Trimming 2-4 inch tree branches

[Frank]

Pole pruner is always handy for me. I've got two, one with simple wooden handle and one of fiberglass that stretches.

[DerbyDad03]

So you are afraid to use a tool that was designed for the task at hand, yet you feel comfortable kludging together something as ridiculous as a reciprocating saw fastened to a 2x4.

Yeah, I guess a lecture would certainly be wasted on you.

[Guv Bob]

Hidee friends and neighbors,

I need to whack off (sorry ladies) some 2-4 inch diameter limbs that are

8-12 feet off the ground. Awhile back I picked up a chain-saw-on-a-stick at Harbor Freight, took it out of the package, stared at it for 15 minutes, packed it up and returned it the same day. Already got caught with a finger in the pickle slicer at work(*) and don't need no more problems like that.

My idea is to fasten my reciprocating saw securely on a 6-ft long 2x4. Safety and staying within the limits of a tool are number one with me, so spare me any lectures, please.

Any other ideas or tools to do this without using a ladder or high explosives?

Here's a tree trimming video that looks interesting...

Thanks in advance!

Bob

(*) Both me and the pickle slicer got fired.

[Dean Hoffman]

That looked like a neat gizmo so I checked Amazon:

There were close to 400 reviews.

[Spork]

[Dean Hoffman]

I had one of those, maybe still do. It must be in a very safe place though. I use a chain tailpipe cutter to cut conduit that already contains wiring. It cuts schedule 40 enough that I can break it then file the edges. It looks like this:

(Amazon again)

[hrhofmann]

The problem is to get the rope saw over the branch to be cut. That require s a pole that is a couple of inches longer than the height of the branchm a nbd it has to have some mechanism at the top to get thee saw over the branc h and then get both ends of the saw back to the ground so the operator can go back and forth, A coathanger or two and some duct tape and a paor of pl iers should enable a skilled person to craft some sort of gizmo to do this. But you do need some additional rope to go from each end of the saw back to ground level.

[dadiOH]

"Guv Bob" wrote in message news:YMqdnTsqsMBoGvzOnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]

Well, there is always the tried and true pruning saw cum rope operated lopper on a pole, no electricity or gasoline needed.

PS - I'd take the bigger limbs off in sections.

[trader_4]

res a pole that is a couple of inches longer than the height of the branchm anbd it has to have some mechanism at the top to get thee saw over the bra nch and then get both ends of the saw back to the ground so the operator ca n go back and forth, A coathanger or two and some duct tape and a paor of pliers should enable a skilled person to craft some sort of gizmo to do thi s. But you do need some additional rope to go from each end of the saw bac k to ground level.

I've used a chain rope saw to get to a branch that was too high to get to using a pole saw. It worked, but it's more work than a pole saw. As you point out, you have to use throw an object with a rope attached to get it over the limb. And then you can't control where exactly the cut gets made, the angle, etc. And it can jamb up, ie get caught on you. It's a lot harder than using a pole saw. For branches ten or twelve feet, a pole saw would be my first choice. I've never used an electric one, but if I had enough need for one that would be my first choice. For just occasional use, a hand type is OK.

Like Derby said, I think it's nuts to be putting a reciprocating saw on the end of a 6 ft 2x4. For one thing, the math doesn;t add up. How do you get to a limb 12 ft up with a 6ft 2x4? Allowing for the angle, that the saw has to go on the last 18" or so, etc, I'd think it needs to be more like a 10 or 12 ft 2x4. Good luck weilding that around at all, let alone safely.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Frank:

+1.

Chain saws scare me - especially if I am only going to be using one once a year...

A quality pole saw - with the curved blade - cuts amazingly fast.

FWIW, some pros cleared out a broken up tree next door and they used a pole saw on one branch that must've been at least 8" in diameter.

[Pavel314]

res a pole that is a couple of inches longer than the height of the branchm anbd it has to have some mechanism at the top to get thee saw over the bra nch and then get both ends of the saw back to the ground so the operator ca n go back and forth, A coathanger or two and some duct tape and a paor of pliers should enable a skilled person to craft some sort of gizmo to do thi s. But you do need some additional rope to go from each end of the saw bac k to ground level.

A few years back I wanted to cut down a tree which was leaning a bit too mu ch towards the barn. I thought that if I got a rope over a high branch, I c ould use the truck to pull it in a safe direction as it fell, using a long enough rope so that the tree didn't fall on the truck, of course. To get th e rope up there easily, I'd shoot an arrow with a long length of string tie d to it, then tie the string to the rope and hoist it up where I wanted it by pulling on the string. Like Robin Hood used to do in those old movies to get across the moat and into the castle.

I attached the loose end of a ball of string to an arrow by unscrewing the arrow head a bit, looping the string around the threads, and tightening it down again. The problem with this is that as the arrow goes up, it is const antly dragging more string and hence more weight. All this extra weight pul ls the nose down and the arrow goes into a parabola path, so it doesn't get very far up. Accuracy is also severely compromised.

After a few tries, I decided to tie the string on the back end so that it w ouldn't pull the nose down. Unfortunately, I still had the problem of ever- increasing drag from the weight of the string and that didn't work either.

I finally gave up and dragged the extension ladder out from the garage to t ie the rope up there.

I've subsequently bought a crossbow with a lot more power, so maybe I'll tr y that next time. And I'll use dental floss instead of string to cut down o n the drag.

Paul

[Ralph Mowery]

I built something similar to this to get string across the trees. With only

35 psi it will throw a line over 60 feet into the trees. Not sure what it would do with close ot 100 psi .

It is made out of some PVC pipe and uses compressed air.