Lud's Mast- A handy tweak to a rear blade

[Lud]

I've been horrible busy up at the plant and missed my forum time something awful but that doesn't mean I haven't been getting some sawin' in and refining my overall system of getting logs in, sawed, and stored......and so here's a little idea I'm trying.

And just for perspective,  it's a small operation with a manual mill, one little ol' tractor and the ground's just rollin,  not much steep to it.  And I do pretty much everything solo.  So I get an oak log on the mill and I can't budge it with my 60" Logrite canthook,  and I could hook up the LogHauler I built last fall but I only need a little help so this is what I came up with:



It's nothin' but a 4' piece of stout angle iron welded at the back end of my blade frame.  I blew an angled hole thru up top , slid a 1" chunk of bar thru and welded it all up extra solid. The bar holds my snatch block and cable and anything else I'm carrying. There's a little support angle welded towards the front in line with the pull.  I'm consciously choosing  not to have some big support angles coming in from the side as the little rack carries the tool basket and small logs nicely.  Nonetheless,  it makes it a nice, quick choice to do this:




So, anyway, it's cheaper than a front end loader, and I'm finding it useful back in the woods as a poor man's Fransgaard.  It also helps when I'm pushing a brushpile, keeping the pile from rolling up over the blade.  Being real careful as I test it's range of capability.  But it's my little contribution to the RBarshaw/Sprucebunny engineering continuum. 8)

[beenthere]

Lud
Looks to be very creative, and the additions to your back blade serves to accomplish a lot of different tasks.
Thanks for sharing with the pics.   I'm thinking it's an electric winch (12v?).

A pic with a 'turn' of logs coming in from the woods would be great too. 

[sprucebunny]

Great idea, Lud ;D

Hmmmm... The things I could do with a tractor...... :D

One of our most inventive members is Dangerous_Dan. Check out his swingblade.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=17100.0

[Onthesauk]

Aren't we about due for an update on Dangerous_Dan's mill.  He had some pictures of the first cutting he did with it but don't think I"ve seen anything since. 

Steve

[UNCLEBUCK]

Thats a excellent invention Lud and it works great for you as well . Another excellent forestry forum modification  8)

[beenthere]

OntheSauk
Dangerous Dan posted yesterday, see

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=19224.msg276579#msg276579

[Onthesauk]

That really did end up being industrial strength!

[KGNC]

I did a similar winch last fall. I was suprised what I could do with it.

[Lud]

KGNC,  I think I saw that post earlier and maybe that gave me the variation on your idea.  But I chose to mount the winch back up on the tractor as shorter  leads to hook up to the battery and maybe keep it safer if a little high for some folks tastes.  But since it runs up to the snatch block on the mast and the blade is down on the ground it shows zereo inclination to lift the front end.

I was in the woods yesterday with my tongs hanging on the cable.  I'd lift the freewheel and walk the tongs up the hill to where the logs lay , whack a point in ,  walk back down and reel it in .  It would even lift the log at the end so I could get a chunk under to keep it off the ground and that made putting the Armorseal on easy.

So I got 11 more logs 12" to 18"  ready to bring up to the mill.  Worked great!   8)

[KGNC]

With the blade in the ground the pivot point is so far back there's not much danger of lifting the front end. I stalled the 8000' winch with no problems, except for the pile of dirt I pushed behind the blade.
Something I found that works real nice, with a little bit of work I can lay the end of the log on the blade and skid it home that way. I like that better than having it hang by the winch cable.

[Lud]

KGNC,  check out a previous post titled Lud's Puzzle.  I built a hauler that lets me get a log completely off the ground ,  come in the half mile from the woods and it then straddles the mill  to deliver.  But it can be a little cumbersome and won't go in the woods.

  I'm thinking of a couple of smallish tires on a 2 foot axle that  has a cradle that you could strap to the back end of the log.  With the front end of the log lifted by the blade and the tail end rolling on the 2 wheels ,  you could get out of the woods without tearing up so much. ;)