Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[terryknight]

when noodling you can pull off the clutch cover much easier to clear chips or skip chain

 

[s219]

I split pieces this size without noodling or pre splitting. If they get much bigger I noodle them. Is there a chain that works better for noodling? My saw tends to bite off more than it can clear and gets clogged up.

The trick with noodling is to periodically change the bar angle. When it's parallel to the grain the chips will be more like straw and can clog up the clutch cover on many saws. If you angle the bar, the chips will get smaller and will "blow out" the clutch cover. If you noodled 90 degrees to the grain (ie, into either end of the round) it will be pure sawdust. So periodically change the angle to let some finer chips and sawdust push through the clutch cover to clear things out. I normally rock the saw back and forth slowly to vary the angle.

Some saws clog up easily when noodling, yet others are almost immune to it. My old Stihl 261 was not very good at noodling, but my 461 has no problems.

 

[4570Man]

Mine does pretty good until it gets close to the ground. At that point I can't keep the "spaghetti" clear and it clogs up.

 

[4570Man]

Well unless my noodling technique sucks, I find this way faster especially for this depth of round. Ten of these took 20 minutes. Once in half, the twelve pounder takes one or two shots to split the halves.Plus I get to use the splitter. I did noodling before I got the splitter.

It looks like the round is a lot longer than your bar so noodling probably isn't the fastest way. If the bar is longer than the wood I can noodle a piece a lot faster than making 4 cuts and trying to split it. One advantage to your method is once the pieces get upward of 30" I can't tip them on edge by myself and I don't like to saw the end grain.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I have a neighbor that cuts his firewood out of what I pull out for him on my landing. He noodles every piece, some times down to stove size. I swear he leaves half his wood in spaghetti on the landing. And he needs a 5 gallon gas can. For me this is the fastest and easiest way.



gg

 

[Bocephous]

Peedy said to use two wedges. He was right. Quartering this size round makes it easier to lift to the splitter. Takes a minute to make saw cuts. Wedges stay put as a result.

Totally off topic, but great looking boxer you've got there. Serious looking clowns, they are.

 

[ericm979]

Is there a chain that works better for noodling? My saw tends to bite off more than it can clear and gets clogged up.

Ripping or milling chain. I got mine from Bailey's. Their house brand, which is pretty decent chain made by Carlton. It's only a little more expensive than their regular cross cut chain. But it rips about twice as fast as chisel type cross cut chain.

I had to rip a bunch of big eucalyptus rounds to get them into small enough pieces to fit into the loader. That wood is really difficult to split by hand. I found it was best to rip it down to within a few inches of being cut all the way then use a splitting maul or a wedge and maul on tougher pieces.

Ripping is hard on the saw and the chain; turn up the oiler.

 

[4570Man]

I think you're cutting across the end grain. Cutting with the grain is much easier and faster.

 

[arrow]

It looks like the round is a lot longer than your bar so noodling probably isn't the fastest way. If the bar is longer than the wood I can noodle a piece a lot faster than making 4 cuts and trying to split it. One advantage to your method is once the pieces get upward of 30" I can't tip them on edge by myself and I don't like to saw the end grain.

The cuts took less than a minute. The rounds broke in 4 pieces in two minutes. That's less than 3 minutes total per round. I never liked noodling because of gas use and wood waste. The cuts are just to keep the wedges in place which can be a pain in itself. Two of these make the wood split much easier.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I rip a bigger round from time to time,

If you have enough chainsaw and a sharp chain,

It doesn't take long at all,

Those long shavings, dried a little, make one heck of a fire starter too!

SR