Plunge cut tear out

[WillySieg]

I plunged a 150 got tall Doug Fir and was getting the camera men ready when my holding wood let go. The guy in the street missed the good video some how. The tree had to be removed because it had lots of decay plus heavy lean over a busy intersection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StmPiJ0qcCI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[WillySieg]

Wow I didn't realise how poor quality cell phone videos are!!

 

[Daniel]

How did the road make out with all that BOOM! ??? Looked like a nice tight drop... guess you'll leave a little more strap next time .. Looks like you had a pull line set.. was it pre-tensioned? and was there a side line at the but to keep it from going left?..

Probably a good idea to drop the saw.. also would have been a better move to not run straight back.. develop those good habits!!! they only have to save your life once..

This is a good reminder to keep the DZ clear of all people once the plunge has been made..

 

[TC]

Was anything damaged?

was was the banging sound as the tree hit the ground?

thanks for posting the vid.

 

[TreeCo]

The loud sound was probably the audio section of the phone being overloaded, causing distortion.

 

[TLHamel]

Wow! A great lesson for all of us. Keep your drop zone and related areas clear from the moment you begin the face cut; and keep them clear until the tree is on the ground.

 

[WillySieg]

[ QUOTE ]
How did the road make out with all that BOOM! ??? Looked like a nice tight drop... guess you'll leave a little more strap next time .. Looks like you had a pull line set.. was it pre-tensioned? and was there a side line at the but to keep it from going left?..

Probably a good idea to drop the saw.. also would have been a better move to not run straight back.. develop those good habits!!! they only have to save your life once..

This is a good reminder to keep the DZ clear of all people once the plunge has been made..

[/ QUOTE ]

There was zero damage to the road. I thought about bringing some sort of a crash pad but this particular tree was at the perfect level to contact the pavement all the way down the trunk distributing tho impact nicely itself. Ya very little room for error on this one so I took a fair of time evaluating the side lean and making the notch. I used a humbolt with the adjusted gun technique with a 2.5 inch hinge. There was a line set in the tree because I climbed it to cut a few branches to be sure I didn't break any from the tree beside it and didn't have a lot of rope or time so I used an older rope and left it. There was a rope holding the butt from rolling into that lamp and a chain preventing barber chair.

I agree on not running sraight back but in thes case with all that lean toward the lay and due to the fact I had been up the tree I was confident I could watch the show!!

 

[WillySieg]

[ QUOTE ]
Was anything damaged?

was was the banging sound as the tree hit the ground?

thanks for posting the vid.

[/ QUOTE ]

We had to rake the flower bed back level but it was the lowest impact approach we could come up with. Even a big crane would have closed the road for too long. We had traffic moving again in one hour.

I assume it was all the branches braking plus trunk slap but audio overload is beyond my scope of knowledge!

 

[WillySieg]

[ QUOTE ]
Wow! A great lesson for all of us. Keep your drop zone and related areas clear from the moment you begin the face cut; and keep them clear until the tree is on the ground.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed. I don't mind facing big spars when I'm confident there is no defects but everyone needs to be paying attention when any back cutting begins

 

[TC]

[ QUOTE ]
but audio overload is beyond my scope of knowledge!

[/ QUOTE ]

ha ha, me too

 

[tomthetreeman]

Audio overload was my religion for like 20 years.

 

[JeffL]

Audio overload, I believe the technical term would be the clipping.

 

[Gord]

Do you think the thick bark caused you to underestimate the amount wood you had left at the back Willy? I make a practice of shaving the bark off of firs for any critical falls- its always hard to predict how much there is, one side has 6" the other is less than 2" you never know.

 

[WillySieg]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you think the thick bark caused you to underestimate the amount wood you had left at the back Willy? I make a practice of shaving the bark off of firs for any critical falls- its always hard to predict how much there is, one side has 6" the other is less than 2" you never know.

[/ QUOTE ]
I had already set my hinge then cut the back as close as possible so I wouldn't have much sawing in my video. I had close to an inch and a half left as I was talking to the camera man when it peeled the wood all the way down a root. I would say I underestimated the lean as I had the wood held that I intended. I agree about the bark and had shaved the hinge area because it was thick old growth like bark which I seldom encounter these days.

 

[Peter McS]

I remove the bark at the back of the tree before I bore the back-cut. Makes it easier to judge the size of the back-strap especially on thick barked trees

 

[Daniel]

That seems unnecessary.. Who says you have to leave a small back strap? What good does it do?

 

[WillySieg]

I could see doing it on a tree that didn't have much room for the plunge but then the bark would usually be thin.

 

[Daniel]

without seeing the lean & rot, its tough to tell how much chance of barberchair there was... But it seems like that should have been prevented with the plunge cut and back release.. so really no need for the chain.. also with a flat DZ and straight stick, not much chance of it taking a bounce, so no need for the side line.. though it never hurts to be extra careful, especially with such a big tree heading for an intersection.. Its amazing that the impact didn't damage the street, even if the force got spread out evenly.. that's a lot of force!