Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Green Acres Homestead]

There is something about a cosy smaller house especially if you get along good with the wife. I would love to down size and live in a 600 foot cabin in a remote area of our 23 acres. Alot less to maintain, less wood to cut etc. Sometimes it is not easy to simplify life. At this time I am working on that cabin. I have been clearing a spot and making roads and got a rock foundation in for a cabin so I guess I am working on it.

When I built my house with only a woodstove and no furnace, one of my good buddies asked me "so how many acres of trees do you need to clear each winter to heat it?". It was hard to wrap my head around his perception of firewood scale. Uh.... one big tree ought to do it, bud.

In reality I am wrapping up our 7th winter here now and have not cut down a single living tree for firewood yet - still working on whatever log piles have accumulated by simply clearing a little bit more open space, or just snatching up deadfall and blow-down limbs from the forest.

3-4 full cords of wood per winter for our cozy little passive solar home

 

[Skeans1]

I will only use the 1/4" wheel for rakers, since it is too big for any of the teeth on my chains.

Your situation is different than mine and the biggest difference I see is that you use much longer bars and therefore have a LOT more teeth to sharpen plus you are in a production environment. I'm just an old guy getting firewood at his leisure, lol. Plus my chains are much smaller on the 16" and 20" bars that I use. I also tend to get a lot of my firewood when I am camping and may not be home for several weeks. So I will likely just hand sharpen occasionally, when I'm camping and take the chains with me when I go home to drop off a load. Then use the bench grinder to bring everything back to spec.

I really like the fact that all the teeth and rakers will be the same after using the bench grinder. I did notice one thing with this knock off grinder and that is, when I swing the clamp to move from the right teeth to the left teeth I have to readjust the tooth stopper. The pivot must not be centered properly because the difference is very pronounced. That could be a good thing though, since it will be obvious that it needs to be adjusted when I swing it, instead of me having to remember that.

If it works for you go ahead but I will say what I have said before it take about 3 minutes to fully swap a chain how long does it take to file one? You’ll also notice your chain will last longer then doing it by hand if you swap them out.

 

[fruitcakesa]

smart

Forks maybe no but I was thinking of the entire brush grapple for the front end loader. I think the brush would just fall through the forks unless I added a third tine.

I put a third fork on my pallet forks to complement "the Thumb". Makes picking up slash, small logs and the like much easier.

 

[Molalla1]

If it works for you go ahead but I will say what I have said before it take about 3 minutes to fully swap a chain how long does it take to file one? You’ll also notice your chain will last longer then doing it by hand if you swap them out.

I have always done the same (swap out chains) and we still do it when cutting.

 

[Jstpssng]

I've never timed myself so don't know how long that it takes to sharpen... not very long though if I'm just touching up the chain. It's nice to take a break while fueling, and when I get done at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is file chains.

I can see where it would be nice to have a grinder for when I rock a chain though. (Or find barbed wire... AARGH!) I've always been hesitant because the one time I used one I could never sharpen by hand again because it hardened the teeth; yet after reading some of the comments here I see that doesn't have to happen.

 

[Molalla1]

I've never timed myself so don't know how long that it takes to sharpen... not very long though if I'm just touching up the chain. It's nice to take a break while fueling, and when I get done at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is file chains.

I can see where it would be nice to have a grinder for when I rock a chain though. (Or find barbed wire... AARGH!) I've always been hesitant because the one time I used one I could never sharpen by hand again because it hardened the teeth; yet after reading some of the comments here I see that doesn't have to happen.

Yep, I hear you, I let my grandson do it now . . .

 

[Skeans1]

I've never timed myself so don't know how long that it takes to sharpen... not very long though if I'm just touching up the chain. It's nice to take a break while fueling, and when I get done at the end of the day the last thing I want to do is file chains.

I can see where it would be nice to have a grinder for when I rock a chain though. (Or find barbed wire... AARGH!) I've always been hesitant because the one time I used one I could never sharpen by hand again because it hardened the teeth; yet after reading some of the comments here I see that doesn't have to happen.

What’s less then an hour to grind a few chains, look the bar over, clean/blow the saw out, inspect the saw, and have stuff ready to go in the AM? Time is money and money is time right? How much are parts for not flipping bars daily or greasing your clutch daily?

 

[Jstpssng]

Yep, I hear you, I let my grandson do it now . . .

It must feel nice to have a grandson who enjoys what you like, and will pick up the torch.

 

[Molalla1]

It must feel nice to have a grandson who enjoys what you like, and will pick up the torch.

It feels really good Jstpssng, my son, his dad, liked being out with me but not so much where we were at but not like this grandson, he really enjoys the woods.

 

[arrow]

People who cut wood for a living are in another wheel house.
We'd have a chainsaw in our hands for 8 hrs at least 5 days per week if one wasn't operating skidders.
Equipment care becomes more critical much like any other profession that utilizes tools for their income.

As a "home owner" now, I might put in 40 hrs a year harvesting firewood.
I did that in a week as a logger.