Home-Built Tree Shear

Home-Built Tree Shear WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous I have a problem with thousands of Eastern Red Cedar trees infesting my farm They grow like weeds and the cheapest tree shears we could find were over $1 500 I also could not justify the high cost of hiring someone to come in and shear them for me says Galen Mommens of Tecumseh Neb      I decided to build my own hydraulic shears that attach to the front of my front-end loader I made it from scrap metal and have already used it to cut several hundred trees with great success     Mommens says he has 100 acres of pasture but probably 40 of them are covered with the unwanted cedar trees     This tree species has branches that grow right down low to the ground so he quickly tired of laying down with a chain saw to access the trunk and then having to sharpen the chain after every three trees or so     To build his shear Mommens used: scraps of 4 by 4 by 1/4-in square steel tubing some old grader blade tips a 4 by 24-in hydraulic cylinder off an old loader 2 by 6 by 1/4-in wall rectangular tubing 1/2-in and 3/4-in plate and some new hydraulic hoses      My total cost excluding welding rods was less than $75 he says I wanted it to have a single jaw so I d only have to use one cylinder Only one side of the jaw moves     To install the unit Mommens simply drives up to it slides it onto the front end loader and puts in a couple of bolts to hold it in position      I ve cut up to 10-in dia cedar trees with it those are as big as I have he explains Depending on the lay of the land I can cut right at ground level or up about an inch or so As long as you cut them below the bottom branch they won t grow back     Mommens says that one week last spring he spent about 4 hours a day for 3 days cutting about 350 trees with the rig on his IH 460 tractor Once the trees are cut he piles and burns them      I ve got a website where I sell the building plans for this tree shear The design is pretty adaptable to different types of loaders he says     Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Galen Mommens 72648 618th Ave Tecumseh Neb 68450 ph 402 335-1216; doxn@alltel net; www scroungeman com

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