Daniel Moss Candlestick Challenge video

[jlpservicesinc]

Robert, it is an early 60's Davis Taskforce 200 tracked trencher..  This unit is missing the trencher outside components  It has all the inside components. 

I bought it because of it's small size and utility and accuracy as a bulldozer.  

From what I understand it weighs about 2000lbs..  it is totally hydrostatic (hydraulic drive)  has cruise control so any speed can be maintained. Has high and low speed gear box..  

The TF200 was the first design and later the FT300 would have a larger motor (twin 18HP IIRC vs single 12.5HP Wisconsin air cooled engine).. All the parts are exchangeable between the 2, the 300 has a more conventional oil lubed clutch plate diff for braking and engagement of the tracks.  Smoother and more robust.. 

this model uses Lovejoy couplings with springs behind them for engagement with disk friction material for braking or sharp turns..  There is an idle function (track will freewheel) when in between go and stop (brake applied). 

The brakes friction material was completely worn out. 

She is a champ now though and for the coin invested all ready put the 78 Kubota B6000 4X4 tractor to shame as for load pulling, dirt pushing and action on soft wet clay type ground. 

The platform is what interested me the most...  It can be fitted with 3pt hitch, blade moved from front to back, operated from the ground or ridden, and can be fitted with another hydrualic pump for the running or a hydraulic PTO drive..    The limits are endless with just a little fabrication work. 


 

 

[Frosty]

Nice robot tractor, Jennifer, did you name it? Please don't say "Robbie!"

Dragging logs is as good a reason to keep an old car hood as there is. Lay the lead ends of the logs on it to skid and you can drag a heck of a load. Old VW hoods were de-BOMB drag sleds. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Anachronist58]

What a treat! Watch your toes!

Robert Taylor

[George N. M.]

Cool vehicle, Jennifer.  No home should be without one.  Particularly those in snowy and wooded environments.

As Frosty says, hoods make good sleds.  The greater the curve at the front, the better.  My 1st car, a 1948 Buick Roadmaster, had a hood with a very deep front which would have made a great sled or toboggan.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[jlpservicesinc]

Frosty, George..   that is a great idea..  I don't mind pulling the logs on the ground.. Pops the rocks out.. LOL.. 

In reality this was the first day of using it.  I've been fixing it and waiting on parts..  Been a large learning curve like all my projects. 

Since you guys are into it.. Heres some of the work I have done. 

The usual wouldn't start so had to clean the points.. The gas tank and carburetor were clean.. 

Had to make pins and linkage for the blade..  the linkage was interesting as I had to figure it out from videos..  

Luckily the cast iron the parts were made from must be malleable or the like or maybe semi steel though they show cast iron sparks..  I was able to weld the parts with the mig welder.  

At first I would preheat and post heat but on the front track wheel I ended up not bothering.. 

I also bought new front track wheels and track drive sprockets for the TF300 in case I had to figure out a modification and for tooth profile..  Of course these did not arrive until after I welded the stock units. 

Once all together the tracks were to long and there was no more slack take up so spent a few weeks trying to find the correct chain links for the half link.. 2.069 is the correct half links.. In the mean time I figured I'd call the parts house and they had the repair tracks in stock at 91.00 each. 

Again the 300 and the 200 share most chassis parts. 

The linkage adjustments had to be figured out as well since there was/is no instruction.. 

The holes that were there were worn so welded in bushings and then figured out it was the upper holes that are supposed to be used.  

At some point someone must have switched out the turn buckles as they were to long.  I had to find shorter ones.  

[jlpservicesinc]

Robert.. It sure is a treat..  It pulled a 12ft long 28" old elm trunk up to the landing..  

The tractor would not have moved it. 

[Anachronist58]

Wow.  That is a HUMUNGOUS amount of build up on the track drive sprockets and idler wheels.

Speechless...

Robert Taylor

[Frosty]

Good thing you LIKE doing that kind of restoration! 

The trick to using a car hood drag is to tie the log to the hood but choker the log to the tractor.

In snow guys would put holes in the hood so the drag line passed through it to the log choker to give the hood some lift in soft snow but trying to use the hood as part of the tow line doesn't work, they're too weak and tend to tear out. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[jlpservicesinc]

Frosty I love old iron..  Not the fixing..  I got lucky on this particular purchase with the worn items being able to be welded with little fanfare. 

Often times it's more time than brains.. 

These days be it brain power, time, money, etc, etc.. it's all at a premium.. 

3 hours ago, Anachronist58 said:

Wow.  That is a HUMUNGOUS amount of build up...

It was for sure.. Plenty of experience with the build up process and the equipment to help the process go smoothly. 

Lots of learning and luckily the material was weldable..  Was a gamble for sure. 

[Scott NC]

  That is a nice machine.  I got to operate a neighbors Cletrac once, just pushing dirt around and what not and they had to pry me off it.  What fun.  Model f I think.

[yves]

Jennifer,

Being hopelessly 'mechanically challenged', your competence amazes me.

I worry about the chain on your chainsaw when you will cut the wood that has been dragged on the ground. Is there not a way (you could come up with one) to lift the log so that only the end drags on the ground. I have made a trailer (inverted U shape) I back up on the logs, lift them with a chain block and can then drag hefty logs with my 4 wheel Honda bike. Only the end of the log drags on the ground.

 

[Glenn]

The reason they remove the tree bark at the saw mills before the process the log into lumber is to save wear on the saw blades.

Look up a log arch for less ground contact when moving the logs. 

Leaving the logs out in the rain will wash some of the dirt out of the bark, debarking the log in the area of the saw cut, and pressure washing the area of the saw cuts works.

[Frosty]

You can make a hitch for the lead end of the log with a 2' length of angle or channel iron that clamps to the log with chain binder and connects to the 4 wheeler or snow machine with a shackle. Put the log arch in the center of the log so only a little weight is on the tow vehicle and you can move it more easily without dragging it at all. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Scott NC]

  De-barking at a sawmill is interesting.  I'd post a link but they all want to sell machinery.

[anvil]

Debarking where I live is only done for house logs, and they use a mechanical peeler, then cheap labor to take out the mechanical peeled details. Other than that, the mill makes two types of cut before actual milling and they then end up with a "cant". The cant is a square or rectangular "beam" that may have a bit of bark on the corners.  This cant is then cut to whatever the operator desires. The first cut is called the slab cut. It has most of the bark and one flat side.  The second cut is called the "feather cut". It has two wide flat sides with two "feather'd" edges that are usually covered with bark. These two cuts are done to create a max constant dimension width and height. 

First pic is my shop logs arriving. Cant beat moving them like that. The reason for the removed bark is due to the mechanical limber.

Second and third pics are me and my friend JR hauling as 50' ponderosa much like Frosty described. The log is the tongue, which is common for hauling telephone poles and logs. We used a receiver hitch( the part the ball goes in) spiked and strapped like Frosty mentioned.  The log dolly often has two angled pieces pointing up and out like a vee to help contain the logs or telephone poles. We both lived in a small community and we were actually pulled over by the local cops,,, He couldn't fault our rig, but did say,, "come on guys, at least flag it!!!"

The last pic is a cant already in use with my Alaskan mill. No matter an Alaskan mill or a lumber mill the purpose of the first cut(slab cut) and the feather cut is to get to this shape with least amount of waste on the first two cuts.

Debarking or removing the bark implies just removing the bark and ending up with a round log, not a cant. Yea, Yea, I know,,, semantics is a beech.

[Scott NC]

  There are a lot of lumber mills around here, I guess I should try to get my foot in the door to see first hand.  I was going by internet "reasearch".  They sell bark chip's here at a premium so I figured it came from the mills.  Same with wood chips.  They even sell pine "straw" and it's everywhere.

[ThomasPowers]

Luckily there are numerous folks advertising "free Manure" out here.  Of course as dry as it is it tends not to compost very quickly...Giant Ground Sloth manure from the last ice age still shows up in places from time to time...

[Scott NC]

  I meant to mention to you back during the raised bed talk, when my electrician told me we could have all the compost we wanted, he neglected to tell us he threw deer carcasses in there from hunting.  Lucky we didn't apply it.

[ThomasPowers]

My wife has a couple of baggies of blood meal and bone meal to use *very* *sparingly* on her raised beds; of course a "friend" just left her a stack of large tubs to plant in too---hopefully I will get my "coal buckets" back by Quad-State when I hope to load them up!  (Currently they are moving dirt, compost and manure into the garden.)

[yves]

4 hours ago, Glenn said:

Look up a log arch for less ground contact when moving the logs. 

This is the one I had made 20 years ago (I did not own a welder at that time).

As it is set up with a bar on the end, I pile small (6 inches and less) four feet long pieces and bring them to where I cut them in fire wood.

To haul long logs (larger diameters), the rear part slides out the tubing and permits to back the trailer over the logs. This is the rear part:

In the following pic, you see the chain that would be around a log and it is anchored up front to prevent back and forth movement of the log when hauling and braking.

If I want to lift higher, I do not use the large ring. This ring with its chain hook I use on the hitch (ball) on my ATV: I throw it on the ball and hook a chain when I have to haul wood out and take it to the trailer.

I have been and still am very happy with this set up to harvest fire wood.

 

[anvil]

Good tool. Just goes to show ya, it doesnt take much to move a danged ole log.  

1 hour ago, Nodebt said:

They sell bark chip's

A lot of times they run the slab cut thru a chipper to get mostly bark mulch. No matter what there is a lot of bark around a lumber mill.

[Scott NC]

  Everything but the oink, Anvil....

[jlpservicesinc]

I worked at a saw mill for a while in my yoot..  

commercial place..  They had a debarker station before it went into the sawyer..  Originally they just threw the bark in a pile and it would compost over time pretty quickly.. 

Within no time flat they started selling it as mulch. 

Now every part of the tree is used that is delivered to the mill.  Bark, sawdust, shavings, boards.. etc. 

The tree's here have been here for a very long time..The prevous owners removed all the softwood trees.  I'm not overly concerned with the dirt..  What gets me is the nails or screws or horse shoes in the the middle of the tree.. 

I don't cut enough wood to make much of a difference.. All the wood I'm doing now is old stuff that came down  or is standing dead. (horses chewed the bark off).. 

Here are my 3 chainsaws all from 1978.

Stihl 045 super, 075 and jonsered sp49.

 

Yves that is some fancy machine you have there..  I love it. Very nice for not having a welder.. 

[BillyBones]

Jennifer, since you have 3 chainsaws ever try juggling them?

[Scott NC]

  Dad put an old worn out shotgun in the crotch of a mullbery tree when I was young on the farm.  Those things grow fast.  Wish I would have took a picture before we sold it.  The stock rotted off.