Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[xring100]

I have a 026 and a 261, but have used a 361. Nothing wrong with that 361 saw.

No your right i love both of my saws All the stihl pro saws are nice. The 361 is a nice saw to bad the 362 got so fat. My dads 026 is also nice, but i wanted more power and at the time i didnt want the weight of a MS440 or M460. I should look at porting and opening up the muffler on the MS361. it has not been high on the priority list though. The 660 is amazing ive been really tempted to put a dual port muffler on it and raise the power up to 7.5 hp. I've found myself using about 1/2 - 3/4 of a tank of fuel in the 361 to every tank in the 660. So they both still see a fair amount of action.

 

[Oldpath05]

Whats a putt putt john dear?...

That's funny, I must be showing my age, the one I used was a mid (50s) JD, narrow front end, lot of power for 2 cylinders, worked good on flat ground, the only tractor I know of that makes the putt putt sound.

When I got my L3400dt tractor and Fransgard 3004 winch in (07), the dealer recommended no smaller then a 28hp tractor or red wagon to run it, and after a few years of use I agree. A few things I learned so far, 1st, my L3400dt has plenty of pulling power but doesn't have enough 3 point lift power, I had to add an electric winch to help pick it up when I have 5-6, 8" trees hooked up, it will lift 5, 6" trees. 2nd, I make sure my winch is sitting on flat-ish ground, once I didn't notice I had one side of the winch sitting on a small rock, I pulled in a tree, the other side of the winch tipped down a little, bent one of the lift arm rods on the 3 point hitch. 3rd its best to pull in trees straight back to the winch, but sometimes that's easier said then done, if I'm at a 45 angle, I lock in both brakes, bucket down on ground, and I don't max out the winch power, just pull in one small-ish tree, 4th try not to let Murphy give you any help.

Finally, one great thing about a tractor pto winch, when some of the trees are hung up, and it happened to me a lot in select cutting, I hook up the chocker chains, and down they come, yank them out to where I want to cut limbs off, you might say a winch takes a lot of pull yank tug out of cutting wood, and this post was supposed to be short.

 

[jrclark]

Not the biggest tractor, but will drag some pretty decent logs. This is a 30" tulip poplar. I've had heavier logs on the back, but this may be the longest, somewhere around 18-20'.







Still in the infancy of our construction project, so I haven't started processing anything into firewood yet, just log stacking. Fwiw, log stacking with a DS3510 bucket is not easy to do.

 

[arrow]

. If i didn't have the log lift on my splitter i would have passed on this big wood we try and keep it fairly low to the ground when splitting these big pieces in case one falls off.

X there is a way to hand split these without too much trouble. You can then lift the smaller pieces to the splitter without the worry of large piece topple over as a result. All you need if you have not already have one is a "Monster maul" type with its 12 lb head. Just make a cross cut with the saw into the round (with its flat part on the ground) not even half way down and swing the Monster maul into the cut. (some stringy type wood may require a deeper cut but it does not take too long with a decently powered saw). Your build is much like mine was at your age so you should have no trouble. I'm older than your dad now but can quarter a 24" oak round in two shots with this method. (If I hit the seam that is) May be a bit more strenuous but its safer than trying to bring a 30" round to the splitter.

 

[terryknight]

noodling works great on large rounds. and best thing no swinging of a maul.

 

[Gordon Gould]

noodling .

????????? I am not familiar with that term.

Ripping down all the way thru making noodle saw chips maybe ?

 

[terryknight]

it involves putting a round bark side down and laying the saw just off parallel with the grain and cutting it is half/quarters/etc.

here are a couple links

vid (but i cut all the way through and then use a hydraulic splitter.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fxELapJbM0

thread

http://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/noodling-basics.208652/

i don't have any good pics. here is one that you can see large rounds and lots of noodles. they make great fire starters especially when mixed with some flammable liquid

 

[arrow]

????????? I am not familiar with that term.

Ripping down all the way thru making noodle saw chips maybe ?

This video provided by TK shows a great way to start hand splitting a large round. My way is for being able to lift large rounds to a horizontal spitter by quartering the round first. I have a 4 way on mine so that 24"-30" round is reduced to 12"-15" with 2 Monster maul swings. 4 to 8 passes with the splitter and yur done with the round.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Thanks for the great explanation guys. Never knew it was call noodling.
Can't wait to work that expression into a conversation around a wood pile some where

 

[oldpilgrim]

When I did the really big ones, for that matter I do all logs this way, I roll them over to the splitter which I have set in vertical mode. I don't pick up any log. My back is too old and has had too many spinal surgeries for lifting all day.