I don't see how a brick hod would have pointy bits. For that matter, I don't see that a brick hod style carrier wouldn't involve man handling the rounds into the hod. What am I missing? I.e., how would a hod style work?
Oh wait- immediately upon hitting "Send", I realized that you mean a brick _tongs_ carrier. A "hod" is a 3-sided box on the end of a stick.
Pointy bits?? I thought a brick hod was a 3-sided tray.
Yeah , yeah , what he said ! My apologies for the incorrect terminology ... I'm not a brick mason .
See my reply to Bob E above .. I used the wrong term . He suggested that I meant brick TONGS .
OK, that makes more sense as long as the wood is cut squarely to nearly identical lengths. I have a cutting length guide wire attached to the saw's side handle, set for 15", but loose or uneven bark, slipping off lumps and keeping my head out of line with the chain degrades my accuracy to about +/- an inch.
My tongs fall out of place unless I keep tension on the lifting chain with one hand, meaning the hoist has to be within reach of the other hand.
Maybe your blacksmith buddy can show you how to straighten a truck coil spring, which would make any size tongs you want.
Speaking of obscure masons' terminology, if you don't mind drilling short holes in the logs you could levitate them with a "lewis", a good beginner's blacksmithing project.
He won't have to , I have several 1/2" diameter bolts from a bigass wooden cable reel ... and when he didn't have time to do a project for me I built a gas forge and bought an anvil . I have an ice-tong type setup mostly designed in my head , but it's still a bit warmish IMO to be standing over red hot steel with a hammer in my hand . Maybe in a month or so , for right now I'm using a cable choker . Not ideal , but today I used the new machinery to split the better part of a rick . I'm just as tired , but my back doesn't hurt near as much as it would have from lifting all that . I also learned a lot about the limitations of jib cranes . Plumb is good ... DUCK !
Just as tired, but you got more done. I put the splits in wheelbarrows so I won't have to bend down to pick them up again, and can wheel the wood right into the storage shed. I don't have to be as efficient with splitter time as someone who rents one.
A jib crane on a vehicle with a suspension is especially sneaky, it may start plumb but swinging it tilts the vehicle, both ways. I learned to stay uphill of anything I lift.
When I started logging I used wire rope ratchet pullers and slings because they were cheaper and easier to find locally, but I quickly switched to chain that doesn't need splicing or fray and puncture my hand. 5/16" chain is a convenient sling size for firewood logs.
Car tow straps are good for temporary hoist guy lines because they are very visible and don't damage the bark of anchor trees. Having several on hand seems to insure against getting stuck and needing them, which is good.
The most useful lifting and pulling device I own is an older model Jet
3/4 ton lever chain hoist. An indestructible rubber farm bucket is useful to carry a chain hoist, slings and shackles in one hand, and to keep the hand chain of a chain fall out of the dirt.The two Ironton lever chain hoists of other capacities I own work pretty smoothly. I haven't been as impressed with the operation of Harbor Freight lever hoists, though their chain falls are OK.
The Ironton hoists I have were discontinued. This is a current model:
I was just tossin' it on the ground today ... the wheelbarrow is in place now for tomorrow . I'm set up right in the woodlot , but a few feet from the nearest stack/row . I'm still tunin' this setup ... but the good thing is that I can set up damn near anywhere I can plumb the crane upright . Up hill is good ... I have a cable ratchet hoist and a couple or 3 2" cargo straps that I use when I don't want to damage my anchor tree . Rusty the Tractor doesn't get stuck often , when he does it's usually easy to get him out with the cable hoist . I'm getting used to the idea that I'm going to be relying more and more on machinery as I get older . I'm already considering replacing that hand cranked winch on the jib with an inexpensive electric unit . I can power it from the truck or tractor ... and most of the new ones come with a remote . BTW , that bolt stock I was going to use for tongs is only 7/16" , but I found a piece of 3/4 round stock 46" long that will work just fine - be stronger too . And I'm seriously considering making a lower section for the jib that will slip into mounts on my utility trailer .
Put a couple of "outriggers" on the trailer. 3 good tonuge jacks work pretty good - one on the tongue where it belongs and one on each back corner - or better yet on square tubes that fit into a square tube rear bumper to give you a bit wider footprint Just make sure to use heavy enough tube - the stuff you use for a cat 5 trailer hitch ought to be heavy enough - - - -
3 is a lot easier to level than 4The trailer will probably be on 2 jack stands at the rear corners and the tongue jack - jib will be on either front corner . This is a short trailer meant to tilt , the CG is dead center of the bed ... so when I unhook it while it's being loaded I put jack stands under the back corners . And "3 points define a plane" , duh . Geez , I'm only going to be lifting a couple hundred pounds a couple of feet ... I learned to work safely long long ago - 3 1/2 years working pretty much daily with high explosives (ever heard of TMETN [trimethylethanoltrinitrate] ? A lot like trinitroglycerin) and I still have all my appendages . The Process and Methods Development lab I worked in wrote the procedures for loading Space Shuttle motors with propellant . They also pioneered the gas generator technology for the inflatable restraint systems - gas bags
- in all new automobiles . I was just a flunky , but still ... some of that stuff rubbed off .
You can determine the stability of the trailer by placing a bathoom scale under one of the rear jackstands. The weight the scale shows (minus the jackstand's weight) times the shortest (perpendicular) distance to the line between the other two jackstands is the leverage (or "moment") that would start to overturn the trailer.
Lets say the weight is 150 lbs and the distance is 3 feet. They multiply to 450 foot-lbs. Your last 200Lb load will have the emptied trailer about to flip as the load swings out toward 450 / 200 = 2.25 feet beyond the line between jackstands.
Since the end of the boom is higher than the jackstands the horizontal distance and leverage will increase as the trailer tips so once it starts to go it will slam over toward you without warning.
This is the problem I couldn't easily solve for my trailer and truck bed crane, without large and clumsy outriggers to trip on or a vertical mast extension guyed to trees. Those Atwood folding legs aren't long enough to lift sawmill logs. Although imperfect, the tripod or A frame was less trouble. Even on the pickup truck the crane's leverage could compress the suspension to the rubber stop when winching in a log.
The tripod and lever hoist or the 2500 lb electric winch on the tractor gave me some of the use of the short boom on a skidder, usually enough to drag a log out of a tangle or pull down a tree that had hung up on another one.
I was already aware of the tipping problems when I designed this thing , and make sure my load is inside the lines from the ends of my "feet" . Since this thing is easily portable , I can just toss it on the trailer and take it with me ... no need to attach it to the trailer at all .
Not really related to your post but more this thread. Was looking up some stuff for a friend and came across some links I saved from the US Forest Service. Thought they might be of interest. Old tools that are still used for trail maintenance and building such. See:
Thanks. I have some of those old tools like an adze, froe and drawknife but I've found I can do a better job faster with a medium sized chainsaw (Stihl MS211). For instance a log can be flattened by sliding the back side of the chain along it and controlling depth of cut by the tilt. A beam can be press-fitted into a tree-trunk post by positioning it on blocks of 2x4 clamped to the post, clamping another block snugly above it when it's in place, removing the beam and using the blocks to guide a handsaw to cut the ends of the notch. The chainsaw removes most of the wood in between, until the rest can be chiseled. The post at the other end is the visual guide for flattening the face of the post first.
In Jr High shop class I learned how to freehand grind a wood plane blade square enough to pass the teacher's try square test. He was a retired Swedish cabinet maker who really knew the old ways very well. My father was restoring an 1830ish mansion and my friend's father was building a wooden sailboat, so we had incentives to learn.
Oh for sure but the hand tools don't need tuneups, gas and other than some cussing run pretty quiet :)
Nowadays it's hard to find info on using, maintaining and even buying hand tools like they are using to build/maintain trails in protected areas. A good crosscut saw will cost you more than a run-of-the-mill chainsaw...
I go for the hybrid approach myself. I mix and match new and old tech to get the job done as needed.
I have a couple one-man cross cut saws. The best of the two needs some new teeth and/or material welded in place. Works well up to around 15 inch diameter. After that it tracks off to the side and will eventually bind up. And yes I have all the sharpening tools and info on how it is suppose to be done. Think the missing teeth cause more trouble than you would expect though. Both saws have seen a lot of use through the years. Maybe someday I'll grit my teeth, find some ambition and get serious about fixing them...
A 30 inch Bow Saw works good up to 6 inches or so. The thin blade is a real plus.
Oh, I was right on that from your earlier post and initial impression. Ran around down that rabbit hole for several hours. Can't believe how much the Stihl those try to copy sell for $$$. Post a follow up after you have some more time with it if you can. I have a lot of respect for your reviews and thoughts on stuff :)
I keep bow saws in the tool shed in the woods and still use them for quick jobs, rather than going back to the house to gas up and carry back a chainsaw. Home Depot had replacement bow saw blades on sale cheap so I bought 5, then discovered they were crudely sharpened so I jointed and filed all of them. The neighbors have commented on how fast they cut.
My father cleared another relative's field with a "misery whip" for room, board and $5 when he was young. He taught me how to use ours and fired my interest in buying a chainsaw instead, actually a peach basket with two broken ones that combined into one that worked.
When I visited Alabama and saw the cleared field, said relative was still driving a 1935 pickup truck with dents on every single inch of it. But the engine and the oil were clean. I doubt that Snag is from any further back in the holler than the Wilkins clan. We started in
1619 as Virginia plantation owners but made the mistake of moving westward into the (cooler) mountains.It's supposedly a simplified near-copy of the Japanese Zenoah G2500.
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