. one day I hit
a old chainlink fench on a woodlot-that took the saw right from my hands,slung forward and broke
the gas tank.Must be carefull-I have felled thousands of trees and always beware.

              Paul


I can't top that, but back when I was doing tree work, I hit, besides the usual nails and old fence line, a twelve inch thick chunk of cement, a triangular file about a half inch thick, and a fist sized rock grown up into the lower part of the stump.

Edit: Forgot about the old guy who was sawing one of the trees I'd cut down earlier, and sawed through a one inch pipe used for mounting a yard light. I was up in the tree, so I couldn't tell him. He just kept sawing and sawing and sawing and sawing...

Al_Smith

You can find metal where you least suspect it .Once twenty feet up in a woods tree ,nails left by some rascal who must have had a tree stand .

My worst has been in an apple tree that must be a hundred years old .I had built a tree house in ye olde tree as a boy and hit metal 50 years later as I dead wooded it .Poetic justice I suppose,the old tree got even with me  for the foolishment of my youth . :D

Yoopersaw

Quote from: Firewoodtroll- on July 29, 2011, 08:17:41 PM
Hello, >:(
A few yrs back I was felling some very big Cherry trees-24,36 at the stump I was using my
   372 XP -WOW !!!!! I hit a old cross cut saw blade in the middle -broke my chain threw it about
30 ft-stuck in a Ironwood tree,talk about a Rush ! Not uncommon in the UP of Mi. one day I hit
a old chainlink fench on a woodlot-that took the saw right from my hands,slung forward and broke
the gas tank.Must be carefull-I have felled thousands of trees and always beware.

               Paul

There seems to be a lot of nails in some trees coming from the old treestand days when hunters built up their stands in trees up here.

clww

I finished splitting the last wood from that tree yesterday. Among other prizes, I found an old clothesline section, a 3/4" diameter section of a bolt, and 4, 12 penny nails all in a group together. All of these I did not hit with the chainsaw thankfully!
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

iffy

I recently built a log home and the swedish cope logs were all cinched down with 1/2" x 12" lags on 24" centers. I ordered a random package, so let the log ends run wild into the door and window openings, then sawed them out later with my Stihl 028. Although I marked the final door and window size on the floor for reference while stacking, I must have crowded the line a little close or completely ignored it a few times. After my scientific experiment I can tell you that a brand new full chisel chain can only get halfway through a 1/2" lag before it quits cutting. I repeated the experiment 12 times to make sure.  :-[

Al_Smith

 :D This thread must be a bad omen or something .Today I hit metal that must have been 18" inside a 4 foot Chinese elm .Cleaned off two teeth on a 32" loop on my souped up 038 Stihl Mag .Then split the rim sprocket on the same saw and cleaned off a half dozen drivers on another chain .Then hit metal in another tree with a 441 Stihl running a 24 "  .Not a good day to say the least . :(

clww

I'm still stacking the wood I split from that oak. So far, I've come across another two old bolts that were buried in the trunk. Luckily, these I did not hit because these two were at least 1/4" ones. ::)
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

mrcaptainbob

Reminds of when the city took down the last American elm behind Mom's house. ThHis many decades ago. They did chunk it up and took the small stuff. I hauled the remains to my house for splitting and was amazed at the evidence on the ends of what those city guys cut through. They looked like pin cushions! Well, that tree was only six feet from the back door. It served as a clothes line pole and all manner of needs for a very long time. There was metal in there from eighty years ago! And splitting showed up even more!

maple flats

I didn't hit it with my chainsaw but rather the sawmill. I was cutting a big box elder a few years ago. It had been bucked into 4 logs, each getting small of course. I hit a porceline insulator in the top half of the 3rd log (maybe 29' off the ground) and when I got to the smallest log I hit more. In there I sawed a lead slug (didn't hurt the blade) that must have been 36-38' off the ground. There must have been flying deer (Christmas?) going by at some point for a lead slug to be that far off the ground. The owner said the tree had been growing on almost flat level land.
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

Al_Smith

 :D Recently I made some wide window sills from ash I had cut about 6 years ago .When I was doing the finish work on one piece I noticed part of a nail dead center of the board .Some how I missed it with not only a chainsaw but also with the bandsaw mill ,table saw and thickness planer .Talk about blind luck .

Grunex

Can't say this happened to me, but I heard of a fellow who was cutting down an old elm tree outside of a bar near me,..............tree came down and that's when they found a pistol grown into the wood!
www.grunexlandclearing.com
Maintaining America's Heartland one acre at a time.

WDH

Trees have to protect themselves too from the rabble  ;D.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

sawguy21

The worst one for me was a pile of junk shipping boxes for helicopter blades, we were cutting them up to go into the scrap bin. One was being particularly difficult, I opened it and there lay a brand new $20,000 rotor blade with a nice gash in the leading edge. :'(
Nobody lost a job over it but things were tense for a while.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

clww

I worked on MH-53s one tour in the USN. Nowadays, that's a VERY cheap rotor blade. You can tack on another $45K for those X7!
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

sawguy21

It was for a 206 Longranger, one of two we had and the only ones in North America at the time. Cost me a chain. :D
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

woodtick#2

preparing for the hurricaine i wedged over a nice oak so i would still have a chicken coop tomorrow, in doing this i managed to find many nails (i mean MANY)
-Nathan

clww

Yeah, we had the full force of Irene here last night. You guys had it today. Tomorrow's a new day.
Many Stihl Saws-16"-60"
"Go Ask The Other Master Chief"
18-Wheeler Driver

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