Why

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

My Wright is a chainsaw, not the older reciprocating version. At some point Thomas Industries had bought Wright and at some other point they switched from recip to chain. Now, which occurred first, that I don't know. My uncle carried the line at the time and so dad got one at the same time he got the 420c. Since we were not logging, just getting firewood, it has lasted. Come to think on it, it has outlasted at least a half dozen smaller saws.

I am not going to put on a miniskirt and pose in front of the 420c with the Wright, though! Hmmmm. That might make for a cool halloween outfit. Scare everyone to death!

Stan

[CuttingEdge]

Interesting history on the Wright Chainsaw...sadly I never heard of it, but I suppose the chainsaw is like the snowmobile, in that years ago there was many, but now have boiled down to only 3 manufactures: Polaris/Ski Doo and Yamaha. I would like to say Arctic Cat, but sadly they got bought out by Polaris. They still sell them under the brand of Arctic Cat, but they are Polaris owned.

I welded up Fisher Snow Plow's for a time, and people who swear AT them and say, "I would never buy one, I buy would buy a Blizzard or Western first", which is funny because they are all just brand's, each is built out of the same Douglas Dynamics factories, one in Maine and one in Wisconsin.

And so it is with chainsaws, there really is only Stihl and Husqvarna.

In any case, for some reason I was thinking you were married, and the Mrs. could model the saw! I would have Katie do the honors but it would be a long trip to make to NC.

A lot of people would never guess this, but Katie loves the 1930's and 1940's, and will often get dressed up in clothes of that era and do photo shoots. Our house is full of antiques and is set up to look like the 1930's. She even cooks on a 1917 Crawford stove, though we heat our home with a 1893 pot bellied stove. I like the pot bellied stoves because they can burn either wood or coal, and put out plenty of heat. These are just a few pictures of our home, but you can see what we are trying to accomplish. It is not 100% 1930 I know, but 1930ish, we call it. The last picture is one of us at a local train station, but a bit later in era; the 1940's, but think it came out good.

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

Yeah, every kind of thing ever made starts out with a hundred makers, and boil down to three in the end. I have a book of all the American farm equipment makers that goes back into the 19th Century. Hundreds of them, and the only one that kept on as themselves is John Deere.

Yes, I am married. She is not up for wearing a miniskirt these days, though. She says if I want to have a saw modeled in front of a crawler while wearing a miniskirt, do it myself!

We aren't into any specific period for anything. We simply go with what works well, and the era doesn't matter. Look around here and the old stuff is all mixed with the new.

Even photography. I am shooting digital, but it is of an earlier era when they were still hanging digital backs onto film bodies. Mine is a Kodak back on a Nikon F5. Only 6 megapixels but of a kind you can't get any longer. They mimic Kodachrome, so have those wonderful colors you can't get from anything else no matter what software you use.

I wonder if I can get my oldest Granddaughter into modeling with a saw?

Stan

[Seth]

They also had alot of cool crawlers in the 30's and 40's. Also alot of kick ass industrial machinery. Would have been a great time to be alive. I grew up in the 80's. All we had was some good bands, stomper trucks and crappy slow ass cars.

[CuttingEdge]

We never went for a certain Decor Era until after we got my Grandmother's house. It was stuffed with antiques so it did not fit very well in our home, but we did not want to lose them, so we pitched the new crap and stuck with the antiques. There is actually a digital TV in the photo of Katie standing in front of the pot bellied stove, you just would never know it is there; it is tucked inside an upper curio cabinet. Granted it is not very big, but then again we do not watch TV much either. I work on bulldozers instead of watching TV, and Katie has to chase around 4 daughters.

I was just teasing you on the modeling of the chainsaw Stan anyway. This place has a lot of bulldozer pictures so if I can put one in of Katie now and then to liven up the place and give PondHogVT something to look at, I will. It would be a lie to call Katie a model, but she has had a few paid modeling jobs over the years. She is 38 now and having given birth to 3 children, so I have a tougher time getting her in a minidress, but I can coax it out of her on occasion.

I did pick up a couple of 1930 implements today Seth. One is an unknown wooden sprayer that is in pretty good shape, and a McCormick Wheat Binder. It is in pretty rough shape though. I have yet to go back and pick up the thresher. That is in a pile of pieces, but who knows, I have got some older equipment back in operating shape. The worse problem with bulldozers is getting maximum use out of their drawbar pull. Sometimes I can draw (2) machines at once, but that is typically limited to ground engagement equipment (harrows).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubG4YVzyzOE

[Lavoy]

Prior to the development of the 4WD tractor, there were lots of crawlers here in large tillage operations. They would hook two plows together for plowing, and we still have a two wheeled, triangle shaped dolly that Dad used to pull two field cultivators at once.
Lavoy

[CuttingEdge]

I predict here in Maine there will be a switch back to tracks to some degree. I might be wrong, but the reason I say that is, most of the land here is now 90% forest and 10% field. That was NOT the case. In 1900, the land base was reversed, 90% field and only 10% forest. One big reason for that is the invention, and adaption of the tractor.

Back in 1930 when they came here in a big way, they had steel wheels, no posi-tracks and no four wheel drive. This meant only the best fields could handle tractors, so those fields stayed. At the same time farming paid very little, so paper mills which had an insatiable appetite for wood, in the year 1947 there was 147 paper mills in New England alone. Some of these mills were consuming 900 cords of wood per DAY! That meant a land owner was better to have forest than fields. A landowner with a forest had "money in the bank".

Today it has reversed. Often when I cut trees and count growth rings, it goes back 85 years or so...when tractors came to Waldo County, Maine. Now these forests are being cleared back into field. In the last 3 years alone my forest (which comprises of 3/4 of my land) has lost 1/3 its value, and many species of wood, like fir, spruce and hackmatack cannot even be marketed. Hemlock alone makes up 28% of my forest...and it grows where it is wet.

So to farm these wet areas, it is going to take tracks. I am okay with that, wet areas are the hardest to farm, but they also have some really good organic matter, are drought tolerant and grow bumper crops...as long as a farmer can get on them. The old way was to ditch and drain the water, but now that wet soil has value. In fact it was always assumed that livestock disliked wetland grasses,but that is not really true. My sheep love it...when it is young and tender. The problem was it would mature and go unpalatable for them before I could get on it with a wheel tractor. Now that silage and balage are all the rage, and dry hay went the way of the Do-Do Bird,using tracks to get over wet ground makes more sense.

Currently tillable land has more value per acre then house lots, here a person can fetch $2500 an acre if it can be tilled, but maybe $2000 for a house lot? I never thought I would see the day, but big farms, the Amish arriving here, and homesteaders who just want a few acres to grow veggies are driving up the value of open land that is tillable. These people are not dumb either, they come here with soil map in hand because where I live has some of the best soil in the state. Compared to other states it is crap I know, but for Maine it is good. So I am not alone in clearing land. Near me there is about 10 more farms like mine that are pushing back the forest.

Obviously the cost of operation will ensure the wheel tractor will be the mainstay here, but I can see bulldozers coming back. The new ones are all hydraulic and can power the big disc harrows and other implements that have high demands to unfold all those discs and lift them up and down in the field. With the costs of tires being huge now, tracks cost money, but have the traction and flotation that rubber tires just don't have. Change a few bald tires on an 8 wheel articulated tractor, and tracks do not look that bad!

Now if only they would come back with a smallish bulldozer with 3 point hitch and pto...I know New Holland has one overseas but it lacks a blade.

[Seth]

More good why stuff...I split the track and pulled the idler off...and it's pretty well wrecked. Surprise. Thought I was gonna get away with out having to buy too much spendy stuff. Looks like I am going to spend the kids Christmas shopping on crawler parts.

[Seth]

Cuttingedge, I was messing around an found a couple little ag crawlers over seas, iseki has a cool little one as well as a half track 4wd tractor. Pretty cool. Don't know why we don't have stuff like that over here. Yanmar has a nice one too.

[CuttingEdge]

For lack of anything else to do I looked at the Chinese Bulldozer Northern Hydraulics has and found it interesting. I even looked it over at a store one time when I worked for the railroad out west. We do not have them here which is a shame because they carry stuff Harbor Freight and Tractor Supply does not. It is a bit small, but does have all the features of a well rounded bulldozer for a large landowner. Not so sure about quality, and it is limited. 24 inches in blade height? 4 inches of dig below the level of the tracks?

There was a guy here that bought a Belarus Tractor and bragged how he spent something like $9000 for a 50 HP tractor, and while this was a while ago (early 1990's) 9 months later it broke a rear axle casting and went down for the count...no parts. That is an expensive tractor, but with the internet now, parts are easier to find even for Chinese made stuff. That Chinese dozer at Northern Hydraulics is only $19,000, but not the bulldozer you buy for life I would say either?

New Holland's bulldozer is interesting, but I suspect it is an overseas thing. I only knew they made one because I got a brochure on forestry shredders and in it they had a picture of their forestry mulcher hooked to one. I checked it out after that on the New Holland website. It had 3 point hitch and pto, but no blade, and after specing one out, and pricing it ($60,000) I could see no option for a blade. I am a church-goer so I don't look up girls on the internet, instead I look at dirty old earth moving equipment, and as sick as I have been, have spent way too much time doing that.

I always said someday I am going to build my own perfect tractor: tracks, decelerator pedal, 2 transmissions, pto, 6 way blade, 3 point hitch, etc...Of course I cannot even seem to fix my bulldozer up, let alone build one from the ground up.

I was looking for a Cat 245 excavator though, but never found what I wanted, but in going to my inlaws in New Hampshire saw a dealer there has an old 235 Cat. It is a size smaller than what i wanted, but 3 states closer to home, and only a size smaller might be the ticket. I would think it would rip stumps out of the ground still.

[Seth]

Had my fill of over seas crap on Sunday, bought a cheap "farm jack" at tractor supply, because I bent my old bumper jack trying to pick up the front of my crawler..any way it's a 7,000 lb jack so it picked it up, I set the jack stands and went to let it down, but it didn't go down, so I worked the handle a couple more times then bam. It went and the jack handle come up and busted me in the side of the head. And the crawler came down crooked and missed the jack stands completely. My crappy jack went flying across the yard. I finished the job using my good OLD bottle jack and some blocks. Bottom line is I should have spent the $ on a good high lift jack, and not some Chinese crap.

[CuttingEdge]

Jeesh, not sure "Why" I have not got kicked off here yet, LaVoy said, "Keep it Sane", and I have done anything but. For a lack of anything else to do tonight, I went back and jotted down the twisting and turning number of topics these last two pages have generated:

It started out with:

• Flashlight in the mouth
  No lights in a shed where dozer was being rebuilt
  Thew heavy equipment
  How my first wife left me for some !@#$$%^^& she met on the internet after 9 years of marriage
  How my junk, paid for equipment helped a penniless single mom of 3 kids
  The comparison of mechanical/cable logging methods
  Stihl 461 versus Husky 562 chainsaw
  History of the Wright Chainsaw
  Talk about a male member on here modeling a miniskirt
  Fisher/Western/Blizzard snowplows
  1930 Era decor in a home
  1930 Wheat threshers
  Iseaki Tractors
  Yanmar Tractors
  Getting hit in the face by Chinese junk tools

Interestingly enough, we probably are not done yet. In true forum fashion, some one will come on here in 3 years, dredge up this thread and it will start again.

[CuttingEdge]

Seth, you touched upon the idea of Yanmar Tractors and one thing people may not know is that they have a REALLY good reputation here for their marine engines. The Lobstermen here use them in a lot of their boats. They are cheaper which is the real reason, but they get some longevity out of them too. And don't think these boys just put around out in the bay picking up a few lobsters from the ocean floor a few fathoms down, they take it seriously.

Yes we have a lobster boat racing circuit here in Maine.

I knew one boat builder who built his boat so light that when you stood on the deck you legs felt like jelly because the engine rattled the hull, but it was fast. Narrow chine, make you seasick tied to the dock, but it was fast.

My ex-wife (the one who left me for that !@#$$%^^&& boyfriend of her afters 9 years of marriage) was a lobsterwoman, and we head down to the docks at 2 AM to be out to Metinicus Rock at Daybreak for this one fishing trip. Anyway the winds were blowing 30 knots and the Captain was like, "You headed out?" "If you are, we are", I say, and off we go. Bad move!

We round the coast out by Little Burnt Island where there is no mainland, and that narrow hull boat starts to just rock. I mean ROCK! The Marine radio is all about "a small craft advisory", and even this dumb railroader knew a 38 foot boat was definitely not big. We would go down into a draw and the deck lights would be shining through the water at fish swimming inside which is something so surreal, you have to witness to understand. Fish swimming ABOVE you. On the crest the propeller would shake the whole boat because it came out of the water. Then the waves would slam into us...not over the bow, over the whole boat, then the propeller would hit the water and almost stall the engine.

Then I started puking!

The captain had to keep the boat at an idle and pointed into the waves so I was not taken overboard as I puked 250% of my meal back out. I look up at Tina, and her and the Captain are just laughing...What a trip.

Nice fishing out there though. Only 9 Lobstermen live on Criehaven Island and have exclusive rights to fish out there, so plenty of lobster on the bottom. We snagged this 12 pounder, but threw it back...too small for us. We like our lobsters a bit bigger. (Just kidding, it is against the law to keep anything under/over 1-5 pounds in Maine)

[Seth]

Nope,nope, nope. Don't like water especially when it's over my head, and I am on a boat(witch I don't like anyways) and giant lobsters are creepy looking sob's. Looks like a giant spider with claws and a tail. But I do like Japanese diesels. They been making little ones for quite a while and seem to have a handle on em. I have a little Mahindra wheel tractor with a 3 cylinder Mitsubishi and it works great, sips fuel,has great torque and starts easily when it's cold.

[CuttingEdge]

I always wondered who first decided to eat Lobster anyway? Up until about 100 years ago, only the poorest of Mainer's ate lobster. That was because at low tide a person could walk out and grab the things for dinner. Our prison is on the coast, and lobster feeding got so bad that it is actually a law that prisoners can not be fed lobster more than once per week. (It is also a law in Maine where a woman driving a horseless carriage approaching a 4 way intersection must have a man be in the intersection waving a red handkerchief to warn other drivers of her approach). It was not until shipping got faster that lobster became so sought after for dinner. It has to do with the fact that lobster can not be kept unspoiled with salt.

As for the Japenese, I have a Kubota and it has been bullet proof since 1999, I swear by it and not at it, which is good being a church-goer and all.

As for Chinese junk and lobsters Seth, I forgot about this Maine joke: pick which one does not belong...

Cod
Lobster
Chinese guy who has been run over by a steam roller

(wait for it)

The Cod, because the other two are...crustaceans! (get it...crushed Asians)

(Disclaimer: No real Chinese people were injured in the presentation of this joke)