Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[terryknight]

Ok, now I have to ask how much (if you don't mind) that mill is? I saw a cheaper version for $170 and was blown away. When looking before, I saw 1500-4000 roughly and hydraulic I think was 8-12k but it's been years since I looked.

you can get an Alaskan mill starting at 160 ish for the 20" model. i think i paid around 225 for a 38" model

Granberg G777 Small Chainsaw Mill | Chainsaw Attachments & Mills | Chainsaw Accessories

 

[MortOz]

Ironbark is a favourite firewood in a lot of Australia where it grows (generally, the open sclerophyll forests between the arid regions and the wet regions have eucalypts as their dominant species, with the exact variety varying with soil type and aspect). We have quite a few on our block that have died in the last two droughts. This one carked it about 3 years ago, and if you leave them standing too long, water gets in from the top and fungi rot out the interior hardwood. When they are a few years old, the very hard ("iron") bark can be broken off in sheets, leaving the trunk clean for the chainsaw, so I knock off the bark before attacking them - decided to try pushing this smaller one with the tractor first, and it came down fairly easily. It is interesting to see them come out of the ground - this is a poor sandy soil on old rhyolite lava flows - the fragments of rock in the pics are quite white when clean. This soil makes me jealous of JohnMacca's country!
Getting started:

View from the cab: Going ...

Going ...

Gone

And with the soil removed from the roots (I cut up and use the roots as well, they make good fuel too):

Once down, this one was cut into blocks just under 400mm long (just right for the old wood stove), then split on the hydraulic splitter and stacked to season for a year or two. I find that in blocks, iron bark needs 2 or more years, as JohnMacca mentioned, but if split when "fresh", will season much more quickly (but it strains the 45 ton splitter getting through the larger sections).
Thought it was about time I put in another Australian pic or 5 Mort

 

[rd_macgregor]

I'd be interested in the forestry mulcher info, too. So far, it looks like the HP or hydraulic flow are limitations for me...oh, yes, and the cost! They seem better suited for a hefty skid steer or trackhoe.
This is the smallest PTO-driven FAE mulcher:
DML/TWIN

 

[terryknight]

Ironbark is a favourite firewood in a lot of Australia where it grows (generally, the open sclerophyll forests between the arid regions and the wet regions have eucalypts as their dominant species, with the exact variety varying with soil type and aspect). We have quite a few on our block that have died in the last two droughts. This one carked it about 3 years ago, and if you leave them standing too long, water gets in from the top and fungi rot out the interior hardwood. When they are a few years old, the very hard ("iron") bark can be broken off in sheets, leaving the trunk clean for the chainsaw, so I knock off the bark before attacking them - decided to try pushing this smaller one with the tractor first, and it came down fairly easily. It is interesting to see them come out of the ground - this is a poor sandy soil on old rhyolite lava flows - the fragments of rock in the pics are quite white when clean. This soil makes me jealous of JohnMacca's country!

Once down, this one was cut into blocks just under 400mm long (just right for the old wood stove), then split on the hydraulic splitter and stacked to season for a year or two. I find that in blocks, iron bark needs 2 or more years, as JohnMacca mentioned, but if split when "fresh", will season much more quickly (but it strains the 45 ton splitter getting through the larger sections).
Thought it was about time I put in another Australian pic or 5 Mort

nice pics

 

[KenB2920]

Ken, Do you have a thread on that forestry mulcher? I have a few questions for you regarding it and figure with an attachment that impressive you surely have a thread on it

Lol, I guess I should start one soley for it. I have posted on several other threads little remarks here and there. I also started comparison threads you could look up when I looked at the baumalite..... Ill have to comb over what I did start and send you the link if I can.

 

[KenB2920]

you can get an Alaskan mill starting at 160 ish for the 20" model. i think i paid around 225 for a 38" model Granberg G777 Small Chainsaw Mill | Chainsaw Attachments & Mills | Chainsaw Accessories http://s938.photobucket.com/user/terryknight/media/wood/015.jpg.html

This is a pretty slick option as well. Interesting placing the ladder on top of the log.

Your 044 is a touch bigger than my MS271 lol, I may need to upgrade.

 

[KenB2920]

I'd be interested in the forestry mulcher info, too. So far, it looks like the HP or hydraulic flow are limitations for me...oh, yes, and the cost! They seem better suited for a hefty skid steer or trackhoe. This is the smallest PTO-driven FAE mulcher: DML/TWIN

Yeah, mine is the second smallest they make from FAE.

However, after having it, I love it. It's amazing what this thing can do. Now of course a skid steer or track hoe attachment can do much much more. I've learned this after renting a bobcat with forestry mulcher .... They are bigger, faster and stronger. But as mentioned, the machine costs twice as much as my tractor and the attachment is twice the price as well. Get what ya pay for so to speak. This unit works perfect for my niche work and at a great price point for my needs. Being I already owned the tractor, this was a no brainer for me.

 

[dfkrug]

The only snow here is in the high country resorts where you get charged $200 a
day to get towed up the hill so you can slide down again and then get slugged $20 for a beer when you have
finished.

Yeah, plenty of those here, too.

Eucalyptus trees were imported to the US 150y ago by the railroads, hoping that they could be used for
railroad ties. They did not work well for that at all.

So now the state of CA has many of these trees, which are fire-hazards and good for nothing but
firewood. They often get to well over 6' in diameter, so become hard to remove. They do make
good firewood.

 

[JohnMacca]

Yeah, plenty of those here, too.

Eucalyptus trees were imported to the US 150y ago by the railroads, hoping that they could be used for
railroad ties. They did not work well for that at all.

So now the state of CA has many of these trees, which are fire-hazards and good for nothing but
firewood. They often get to well over 6' in diameter, so become hard to remove. They do make
good firewood.

I wonder what species they were/are?

As far as I know, river red gum has been the traditional hardwood used for railway sleepers here (I'm assuming sleepers and ties are the same thing). Hundreds of thousands would have been cut from the Murray River red gum forests at Echuca and Barmah over the years and I believe some still are, despite concrete sleepers now being used and large sections of forest now being State or National Parks and therefore off limits

A few years ago, the wooden sleepers were replaced by concrete ones in the main Melbourne to Sydney railway line that runs near me. It turned into a real mess (and a typical government "cover your ar$e" exercise) because the concrete ones do not have that little bit of give that wood did. The constant pounding created "mud holes" under the track and sections had to be completely re-laid, costing extra millions. The politicians got involved and that sure didn't help fix it ....... I guess that's the same any where in the world. :laughing:

The redgum sleepers that they removed were stacked in huge piles and contractors began to cut them into foot blocks for firewood. This soon stopped - possibly because of this problem.
Danger warning on stolen rail sleepers

I just had a look on Wikipedia and it says that redgums are in California, so perhaps they are the same species, but different climate, soil or whatever meant they didn't work out.
Eucalyptus camaldulensis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bcp]

From:
How the Eucalyptus Came to California

Starting in the 1870s, the first large-scale commercial planting of the blue gum eucalyptus (E. globulus) began. The blue gum, a mid-sized eucalyptus reaching around 150 to over 200 feet tall, is the most common eucalyptus in California. ....

By the early 1900s, the get-rich mindset had caused many aspiring forest tycoons to plant countless acres of eucalyptus in hopes of selling the timber for a tidy profit. It’s estimated that there were over 100 companies involved in the eucalyptus industry at this time, and they changed the landscape of much of California.