In loving memory of Kenis D. Keathley 6/4/81 - 3/27/22 Loving father, husband, brother, friend and firewood hoarder Rest in peace, Dexterday

Firewood and an excavator with thumb

Discussion in 'The Wood Pile' started by mikeward, Jul 15, 2017.

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  1. mikeward

    mikeward

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    My neighbor Had three trees to cut down. I promised I would do it for him he said I could have the wood. He doesn't have a large chainsaw and doesn't burn. My other neighbors son dropped off his excavator and help me push the trees over after I made a bottom cut and left the big thick hinge to help drop them. All of the log shown in the pictures were lifted with the excavator and move several hundred feet to a processing area. This morning I went out and spent an hour scraping off poison ivy vines before I did any more cuts
    I don't have any pictures of dropping the trees cause I was busy cutting and my friends was working the excavator. Sorry. I've use this excavator plenty of times but only once before to hold lives while I'm cutting them . I did help him on a job where he had a drop 100 Pinetree's and we pushed them over and chipped them up with the excavator

    Here are pics of the trees that I dropped in a little while I'll go out and use the excavator to hold them in the air while I cut rounds.
    I'll post more pictures of the excavator holding the wood for me to cut when I go out later. The larger of the oaks and they're all Oaks is about 36 inches in diameter. The last pic is the smaller diameter branches that I left for my neighbor. I've got the excavator till Tuesday to play around with
     

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    Last edited: Jul 15, 2017
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  2. MikeInMa

    MikeInMa

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    Nice fun toys to play with!

    Sent from my SM-T280 using Tapatalk
     
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  3. Canadian border VT

    Canadian border VT

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    yup lift log and cut waist height! no need to fingerprint them all!
     
  4. Splitsnstacks

    Splitsnstacks

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    Nice pile of btu's right thar!:yes: It's always nice to have big machinery to lend a helping hand.. er arm!
     
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  5. J. Dirt

    J. Dirt

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    Those little excavators are awesome for wood handling and especially with the thumb!! Nice pile o wood too!!
     
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  6. Shawn Curry

    Shawn Curry

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    :drool: Nice logs! Awesome score! :thumbs:
     
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  7. Backwoods Savage

    Backwoods Savage Moderator

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    Mike, that is super! Getting a backhoe with the thumb just seems to make good sense. We have one in mind too.
     
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  8. mikeward

    mikeward

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    Ok just came in, all logs are cut up
    Here's some pics
    I cut the logs on a hill with heavy mulch
    Put one solid log at the bottom to act as a stop
    The next log would be slightly uphill from the stop log. Didn't want them rolling away!
     

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  9. mikeward

    mikeward

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    I tried to stand on the uphill side while I cut. The log could drop and roll down and away from me. Very comfortable way to cut big stuff. I only had to use a peavey to roll the logs earlier to get the poison ivy vines off.

    The bucket was almost 38 inches wide so I had to reposition bucket to get the last cut in the center done
     

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    Last edited: Jul 15, 2017
  10. Backwoods Savage

    Backwoods Savage Moderator

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    No doubt I could put that machine to good use.
     
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  11. mikeward

    mikeward

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    More of the same working my way up the hill

    The last pic is lifting and cutting the stop log at the bottom
     

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  12. mikeward

    mikeward

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    Finally all done. I am wiped out! It's 80 and super humid here and I'm no spring chicken either!
    Still have to clean the excavator good. The cab is full of chips

    Pic of all wood cut up. One big knarly log in front will be put to the side and not split
     

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  13. MikeInMa

    MikeInMa

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    A good day's job well done, I'd say. Time for a cold one, or two

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  14. mikeward

    mikeward

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    I've often thought of adding a mechanical thumb to my backhoe no hydraulics. But I don't think I'd use it enough. If I was buying a new backhoe for my tractor it would have a thumb. But I bought used
    I use the forks the most. Don't get me wrong the backhoe is great to have, but mostly it's a counter weight for the forks with occasional digging. Plus I can always borrow this excavator
     
  15. Chvymn99

    Chvymn99 Moderator

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    Pretty handy on that thumb... Great job on the Oak!
     
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  16. HDRock

    HDRock

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    Nice job Mike :thumbs: :saw::tree::woodsign:
    Your going to get a lota nice splits outa those puppys :axe::stacke::stacke::stacke:
     
  17. J. Dirt

    J. Dirt

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    Now you just need to get one of those saw/splitter processor heads for that excavator:D:emptywallet:
     
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  18. mikeward

    mikeward

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    J. Dirt those are really expensive. I'll tell the guy who owns the excavator about it.
    Oops he doesn't burn wood:headbang:
     
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  19. J. Dirt

    J. Dirt

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    Haha but he could sell wood....;):yes:
     
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  20. mikeward

    mikeward

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    J. Dirt This is a pic of him bringing wood to me, from a job after Hurricane Sandy
     

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