Sawing rough lumber

[allanyed]

For those who are interested in cutting their own lumber, the attached video shows a nice saw that might be of use.  Click on the pic and the video should start.

Allan

Edited June 21, 2021 by allanyed

[toms10]

How did I get by up till now without the machine that limbs and cuts to length?  I am sure Jim Byrnes has one the drawing board. 😜😁😂

 

Tom

Edited June 21, 2021 by toms10
Typo

[bruce d]

Allan, I have cut down a couple of trees over the decades. What happenned in the video just wasn't a fair fight!

[Roger Pellett]

No!  I think that Jim is working on a robotic rigging machine😁.

[Jaager]

A for real horror movie.

 

Were I writing the laws for the planet, machines like those would be limited to use on tree farms.  If there are any original growth forests or old secondary growth even left, it would be human handled cutting machines and draft horses or oxen  and only senile trees would be harvested.   The efficiency of these machines is horrifying.  They are the equivalent of strip mining the surface of a forest.

The one machine missing is a giant chipper shredder for the tops, branches, and parts of the stumps that are not harvested for exotic and specialty grain.

[allanyed]

I wish I had one of these back in '72.  I cleared an acre of hawthorn trees with a hand held chain saw.   They are thorny buggers and they had their revenge on me.

Allan

 

 

[Jaager]

You do realize that Hawthorn wood was what August Crabtree used for the carvings on his models?  I hope you saved the wood.

[allanyed]

In 1972 I was busy clearing the lot and laying blocks for the basement, laying bricks, and drywalling to name a few things.  Only way we could afford a decent house at the time.  Was a great learning experience, but never again.

 

Unfortunately I burned every bit of the wood in bonfires and some in the fireplace over the next few years.  Had I been into ship modeling, which came some 5 or 6 years later, I would have had a lifetime supply for everyone in MSW.  

 

Allan

 

 

[Roger Pellett]

Up here in Northeastern MN the native White Pine was logged off in the late 1800’s to serious environmental damage; massive wild fires causing serious loss of life, water pollution, etc.  This was accomplished by lumberjacks, not machines.

 

Since then these lands have been taken over by Birch  and  Aspen (locally known as Poplar or Popple).  These species grow quickly but don’t live long.  Furthermore, we have lost a lot of Birch from a blight.

 

These lands are now being harvested using equipment like this.  The wood is used for wood pulp and more recently Engineered Construction Lumber.

 

The more enlightened property owners are reestablishing white pine.

 

Roger

[jdbondy]

Makes me think of the movie Terminator: Rise of the Machines!

[Bob Cleek]

Don't forget these things, either:

 

 

[Cathead]

That's one brave & skilled pilot operating that thing so close to power lines.

[mtaylor]

That is one incredible video and the pilot has skills beyond the normal I would think.  To be able to that without cutting the wires.... amazing. 

[druxey]

Allan: your video is actually terrifying. Now I truly understand the rate of deforestation of this planet. I had no idea how ruthlessly efficient and rapidly trees can be dispatched.

[Cathead]

Honestly, the sort of high-end machinery shown there is primarily used in managed tree plantations. It only really works with high-density uniform stands, not the sort of gnarly, diverse stands you get in "natural" woods, and these are usually replanted. Globally, deforestation (as in the permanent removal of natural trees) is driven by more brute-force methods (chainsaws,  bulldozers, etc.) in places that can't afford the sort of machinery shown in the video.

 

Tree farms like that still aren't great, because they lead to major soil, biodiversity, and habitat loss, as well as often using copious amounts of helicopter-applied herbicide to suppress unwanted regrowth until the next round of farmed seedlings are planted. But they aren't really "deforestation" once their cycle gets started.

 

For example, here in Missouri, it's common to see woods being bulldozed to make room for more corn planting (the government pays for corn, not for trees). Acres at a time just bulldozed into a huge pile, burned, most of the topsoil stripped off to get rid of the stumps, then plowed for crops. But that's just dudes with bulldozers and matches. Same thing happens in the Amazon at a much larger  scale.