Daniel
Carpal tunnel level member
- Location
- Suburban Philadelphia (Wayne)
Most of my trees are straight enough that I just use the center plunge to fascilitate the falling cut. Like I said, I AM running 24" bars on all my big saws now. When hinge strength isn't needed, the center plunge is just fast and easy. There's not much to think about or any way to over or under cut anything. So I don't know what you're talking about when you say "extra work"... At most it's a matter of seconds. But actually, the ease of the cut can save time. Time that might be spent on banging out the notch or repostitioning the saw to match the cuts perfectly etc... Making a fuss over a few extra seconds on a falling cut makes no sense when you're dropping only a tree or two a day in Arb work. Whereas, saving 30-60 seconds on each falling cut can really add up at the end of the day for a logger.
When hinge strength is needed the center plunge becomes a much more deliberate and precise operation. I rarely if ever cut a little and pull a little.. I decide where and how much to take out of the center, then cut up the hinge with plunge and the back cut to my premeditated specs, and then call for the pull. Sometimes I will pretension the pull line and wait to see a little movement in the back cut before I stop cutting and call for the pull. With the rare really tight shots, I may stay at the stump and steer the tree with the back cut, but that isn't often needed in my market. And many times these days, I AM doing both the cutting and the pulling, as my old equipment op just lost his second leg to daibetes. So I have no choice but to cut up the hinge and then get in the machine and pull.
That maple was 5' across on the long side. I actually didn't use my saws on it, but I'm pretty sure the last saw I used was a 24" bar. At most it ws 28" ... And I wasn't going 20 miles an hour when the loader hit the pull lines. I just brought it up a few feet to put a little slack in the lines, so the machine wasn't pulling from a dead stop. I'll see if my buddy has the video on his phone... Why would you think there's a problem getting a little momentum with the loader?
It seems that we are indeed operating in two different worlds. You think I'm crazy and I can't understand why I have to explain this stuff to faller of your experience.
Before I explain how to the center plunge adds more strength to the hinge can someone please tell us what does hinge strength mean? In other words what benefit does hinge strength offer the faller?
for an experienced faller hinge strength means only ONE THING. It's going sound obvious once someone says it, but rarely if ever do people mention this important disctinction...... Once that is understood, then the way by which the center plunge adds hinge strength should be fairly simple to understand.
Does anyone here care to explain? ANY TAKERS???
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