Cutting large electrical poles

FarmboyBill · #21 07/30/13, 04:15 PM

UI still say you could split them lengthways down through the middle of the ends, and dig a small trench and lay them flat side up to make steps up a hill.

Fire-Man · #22 07/30/13, 05:06 PM

This is the way Dorothy Ainsworth squared her logs. Would only take a few minutes to set up your electric saw this way.

I feel if you will cut pieces around 4'' thick they would probably last you a while.

Silvercreek Farmer · #23 07/30/13, 09:09 PM

Throw them behind the barn. You'll need them for something (more practical than pavers) eventually.

GoldenCityMuse · #24 07/30/13, 10:31 PM

You would be much better off saving them for another project.
Buy concrete pavers if you want steps.

wannabechef · #25 07/31/13, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrettyPaisley

So sealing the front porch to keep the wood from rotting isn't a good idea? Same with these poles?

I may just try it myself. I have a little electrical chain saw with a safety built in so I can give it a whirl. I'm not certain these have creosote on them; surely they are treated but these are new poles; no nails or anything else. I've hung yard sale signs so I've seen the nails ... these have none. Just long, thick posts that I'd hate to burn if I can do something with them. I've smelled creosote before when I was around railroad ties. These poles have no obvious scent.

No, sealing is a great thing...its just that you hate to be in contact with anything chemical made in a lab... find it ironic you'd want to make something from wood treated with chemicals or have someone breath the dust while cutting them. Welcome to a world made better because of chemistry.

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PrettyPaisley · #26 07/31/13, 06:14 AM

Okay-so the stepping stone idea is clearly just an eye-catching Pinterest project. I wanted to use what I had instead of spend money on high dollar pavers. Those things are cheap and they aren't easy to tote to the house. The poles are lying around being stepped over and I'm ready for them to be useful. Or gone.

PrettyPaisley · #27 07/31/13, 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wannabechef

No, sealing is a great thing...its just that you hate to be in contact with anything chemical made in a lab... find it ironic you'd want to make something from wood treated with chemicals or have someone breath the dust while cutting them. Welcome to a world made better because of chemistry.

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Seriously? Thanks for the input but don't you have anything more useful to do? While I might wish I lived in 1800 sometimes, and I refuse to cover my grass and garden in chemicals or feed my kids GMOs, I'm not perfect. Or stupid enough to allow a wood porch to rot when I can seal it with world improve sealant/chemicals. As far as I can tell, we aren't hungry enough at this point to lick, chew or swallow the electrical poles, and that goes for my goats. But hey thanks for the insight, corrections and judgement!

wy_white_wolf · #28 07/31/13, 08:00 AM

Take a metal detector to them before you try cutting. Telephone poles end up with all kinds of nails and spikes in them over the years that they where used.

WWW

wannabechef · #29 07/31/13, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PrettyPaisley

Seriously? Thanks for the input but don't you have anything more useful to do? While I might wish I lived in 1800 sometimes, and I refuse to cover my grass and garden in chemicals or feed my kids GMOs, I'm not perfect. Or stupid enough to allow a wood porch to rot when I can seal it with world improve sealant/chemicals. As far as I can tell, we aren't hungry enough at this point to lick, chew or swallow the electrical poles, and that goes for my goats. But hey thanks for the insight, corrections and judgement!

You just refuse to see the whole picture...what happens when that sealent gets into the soil? And if you lived in the 1800's chances are you wouldnt even be alive at your age now so my point is, if we are truely poisoning ourselves, why are we now living twice as long?

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o&itw · #30 07/31/13, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wannabechef

You just refuse to see the whole picture...what happens when that sealent gets into the soil? And if you lived in the 1800's chances are you wouldnt even be alive at your age now so my point is, if we are truely poisoning ourselves, why are we now living twice as long?

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This is a forum to provide help to others seeking suggestions. Take it easy. We offer our suggestions and the people we offer them to may or may not feel that they are applicable for them. The OP didn't feel as if your suggestion was the way she wanted to go.

Since we still have a bit of freedom left in this country to make our own choices, that is her right, even though you don't agree with her conclusion. Just because she didn't agree is no reason to get your pride all wounded and act like a troll.

VERN in IL · #31 07/31/13, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rambler

Most saw mills or professional people will run away from power poles. They tend to have a lot of nails and hardware in them, and can be dangerous to work with, one hidden broke off nail and you mess up your saw blade, band saw, or chain. Would cost more to fix that what you can charge, so gonna be hard to find someone to work on these.

Paul

Hey Paul, you telling me sawmills are NOT using metal detectors on wood before the cut? It should be a industry standard.

Quote:

Not to mention the are treated with creosote and for someone so conscious about health and environmental risks it would be taboo to use them.

Everyone at the sawmill smokes tobacco, and they tear up pristine woods just to get some timber, ruining habitat, so who cares about health and environment, the hell with that!

nc_mtn · #32 07/31/13, 08:07 PM

Good luck finding someone that would cut them on a bandmill. Sure it will do the job but my experience is the treatment typically dulls the blades (not to mention most have metal somewhere). While blades are pretty cheap ($20-25), when you only get one pole sawed (or less) then it's not worth it.

nc_mtn · #33 07/31/13, 08:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VERN in IL

Hey Paul, you telling me sawmills are NOT using metal detectors on wood before the cut? It should be a industry standard.

Easier said than done, especially when you're dealing with someone running a portable mill themselves not as a full time job. Plus, when you have a pole littered with nails, how much time digging out nails do you spend? It's often not as easy as pulling it out with a hammer. A lot of the lower-mid range metal detectors don't get too deep into the wood anyway.

arabian knight · #34 07/31/13, 08:33 PM

And say they have cut a forest of trees done old ones how many may have staples in them from old fences etc.
And that "debarker" goes so fast no one or machine will be able to get at a stable nail or spike fast enough for that machine to stop. And then go directly into making boards. Just is not going to happen.
But a KNOWN poll that has been up for years as in power polls they pretty much are aware that all sorts of metal could in those, and they would shy away from cutting even a few for a customer like that.

Fire-Man · #35 07/31/13, 08:47 PM

I guess I am Different, I have sawed around 150 telephone poles and have never "lost" a blade doing it. I sawed a 27" yellow pine and hit something 3 1/2" from the center, broke my blade, made the worse sound--after some chainsaw work cutting it out it was a white glass insulator that was nailed to the tree when the tree was about 7" in diameter.