This cheap yankee uses old baseball bats for peavy and cant hook handles,just taper the end and stuff her in.They show up all the time at our local dump [recycling area].Also old wornout picks can be turned into pickeroons easily with a torch and anvil.
I'd rather buy a tool that I'd never have to work on/fix. ;)
That's why I like LogRite's tools.
Buy it, use it, never have to worry about fixing it.
As cheap as your method?
You bet ya!!! :)
As a foundryman, my grandfather had a different appraoch. He would make a sandcasting of wooden handles, and then make cast aluminum ones. ;) :D :D I haven't seen any around here though.
I like the idea of using the old bats, probably made of good straight grain ash.
Dave
I have used pipe handle peaveys they work fine ,I like wooden handles on my tools.If we don't champion our own product who's going to?? Frank C.
Way to go Bandmiller:
I'm with you if there is something laying around that can see new life as something diffrent with a little work than giver.
Sorry Furby but I think we are all getting a little spoiled by see it, want it, buy it attitudes.
There are a lot of places in this world where eniginuity and frugality (did I spell those right?)
are a must.
We in North America are so lucky to be able to buy anything we want at exactly the time we need it. Maybe this has made us a little big around the middle. Just my 2 cents.
Keep up the good work and the good ideas coming bandmiller.
It's not about that, it's about not having that doctor's bill when that wooden handle let's go and takes out your face.
Logrite's tools hold up much better and longer then the wooden one and are way lighter then the steel pipe talked about.
Let's see, less injuries from a tool that breaks less often.
Less time wasted driving your hook into the log, because Logrite's don't need to be.
Less weight to handle, meaning you can do more with the same effort.
Less time wasted fixing something that is going to break again.
Um, sorry Mobilesawyer, your comments carry no weight in this case! :)
Furby, I agree. A Logrite has many advantages that offset a slightly higher initial purchase price. I use peaveys everyday at the mill, and often find that the wooden handled style simply isn't up to the job on the big logs, often, I cannot use full force, as the handles bow at an alarming rate. I have had several handles break, and at $40 each, you only have to break one to offset the additonal cost of a Logrite ($60 initial purchase cost of wooden handled peavey, + $40 handle) The last handle I broke was due to cross grain, which left a very sharp spear point on the peavey, which I fell across, I am lucky I didn't get speared like a wild boar.
Dave
Quote from: Mobilesawyer on November 21, 2007, 08:06:39 AM
Way to go Bandmiller:
I'm with you if there is something laying around that can see new life as something diffrent with a little work than giver.
Sorry Furby but I think we are all getting a little spoiled by see it, want it, buy it attitudes.
There are a lot of places in this world where eniginuity and frugality (did I spell those right?)
are a must.
We in North America are so lucky to be able to buy anything we want at exactly the time we need it. Maybe this has made us a little big around the middle. Just my 2 cents.
Keep up the good work and the good ideas coming bandmiller.
One point Furby missed and a lot of DIY'rs leave out of the "I can fix it or make it myself" equation is the value on your time. I don't know about all of you guys, but my time is valuable to me and I don't have enough of it now to get all the things done I want to do. "See it, want it, buy it".
You bet. ;) My time is worth $60 to $70 per hour to me. Logrite cant hook = $99. Two hours making and fitting a handle on a tool that may break again soon = at least $120.
Tell me where the better deal is?
I'm as big a Logrite fan as anybody here, but I still admire Bandmiller2's enginuity and resourcefulness. I prefer wooden handles in most of my tools too, but I have a tendency to leave things laying about, so my peavys are Logrite and my other outdoor tools have fiberglass handles.
If you are breaking cant hook handles on a regular basis, you have either installed the handle incorrectly, let it rot, or are just plain asking too much of it, imo. Logs big enough to break those handles call for heavier equipment or more intelligent handling methods. Breaking handles is not the only danger involved. At least two members that I remember have broken legs by rolling logs onto them with cant hooks. What ya reckon that cost? :o
Besides all that, most of us, myself included, don't have enough lead in our butts to break a healthy handle, anyway. ::)
Bandmiller2, if you have any other money-saving tips, a lot of us would be interested to hear about them. Yankees don't have a monopoly on cheap, ya know. ;)
:D DanG.....I like the way you THINK. :D
leweee .....the cheap canuck ......with a lot of wood handled tools. ;D
I love to make things for myself out of wood and metal. There is great satisfaction in picking up something I made 20 years ago and remembering the day I made it.
I sometimes have had so much fun making something that I've spent all day making an item that I could buy for $100.00 Stupid economics but happy I made it.
I have a cedar canoe that has 200 hours of my time and $600 of my money in it.
More stupid economics but paddling something I made,remembering the joy of making it and hearing compliments from friends is worth it.
Right now I'm making a cedar chest for a relative for a gift. I'll spend a looooong time making it and I could buy the same for less than $200 from an Amish craftsman.
I bought a Logrite peavey and love it. I would never be able to justify the time it would take to make my own.
Some things it makes sense to buy, some things it makes sense to make yourself.... dontcha think? :)
DanG, I was going to make another reply to this post to reinforce my opinion that making what you have work is a good thing. I know the thread got side tracked from the original idea. I just kind of fell asleep before I got back to it. :-[ :D
As discussed in my Peterson thread, I don't have many choices for log handling inside our mill, and we do tend to handle logs on the very outside range of the mills capacity, hence the Peterson discussion. ;) I showed the boss the 78" LogRites in the Bailey's catalog, a pair of those would be a big improvement in safe log handling.
Dave
Al,
Welcome to the forum.
back to the thread.
Some things I buy, some I make, some I just wish I had ;D
Some folks make something and talk about the money they saved. While it is true that they would have saved more money if they had just bought what they built, they enjoyed doing it and don't factor their time into the equation. They may write it off as a hobby.
If you think about it, if the DIY attitude weren't prevalent here, most of us wouldn't have a mill. financially speaking, I would be much better off either buying the lumber of paying some one else to cut it. BUT, I like doing it.
Dave, you're kind of an exception. #1, you CAN break a handle! :o #2, you're stuck in a situation you're not completely in control of. Your boss should be looking into upgrading that LT40 with some hydraulics, and shouldn't let his britches hit him in the butt until he gets it done. A longer handle will get the log turned over, but at what price? If he don't care about your back, you need to take steps to take care of it yourself.
If I can't turn it safely, I leave it. More than once the boss has walked into the mill building to find some half-sawn, misshapen, behemoth of a poor excuse for a sawlog sitting wedged between the mill and the ramps from the log deck. ;) If it's wedged between the mill and the log deck on the floor, that might take some splainin'. :D
Dave
get 2 of the A.S.S's when the log is big enough to need one, you need some help.
Good idea on the old bat aluminum or wood?
I'd say next to mills controls its the log rite tools that I have in hand the most. Rolling large logs with a bit of a crook in them like the Sycamore in the photo can't beat the big hook.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10339/Logrite_01.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10339/Sycamore_01.JPG)
How does the hydraulic turner handle the big logs? I see in your signature you have two WMs, how do you run both at the same time? Maybe you should send one of them over the state line for the winter. :D :D Oh to dream.
Dave
Not to worry Dave,sometimes you throw a little fat in the fire.Franklin is along rt 495 just above RI.To be honest I had to look on a map to find Alfred.I own many peaveys and cant hooks most i've found with broken handles.I seldome use long handled peaveys always set up my mills with turners or outher "acme"devices to ease the load on this old man.My favorite cant hook was a 2ft dixie sadly when I sold the circle mill the guy had to have it.
Frank is close to ME, Franklin is about 14 miles from Norton. :)
Captain