quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

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Does that make me a bad person?

Schadenfreude.

Perhaps the opposite of calamity.

“Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.” — The Devil’s Dictionary

No chainsaw here either. I defer to the pros.

Wonder how many widows were made exactly in the making of that video...

My cousin had a tree removed the other day. Probably 60' tall and right next to a garage.

The company he hired sent out one guy. He had a truck with a knuckleboom crane, and at the end was a grapple with a saw attachment. He would grab whatever he wanted to cut with the grapple, hit a button on the remote that ran the saw through it, and then set everything in a nice pile right next to the truck. When he got to the big stuff he lifted it directly on to the truck. After he left, two guys showed up with a chipper and ran the small stuff in the pile.

No climber, no ground crew, and it appeared much safer than the way I'm used to doing it.

I had a partner and cut firewood and did tree removal as a side job for several years, until I found an easier and safer second job. Never had a mishap. Never work alone! Use your head. Notches, useful as they are aren't always needed and they sure aren't any guarantee. One puff of wind at the wrong time could ruin your day! Any time property damage was even a remote possibility we would tie off and pull the tree. Usually with redundant riggings and reduntant vehicles manned with competent help.
Most of all you need to know when to just say no... and walk away from a job out of your league.

Some looked like staged like a house in the middle of a forest surrounded by stumps. But everything was just downright giggling funny.

I cut down a boatload of trees for firewood back in the day. They were all in a forest, no buildings or vehicles around. One thing I figured out early on was to make sure I had a clear escape route around the tree if things got wild. That saved my butt a time or two. I had a few fall in the wrong direction and the worse that ever happened was the tree fell on my Stihl saw when I dropped it ran away from an errant falling tree. Broke the safety bar off and dented the muffler was the only damage. That's another thing to remember, never run with a running saw in your hand. That can lead to some bad shit right there.

Jim

They should'a hired this guy.

Not a failure, but oh hell no.

There was a lot more than property damage in that video; some people look like they may have been very seriously hurt...or killed. Couldn’t stop giggling huh?

Must be years in the Forest Service and the deaths from falling trees, including a 15 YO girl on my district.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
There was a lot more than property damage in that video; some people look like they may have been very seriously hurt...or killed. Couldn’t stop giggling huh?

Must be years in the Forest Service and the deaths from falling trees, including a 15 YO girl on my district.

Yeah, the driver of the cab took the brunt of that big tree, he almost surely had to die.

A lot of good advice so far here, having an exit plan is right up there. I have three good sized dead trees to deal with now. It's rough around them with brush and a bunch of dead limbs. Even with an escape route, there's the shit from above which can be near impossible to assess. Taking a tree down at my age is about as close to the edge as I go these days. It gets your attention.

As someone that cuts his fair share down, that was enjoyable

Trees are actually fairly easy to fell if you know how to size them up properly, but all bets are off when the heart is rotten like that really big Douglas fir (1:30) that came apart all around that one guy. He needed new shorts after that one haha.

The guy at 2:42... It looked like the hand of God smotedted him.

The funniest was the guys who were yanked off the ground, especially the guy who held the guy rope while the tree tried to trebuchet him.

I'd have stuck him with the nickname "Spiderman."

I've felled many trees, including topping several 80'+ trees. Never had one bite me < knocks plastic > but I was always extraordinarily careful.

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:
There was a lot more than property damage in that video; some people look like they may have been very seriously hurt...or killed. Couldn’t stop giggling huh?

Must be years in the Forest Service and the deaths from falling trees, including a 15 YO girl on my district.

I don't know how many loggers I flew out to pick up over the years and a good many of them didn't make it. No giggling here.

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:

quote:

Cut a freaking notch on the side where you want it to fall. Cut on the opposite side of that notch!
Seems simple enough.

Yes, if the tree is straight.
Unfortunately... a notch often isn't enough if the weight distribution is not in the direction you want to go. Sometimes you have to rope it high and pull it in the direction of your notch while cutting the opposite side of your notch.

yep,

last one I cut was notched, had it planned to go right on the side yard, up the tree line ,

tree was dead from a lightning strike,

it started moving ,,,, and fell the opposite direction, (in the woods, I was a good ways from the house)

when it started moving I stood back, and went,, well shit,,

worked out, but not like planned,

but I am not a lumberjack, and that's ok

I only use my chainsaw for cutting trees that are already on the ground. Felling them is for professionals.

Tree work scares the shit out of me. A guy here was killed a couple of years ago when a limb fell and hit him, another guy (professional tree service) that a friend knew was killed when a saw kicked back and cut his neck, and I ended up with 13 stitches (pretty minor as far as a chainsaw injury goes) last year while helping a friend. My days with a chainsaw are OVER. I'll pay to have it done.

I love my chainsaws and have literally cut thousands of trees down in various sizes, small to large over my life. I do not profess to be an expert. But there is some thought that goes into each one. Some can be tricky. The key is not if, but when things go sideways. No one gets hurt. Rigging can be a huge asset. I do not climb but someone who does can be a real asset in the most difficult jobs if feeling lucky is not in the cards.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
I only use my chainsaw for cutting trees that are already on the ground. Felling them is for professionals.

Bucking a felled tree can be more dangerous than felling. There can be a lot of tension that the cuts release.

I saw a lot of hollow trees in this video. No one can predict where a hollow tree will go. And often, you don't know that the tree is dead inside.

I always wear a hard hat. A big risk is that the tree you are felling will take a branch off a neighboring tree and send it at you at "tree-mendous" velocity.

Back in 2000 high straight line winds and a small tornado went through my parents neighborhood. My parents lost 10 trees in their yard, 4 at my grandparents next door. We had 3 saws running Fri/Sat/Sun all day long, and that included an appearance by Dad's Clinton D-35 (look that beast up on YouTube). Everything was all twisted together, every cut took a lot of discussion and prep.

The neighbor next to my grandparents had lost quite a few. He asked for some help as he had 3 trees twisted together. We needed to fell one that we were working on and we'd be over. He couldn't wait. I heard his saw start and looked over to see him just dive in to cutting. I couldn't get "STOP" out before the limb he was cutting snapped loose like a sideways catapult arm and launched him about 20' across the yard.

Fortunately he wasn't hurt and he learned a valuable lesson about trees and limbs under compression/tension.