TreeDimensional's set up

TreeDimensional

I am going to attempt to post a pics on here, I have to admit I am a better arborist than I am a technogeek, so here goes, The first one is of our mill.

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azrael

Hey where are all the trees..........have U milled them all.
Like trying to find stone to throw...at the top of a lookout....NONE AROUND. (PS I would NEVER do that...throw stones...that is).

Jeff Darby

I was thinking the same thing, Great mill, But it seems there's nothing to mill...Good stay in side it looks darn cold there!

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Arboriculture, A life long study for some, a passing phase for others

© Jeffrey J Darby 2011

Eric Frei

Crikey, I thought that was a shot of Lake Eyre.

Which is a salt lake in the middle of Australia for setting land speed records like Bonnyville.

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TreeDimensional

I expected that response, Just to further clarify, I live in West-Central Saskatchewan, CANADA...eh!!!! We are primarily(sp) an agricultural community, the soil type is a dark brown, heavy clay-loam soil. Per capita we are the largest special crop area in the world. This year ALL we seeded was Canary seed, go figure, we can make more money selling bird feed than we can growing PEOPLE food.

On another note, we can grow tree like crazy, but a tree nursery would be counterproductive, Who would what a 3 foot tall tree witha 600 lb root ball?

Seeing that my first attempt at addind pics worked I'll post a few more!

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Jeff Darby

Nice set up, TreeDimensional, We weren't having a crack at you it just seemed odd a mill and no trees for miles, If you dont know your market you wont stay in the game for long and you seem to know your's.
All the best JayD.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contest.
BOT, I'm in, but John's just about finnished ours, So if we win you's can both tweak it up, If that's OK

__________________

Member: Australian Tree Association

Join the Australian Tree Association...Have your voice heard !

Arboriculture, A life long study for some, a passing phase for others

© Jeffrey J Darby 2011

newguy18

Its a snow mill.

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old schooler

TreeDimensional

Thanks for the comment guys, I thought long and hard about the need for a mill in this part of the country. The deciding factor occured early in August, 2007. At about 1:00AM there was a plough wind blow througt our area, the north edge was 6 miles south of us and leveled crops and tree in a 7 mile swath, right down to the south Saskatchewan river. As we do quite a few hazard removals at a regional park in the path af destuction, our phone began ringing at 6:00AM. We spent the first day removing trees from inside roofs of cabins, day 2 and tree were clean-up and retoration of surviving trees, and the fourth day we brought in a 106 foot/ 40 ton crane. We ended up removing 5 90' poplars from one lot. These were all in the 30" DBH, and were removed with 1 cut about a foot off the ground. The last day was spent bucking all the logs into 18" lenghts and were given away for free to three people.

The wood discibed here was hauled away in six three ton trucks (heaped). As we live in an area that doesn't have a lot of trees, fireplaces are rare. The logical use for the wood is a mill, and even though the wood is poplar, the ranchers keep phoning for slabs for porosity fencing. It didn't take long to find out that 5" and larger slabs 8' long sell for $800.00 Canadian dollars/cord.

The mill was not purchased as seen in the picture, it came with the complete head and two 7' sections of track. I priced out another section of track, but opted to build my own so I could cut 20' lengths. The dealer wanted $600.00 for a 7' length of track with a log dog on it, and I wanted an extra log dog which would have cost me about $320.00. I went to the local welding shop and bought all the material for the track and the dogs for $221.00. The trailer that is under the mill was home built from scrape iron from John Deere rodweeders from abandoned farm sites (free for the taking with permission).

The total cost for a mill that will cut a 30"diameter log 20' long, was under $9000.00 CD. By the way the reason we have made the mill mobile is logistic, the question around here is do you haul the wood to the mill or the mil to the wood? One way or the other you always have to haul wood. In my defence, the mill is a machine that is used to deal with our scrape that is too large to go through our chipper(12"), and we chip our scab material, and sell the chips. You might say we are mini recyclers.

It has been a vertical learning curve with how to maximize the boards from a log, but I should add that we are much more aware of the number and damage that insects do to live apparantly healthy trees.

Feel free to make comments or constructive criticism, I AM a farmer and an arborist, who lives in the frozen north

shaggs

Hey TD, cool pics from a cool country.
I like your set up with the plant trailer etc.
Any pics of some milled timber??
Around here our climate is that different that to survive, the femakes have to wear safety clothing called a "bikini"!! Very distracting to the worker!!! I take it bikini sales are down this time of year in your neck of the woods??
Keep the pics comin'

TreeDimensional

Yea Shaggs Bikini sales plummet this time of year, the only thing that rymhms with "Thong" is "LONGJOHN". I have to get to Australia, I haven't learned to tell if the temp is hot or cold by looking at a photo yet, We are relieved today, the temp last night was -27C with a good breeze, today it is -10.6C and calm. It going to get even better for Christmas, -2C with snow.

We are going out after lunch to mill some more poplar scrap, There is no BIG hurry today, so I'll take the camera out and get some shots. On another note, not having tree around does have advantages. When my daughters first started dating, their boy friends ALWAYS respected my wishes for returning them home on time. You See, I have a large rifle, and can hit every corner of the home section with one shot.

TreeDimensional

A couple shots of the mill in action.

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Eric Frei

What stops the log moving or turning etc?

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shaggs

Nice shots TD.
Do you find the ice blunts your machines faster??

I like your take on "bringing my daughter home"

Amate of mine would date a girl who's father would always "happen" to be practising his .22cal shots in the rear yard (in country Australia where at the time he was a professional rabbit shooter).
The father never missed.....and needless to say the daughter was never late home!!!

TreeDimensional

The mill ahs 4 log locks on it, and they may be configured into 7 different locations. When you put the raw log on the bed the locks canbe pivoted up to the centre line of the log and are locked in on the oposite side. Once you have cut a 90 degree corner the locks are dropped down, and the locks are used to secure the log to a series of bumpers that arewelded to the crossmembers. I will post some pics tommorrow, cause its dark here now.

As far as firearm selection goes, I found the Browning 22-250 to work the best on boyfriends. I have never had to squeeze the trigger because of my rep as a traditional Karate instructor.

The blades are an interesting conversation piece. The mill came with a band that was supposed to be the best on the market. I guess it might have been, I believe that I may have made some errors is cutting, heating etc.. The first band cut about a cord of poplar slabs 1"X 10"X 8', a couple 16"diameter green ash, and about 6 pressure treated douglas fir power poles 24D X 18'. The ash and the fir were compairable to sawing concrete. The first band broke in two places as the clutch was engaging and no where near the log. The second band cut about 6 power pole and became dull, it was put away until I buy a sharpener, which will cost around $1250.00. The jury is still out on whether or not to sharpen bands as they can be custom built for $35.00 each. This option also allows me to use different tooth configurations to match the materil we are cutting. I don't think the snow is an issue, but the junk like gravel that sticks to it does dull the bands in a hurry. On a side note, MOST of the commercial mills in Saskatchewan run at capacity in the winter, it has nothing to do with the logs being frozen, but if the bush trails are frozen that eliminates the need to dig logging truck out of the muskeg

TreeDimensional

Photo of Log grapple

newguy18

where'd you import that log from?

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old schooler

TreeDimensional

Some one asked to see the log-locks, here you go!

bigshea13

looks like you need to trade that cant hook in for some hydrolics

TreeDimensional

I keep the cant hook for Marlene, it is a multi-use tool. Rolls logs with little effort and hurts like crazy when she sneaks up and gives me a whack on the back of the head.

You might call it a sensitivity training aide! I will NEVER suggest she is getting soft again.

Therrin

I had this scary mental picture of Marlene sneaking around after me, chasing me down with a cast-iron skillet.

thenorth

hi guys:
here is the Norwood mill that we use here


we are building a drying shed with the wood.


here it is almost finished...



john

treevet

Maybe TD's set up has thawed out and we can have some discussion about it?

TreeDimensional

Nope!!!!

TreeDimensional

The latest addition to the fleet of "New to Me" Equipment. It needs the decals yet, but we'll see what the economy does. The decal package from the manufacturer is a around $600.00.

Its just a little guy, 9 ton, 60 feet.

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treevet

Very nice, now maybe you can find a tree up there that hasn't frozen to death to aim it at.

TreeDimensional

Thanks Dave,

I had the spotting scope out and found its first victim! I am adding another picture, of a 21 year old truck!

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OutofMytree

I have often wondered about what next and a Hiab (what we call a crane truck) would be a very handy tool. Imagine getting up close to a nasty Canary Island Date Palm, wrapping on a sling and taking it out with one slice with the 660. Yeahhhh. That sort of job you do in 3-4 hours slicing and loading in to the truck. Hiab turns that into a 1 1/2 hour job including clean up. You could really clean up with one of those babies.

TreeDimensional

OoMT, Our experience has been that a large enough crane can make the takedown portion of a removal down to about 10% of the time that it take to conversionally remove the victim!

Crane companies are leary about doing tree work, the unknowns are high. Things like weight estimation are very important when craning tops out.

OutofMytree

Sounds great TD. I have limited crane experience in tree work but the few jobs I have done have been great fun. More crane jobs please!!!!

hoot gibson

nice mill . i enjoy running ours , we have two timberharvesters. both portable . one 20" and one 22" automatic with hydrolics. but i dont have a crane . if i cant cut it off at ground level then it aint getting cut down . h