Mulching - "The Daily Grind"

[doug dirt]

A permit to pull stumps?

Any clearing over 7000 square feet requires a permit.
Moving over 100 yards of dirt requires a permit.
If you move the brush and stumps it could be considered moving over 100 yards of materials.
Stupid , I know.
That is our County permitting agency for you.

 

[doug dirt]

That's ridiculous.

Legal robbery is what I call it.
A permit after the fact is double the original cost.

 

[Tones]

It is amazing what that thing can do.
A permit for this job where I am at would cost about $5,000 to be allowed to do that job.

When I was doing this type of work 1 job the client spent ¼of million on consultants to get a permit without any guarantee of getting it.

 

[CM1995]

When I was doing this type of work 1 job the client spent ¼of million on consultants to get a permit without any guarantee of getting it.

Total ********

 

[Tones]

Total ********

Sure was, the owner explained that clearing would add 1mil to the property value and so was happy to spend 25% of that.
Still crazy that people are forced to think like that.

 

[aighead]

@treemuncher that is a beautiful job! How much land and do you know what the owner is doing with it? Are the people who hire you just mega rich? I can't imagine getting into this sort of stuff.

 

[treemuncher]

@treemuncher that is a beautiful job! How much land and do you know what the owner is doing with it? Are the people who hire you just mega rich? I can't imagine getting into this sort of stuff.

This parcel is about 1,200 acres of former timberland. It is being developed into a project. I'm not sure exactly what type of project and unless my customer gives me permission to divulge, I will not go into detail when I do know exactly what it will be. I expect to meet with him again this week. I'm pretty sure he will be pleased with my progress and results. I'm hoping for a long term business relationship with this company as they are talking about another parcel locally.

I worked this portion Sunday and Monday. For hardwoods, it has been going faster than expected. I'm due for a set of new teeth and that will push it into overdrive for the short time that they stay sharp and fresh. I lost one tooth Sunday and another today due to worn off bolt heads. I will have to take pics of old vs new pics and post. The sand wash of the steel is incredible compared to the condition of the carbide bits. Lots of sand & rock on this job, including uprooted stumps from blow overs. I eat it all!

 

[Tones]

The outfit that used to supply my teeth sprayed tungsten on the face of the tooth below were the tile sits then fitted the tile. They outlasted the OEM by 3X. Great in sandy soils.

 

[treemuncher]

The outfit that used to supply my teeth sprayed tungsten on the face of the tooth below were the tile sits then fitted the tile. They outlasted the OEM by 3X. Great in sandy soils.

I used to purchase some like that but they quit offering them. No money for them in selling consumables that rarely get consumed!

 

[Tones]

This is the company I dealt with. They send their products to the US and Canada. Mulcher parts from page 51 onwards in the catalogue

Tungsten coatings & custom hardfacing for wearparts - ATC GROUP

Tungsten coatings and wearparts supplier for agriculture, grinding, mining, earthmoving and drilling applications in Brisbane, Australia and overseas.

www.atcgroup.com.au

 

[treemuncher]

Old teeth vs new teeth. The worn teeth do not wear evenly and this causes major imbalance issues. As little as 50 grams can set in a noticeable vibration. One broken/missing carbide will set in vibrations. So, as the teeth wear, you need to try to match the weight when replacing broken, damaged or missing teeth if possible. Just the variable wear sets in vibration over time. The drum spins about 1,800-2,000 rpms and the entire head is 10k lbs - lots of spinning mass!



Notice that the bolt head recess has completely disappeared on the worn tooth. The bolt head wore down to nothing as well.

 

[Tatersmt]

treemuncher, is this something like yours?​

https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:83ce3dfc-e640-4527-b4c8-ababb88c7c6a​

​

 

[aighead]

I'm always interested in the mega wealthy homes/estates, and I assume that people like that get people like you to do big, neat projects like this to make their estate what they want. Not trying to get you to divulge anything, I just started thinking about that process recently as I was looking at satellite shots of big properties.

 

[treemuncher]

treemuncher, is this something like yours?​

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/977083688045318/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp:83ce3dfc-e640-4527-b4c8-ababb88c7c6a​

​

Similar, but bigger hp than what I currently have. Tool replacement cost on that rotor is supposed to be about $15k+ just for the teeth and bolts! I have considered a Prinoth but they have a bad rep for parts un-availability and weak undercarriage. And then I would have to get a lowboy, again and DEF and on and on. Looks like fun but could be major headaches, especially when I am considering retirement or semi-retirement at this point. I'm not chasing work anymore but it keeps finding me and keeping me busy. I do this because I enjoy it and it provides me more sanity than sitting behind a desk using my other skills.

 

[treemuncher]

My job is rained out so it's a good time to change out to a new set of teeth and do some other maintenance work. Once the teeth are replaced, I will have to balance the rotor there in the field. Sometimes that job is 2 hours, sometimes it is over 2 days to get it right. I will have to get some fresh video with the new teeth before they get dulled. Production on those big hardwood stumps and logs will be so much faster!

I had a new set of Xtreme wear parts branded teeth waiting for this machine. First time trying their product on the Seppi. I was pissed when only 7 of the 37 teeth that I installed would fit without grinding modification. I have never had to do this with other brands used. Some required about 0.010"-0.020" material removal while others took closer to 0.100" material removal to be able to fit into the holders via hammer impact persuation. Instead of replacing all 52? teeth, I was only able to get 37 changed out before a hard push of rain ran me off of the job late in the afternoon. It was a lot of work with a 4.5" grinder and no vise to hold the teeth. NOT FUN.

I think that I got my money's worth out of some of the bolts! This is why the machine has been spitting out a few teeth lately.



Old set of teeth was pretty well used up. The carbides were still holding up well but the sand wash on the steel holders has trashed these tools. I really like this style of tool and holder because the holder is well protected from side wear and they lock in tightly. The bad part of the design is the washing out of the bolt heads. A rear mounted bolt is much better than through hole mounts, in my experience.



New teeth will tighten up the clearances within the chamber and provide a finer product, at least for a while.



I let this cloud chase me out of the project. It was really dumping on me as I drove out down the steep hills to pavement. Access will be a lot easier when they get all of those hills covered in gravel. It gets sketchy when that road gets wet.

 

[treemuncher]

After finishing the installation of the new teeth, I fired up the drum rotation. This Seppi unit holds balance better than any of my other cutterheads. I am impressed! It was good enough to start operations immediately, had it not been so wet. I had enough dry time according to radar so I set about to trim up the balance to make it better. I think that I only added about 60 grams of weight per side via a few welding rods. It's not perfect but it is smooth and better. The only way to get it 100% would be to bring in my "lock gate" structure to bind the head down to. It's a former lock gate from the Smithland Locks on the Ohio River according to the seller that I got it from. By binding the cutterhead down to a large, massive object, harmonic oscillations are minimized and balancing results are more precise for the fastest and best results. I did not need to haul 4k-5k lbs of wooded structure up those steep, muddy hills for extra precision. Sometimes good in the field is good enough until I get it back to the shop if I want it closer to perfect.

For those without the experience, balancing is as much an art as it is frustration in motion. The results are great but the road getting there is usually agravating and time consuming. I dread doing it but it is required if you want your bearings and equipment to last.

Hard to believe a rod or two can make a huge difference in balancing a 6k-7k lb rotating mass!


I should have recorded the original vibrations at full speed but I did not. At near 1/2 full speed, this was the result before balancing commenced.


After a few iterations and having enough of this, here are the results at full speed. Several thousand lbs rotating at 1,686 rpms with over 300 hp being sent down line. Who do you think wins when contact is made with other objects? Definitely not the furry or scaly little critters too slow to get out of the way!


I meant to take a pic of the balancer hook up but I forgot to. It consists of a magnetic mounted LED light sensor that reflect off of a piece of reflective tape mounted to the rotating mass's flywheel and two magnetically mounted vibration sensors mounted above the rotating shaft on either side of the head. This allows 2 plane balancing which is critical for longer shafts. Only short shafts can be properly balanced with single plane (1 sensor) balancing. I used to always use the laptop with an Excell spreadsheet program to calculate the results (lots of vector math via matrix equations) until I found a free app for the Android phone that works just as well. Now balancing in the field is much easier and more convenient. And I don't have to fight to read the laptop or keep it in the dry. No idea how much a new balancer cost today - this one was $5,500 back in the late '90s.

 

[treemuncher]

I saw this snake when leaving the jobsite yesterday, on the side of the road. Maybe 30"-36" max. Not much of a warning system for the size of this snake! Maybe these are what the buzzards have been cleaning up behind me. They always find what I do not see. 34 years working in the TN & KY woods and this is only the second live buzz noodle that I have ever seen and both on the roadside on the way out of a job.


The greenery has returned once the rains started again. All of this had been burned off a few weeks prior to me starting the job. That made seeing the hidden stumps fairly easy with all of the leaves gone from everything. Easy no more. I'm flying blind by feel, finding stumps by impact like I normally have to do.


Back to the "bar" for another drink. These wet conditions really make it suck up the dino juice. Sometimes approaching 20 gal/hr on heavy cutting.


Making good progress even though some areas are still really wet.

 

[treemuncher]

Lots of piled stumpage and trees throughout these sections. This is a typical one. Just like the ice cream cones I remember as a kid - "Eat-It-All"!

 

[Tones]

I used to like wet days, no dust, machine ran cooler and more productive. It was on tracks through

 

[mowingman]

I used to like wet days, no dust, machine ran cooler and more productive. It was on tracks through

I hated wet days. The mulcher would throw mud, chips and leaves all over the front window. The wipers were no help, due to the sticks and chips mixed into the mud. Had to stop and clean the window about every 15 minutes.