My buddy and I went and picked up 18 telephone poles yesterday for some projects. I have heard that these are tough on chain saws. They do have some of the ground wires on them, which I will remove and sell for the copper scrap. Other than that, has anyone had any experience with these? They are older and pretty dried out.
Steve
Steve,
Flyers get hung on such poles. Expect small nails and large staples. Rent a metal detector.
Dave M.
.. or use a magnet at the cut locations. Sand, grit and creosote will harm the chain. Perhaps use an older chain. Turpentine will help cleaning the chain of creosote.
How old? In the 70s we removed all the poles from a town as we buried all their telephone lines. *Untreated* cedar and locust poles, 30-40 years old. That was my firewood for years.
The poles I've noticed in my part of the world seem to be southern yellow pine-- that stuff is hard on a chain all by itself, let alone with whatever staples or whatnot it might be hiding.
Depending on how much cutting you'll need to do, you might think about having a carbide toothed chain made up.
Jim
Oregon Micro-Chisel chain works well and will survive a lot of abuse. I've literally cut (softer embedded) rocks in half with that chain and continued the rest of the day with it with no issues.
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Use salvaged 'phone and power poles regularly. If they're 20+ yr old as most are, I wouldn't worry a bit about the amount of creosote that's left...
I've not had any particular problems w/ any -- everything I've had in the last 50 yr has been SYP; some that are 60-70+ are Doug fir. This is W KS...
I don't worry about the small stuff--anything less than a 16d spike will not even be noticed by my saw other than a quick spark (and the ash in the yard trees that I trim has enough silicate in it and is so much harder when dead and dried that the poles are like marshmallows... :) )
So you sharpen a blade a time or two, maybe...that's just part of using a chainsaw imo.
Depending on the size, the biggest concern is I'd caution is simply one of being sure you have 'em where they're not going to roll and/or fall and crush you/your buddy. The bigger ones are enough to break something--and it won't be them, first if your leg/ankle/arm is the stop...
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Jim Elbrecht wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I notice the same thing.
Our yellow pine poles have stickers on them saying, "Caution: Yellow Pine". Why would the linemen need to be warned about that?
Bug infestations?. There used to be a yellow pine beetle... That's my guess.
Can bugs read?
WAG- as a former telco lineman who *hated* climbing locust poles. Maybe the ones labeled Yellow Pine are harder? I've never seen a label, but notice some of the older, larger [50-60 footers] are some other kind of soft pine.
When the new poles come in some are so dark you couldn't tell by looking at them what kind of wood they are-- A couple steps up the side ought to clue you in-- but who knows- unions are powerful influences. [maybe the yellow pine poles are knottier as you go up?]
Jim
Well, SYP isn't nearly as hard as locust, certainly, and only moderately harder than other pines...it's similar to Doug fir the other common (formerly, anyway) species used around here that I've seen.
I've no clue; never seen any such tags out here...(W KS)
As for the other guess re: pine bark beetles--they're gone after the tree is harvested as they feed under the bark in phloem layer, they don't bore into the wood. It's that damage and a fungus they introduce (blue stain) that's the real killer for SYP.
There are various other bark beetles as well that have their own particular modes but they all basically work just under the bark. The black turpentine beetle doesn't carry the BS fungus but may completely girdle a tree the killing it that way.
Western pine beetle is yet another but isn't prevalent (at least yet) in the SYP forest areas...
One would think with the treatment of the poles, the beetle and other bug problems would be dead.
I have cut some poles with a chainsaw and, other than some creosote mess, they cut fine. You do have to pay attention to some of the things others have noted such as utility hardware, nails, etc.; but most of this if fairly apparent.
You might be thinking of the problems that cutting railroad ties can cause. In addition to creosote and hardware they can also contain imbedded gravel, sand and even broken spike fragments. These will dull or trash a chain.
RonB
Years back the common pole wood up here in Ontario was a white cedar. Not sure what they are using right now.
In the part you elided -- very near the top, in fact...
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The rest was simply a sidebar re: bark beetles in general...
In my personal experience pine trees either processed into poles or green have a tendency to come unglued from the climbing spikes.
Nothing like burning a pine polls. Hint: it takes days to dig the splinters out.
A small story to tell:
Where I grew up in Eastern Ontario, many road's poles were owned by Bell Canada (the rural phone company) and Ontario Hydro (the rural electrical utility) rented space on them for their lines. Indeed Bell Canada used to own a pole company or two.
When the ice Storm hit thousands of poles had to be replaced and Bell Canada washed themselves of the problem. They simply couldn't afford to buy or make the higher rated ice load poles as cheap as Ontario Hydro (or whatever OPG is now).
Bell had different standards as to the amount of ice and snow old poles could take and Hydro had higher standards and Bell, the phone company, got blamed by Hydro the electrical utility for allowing so many poles to come into disrepair. When the ice came, Hydro's warning came true but they went to work quickly.
CN and CP, Train companies for those who don't know, used to own their poles too and some of them had to be replaced, and they were, by underground fibre optics :) I don't have a cite for this but I remember the stakes going into the ground saying underground cables, running alongside the tracks.
snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
.I'm not sure either. Most of them are NOT yellow pine, but the ones that are have the "Caution" warning on them.
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