Tips and Tricks

[Cereal_Killer]

If you buy bar oil in gallon jugs, use your bar-tool to poke a hole in the foil cover and use it like a squeeze bottle instead of tearing the whole thing off! No more oil floods on the saw, or if the jug gets knocked over, far less mess:

Got one along these lines (no pic right now but if I remember I'll take one at work tomorrow):

When you tear the foil off start at the back and leave it attached about 25% at the front, every pour it'll act like a built in funnel as well as stopping the drips from going down the side of the jug. Then just flip it back in place when you're done pouring and screw the lid back on.

 

[Cereal_Killer]

Not really a "tip and trick", more of a "tool you didn't know you needed" but feel it's worth mentioning here; if you're not carying a 5" Knipex plier-wrench (the smallest size) you're really doing yourself a disservice. Because of how the Jaws move parallel they're not like any other pliers out there, they don't round off bolt heads and unlike a wrench you can open your hand and "ratchet" them. They can be used for anything from tightening 21mm hydro line fittings to plucking tiny splinters from your finger and everything in between. I have these and the matching 5" regular knipex lock-jaws in my lunch bag every day. Yes we have hand tools on every truck but these two 5" pairs of pliers are always with me and handle 75% of the stuff we need a hand tool for every day!

 

[DupreeLLT]

cut your plywood mats down some, so they fit in the truck sideways and then can be loaded/unloaded with pallet forks. then flipped on/off the pallet forks right infront of the machine. eliminating all hand carrying or rotating

 

[southsoundtree]

A 6' pole or a branch greatly increases the ability to flip and flick and roll and spiral a rope into place in a tree.

A great way to get the rope to the branch collar, particularly in a conifer where branches are perpendicular or down-sloping.

I clove- hitch it at the top end, and run the rope tail down with a spiral, keeping it out of my way.

 

[Dan Cobb]

A 6' pole or a branch greatly increases the ability to flip and flick and roll and spiral a rope into place in a tree.

A great way to get the rope to the branch collar, particularly in a conifer where branches are perpendicular or down-sloping.

I clove- hitch it at the top end, and run the rope tail down with a spiral, keeping it out of my way.

I've had great success using the "stick trick" I found on-line. Clove hitch each end of a small stick (2 ft long x 3/4 in dia) into the throw line. Jump the stick over the limb a few times by pulling alternate legs of the throwline to walk the throwline to the branch collar. Works okay on horizontal limbs, but I suppose you'd have to have a good side pull to walk the line up a drooping branch. Fiskars pruning stick does come in handy at times to drop a line over a branch, hook it and pull it back to you.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

My variation on that stick trick, Dan

Find a couple of Gator Aid plastic bottles...or any thick plastic bottle. cut the bottoms off. Insert one into the other and taped them together.

Now you have a double ender with caps on.

Clove hitch each bottle neck.

The bottles will bounce when they hit the branch. While the bottle is airborne pull the throwline up or down to jump over the snag.

I've had a helper run one end so the throwline is split at a wide angle.

The bouncing is the key!

 

[oldoakman]

A 6' pole or a branch greatly increases the ability to flip and flick and roll and spiral a rope into place in a tree.

A great way to get the rope to the branch collar, particularly in a conifer where branches are perpendicular or down-sloping.

I clove- hitch it at the top end, and run the rope tail down with a spiral, keeping it out of my way.

I have a 3' piece of fiberglass rod that Jameson used to give away as swag at TCI EXPO. That is specifically for that task. Rides nicely under the back seat in the truck.

 

[JD3000]

Don't spit when your face shield us down.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Don't spit when your face shield us down.

Or burp!

 

[RogerM]

Any tips for chunking down firewood from the spar? The cool guys on YouTube can always cut straight through a piece and leave the round balancing on top of the spar, but when I do it I usually get pinched before the cut finishes.

I'm far from cool, but mastering a bypass cut has helped me a ton. no wedges needed, with two hand control of piece in question... maybe that's too slow, and sorry if this is a repeat, but this has been a great tool for me.

 

[Njdelaney]

I love the snap-cut too, but I think he was wondering about tricks to get the pieces down with flush ends so they're easier to stand up, split and stack. Sometimes a snap-cut end splits just fine and sometimes it doesn't, but it doesn't sit flush on a chopping block if both ends have been snap-cut. Again, not always a deal breaker but does require more fiddling around.

 

[Serf Life]

Pretty slick tool @Cereal_Killer

 

[Dan Cobb]

Pretty slick tool @Cereal_Killer View attachment 73385

And your hands are normal size, not Trump sized, right?

 

[Serf Life]

They’re the biggest, people are talking... The tool is the 5” model.

 

[Stumpsprouts]

This may be old hat, but I came up with a cheap solution to keep the old model big button Sena from getting bumped by branches and what have you.

Pry off the round plastic button cover (tuning screwdriver works for this). You’ll be removing a small spring as well. Keep in your sock drawer in case you want to go back to stock.

Go to hardware store (found this at Ace) and go to the plumbing section. This was a ‘fill valve shank washer’. I’m sure there’s more than one thing that works for this purpose. This costs less than $2.

Superglue/gorilla glue it on.

As long as you don’t have extra huge hands like serf life, you can get two fingers in there to adjust volume, of course bump to pair and turn on and off, just like you normally would. This has essentially eliminated the problem for me.

 

[Dan Cobb]

I had several pairs of 8" side zip boots. Really liked the quick on/off and just being to step into them (without zipping) for just puttering around. Without going into the whole story, had to replace them with non-zip boots. Finally dawned on me to tie stopper knots in the ends of the laces. That lets them open enough to step into and I can walk around without the laces coming out of the eyelets and dragging the ground. I hate busting my aglets! Of course, won't work on boots with speed hooks.

 

[owScott]

Any tips for chunking down firewood from the spar? The cool guys on YouTube can always cut straight through a piece and leave the round balancing on top of the spar, but when I do it I usually get pinched before the cut finishes.

Put a piece of bark in the cut then cut until the chain clears, push the round enough to clear the saw then push the round.

 

[owScott]

Imma keep em comin while this is fresh in my mind.... with pictures.

The best way I've found to buck logs into perfectly uniform firewood is this: use an old handsaw and retired blade, then 2x2s spray painted orange to keep track of them. Measure, cut and label them at the desired size. If you need other sizes, make a 1" mark. 3 sticks make 6 perfect measures. For marking perfect firewood in the tree, use a piece of measured plywood on a leash and use the handsaw you should already have with you to mark the pieces. Getting the leash length right is important for ergonomics here.

Can you guess what the typical firewood size here is?

View attachment 73219

I posted this picture before, but yah, uniform firewood is important to me....

View attachment 73220

Makes me crazy when potiental firewood is cut in silly random lengths. I thought I was the only person that this made crazy.

 

[27RMT0N]

There is a right way and a wrong way to do firewood. Uneven size is the wrong way, simple as that.

 

[southsoundtree]

I've been thinking a 16" measuring stick with a magnet, stuck in the bar, would make it easy to mark out a log, then move on to cutting.



I have these

Magnetic Trailer Alignment Kit

Amazing deals on this Magnetic Trailer Alignment Kit at Harbor Freight. Quality tools & low prices.

www.harborfreight.com

for backing up a narrow trailer on my own, sticking off sideways.

Also, makes for a magnetic picker-upper.


I think marking firewood will be a good, additional purpose for the tool.