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fluidpowerpro
fluidpowerpro
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#1
Forestry and Logging / Re: Felling wedge choices
Last post by John Mc - Yesterday at 11:35:33 PMI use 12" wedges. Usually carry two in a pouch on my tool belt. If I'm working on a smaller tree where 12" will hit the back of the hinge, I'll bore a path through the center of the hinge for the wedge.
I don't really like the wedges with the barbs on them. The ones I've seen seem to be more brittle. They are also a pain in the neck if you need to remove a wedge before the tree i tipped over. (Doesn't happen often, but occasionally I do need to remove one.) I prefer wedges that have a texture on both sides - the ones that are smooth as glass on one side are more prone to popping out. I've end up with Stihl wedges, since those are what I can find locally that are textured on both sides. (Stihl also make one that is smooth on one side that I do not like.)
I generally don't stack wedges. If one wedge isn't enough to tip the tree, I'll stick a cookie in the gap created by the first one and pound the second wedge in on top the cookie.
I don't really like the wedges with the barbs on them. The ones I've seen seem to be more brittle. They are also a pain in the neck if you need to remove a wedge before the tree i tipped over. (Doesn't happen often, but occasionally I do need to remove one.) I prefer wedges that have a texture on both sides - the ones that are smooth as glass on one side are more prone to popping out. I've end up with Stihl wedges, since those are what I can find locally that are textured on both sides. (Stihl also make one that is smooth on one side that I do not like.)
I generally don't stack wedges. If one wedge isn't enough to tip the tree, I'll stick a cookie in the gap created by the first one and pound the second wedge in on top the cookie.
#2
Sawmills and Milling / Re: Stress
Last post by Wlmedley - Yesterday at 11:09:15 PMRight after I got my mill a fellow wanted me to saw him 200 10' 2"x4"s out of poplar for a barn he was building. I have plenty of nice straight poplar trees so I told him I'd give it a shot. I really didn't know what I was doing but I got it done after a few weeks.I wasn't proud of the results and told him so but he said they were good enough for his use and that the boring bees don't bother them.Since then I've found poplar makes nice 1" sheeting and pine makes nice 2"x? .That's the plan I try to stay with.Poplar seems to need turned frequently to get good lumber and with a manual mill it gets pretty rough.
#3
General Board / Re: Some random notes, observa...
Last post by Southside - Yesterday at 11:05:51 PMBack when Flying J wasn't owned by Pilot there were a very good stopping point. The restaurant was excellent and the place was always clean.
#4
General Board / Re: Some random notes, observa...
Last post by doc henderson - Yesterday at 10:56:59 PMLoves is our favorite when going long distance, especially with the camper. they now even have hookups for campers. We often sleep there or at a Walmart.
#5
General Board / Re: Making it through another ...
Last post by Nebraska - Yesterday at 10:55:35 PMThe days that you learn for free are usually good days. That was interesting. 
#6
General Board / Some random notes, observation...
Last post by WV Sawmiller - Yesterday at 10:37:40 PM I just completed a 742 mile trip today. About 730 miles of it were from returning to WV after dropping my 94 y/o mom off about 40 miles from Pensacola. The rest were in Charlotte NC picking up my wife I'd left at our daughter's place. Sunday we left WV and overnighted in Charlotte to break up the trip for my mom and have dinner with the kids and grandkids. Along the way I heard and saw a few items of interest. Such as:
1. I got behind 2 trucks loaded with chickens and I began to wonder how fast you'd have to drive to blow the feathers off them and if would be a cost effective way of picking them?
Would the chickens all have to facing against the wind?
2. If you did so in the winter could you deliver "Fresh frozen, dressed (Well at least plucked) chickens to your buyers?
3. In Prattville Ala (Near Montgomery) a local school had to go into lockdown mode because of a "Bigfoot" sighting. Per safety/security protocol the outer doors were locked and the kids were locked in their room. A brave and diligent Resource officer captured the offending creature (which turned out to be a parent in a Sasquatch suit playing a prank on his child). It made me wonder - Has anyone seen Robert lately? (May actually be a little out of his range but you never can tell as it does look like it is on the way to the coast for a fishing trip.)
BTW - Is it a crime to impersonate a Sasquatch in Ala?
4. I stopped at the Love's Truck Stop at Exit 104 (Poston territory) on I-85 om South Carolina for fuel and found that Greyhound buses stop there apparently for a bathroom and snack buying break. The clerk said apparently Greyhound likes their large, clean bathrooms. I never thought about it but assumed Greyhound buses (And Trailways I guess) only stopped at their own bus terminals.
5. My truck hates my wife. The A/C and heat work fine for me unless she gets in and then it starts blowing hot air instead of A/C or vice versa on her side only. (May be a bad Actuator valve somewhere or it may just be mad at her from some past comment she made about it).
6. I heard on a radio station Ala just passed an anti- squatter law making Squatting a crime and making it easier for owners to boot them out. I know Fla recently passed a similar law which may be the model for Ala.
7. FWIW - I love Indian food and we had a great Indian dinner in Charlotte Sunday night but my Mom tried it for the first and. she said. last time. (I guess I got my culture genes from my Dad's side of the family
.)
I may remember more astute observations later but it has been a long day so I'll leave it at this for now.
1. I got behind 2 trucks loaded with chickens and I began to wonder how fast you'd have to drive to blow the feathers off them and if would be a cost effective way of picking them?
Would the chickens all have to facing against the wind?
2. If you did so in the winter could you deliver "Fresh frozen, dressed (Well at least plucked) chickens to your buyers?
3. In Prattville Ala (Near Montgomery) a local school had to go into lockdown mode because of a "Bigfoot" sighting. Per safety/security protocol the outer doors were locked and the kids were locked in their room. A brave and diligent Resource officer captured the offending creature (which turned out to be a parent in a Sasquatch suit playing a prank on his child). It made me wonder - Has anyone seen Robert lately? (May actually be a little out of his range but you never can tell as it does look like it is on the way to the coast for a fishing trip.)
BTW - Is it a crime to impersonate a Sasquatch in Ala?
4. I stopped at the Love's Truck Stop at Exit 104 (Poston territory) on I-85 om South Carolina for fuel and found that Greyhound buses stop there apparently for a bathroom and snack buying break. The clerk said apparently Greyhound likes their large, clean bathrooms. I never thought about it but assumed Greyhound buses (And Trailways I guess) only stopped at their own bus terminals.
5. My truck hates my wife. The A/C and heat work fine for me unless she gets in and then it starts blowing hot air instead of A/C or vice versa on her side only. (May be a bad Actuator valve somewhere or it may just be mad at her from some past comment she made about it).
6. I heard on a radio station Ala just passed an anti- squatter law making Squatting a crime and making it easier for owners to boot them out. I know Fla recently passed a similar law which may be the model for Ala.
7. FWIW - I love Indian food and we had a great Indian dinner in Charlotte Sunday night but my Mom tried it for the first and. she said. last time. (I guess I got my culture genes from my Dad's side of the family
.)I may remember more astute observations later but it has been a long day so I'll leave it at this for now.
#7
Sawmills and Milling / Re: Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??
Last post by Larry - Yesterday at 10:25:49 PMMy biggest cherry job is what I call the golf course job. In 2019 a tornado and high winds hit a local golf course taking down a huge amount of trees including a lot of cherry.
The downed trees were on the golf course and the only way to get them off the golf course was over the course. Lots of 36" logs but to reduce impact on the grounds the big ones would be cut a little over 6' long.
Of course there was some poor logs but not without value. We have a Bikes, Blues, BBQ festival. Cherry smoking wood is in high demand.
The golf course grounds crew would bring out a trailer load of good logs about every two or three weeks for the 6 months it took to clean up the course. I sawed all the cherry on a share basics as I wanted the wood. The golf course is on the LPGA tour and iffen you want a little cherry table made from cherry wood that came from the course just give me a hollar......and bring lots of $$$$$'s.
The downed trees were on the golf course and the only way to get them off the golf course was over the course. Lots of 36" logs but to reduce impact on the grounds the big ones would be cut a little over 6' long.
Of course there was some poor logs but not without value. We have a Bikes, Blues, BBQ festival. Cherry smoking wood is in high demand.
The golf course grounds crew would bring out a trailer load of good logs about every two or three weeks for the 6 months it took to clean up the course. I sawed all the cherry on a share basics as I wanted the wood. The golf course is on the LPGA tour and iffen you want a little cherry table made from cherry wood that came from the course just give me a hollar......and bring lots of $$$$$'s.
#8
General Board / Re: Covered Bridge Build
Last post by gspren - Yesterday at 10:22:46 PMAside from the very nice bridge, what little I can see of the stream and surrounding property makes for a beautiful location. An old man, or a younger one, could enjoy sitting on a lawn chair with appropriate beverage and count the traffic that doesn't come by.
#9
General Board / Re: Maple Syrup 2024
Last post by maple flats - Yesterday at 10:19:35 PMWhile I was out of the picture this season, I'll be back for 2025. I sold my 3x8 wood fired and was working off my syrup in ss barrels. I'm now down to 3 barrels of dark and 1 barrel of Amber, all 26.5 gal barrels.
I bought and just picked up a new 2x6 raised flue evaporator, made by A&A Metal shop in Monterey, Va. this past week. If my plans are completed it will be oil fired and ready to go before the end of the year. If not it will likely be wood fired. It was bought as wood fired but I have my mind set on going to oil fired. If things prevent that from being completed, I do have a good stock of wood for one season only and likely only if I don't tap over 250 taps for 2025. My plans are to do 200-300 my first year with the new evaporator. I can cut and split enough if needed, I have several standing dead ash trees that need to come down and all are between 10" and 16" I believe. My brother also just bought a processor that goes on his skid steer, it would make short order of the initial bucking and splitting but I'd need to resplit everything to get it to wrist sized but that could also be done in a day or 2. I'll see, if I get to August and it's not looking like the oil will be a go for 2025, I'll get the wood going. Dead ash ca be fairly dry in 4+ months, maybe not perfect, but it would burn fairly well.
I forget the name of this processor, but it's a beauty. I mounts on the front arms of his big JCB skid steer and with it he can pick up a log, buck it and split it into 6 pcs an maybe 3 minutes or less. He can also run it on his Toolcat but he prefers using the JCB.
Back to me, I'm going to be , in addtition to converting to oil fired, falling and sawing enough lumber to build a 14x32 addition on the side of my 14x28 shop. Then the time to build it and get it dried in. The shop is a hip roof design, so the rafters will need to be long enough to reach from the peak of the shop to out 14' + overhang on the addition. Since my Woodland mills has a max length of 16'9" I may choose to join 2 rafters at a knee wall rather than trying to cut logs at over 20'+. I'm leaning heavily towards the knee wall approach. In fack even if I decide to wrestle with longer logs and cut the rafters long enough to go it in 1 piece, I'll still have a knee wall to support the rafters at the outside wall of the current shop. Then I'd only need rafters at just under the max of my mill, the over hang will only be about 10-12", because I want to keep a driveway back into the woods beside the addition. The walls at the far outside will only be about 6.5-7' high because I plan to continue the slope from the hip out across the addition, a 3/12 pitch it appears. When I drive the cab tractor into the addition I'd just need to keep towards the original shop wall, but that fits my plan fine. The only issue might be that my grandson, at 15 is already over 6' and his uncle is 6'7", his dad is only 6'2". He may need to wear a hardhat when in that side of the addition. We'll get it figured out, I don't have that issue, I'm only 5'6", infact I might now at 77, be down to 5'5".
Back to Syrup. I hope to get the oil conversion done and all set by early December. Before then I'll go out and decide if my existing mains are ok to use. They were last used in 2022. I know the laterals will all need replacing, but the mains were only up since 2016, some were in 2017, all were 3/4" or 1" blue maple tubing most was Leader brand. The laterals which will all be new were Leader, D&G or Lapierre. My Saddles were all the hose clamp type, but I forget the name at this time, it will come to me. I used to buy them from Homestead Maple, In Chazy, NY but I have an idea they are no longer dealers for some reason. The name DDS or something similar to that seems to ring a bell.
Along with the evaporator I also bought a 2x6 hood, a 100 gal head tank, a 20 gal draw off tank and all of the stack to get up well over the peak of my cupola, with the sugarhouse walls being 10', a 6/12 pitch roof on a 16' wide sugarhouse. I bought 18' of ss stack including the 4' base stack, it should easily be high enough. The cupola stands 36 " tall at it's peak.
I bought and just picked up a new 2x6 raised flue evaporator, made by A&A Metal shop in Monterey, Va. this past week. If my plans are completed it will be oil fired and ready to go before the end of the year. If not it will likely be wood fired. It was bought as wood fired but I have my mind set on going to oil fired. If things prevent that from being completed, I do have a good stock of wood for one season only and likely only if I don't tap over 250 taps for 2025. My plans are to do 200-300 my first year with the new evaporator. I can cut and split enough if needed, I have several standing dead ash trees that need to come down and all are between 10" and 16" I believe. My brother also just bought a processor that goes on his skid steer, it would make short order of the initial bucking and splitting but I'd need to resplit everything to get it to wrist sized but that could also be done in a day or 2. I'll see, if I get to August and it's not looking like the oil will be a go for 2025, I'll get the wood going. Dead ash ca be fairly dry in 4+ months, maybe not perfect, but it would burn fairly well.
I forget the name of this processor, but it's a beauty. I mounts on the front arms of his big JCB skid steer and with it he can pick up a log, buck it and split it into 6 pcs an maybe 3 minutes or less. He can also run it on his Toolcat but he prefers using the JCB.
Back to me, I'm going to be , in addtition to converting to oil fired, falling and sawing enough lumber to build a 14x32 addition on the side of my 14x28 shop. Then the time to build it and get it dried in. The shop is a hip roof design, so the rafters will need to be long enough to reach from the peak of the shop to out 14' + overhang on the addition. Since my Woodland mills has a max length of 16'9" I may choose to join 2 rafters at a knee wall rather than trying to cut logs at over 20'+. I'm leaning heavily towards the knee wall approach. In fack even if I decide to wrestle with longer logs and cut the rafters long enough to go it in 1 piece, I'll still have a knee wall to support the rafters at the outside wall of the current shop. Then I'd only need rafters at just under the max of my mill, the over hang will only be about 10-12", because I want to keep a driveway back into the woods beside the addition. The walls at the far outside will only be about 6.5-7' high because I plan to continue the slope from the hip out across the addition, a 3/12 pitch it appears. When I drive the cab tractor into the addition I'd just need to keep towards the original shop wall, but that fits my plan fine. The only issue might be that my grandson, at 15 is already over 6' and his uncle is 6'7", his dad is only 6'2". He may need to wear a hardhat when in that side of the addition. We'll get it figured out, I don't have that issue, I'm only 5'6", infact I might now at 77, be down to 5'5".
Back to Syrup. I hope to get the oil conversion done and all set by early December. Before then I'll go out and decide if my existing mains are ok to use. They were last used in 2022. I know the laterals will all need replacing, but the mains were only up since 2016, some were in 2017, all were 3/4" or 1" blue maple tubing most was Leader brand. The laterals which will all be new were Leader, D&G or Lapierre. My Saddles were all the hose clamp type, but I forget the name at this time, it will come to me. I used to buy them from Homestead Maple, In Chazy, NY but I have an idea they are no longer dealers for some reason. The name DDS or something similar to that seems to ring a bell.
Along with the evaporator I also bought a 2x6 hood, a 100 gal head tank, a 20 gal draw off tank and all of the stack to get up well over the peak of my cupola, with the sugarhouse walls being 10', a 6/12 pitch roof on a 16' wide sugarhouse. I bought 18' of ss stack including the 4' base stack, it should easily be high enough. The cupola stands 36 " tall at it's peak.
#10
Sawmills and Milling / Re: Whatcha Sawin' 2024 ??
Last post by TimW - Yesterday at 10:08:23 PMDoc,
I guess Magicman needs a prescription. He's asking for you to Latin speak.
I guess Magicman needs a prescription. He's asking for you to Latin speak.
