Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[dragoneggs]

I was perusing the interweb for cottonwood uses and found something pretty humorous...

Some guy said "Cottonwood is the 'Rodney Dangerfield' of wood."

:laughing:

I know it burns like paper, so I don't use of for firewood. Its not worth the effort to cut, stack and split it only to see it go POOF! in a couple hours in our wood burner, so whenever someone asks me if I'd like to remove one from their property, I respectfully decline. I usually just tell them the tree is too big for me to handle (which it usually is around here, anyway).

As for making lumber out of it, I have no experience with making lumber... from what I've read, though, cottonwood is not dense, has high shrinkage, low strength, low rot resistance and low heat value. The only wood with less heat value is Willow.
Wood - Combustion Heat Values

With that said, there's a bunch of people out there that say it make a beautiful wood when dried properly. I just don't know if I'd want softwood furniture. I'd think it would get dents easily and break easily.

That pretty much sums it up but I have no doubt some beautiful furniture could be made with it. I'm thinking the sewing tables that Rob made for little old ladies are not getting abused.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'm thinking those tables were only "one" of the things Rob made from that pile of cottonwood and I can tell you, nothing came back in, broken or in need of refinishing.

SR

 

[Gordon Gould]

Half the furniture you buy now-a-days is 50% cardboard. So I don't see using real wood, no matter what it is, being a problem. I have made several items, including a coffee table we have been putting our feet on for 40 years, from eastern white pine which is about as soft as you can get. It may mar easily but it gives the house a lived in look . Softer woods are easier to work with for amateur wood workers like me but the finished product is every bit as nice as a hardwood piece.

gg

 

[vsteel]

I know it burns like paper, so I don't use of for firewood. Its not worth the effort to cut, stack and split it only to see it go POOF! in a couple hours in our wood burner, so whenever someone asks me if I'd like to remove one from their property, I respectfully decline. I usually just tell them the tree is too big for me to handle (which it usually is around here, anyway).

I take cottonwood for the wood stove. I find it is nice on fall and spring days when I want some heat but not to overdo it. I don't notice it burning really much faster though than any other soft wood.

 

[Snobdds]

The cotton wood we have around here is pretty dense and not very soft at all. Our city has been taking some of the older ones down for years here and they put all the large pieces at a yard waste compost facility. People are encouraged and welcome to come and cut as much as they want for their wood stoves. People are like vultures when a new load comes in and it goes fast. People seem to like to burn it. I have burned some from falling limbs and it seems to bee pretty good.

I hate cottonwood trees when there letting there cotton go. I sneeze for a month it seems. The city is now replacing all the cottonwoods with cottonless cottonwood trees. Much better.

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^ That is amazing... municipalities encouraging renewable wood heat...

California Governor Brown just signed into the law the most far reaching "Climate" laws in the world as I understand it...

Home heating with wood has been public enemy number one for some time...

 

[joeyd]

Here is one of two loads of logs I picked up after cutting down some trees next to my road that were beetle kills this spring. Dead standing and I didn't want them to come down from snow load this winter. The predictions are for heavier than average snow fall this year.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

BIG wood,VS BIG saw...and three small machines.... The saw and machines won!.... I took down a big Poplar trunk in a friends backyard during the last couple weekends. Tree was topped a couple years ago over a dispute about a limb falling over on his neighbors lawn..... I wanted the big tree and did the job. Tree was 5'3 diameter on the butt and never lost more than a foot or so up to 50 feet. I used a Stihl MS-880 Magnum with a 50" Cannon Superbar for falling and bucking and an MS-461 with a 28" bar for cleaning up the notch and trimming. It took my Boomer 41, New Holland E27B mini-ex, and 40C John Deere crawler to get the two main logs up the steep bank. They weigh 5-6 tons each. The tree was solid all the way through. It was quite a project. Pics <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=481065"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=481066"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=481071"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=481067"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=481068"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=481069"/> <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=481070"/>

monster.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

After falling and breaking my shoulder last year I have a hard time pull starting anything. I had three saws that I just couldn't pull start. With the power company logging project I needed a saw that would start easily without the usual quick pull on the starter. I bought a MS 211 CBE it has been a godsend. I bucked lots of logs and the easy start feature works great. I would buy another in a heartbeat if I ever ware this one out.

man you are tough. I pinched a nerve in my shoulder and pain radiates down my arm. Restricted in my movements without pain I still feel the need to hit the woods but just change my movement. I guess we must both like our jobs.

 

[Maxify55]

Thanks Hermine!!

Like I needed to spend a couple of days at my son's place clearing his neighbor's oak that crushed the fence.

It was tall enough that it out took a few other trees on the way down. What mess it made!





My son is a plumber by trade and a lumberjack at heart. He's trying to ask me there in that one shot:

"Are you sure you want to try lifting both those wet oak slabs at once?"

That LS 3000 series isn't supposed to lift that much and maneuver with it but it does....

Uphill & backwards...Every time I doubt the capabilities of this tractor, it shows me that tenacity is it's greatest virtue.

The rears are filled to 3/4 with water. We won't discuss the added weight of the operator. :laughing:


The out come?

No more parking on grass making a mud pit.

w/10 yds of crushed concrete