Woody mustash

[mustash29]

My last name is Beard.

At 18.5, after boot camp, I was in my 3rd week of navy school. Instructor handed back a math test and refered to me as "Seaman Mustache." Needless to say, I never lived that down. Just to spite my buddies, I did this, but had to mispell it so it would fit.

 

[mustash29]

A well placed blob of JB weld on that cracked coil mounting stud beefed it right up. I swapped the flywheel and coil from the $10 parts saw and we have IGNITION.

If only it wasn't pouring rain today.

 

[mustash29]

Another successfull day of storm damage clean up.

We got a good solid 1/2 cord today, 2900 lbs in the bed.

I was not too impressed with the noodling performance. The big rounds I cut 1/2 way, then whacked 'em with the maul. The 1/2 were cut 1/4 and whacked. It's all split & stacked already. We are over 1/2 way done with 14/15 wood now.

 

[mustash29]

Then we topped the load off with some easier to process limb wood.

 

[chvymn99]

Nice truck load.

 

[basod]

Are you weighing the truck as a requirement or just rubbing it in to the Ford guys

 

[mustash29]

This stuff is from near my work, behind a locked gate. I have to pick up & drop off the key, so it's easy to drive over the scales. It's a great way to learn "how much = how much the truck sags".

When I started hauling in my S-10 years ago, I "calibrated" the amount my hitch dropped / rose when I was hauling bags of lawn lime. That gave me a good idea how much wood I could load without "overly" taxing the suspension. A bed full was more than enough weight, so I installed a set of add a leafs.

 

[WellSeasoned]

Awesome tons of pics!

 

[Ashful]

I was not too impressed with the noodling performance.



(deleted)

Your first photo is noodling. The third photo is ripping. Ripping is painfully slow compared to noodling, at least in ash and oak, where I have the most experience doing this. When noodling, your saw should be throwing a rooster tale of 5" long strings (noodles) so fast it'll sometimes jam up in the chain guard. The photo may be deceiving, but it looks to me like your chain is throwing small chips / dust, even when noodling. If so, that chain is dull.

Some sharpen a chain every tank of gas, others every two tanks. I'm not so fanatical, but I've never gone more than half a day on the same chain. Get yourself three loops of chain for that saw, so you can swap them out as they become dull. Then, you can sharpen at home in the evening, rather than wasting time doing it in the woods.

 

[mustash29]

Cross, noodle & rip cuts. Makes sense.

The chain is a stihl full chisel, with about 3 cords on it. I still cross cuts fine but is probably in need of a dressing, it was throwing a lot of dust.

Next time I'll just take the 31 Ton MTD along.

 

[mustash29]

I just finished an 87.5 hr stretch: sun, mon, tues, wed night shift, barely slept thurs due to the tree crews hacking away at the power lines in front of my house, then fri, sat, sun day shift. 12 hr shifts + shift change / turnover usually means 12.5 to 12.75 hrs per day.

Gotta love summer vacation season and the OT covering for each other. We're basically either on vacation or covering someone else.

So I started MY week off yesterday, and went to "work" and filled the truck with another 3100 lb of oak. My other half was working so I drug the splitter along. I would up with 4 very good rows in the bed, the last one was sitting on the tailgate a few inches.

We had some quick leftovers for dinner and got it all stacked.

Sorry, no pics this time, I didn't think about the camera untill we were sweeping the bedliner out. I told her we had to put it back in the truck to take pics.

I've gotten 2.5 cord out of these 2 trees so far, probably another bed full or two yet to go when I finish the limb stuff.

 

[basod]

Gotta love summer vacation season and the OT covering for each other. We're basically either on vacation or covering someone else.

Used to call it trading days off, kicker is my company has a policy where you can purchase an additional week of vacation and all the guys on the opposite shift participated in the program

 

[mustash29]

An excavation contractor is clearing land for a 12 unit subdivision. He had a post on craigslist for 145 c/s/d or 100 c/d. I ordered 10 cord so we got it for 85.

Unable to post pics at this time, having some pc issues.

 

[aussiedog3]

Wow, nice work. Thanks for sharing all the pics.
You know you are not making all of the Stihl fans on here very happy by showing off that Craftsman Beast!
Us Craftsman guys need to stick together.

 

[mustash29]

I've been listening to everyone rave about how awesome the Fiskars X-27 is, and keeping my eye on the prices.

Sears had it listed on the web for $44, same price as Amazon. Went to the local Sears at the mall today and it rings up as 58. No way man, web says 44. Oh, we match the online price. Cha-ching.

My 8 lb maul is 33" long. The X-27 is 36". Other than having to re-learn my aim, that sucker is indeed AMAZING. It takes fresh cut red oak and SCARES it into splits.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

No disrespect meant but you would save a lot of time if you stopped to sharpen that saw chain a bit more often. I also believe you would save a lot more time and even effort if you stopped the noodling and split the logs. It does look like you have the tool for doing that too.

 

[mustash29]

I'm still learning the art of hand sharpening & doing it efficiently. Need more practice.

Those big rounds were a bear to move, wound up towing the splitter in there to break them up.

 

[Ashful]

No disrespect meant but you would save a lot of time if you stopped to sharpen that saw chain a bit more often.

... or stop to swap the chain. I prefer not wasting valuable daylight time in the woods fiddling with a file. I carry a toolbox full of individually boxed chains, at least 3 for each of my saws. As soon as a chain starts going dull, I swap it out. I do my sharpening on a chain grinder in my warm garage one evening during the week, while listening to the radio.

 

[BoiledOver]

... or stop to swap the chain. I prefer not wasting valuable daylight time in the woods fiddling with a file. I carry a toolbox full of individually boxed chains, at least 3 for each of my saws. As soon as a chain starts going dull, I swap it out. I do my sharpening on a chain grinder in my warm garage one evening during the week, while listening to the radio.

My way also. Using a cheapo harbor freight sharpener and 6 chains all the same age and usage means adjust one time and sharpen all. They will all die together and be replaced as a team.

 

[Flatbedford]

I'm still learning the art of hand sharpening & doing it efficiently. Need more practice.

Those big rounds were a bear to move, wound up towing the splitter in there to break them up.

You can easily bust those monster Red Oak rounds into quarters or smaller with your new X27. Ne need to drag you hydro splitter around. In fact, with some practice, you could probably split all that Red Oak just as fast by hand as you can with the machine...and you will be able to hear the birds chirping while you work.

 

[Flatbedford]

Next time you are at the saw shop pick up one of these sharpening kits in the correct size for your chain. Makes sharpening pretty easy. Any brand will do, this is the image I got from Google.

 

[mustash29]

I have a sharpening kit like that, but it takes forever. I believe my files are cheap & dull.

 

[ailanthus]

I have a sharpening kit like that, but it takes forever. I believe my files are cheap & dull.

With some practice, a quick touch-up really shouldnt take much longer than swapping a chain. A couple extra dollars for quality files does make a big difference.

Great thread , BTW!

 

[mustash29]

I haven't added any eye candy to this thread in a while so.....

For the 14/15 winter, I had about 2 cord of good dry oak from my last log load still under the deck + about 2 cord of tulip poplar that I got from a CL scrounge. The guy had switched to pellets and had a pile of logs for "free". It was in 4 - 6 foot chunks for 2 years. He did a great job of loading my trailer with his BX-2200 so I gave him 50 bucks for it. I got it in June '14, bucked, split & stacked it in the sun right away. It did pretty decent for re-lights from coals, shoulder season fires & when mixed with the good oak.

Pretty soon I will be loading my "under deck shed" with 2.5 cord of oak from Sandy & Irene. I got this stuff summer of '13 so it will be good to go for the 15/16 season. It's the cube in the back right of the pic below.

The stuff in the front left I got in Jan '14. It was fresh cut red & white oak, 10 mason dump loads cut in rounds & delivered for $850. We got that all split & stacked late spring '14. I stack pretty tightly so it came out to about 7.5 cords. It should be good to go by late 15/16 season, and will be the staple for the 16/17 season.

 

[mustash29]

I got a good CL score in late May. A guy on a cul-de-sac only had about 30 feet from the back of his house to the rear fence line. He had a few trees topped, dropped & the brush cleaned up. His 32 cc Stihl and his bad back was no match for some of this stuff so he put it up on CL.

Day one - 6 hrs - in the heat & humidity, I loaded the front of the trailer with all of the 4 to 6 foot limb wood, and filled the rear with larger rounds, it was a 30 mile round trip.



Day two - 5 hrs - still hot & humid, I bucked the big stuff, noodled some of it in half & busted some into quarters or eights with the fiskars, 8 lb maul & wedge. That gave me a very full load in the bed. I brought that home and went back for the last of it, about a half load of shorties & uglies.



Once home I had to finish bucking the limb wood, split the big stuff and get it all stacked out in my best spot, an area under the pines that gets good morning & afternoon sun. I need to top cover it before too many needles & leaves start falling. It's mostly 21" splits, about 2.35 cord. The oddballs and uglies is the stuff on the front left.