How would you fall this?

[fishpick]

Did you buy this Atlas 40v pole saw? 40V Cordless 10 in. Pole Saw - Tool Only. Your thoughts on the saw?

Yes - I bought one of the 80V batteries too with charger because the 80V work in 80V and 40V... and I'm hoping they come up with a snow blower like a "Snow Joe" I can use on my deck in the winter.

As for the saw - I'm impressed with the Harbor Freight Atlas 40V Pole Saw - as a $95 tool (not including the battery) - it's really good. The saw part of the pole is seeming well built, got a lot of torque and very controllable. It didn't leak bar oil all over everything after filling... unlike my Husky chainsaw that seems to leak even when there's nothing in it to leak... Chain needed tensioning after about 15 minutes... and was easy to tension and holds as set. The pole is "not" telescoping. I suppose someone might be annoyed to add another 3' you need to detach the handle pole from the saw pole and put a 3rd pole in there... but the plastic connectors and threaded tighteners work really well and the poles are indexed to line up real simple too.

My wife thougth I bought a "toy" - after watching me cutting for 15 minutes she was really impressed with how well it worked... so when a tool gets her 2 thumbs up - it's a good tool!

 

[fishpick]

Here’s where we got today before the storms hit.

Not a whole lot left. Used the bucket to lift me up to the trunk. I’d make a nice undercut and a side cut that lined up with it for reference while secured to the bucket with a harness and strap. Then I’d climb up on the trunk, have the loader back off, and finish the top cut down - just falls right it the ground.
working in 3’ sections give or take. Small enough that nothing crazy should happen. Big enough there’s an end to the project in sight.
probably 5 or 6 more cuts and I’m done. The rootball and base will stay right where they are and just add to the shooting berm backstop mass as they sit.
Heat index was 103 today when doing this so I actually stopped because I was hot. Wife said I was done anyhow look up. We raced the storm back to the barn!

 

[fishpick]

And we are done.

The last 16’ or so of the trunk to the rootball can sit where it is forever as part of the backstop.

This has now officially stopped being a cleanup project and become a range backstop improvement project as the next steps are gonna be piling the trunk sections on and infront of the berm adding height and depth.
last few chunks were a lot bigger diameter than my bar length - so I undercut up about 1/4. Then cut in from the side close to me. Then cut down from the top until the kerf opened up. Pulled my saw and then used the loader to push it (not a lot of force needed) and snap it off letting 4’ or longer sections fall off.
when the very last section came off the trunk gently came up about 4”. And then, Ohh so slowly another 2-3” while I was putting tools away.
So - safe, slow and controlled -only one moment of a “humm”. So - all in all - very successful and my last update on this thread in terms of status. Cause status is “done”!