General purpose saw for tree stumps

In the past I've found a bow saw suitable for this type of application possible with a blade designed for wet/green wood. To stop the saw being trapped consider banging in a small wedge into the edge of the cut as you get deeper in.

wood splitting grenade?

In addition to the saw, you might find it worth drilling into the trunk radially all round with say a spade drill to remove a lot of the wood before cutting it with the bow saw. That way it involves less effort on your part because the drill does a lot of the work before you start sawing.

Why would you not want a chainsaw? Surely this is the perfect excuse to buy one.

Plenty of “adequate” safety gear on ebay. I find being petrified of losing a limb works well towards keeping me safe. ;-)

Everyone needs a chainsaw in their lives.

Tim

Indeed, I have 4!" A big mains one; a small mains on on a long pole; a small batttery one on a long pole and the newest - a small battery one.

Most people with stump grinders will have chainsaws or did you intend to DIY the grinding?

Hiring chainsaws became expensive once HSE got involved, requiring PPE and a new chain being part of the package.

When I grind stumps I do a fair bit of excavation and preparation (hollowing out) with a chainsaw first because my grinder is only 5hp and hard work. I also sharpen it with a diamond disc fairly frequently.

I left maybe six inches to a foot, on mine, and let the stump grinder guy cut it off.

You do not want to get your own chainsaw, into dirt or sand. That is very hard on the chain and the bar. This is why, on your last cut on the trunk, you leave a bit of space to grade.

What you don't do, is leave six feet of trunk on the thing. That's too much, and the stump grinder guy does not have a helper and he can't lift or work heavy loads.

But as long as you're down to six inches to a foot, it's his job to use his chainsaw to prepare the work site for the tracked grinder. The grinder is heavy and built like a tank. It relies on ballasting, to behave with civility under load.

You don't want a trunk, which is green and springy looking. But after a tree has been dead for a few months, the colour goes out of it, and the stump grinder will work just fine. The stump grinder is not a sofa queen. It does the job.

You can rent chainsaws by the hour. A half day rental you could do as much puttering around as you would like.

There is a lot to know about chainsaws. Ask the guy who is missing two fingers, what the rules are.

When you are getting an estimate for a stump grinding, the estimator can eyeball the job and tell you if any of the conditions are not right. For example, if the terrain is unsuited (excessive terrain slope), they'll just tell you they can't do it. If they don't like the six foot of trunk you left on there, they'll tell you what their requirements are.

But I wasn't putting my chainsaw in the muck, and the guy did not complain or look concerned about prepping the trunk.

Summary: The way I looked at it, I'm paying for the job, the estimator inspected it, and I'm just going to sit back and watch. Making it pretty is nice, but at some point you have to let it go. I wanted to leave enough material, so that if the guy needed to make a cut, he could make the cut safely. If you leave a sliver he needs to clear, that's not nice. There should be enough material, so he can do an "honest" cut.

Paul

I was just thinking on US sites they seem to go to explosives very quickly. They just like big bangs though. This is the problem with conifers when they get out of hand, not easy to remove. Brian

DIY with hire of the grinder. Or is that not a good idea?

I have a quote for about £500-600 for someone to grind them, versus £100 for grinder hire (various sizes from different places, eg 13hp). That seemed like a suitable difference to make it worthwhile DIY, although that depends on the extras I would need.

(apart from reinforced trousers, I have all the PPE)

I did see someone mention £50 for chainsaw hire, but most are 50-100% more than that. Some of the cheaper new petrol or mains chainsaws are into that territory, eg:

I'm mostly thinking that if I buy a tool I'd rather have a use for it after this one job.

Good point, I suppose whatever general abuse of the stump and the roots you can do ahead of time would aid the job.

Theo

That was a practice used by farmers, for clearing stumps from fields.

The trees might be cut down first and cleared. The stumps needed to be cleared, so that the land could be tilled.

Farmers have rights to materials, that others could only dream of. In the old days, a farmer could have a case or two of dynamite sticks, plus a collection of blasting caps or other pyrotechnical triggers.

The only problem with a farmer owning such things, is if the farmer forgets about the case of dynamite, and the dynamite sticks start to "sweat".

Stump grinders are very popular, so if you're not a farmer, you likely used a less-spectacular method.

People have fished with dynamite here. In one instance, someone fished in a lake that had a Boy Scout camp, by using sticks of dynamite. The explosion kills the fish, which float to the surface and you scoop them up. Presumably, you only take home the "whole" fish, and any half-fishes are left in the lake.

And you know where the dynamite is coming from in cases like that. That's farm dynamite, which someone has stolen from a farm. You don't drop down to the hardware store, and outfit yourself. That's not a hardware store item.

Paul

For an 18" stump, do you need a chainsaw that's more than 18" long?

Only if you want to cut through it in one “slice”. In theory a 10” bar would do it. In practice a chainsaw with an 18” bar would probably be bigger and heavier than most folk would need for light use. A 14” bar would be more typical.

Tim

If you use a blade designed for bricks, it only takes 4 days:

It appears there are 'pruning' blades up to 12" which might do better, but I imagine a chainsaw is going to be much less work...

Theo

My limited experience of hire tools in arboriculture is that they come blunt or otherwise un serviceable, that includes chainsaws, stump grinders and chippers, MEWPS arrive with flat batteries.

How many stumps at 18"? I would guess most firms with a self propelled grinder would expect £100+ and hour plus the VAT and travel.

Picture of preparation for a small machine

Not a lot of good with a grinder, don't look if you are squeamish:

I would definitely go for that or the Titan if you can get the power to it and don't foresee roaming with it. Indeed with these modern lipo home power stations...

Sharpening can take a while to learn but is straightforward

Useless

The longest blade for my Makita sabre saw (used mostly for cutting tanks out of lofts so far, quicker and less sparks than an angle grinder) is only about 9" long so the only ways that would work would be to run round the tree multiple times or work your way in by cutting slabs, a waste of time.

Yes and no, the 75hp tracked one I had at work just ploughed through anything, the 400hp Awhi I drove did a 2ft stump to ground level in 30 seconds. My 13hp chinese stump grinder takes a long time but gets there. It cost 1200 quid and has saved me most of that in doing three stumps and still on the original teeth. Still less than 10hours on the clock but a fair few hours of my time was needed.

I guess you are too far from near J11 M25 else I could lend a saw and probably the tmech but you would have to pay for consumables

There is that risk.

Four. So £500-600 sounds not too far off. I think the higher quote was with grindings taken away.

Eww. What's the specific risk with a grinder, beyond getting in front of the blade? If you stand behind it and make sure it is very off before messing with the sharp end? Are there kickback, overturning or similar risks?

Thanks. This job is in Hampshire, so not implausible, although I suppose it's too big/heavy to go in the back of a car so transport might be an issue. (paying for consumables/wear and tear no problem)

It's starting to sound like the pro quote doesn't sound so bad, given all the extras needed...

Theo

Not so much with big ones but the light ones like mine do kick back and will run up the stump if you take too big a bite.

I go down to Petersfield occasionally, the grinder needs a truck or trailer. May be worth a look.

email valid

AJH

In your situation I'd take a different tack to anyting mentioned so far. A chainsaw is fast but you have no other use for it, and they're not known for being friendly. Stump grinders would do it but cost unnecessarily. I'd pick a circular saw, primarily cos you should have plenty of uses for it later. How does that work? Put the saw on top of the stump and cut lots of crisscross all over. Smack it sidways with a hammer so the uprights you just cut all snap off. Repeat until gone. Circs are ways less susceptible to soil than chainsaws, cheaper, safer & a lot more useful to most diyers.

I have one of those, but I understand the kickback is lethal if it hits a stone or whatever?

There's lots of advice on t'web if you search for "burning tree stump" - I haven't tried it but would be interested to hear how you get on if you do.

I find mine are no problem to hold against kickback. Unlike chainsaws.