Here’s my saga on big chunks. I work alone, am 56, and have learned about it by doing and reading here. I got 2 20 foot trailer loads of 4’ oak 36” given to me with my Timberwolf twp1 purchase two years ago. I worked my butt off cutting them down and still have 3-4 pieces still out there pushed into the fence line where I can’t see them. First was trying to wedge smaller with maul and wedge. Then I used my tractor grapple to set them on the splitter and nibbled them from the side. Ever try to wrestle Both chunks at once ? Then I used my pallet fork extensions on the bucket to set the piece on the splitter and leaving the forks there for the first split or two. The forks helped me keep them from falling out of control. This actually worked pretty decent. Then throwing the splits into the bucket conveniently there at the end of the splitter. Then I bought a 3 point splitter that went vertical. That thing went up for sale within the first week. Big PITA. Let’s see... I made a log lifter from a cherry picker welded to back of splitter. That contraption tried to turn the splitter over. I read on here about “noodling”. Ok. I’ll try that. With trusty MS250 in hand I attempted to cut one from the face like you hit it with a maul. Nope. (Afterwards reading on here and asking questions, you guys told me about cutting it lengthwise rather than crosswise. I feel guilty about them 3 or 4 big pieces of oak laying in the tall grass. I might someday try noodling one the right way and see. But that grass hides them pretty good for now. I have about 5 cord ready in a Holzhaus and some totes. And a large pile of stuff from cutting down three big butternuts in the spring to process up first. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Says my biggest piece is around 799lbs! No wonder I broke out in a small sweat moving it. May check the other ones later on. Thanks for the calculator, saved it in my favorites.
While the MS250 is a great homeowner saw, a noodler it is not. I have one, and its just not big enough or powerful enough to noodle that size of a round very efficiently. To noodle, you have to go with the grain, which also means the bar has to be as long as your firewood is processed to plus a couple inches that you loose with the cover and dogs. The other thing to consider is to wedge them from the edges and take smaller bites. Everyone tends to put the wedge in the dead center of a round. While this may work in some cases, more often than not it wont pop the round apart.
Busted my butt getting these into half moon pieces small enough the log lift can handle. Ran two tanks of gas through the saw cutting 17 pieces and noodling them far enough down that I could bust in half with a maul. I took off my dri fit shirt and wrung it out twice...don’t think that’s supposed to happen lol. Now eating a popsicle before cutting some normal size wood! Oh, and my shorts looks like I peed myself. Haha
I think using forks is the best solution you listed for your situation. Id build a platform to put the halves or quarters on (if they wont fit in your bucket). I've done it this way before.
I hear ya, jrider I wish I was closer. But you know we can handle them. Guess we are blessed to have the equipment to do it. As TurboDiesel said, we use the 25 ton splitter to break them down, metal grate makes sliding them much easier. Then put the pieces on the ramps to the fast cycle splitter to finish. Thanks to the calculator, this 38"×32×6' log weighs about 2560#. I broke down 6 rounds that size last night Some of the biggest we have ever had... 46" white oak These last 3 pics are 1 load/ 1 spar take down, tractor would only handle 20" long round. 8 rounds on the trailer, almost 8k. Avg weight was 975 # each. Glad that was yrs ago when Ibwas a young man...lol.
Thank you, seems to agree with the site from sirbuildalot . Oak, even red is some heavy crap. Cut up load 2 that is still in my pickup today.
I bought 40 at $5 each from a local reclaimed pallet dealer, he hasn’t got the heavy duty ones in since. Another guy guy bought 50 after I was there, no more since.
How long are your rounds? No way those should exceed 500 pounds unless you are cutting 20-24" lengths.
Go to my thread “guess the weight game” from back in April. This 16” long 27” diameter red oak weighed 389 pounds
Noodling lengthwise instead of "down" the log makes a HUGE difference in the time and effort it takes to noodle. Give it a try, it will work fine with the MS250. Slow and steady will still get it done. I don't noodle unless I have to, but I get into some big stuff occasionally. Normally I noodle with my 25" bar on either the 391 or the 362, but I have noodled 32" Pin Oak rounds with my MS250 just to see how it goes. I have an 18" bar on it and I cut rounds at 22" so I have to hit 'em from both ends. I always keep my chains sharp and although it is slower going, I was able to noodle some of that Pin Oak just fine with the 250. It clogs up with noodles quicker than the larger saws, but that's kinda to be expected with the smaller butt on the 250. Bigger saws are nice, but I'm a big believer in "run what you brung". MS250 is both an inexpensive and impressive saw with an excellent power to price ratio. They respond very well to a muffler mod also. I don't care what powerhead you have, the sharp chain is the winning ticket. $20 on a box of files is way cheaper than big saw that is only needed once in a blue moon. Speaking of blue moon, I'm thirsty... I better go grab a PBR... LOL I usually only noodle 2/3 of the way through then pop them the reset of the way with a wedge to save time. Nuthin' against big saws... I love em, just can't justify buying one for my needs. Proper orientation of the saw to noodle. I never timed one to see for sure but I would guess 3 to 5 times faster than cutting across like on an Alaska mill. This is the 391. This is the 250 and it noodled a few of these rounds cuz I ran out of gas in the 391, This saw orientation is the "hard way". It's just sitting in there for the picture.
I understand. I have lifted bigger and broke mine; but mine is not a TW either. When I had it fixed, the welding shop said it would mostly likely break again until I beefed up the construction. I will have a complete new lift built next time it breaks. I lift some heavy rounds with it (36" range of oak)---heavier than I thought according to your info. And it gets abused as a table; my helpers dropping rounds on it can't help.
Yeah when those big boys finally break apart they can be a real b*tch to try and catch. That’s why even though I don’t like to, I will noodle them in half once just so as not to bust up my equipment or worse yet my helpers
