Turbo Twister

6 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said:

that's a nice score on fire wood, i always short saw monster downed trees, it's much easier on the back when loading up, also makes for quicker arm strong splitting , plus the the small chunks burn better, and produce a even heat in my furness. 

The majority of it is rotten in the core, but the top section that landed in the wood is all good firewood, I reckon about 25 tons of it fell in total, getting it out will be time consuming so we are cutting it to lengths to pull it out quicker, then chopping them down smaller in the yard.

It's a never ending chore!

Finally got around to cutting some firewood again! I got an emergency call on Thursday last to come take down an awkwardly dangerous tree that snapped and landed bang on a gate and post!🤦‍♂️

The whole tree was rotten in the core from bottom at least 40ft up. It also knocked an ash tree and 2 oak trees in it's path so I will be back another day or 2 in a few weekends time to finish chopping it.

42 inch bar flew through most of it, but I need to get the lower stem moved as the gate is sitting directly below it.

I got a little welcomed help from the farmer to push it over, I knew the fence post would aid it falling as soon as it got a nudge, it snapped like a match stick!

12 hours ago, 87Iroc said:

 

My brother has one of those(20V one...not sure what yours is). I have used it. Its plumb scary. No 'burble' of a 2 stroke to warn you of the danger. He leaves it laying in the bed of his UTV when he's out on his property to cut limbs/deadfall back to clear trails. I have used it to try to trim some vines. May still buy one for very small work. 

 

Brother did say he got carried away one day and started cutting some larger log with it. I think he was cutting it to length to split it. Said it took forever and he said 'f-it' and went to the garage and got his monster Stihl....it gnawed through everything in the time it took the little dewalt to do one cut.

 

So they are good, just gotta know their place.

Yeah, I don't like the lack of noise start up like a patrol saw, I actually thought there was a problem with it initially as it won't start up when the chain brake is on, not even a noise! It's a bit bulky on weight with a flexvolt battery but it lasted nearly an hour with cutting which to me, is impressive.

18v here is the same as your 20v there, just named differently.

13 hours ago, sled_22 said:

My cousin has one of these. They are pretty hand for small stuff but don’t start limbing a tree and turn to the battery saw afterwards or you’ll be disappointed. At least I was. But to have around the house or on the quad for shooting lane and what not, they’re super nice.

As mentioned before on a page way back in this thread, I have petrol saws for their place, I got this one for site work as we cannot use petrol saws on some sites. I cut some beech beams with it yesterday and it was cutting quite well. It is great for anything up to about 6 inch diameter. 

6 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said:

 

we haven't seen you in a while till this morning, so figured you were still dealing with those fractured ribs, glad you dropped in, and be sure to post updates on the dewalt saw. 

Yeah, I've been laying low the past few weeks, work has been quite stressful and I have just gone back on my tools after dropping project management, I'd prefer to be physically working rather than doing emails and organising jobs etc. It was an interesting experience but not for me, not at the moment anyway. 

I got around to making a proper work bench in my shed over the weekend, I picked up a hobby size bandsaw and completely rejigged the layout for storing all my planks.

I plan do make some bespoke furniture over the winter months, now that the day job is less stressy!

I bought a new chainsaw! (Yes I know, its only an 18v battery saw) but in my defense, I have an MS661 for milling and a 201T for medium/small cutting.

I haven't used it yet but I got it for construction site work as we can't use petrol chainsaws on site. Ideal for cutting 9x3's (3x9's for some of you guys!)

I also got my winch installed with a second battery hooked direct to the bike battery, it fits perfectly in the toolbox at the back of the bike along with the solenoid and winch control.

13 hours ago, sled_22 said:

Yeah it looks good stained. Plus a couple coats of poly brushed on thick should help hold up against firewood for a few years. Cost about $75 to make. Took me 30 minutes picking through the pine at menards to find enough wood semi straight enough though. 

You think timber is bad over there? Come over to Ireland, our "straight" timber is more like a hurley! (Stick used for playing an Irish sport if you didn't know). You'd be lucky the odd time to get really straight timber, but we might not have any timber in a few weeks if things keep going the way they are, sawmills closing down due to lack of trees being felled..

5 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said:

any plans to stain the wood box ? maybe even add a coating of varnish .. after the staining, fish and @Turbo Twisterdoes alot with wood working, bet they would have some cool ideas. 

Not a lot these days unfortunately! Fractured a rib on site last week so I'm laid up for a few weeks😓

@sled_22 the box looks much better stained in my opinion, nice find!

1 hour ago, jeepwm69 said:

 

With syn cable you're supposed to run a NEW Hawse fairlead.  Reason being the rope can get pinched in a corner on the rollers.  Cable won't compress to get pulled into the corner, but rope will.

 

If you run an old Hawse fairlead that's been used with cable, it will have burrs that will snag the rope and chew it up.

This was the exact reason I used a hawse on the jeep, steel cable for rollers, not for synthetic!

I'm up in arms about what I'll do now😂 think I'll stick with what I have for now, I wont be using it a whole lot anyway.

22 minutes ago, shadetree said:

you were told wrong !!!..i'll break it down for ya..hawse fairlead on rope creates heat as the rope glides over the hawse , where is on rollers with a rope...there is no heat being made !!.

Ok, point taken on that side of things. I may go searching for a roller so, never had that issue on the jeep mind and it did a lot of work for me.

36 minutes ago, shadetree said:

one more time !!...DITCH THE HAWSE FAIRLEAD IF YOUR GONNA RUN ROPE ?..YOU WANT A ROLLER FAIRLEAD !!!!.

I've been told it's a bad idea to run rope through a roller fairlead? What is the benefit to rollers in your opinion, I'm just curious?

Took the mounting plate off the bike again because the winch has to be bolted as far back on the plate as possible, otherwise it fouls the back of the light housings. 

I will also be moving the solenoid pack into the timber box on the bike rack along with the battery as there is very little room between the winch and front right wheel at full lock.

I will be able to use the second winch plate (it came separately with the winch) as a template to make a decent fixing point for the hawse. 

More to come!

10 minutes ago, shadetree said:

your first mistake is installing a hawse fairlead..second mistake...is its not a warn winch !..lol.

It's not a Warn winch no, it's a Ninja Warrior Japanese made winch with synthetic rope. Warn Winches aren't easy to get this small in Ireland and I had a 6 ton Warrior winch on my old jeep which never gave me trouble so I went for a known brand again. I have no time for steel cables, after seeing one snap on a tractor winch years ago I avoid them like the plague!

Second pic on is my old work horse, a grand vitara XL7 2.0L turbo diesel, a small engine by you guys standard, but big for here in Ireland.

1 hour ago, jeepwm69 said:

I drilled holes in my front bumper and mounted the fairlead there.

That was my thought, I think the fairlead is wide enough to do this, although I may have to weld a bit of plate on either side on the bumper, not a big job either way. 

And so begins the winch setup.. unfortunately it was harder than expected to get the front left (as you look at it) bolt in, as the frame has been knocked about in its past life so I had to improvise with a flat screwdriver and a clamp to get all 3 metal components to line up.

The frame is now bolted in place, next up is aligning the winch itself in place.

Would I be right in saying the aluminium hawse is best off as far forward as possible on the bike? The frame that came with it keeps the hawse back about 6 inches from the front of the bike frame and I dont like the idea of rope rubbing on the frame when pulling.

2 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said:

@Turbo Twister your welcome. 

 

hm..... a stationary unit dealing with firewood ? you have my curiosity up....  looking forward to the build. 

You've said enough!😂

9 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said:

you Built that mower, and did a great job.... might there be a mod on the shear bar in the future (if needed) ? and yes... I'm trying to get you to thinking of a new mod ... lol. 

That's true, thanks!

I do have another idea up my sleeve, I want to use the engine off the mower for a secondary stationary use, but it's just ideas in my head at the moment so I'm not saying anything about it.

Obviously with the weather in Ireland, I can't use the mower all year round but I would like to keep use of the engine for another important firewood related job. That will keep you thinking 😁👌

13 minutes ago, _Wilson_™ said:

oh i see... so the blades are adjustable ... i figured ether one, or other was ... so i gather with the shear bar not adjustable .. it is replaceable ? in one pic .... i see what looks like a counter sunk bolt .. 

Yeah maybe only 2-3mm of adjustment though. The blades are replaceable, the shear bar is part of the main frame so you'd probably have to cut it out to replace it.

6 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said:

the anvil / shear bar is what the knives shear  / chop the wood against ...it  should be located and the bottom of the loading chute .. 

 

Ah I get you now, there's no adjustment as far as I know, apart from the 3x holes through the blades being slightly bigger than the bolts that hold them in place. I must compare the old blades in width to the new ones out of interest as I'd say they will need replacing around the 100 hour mark.

9 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said:

@Turbo Twister thanks! 

 

 

 

 

my Kohlar engine is just like that on check stick, and sump plug both front and back ... i like those grease fittings on the rotor bearings .. in this pic ... better built chipper then most I've done research on .. can the anvil be taken out and flipped .... i gather it can adjusted for for tighter blade / anvil clearance ? another thing  that caught my eye was this pic ... i might be wrong .. but this bolt ...looks to have some powered  ... dis coloration on the spring washer ...might need to check it for looseness . all in all i like the design all the way, especially the knife rotor! 

 

What do you mean when you say anvil?

That bolt is still tight yes.

The bolts that hold the outfeed chute on, when I bought it 1 of the bolts was sheared, I will be upgrading the chute to a new, slightly longer one next season, as the current one, the top of the chute narrows down a good bit and I want a bigger opening to reduce blockages 

A few photos of the chipper during an annual maintenance!

I changed the oil, it has 2x sump bolts and 2x oil dip sticks for some reason, but it's very handy when checking the oil level when you are topping it up.

I grease both bearings/both sides of the drum shaft every 4 hours of use with marine grease, so it should last a good while!

10 hours ago, _Wilson_™ said:

 

lol .... i like that.... so now you know it will do 4 inches ... plus got the price dropped and a backup set ... NICE! score! ....with it doing that brush pile in an hour ... (i agree with flipping the blades every so often) you should real good service from those blades ... can you post pics of the drum / rotor, and blades ... i need some ideas before i pick one out... 

I know it isn't capable of 4 inches, I have put 3 inch through it in the past but it struggled a bit and I don't like seeing a machine struggle.

I'll be cleaning a load of my equipment later today so I'll get a few more snaps for you. It's one of the best machines I have. 

24 minutes ago, _Wilson_™ said:

@Turbo Twister looks like she does a fine job.... i was going to ask can those  blade be sharpened .. i could use something like that after i de limb trees for fire wood ....i usually use 2 plus diameter limbs for kindling ... in the furness ... 

They can yes, I use a grinder with sanding disc for best results and I swap them around every 4 or 5 hours of chipping, otherwise the outfeed chute blocks occasionally as dull blades seem to affect the vacuum flow quite a lot (as I've learnt in my time using it).

Anything bigger than 2 inches we cut up for firewood or kindling.

I was told when I bought the machine 3 years ago "it will cut up to 4 inches" so I told the guy to prove it, to which he couldn't! He ended up knocking off a few hundred euro and threw in spare blades😂

Not exactly firewood related, but then again we need a tool to sort out the brash left over from cutting down trees!

Here's a short snippet of me using my modified chipper, its powered by a Loncin 5.5hp 200cc petrol engine (a Honda replica) but it's a super little machine for what it is. It won't chip anything bigger than about 2 inches, but it cleans up a pile of brash like the one photo'd in about 1 hour.

For this particular job, there was side access to the rear garden but it was blocked by a shed, so due to its width at 24 inches, I was able to wheel it through the house!

The mods:

I added a swivel front axle for ease of movement.

New emergency stop button to replace the crappy bar that came with it (it really was a pain in the arse!)

Replaced the adjustable outfeed chute with a fixed square chute for better results of chips exiting the machine.

This machine is ideal for me as the majority of work I do with it is in built up areas, where access is tight or restricted. It cost me €1500 with a spare set of reversible blades that I have yet to use, and I've done about 60 hours of chipping with it so far.

You can see in pic 2, the brash chipped is all the stuff from pic 5!

On 9/23/2020 at 12:33 AM, Fishfiles said:

You know I tax my batteries pretty hard , music , fans , lights and with two batteries  I have never ran them down ------  when running  one battery on a night ride with lots of stops for refreshments and playing music while not running  I was having problems ----I don't think you would even need an battery isolator , just another electrical gizmo to go out 

You must love your music😁 I do too but I usually dont play music (even through headphones) when I'm mowing, as I need to listen engine die back or other issues I wouldn't hear over music. 

We are back in a 3 week county lockdown (CV19) so the bike will sit tight until then at least as I don'thave any use for it in my own county. I have a lot of firewood work coming up next month so I hope to get the winch fixed in place by then.

4 hours ago, Fishfiles said:

You can do that with an battery  isolator , I have used them on my boats , it will let voltage thru from the engine to the both batteries , then you can put the winch wires on one battery and it will only draw from that 2nd battery and not the bikes battery

That is what I had in mind alright. Thanks!