telephone pole question

[ChrsDrn]

I remember climbing the green poles with gaffs and it sucked to say the least. The gaffs don't penetrate like the ol' creosote poles.

Against our saftey specs to climb the green poles. the light co have special gaffs for them, luckly i have not seen any green ones in offroad construction.

 

[Western]

Do you mean having them sawn into 2" boards? Should work fine if you can find somebody to do it. With all the nails, staples and creosote in a old pole I doubt a mill would be willing to do it.

Most poles are made from SYP (southern yellow pine) or spruce.

Yeas that's what I meant. There is a mill about 30 miles south of me that I have passed for years, All I ever see there is stacks of utility poles and cut boards.

 

[kennyd]

I'm an engineer for "THE" telephone company We don't even cap our poles around here most of the time. The older creosote poles are toxic and now we used green poles. I remember climbing the green poles with gaffs and it sucked to say the least. The gaffs don't penetrate like the ol' creosote poles. Don't worry about the ends as they will probably outlast you. To check the pole hit them with a hammer and see if they sound hollow. Also stick a screwdriver in them at the base and see if they are rotted on the inside. Other then that put them in the ground

I'll agree with manganos Hated to hook the green poles I'm glad and thankful I only had to climb them about 3 yrs till I went to maint. on our eqpt in Opr Serv, Bus ofc and CO.
Someone said about not seeing a pole small enough to put coffee can on .We had several out in the country that wasn't much bigger than a 4x4 post at top of a 20' pole . Cannot remember the Class # of pole but would Scare the S--- out of you.

Against our saftey specs to climb the green poles. the light co have special gaffs for them, luckly i have not seen any green ones in offroad construction.

It was a rule here also about the "green" poles years ago due to poor gaff penetration when they first came out, but now they say it's OK since creosote treatment is no more...

 

[kennyd]

Yeas that's what I meant. There is a mill about 30 miles south of me that I have passed for years, All I ever see there is stacks of utility poles and cut boards.

Go for it...The will make good planks.

 

[firefighter jim]

Thanks for the comments.............Jim

 

[dcyrilc]

Do you mean having them sawn into 2" boards? Should work fine if you can find somebody to do it. With all the nails, staples and creosote in a old pole I doubt a mill would be willing to do it.

Most poles are made from SYP (southern yellow pine) or spruce.

Here in western Washington, many of our poles are cedar rather than treated, but still angle the top.

 

[ChrsDrn]

It was a rule here also about the "green" poles years ago due to poor gaff penetration when they first came out, but now they say it's OK since creosote treatment is no more...

The light Co has gaffs rated for Green poles... they climb them.... we still set penta poles and use out gaffs on them and on other brown poles... we use ladders on green ones.

Chris

 

[shane]

What makes the green ones so hard to climb? Are they still SYP?

 

[kennyd]

What makes the green ones so hard to climb? Are they still SYP?

Some are SYP, I guess the main problem is the treatment makes the wood so hard that the gaff's won't penetrate more than a 1/2" or so making the possibility of cutting out and falling very real.

 

[mcd176]

KennyD,

Are the "green" poles treated with the same chemical as treated lumber?