Tandem Tree felling plan critique requested

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My cutting training was with Tim Ard, and I subscribe to his philosophy of a consistent, uniform hinge.

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Where was it on tree two? Ha!Ha!Ha!

I'll bet you about crapped your pants when you saw that. It failed on the decayed side (but not too too soon) as evidenced by the pic overlooking the aftermath from the stumps.

I don't quite understand the implication that a tapered hinge wouldn't also be full-width. In the case of tree two, leaving the decayed side of the hinge a bit thicker (i.e. a tapered hinge) may have helped prevent the premature failure on that side. There's not much you can do to recover from the commitment of using "crystalized" wood fiber for a hinge, though.

In retrospect, it's maybe a shame that you couldn't have upped the ante and pulled all three over at once!

Good job on the follow-up package.
 
Glen,

Good point to clarify that a tapered hinge does not necessarily mean that the narrow side is not full width. I have not used or tried to evaluate the effect of a tapered hinge. My experience is with a uniform hinge (or the best I can approximate on any given day), and I did not want to change my strategy for this scenario. I will experiment when I can. I did feel a lot better to find a full hinge in tree 1. Had tree 1 hinge looked like tree 2 hinge, the post mortem may have been quite different (as pointed out by Dan Nelsons good questions)

Note in the pictures that in tree 2, there was more holding wood (less decay) just a bit deeper into the tree. How do you feel about setting the hindge in the back half of the tree if that is where you find more good wood? And second, what method do you use to find good wood (or decay).

I'm not ready to graduate to three trees.

dan
 
Glad to hear it went as planned and thanks for letting us in on the thought process.

Dan
 
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Note in the pictures that in tree 2, there was more holding wood (less decay) just a bit deeper into the tree. How do you feel about setting the hindge in the back half of the tree if that is where you find more good wood? And second, what method do you use to find good wood (or decay).

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I do pretty much what you did in tree one. That and sometimes thumping real good with a ten pound hammer.

My impression is that you went a lot farther into tree two with your notch than I would (approaching a factor of two), especially in a tree with as much front-lean as that one had. As it turns out there would have been less good wood on the left (looking into the notch) than you had, but there would have been more on the right at that height.

I don't believe I've ever gotten any deeper into a tree than you did, probably not even that deep. Can't think of any reason off the top of my head that I'd go any deeper than that for sure.

Another good reason for limiting depth of the notch is the ability to give it a second go a bit higher up if need be. A second attempt should go a bit deeper to find continuous fibers and following a cut that's already almost too deep would be a bit scary for me.

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I'm not ready to graduate to three trees.

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Sounds like a matter of opinion tempered with a minor confidence problem :)
 
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Can't think of any reason off the top of my head that I'd go any deeper than that for sure.

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You can change the fulcrum by moving the hinge in or out.
 
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Do you write up that work method for every job?

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Eric, this was the first time I've ever written a pre-job work plan. I found it very helpful in sorting out all the various strategies, and approaching the day with a plan I had a high level of confidence in.

We still made several changes as we went, some by design, others by neglect (i.e. forgetting to drill or bore cut for decay in tree 2)

I'll consider a written pre-plan again, though likely it will be a rare occurance considering the extra time required.
 
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My impression is that you went a lot farther into tree two with your notch than I would (approaching a factor of two), especially in a tree with as much front-lean as that one had.....................

I don't believe I've ever gotten any deeper into a tree than you did, probably not even that deep. Can't think of any reason off the top of my head that I'd go any deeper than that for sure.

Another good reason for limiting depth of the notch is the ability to give it a second go a bit higher up if need be. A second attempt should go a bit deeper to find continuous fibers and following a cut that's already almost too deep would be a bit scary for me.


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Glens, A lot of posts on the "tandem tree felling" discussed the hinge and cutting plan. I'll be posting a new subject from a past incident "Awakenings - bad cutting plans - hinge depth"

You didn't yell at me, so I'll assume that I did OK with posting the pictures. I have a video with two limitations: I don't know how to post it (I am still a newborn), and the battery went dead at almost the same point that the still picture was taken, so we missed the big crash.
 
Kevin: yeah you can move the fulcrum, but do you ever go deeper than the pith?

Dan: "Good job on the follow-up package" was meant to include the packaging of the images. If I was going to pick any nits they would be the images containing profile information, and the directory/file names used. I can't find the value of profile information (describing the camera, what the lens settings were at the time, etc.) being included in snapshots. When directory and file names contain odd-ball characters such as one or more blank spaces then extra hoops need to be unnecessarily jumped through when handling them (underscores are much better than spaces). Both minor points though and I wouldn't have mentioned them without your seeking feedback :) Oh, and the images were sized and had quality values that were just fine.

To post the video you merely have to meet the file size and name limitations of the site. Whatever you did to get the zip file here is exactly what you'll need to do to get the video clip here. If you have to mess with the video to get it to a smaller file size or something, ask Erik -- I don't have any of the same tools as you probably do while he does.
 
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Both minor points though and I wouldn't have mentioned them without your seeking feedback :) Oh, and the images were sized and had quality values that were just fine.

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I've not been able to view DLT's last two attachments.
 
all those fibers sticking way up into the log really reduces the amount of wood can be harvested for lumber. That is one of the main reasons to use a bore cut. One big long fiber pull can really bring down the value of a log.
 
First I want to say what a pleasure it was working with Dan, Tim and Joe for the day. These guys are really pros and take pride in their work. Thanks for letting me take part in the show.

I have a few pics that I would like to show of the job, and thanks to Glens I know how to do that now, though I should probably put them in a zip file like Dan did.

This is Tim setting the rigging in the back leaner Tree #1
 

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