Outdoor work lighting

[Gordon Maney]

I am recalling an old thread entitled "Blue Jeans". It seems you had a chainsaw incident that resulted in your buying some bright orange chaps. If we take a look at this very old thread, it may shed some light (pardon the pun) on your current issue.

Great pun....

[Bob Thompson]

I am recalling an old thread entitled "Blue Jeans". It seems you had a chainsaw incident that resulted in your buying some bright orange chaps. If we take a look at this very old thread, it may shed some light (pardon the pun) on your current issue.

I didn't check the date on that post before I replied. But all the same Gordon's still a lucky man.

As for lighting I bought an inexpensive dolly and mounted two work lights and a Honda suitcase type generator on it. They're just standard outdoor lights and I've mounted them on J-boxes. The boxes are on 1/2" conduit and that goes inside of 3/4" . I welded a couple nuts to the 3/4" for thumb screws.
Very portable and useful.

[Clint Dixon]

Completely unrelated to your original question.

White pine and Scotch pine, typical diameter at ground level is about ten inches.

I have no idea of how to light your work area well enough to use a chainsaw at night (short of powering a portable generator with the tailshaft on a Power-Wagon, of course). (Now, if you are using a PTO driven chainsaw, it gets more complicated as you will need two separate Power-Wagons, each with a rear tailshaft, but that is a different topic altogether). However, your quote above really got my attention.

Gordon, I attend antique tractor shows during the summer and fall. Sometimes I take my Power-Wagon to them and display along with the tractors in attendance. Occasionally, I take along my cordwood saw and put on a sawing demonstration.

I have a genuine need for soft tree trunks of about ten inches in diameter or smaller, and in eight to ten foot lengths. Logs of this size are easy to transport, easy to handle, easy on the saw blades, and the cutting of such into cordwood lengths easily impresses the city folk with tried and true, albeit antiquated, technology. The cordwood is later split into firewood using a screw type log splitter driven with the same tailshaft equipped truck. Sometimes I even incorporate this activity into the demonstration too.

I have trouble finding such logs as I tend to not trust any trees that are sourced from someone other than the actual person who planted them. (Cordwood saw blades do not like nails).

I do have a trailer, and a sturdy truck to pull it, with which I can travel up to about 100 miles in order to retrieve and haul such logs. I also have a chainsaw which I am willing to use during daylight hours in order to help enhance the procurement of such desirables.

Would you have any ideas on where I might begin my search?

[Gordon Maney]

I have no idea of how to light your work area well enough to use a chainsaw at night (short of powering a portable generator with the tailshaft on a Power-Wagon, of course). (Now, if you are using a PTO driven chainsaw, it gets more complicated as you will need two separate Power-Wagons, each with a rear tailshaft, but that is a different topic altogether). However, your quote above really got my attention.

Gordon, I attend antique tractor shows during the summer and fall. Sometimes I take my Power-Wagon to them and display along with the tractors in attendance. Occasionally, I take along my cordwood saw and put on a sawing demonstration.

I have a genuine need for soft tree trunks of about ten inches in diameter or smaller, and in eight to ten foot lengths. Logs of this size are easy to transport, easy to handle, easy on the saw blades, and the cutting of such into cordwood lengths easily impresses the city folk with tried and true, albeit antiquated, technology. The cordwood is later split into firewood using a screw type log splitter driven with the same tailshaft equipped truck. Sometimes I even incorporate this activity into the demonstration too.

I have trouble finding such logs as I tend to not trust any trees that are sourced from someone other than the actual person who planted them. (Cordwood saw blades do not like nails).

I do have a trailer, and a sturdy truck to pull it, with which I can travel up to about 100 miles in order to retrieve and haul such logs. I also have a chainsaw which I am willing to use during daylight hours in order to help enhance the procurement of such desirables.

Would you have any ideas on where I might begin my search?

Yes, I would. You could have hundreds of them here. The bad part is you would have to delimb them. A lot of work to be sure. But, I would never be one to discourage the terminally enthused.

Send me a note if you want more details.

[Chewie]

Clint, Gordon

Let me know if you put something together. I'd like to help out.

[Joe Flo]

Gordon,

I highly discourage you from chainsawing at night. As others have mentioned you need good light to do this work. If it is dark out, you are probably tired from working all day. Being tired and poor lighting don't go well together with chainsaws.
I was exhausted from doing a lot of cutting last Thursday but kept going. It was 4 pm with plenty of light and I didn't want to stop. I wasn't able to check a pull through cut I was making on a small 8' tree that I needed to clear out out of the way. I have 6 stitches in my left knee as I type this note to you.
I have been using chainsaws for over 30 years and have never had a mishap like this. The problem is I'm getting old and my reflexes are not the same as they were when I was in my teens or early twenties. I'm buying chaps before I go out cutting again. They will be added to other gear I have of safety glasses, steel toe boots, ear plugs and gloves.

[rickt4498]

subtle wake up call...

JOE...heal quickly...chain saw injuries can happen so quickly... in the blink of an eye

an ER doctor at a hospital in the upper peninsula in logging country told me chain saw accidents are the most damaging, because they SHRED the tissue, not just cut it, making for very serious repair procedures.

bottom line...

GORDON... wait for daylight, they'll still be there

[Joe Flo]

Thanks Rick, I'm on the mend. I had the stitches removed today. You are right about chainsaw cuts being mangled. I had three cuts, each less than a quarter inch apart. Two were able to be stitched the third they used an adhesive glue to put back together. I was amazed at how ragged my jeans were from the cut. It look like the fabric exploded. It was torn in every direction. The funny thing is I barely felt a bump and did not expect that kind of damage to occur.

[Gordon Maney]

Thanks Rick, I'm on the mend. I had the stitches removed today. You are right about chainsaw cuts being mangled. I had three cuts, each less than a quarter inch apart. Two were able to be stitched the third they used an adhesive glue to put back together. I was amazed at how ragged my jeans were from the cut. It look like the fabric exploded. It was torn in every direction. The funny thing is I barely felt a bump and did not expect that kind of damage to occur.

You need to not look to me as a role model...

:-)

[Gordon Maney]

Chainsawing in the dark

I stumbled upon this photo and decided I should share it.

Many years ago on a winter night with a full moon and snow on the ground, I decided it would be a great time to take down a tree.

This shows the circumstances after I had taken the top out. A complication for a while was that my saw's chainbar was pinched in the kerf up at the top.

Note the branch stub at the top, holding the ladder in place. It seemed fun at the time.....

[712edf]

Nice fiberglass extension ladder! Great around possible electrical wire situations but otherwise too heavy for regular use IMHO.

I'm a firm believer in a bucket truck for large limbing jobs if at all possible.

I've been in a "pinch" with a saw up high before, didn't enjoy it.

Maybe the full moon drove you up a tree!

Glad you finished without further incident.

[rickt4498]

moonlight tree cutting...

I stumbled upon this photo and decided I should share it.

Many years ago on a winter night with a full moon and snow on the ground, I decided it would be a great time to take down a tree.

This shows the circumstances after I had taken the top out. A complication for a while was that my saw's chainbar was pinched in the kerf up at the top.

Note the branch stub at the top, holding the ladder in place. It seemed fun at the time.....

GORDON... with this pic...a BIG bonfire... the quietness of a winter night...
some ghost stories are in order...