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A pithy problem

pencheff

pencheff

Joined
Nov 2, 2005
Messages
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Location
Lancaster, PA
Website
www.gvpencheff.com
Harvesting green wood is all new to me. We recently had a walnut tree taken down and to harvest some turning blanks I bought a small 18" bar 42cc Poulan chain saw from one of the Borg stores. I was following the cutting procedure as demonstrated in Grumbine's DVD and web site to prep the blank. The cross cutting was a piece of cake. But when I was making the cuts to remove the pith, those long curly shaving kept jamming the saw. The first time the saw jammed so bad I had to remove the bar and remove the chain from the bar to clear the little bits of walnut from whatever that little groove is called that the chain rides in. After that I'd cut about an inch, stop, yank all the jammed up shavings from the saw, cut another inch, stop, remove the shavings, on and on. I jammed the saw completely a couple more times necessitating removing the bar and clearing the debris. Needless to say I got almost nothing done today and found the whole experience quite frustrating. :mad:

Is this jamming normal? Did I buy <it would be my luck> a particularly jam prone saw? Is it my technique? Is walnut worse than other species? Is it a result of the season the tree was cut down?

Any help will be appreciated.
 
Greg,

Rip-cut shavings will clog most any saw UNLESS you follow the right procedure.

1. Always set your saw at about a 15* angle to the line of the pithe. This insures that you're actually cutting down through annular rings and shortens those streamers that clog your chain housing so they can be ejected more easily. The attached picture, posted here before, demonstrates the set.

2. You must watch your housing, stop the saw often, and clean it out BEFORE it jams. Some saws (my Husky in the pic) have a wider ejection path so are less likely to jam, and will run cooler. Unfortunately your Poolan isn't one of them 😉

3. Cutting at an angle will require you to do your rip cut from both ends if your bar is shorter than the log section you're splitting.

Hope this helps.
 

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Jamming is normal if you're not careful. You need to keep the saw up to full speed. Is your bar longer then the piece you're ripping? Hope so, because it can get dangerous if it's not. The nose can catch and kick the whole thing back up.

Assuming you're a bit long on the bar, try rocking your saw, so you're ripping only half the length at a time. Keep the bar all the way across with the nose clear, pivot the saw body downward, hauling shavings as fast as you can from half or so of the log. Then pivot around the midpoint of the piece and raise the saw body so you're taking the nose down. You can use the points on the body to help keep your grip on the end of the log as you do this.

Repeat the process, keeping the saw at full speed. Finish by cutting the center away.

If you get to a point where the bar.s way down in the log and starts to carry shavings forward, stop, clear the kerf with a piece of 1/4" plywood or a metal ruler and start the process again.

I like to mark the heart with a cut at the far end and the near, and then connect the dots. Be sure not to cut through the log until your slabs are taken parallel, because it's a bear to try and wedge the thing upright and cut a parallel slab.

If the bar's shorter than the piece, start at the far end of the log and shave to the middle, then middle to you, and back, keeping that nose up when you do.
 
I've never had a jamming problem with my Stihl saw -- I suppose that my technique is very similar to what Mark does. The only time that I have experienced any jamming is when there is a large pile of shavings and I am about 3/4 of the way through the log and the saw is sitting on the shavings. When I get nearly through the log, I clear the shavings away frequently to keep them from balling up in the housing, but even then, I have not had any problem clearing the saw -- I just pull the wad of shavings out of the ejection port and I am back in business. I suppose that if I let them pack really tightly that it might require removing the plastic cover, but I have never personally experienced that problem.

Bill
 
A safety note here - I speak for experience here - be careful when you clear the shavings from your saw - watch your fingers and watch your chain. Follow the instruction the others have given - but watch the chain, it is sharp and likes to cut things.

Mark - What caused that dent in the tailgate of the red Dodge pickup - a large chunk of wood?
Hugh
 
Hugh said:
Mark - What caused that dent in the tailgate of the red Dodge pickup - a large chunk of wood?
Hugh
Click to expand...

No clue, Hugh. No my truck, Man.

[The walnut was, however. Took a trailer-load to a woodworking picnic for barter/give-away. As shown in the pic, is was still wet & dripping. That piece I'm cutting got oohs and ahs when it parted; center was about 70% purple through the crotch grain.]
 
I use an 18" Poulan. Works fine. The procedure I use is to hold the saw back a couple of inches and the streamers mostly fall to the ground.

If you get a bad jam, turn the saw off, and with gloves or a screwdriver just move the blade backwards.

I usually just take the saw and put the blade on a piece of wood then push the blade backwards. It only has to go about 3 or 4 inches to remove most of it.

I agree with Michael that full speed is helpful. And I agree with Mark that an angle is also useful. However, I typically try to cut straight down across the length of the log because it makes it easier for me to do a straight cut. That's just the way it works for me, but your mileage may vary.
 
Thanks to one and all. Mark, thanks for the dandy visual aid. Couldn't ask for a better shot of how "it's done." Michael thanks for the additional tips.

I'll put your collective advice into practice and hope tomorrow's session goes better.
 
Hugh said:
Mark - What caused that dent in the tailgate of the red Dodge pickup - a large chunk of wood?
Click to expand...
I got a large dent in the center of the bed of my PU truck last weekend. Our club cut a HUGE amount of mesquite (we estimate more than 50,000 pounds). One of the guys with a front end loader on his tractor dropped a "piece" of green mesquite about the diameter of the walnut log that Mark is cutting and about twice as long into the bed of my truck from a height of about three feet. The bed of my truck can now also serve as a bath tub. I've gotta' figure out a way to pull the dent out of the bed before fish take up residence.

Bill
 
I was only trying to give Mark a bad time because the tailgate on my 19 year old pickup has an interesting shape due to too many large chunks of wood trying to find a new home.
Hugh
 
Hugh said:
I was only trying to give Mark a bad time because the tailgate on my 19 year old pickup has an interesting shape due to too many large chunks of wood trying to find a new home.
Hugh
Click to expand...

Actually, that looks like the typical "backing with tailgate down" damage. It's been two pickups since I did one, but next to scratches on the side from close quarters, that tailgate's the mark of a woods truck.
 
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