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So, I've let a large branch from a Black Walnut grow over a portion of my roof. It is about 16-18 feet over the roof.
There is once piece I would love to cut at about an 8 foot length. The circumference is about 35-38 inches. Anybody have a guess what that sucker might weigh? We also got about 5 inches of rain last week here in North Texas. Am I going to need a crane?
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One site I found says 58 pounds per cubic foot for green walnut. So if your piece is a true cylinder 36" in diameter and 8 feet long, that's 56 cubic feet of walnut. Times 58#/cubic ft. = 3280#. But unless you're pretty magical you also need to figure all the attached pieces. Ya - you're probably going to need a crane or a new roof.
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Ok, spit ball estimate based what I know of log weights. Figure 36" circumference which means 36/3.14= 11" diameter log. At 8' an 11" log is 24 bd ft by Doyle scale. Walnut logs weigh 11,900 pounds per 1000 bd ft in the rough so setting up a proportion I get 285 pounds for an 11" by 8' log.
References:
Doyle scale calculator:
http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.plWeight of green logs:
http://www.globalwood.org/tech/tech_wood_weights.htm
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Ha, circumference. C I R C U M F E R E N C E!
I'll shut up now.
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Without seeing the tree and the house in proportion to it, simple answer Yes, Id plan on it.
Call a few arborists and get their input. They might be able to climb, tie it off to the main stem, and lower it. No way I would fool with it myself.
Inquiring minds.....WHY would you want an 8' length of branch that is only 11" in diameter.....first off its a branch, second, after dealing with sap, there isn't a lot of usable meat.
Once Favre hangs it up though, it years of cellar dwelling for the Pack. (Geoff 12-18-07)
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Problem with log scale is that it estimates the boards that will be sawn from the log. It doesn't count the bark, slab wood and sawdust.
I get ~5.28 cubic ft, at 58 lb = 306 pounds.
So are you confident to rig a 300lb pound chunk of wood and swing it down clear of the house? It's something an arborist would be able to do, and if they weren't happy with the weight, they would piece it down in smaller bits.
Shouldn't need a crane, just a good arborist and his trusty sidekick to wrangle the ropes.
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ianab said:
Problem with log scale is that it estimates the boards that will be sawn from the log. It doesn't count the bark, slab wood and sawdust.
I get ~5.28 cubic ft, at 58 lb = 306 pounds.
I used the back calculator using weight of logs from the second reference. It is what we used to use back in the day to make sure trucks weren't overloaded in NY. If one knows the board feet in the log that second reference has the weight of the log including slabs and bark which are tossed. We used that because most logs were numbered and so it was easy to count board feet scaled in the log as it was loaded and then use the log weight to know the weight of the truck. It was accurate enough to avoid getting fines from the NY stateie po-po.
Interestingly your and my numbers for weight vary by only a few pounds. I got 285, you got 306.
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packerguy® said:
Inquiring minds.....WHY would you want an 8' length of branch that is only 11" in diameter.....first off its a branch, second, after dealing with sap, there isn't a lot of usable meat.
Sounds like several medium sized bowls and future pen blanks to me.
Train to be miserable...
that way when the real misery starts you won't notice.
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Phil S. said:
One site I found says 58 pounds per cubic foot for green walnut. So if your piece is a true cylinder 36" in diameter and 8 feet long, that's 56 cubic feet of walnut. Times 58#/cubic ft. = 3280#. But unless you're pretty magical you also need to figure all the attached pieces. Ya - you're probably going to need a crane or a new roof.
36" circumference.
that should bring the calculation more in line with the others.
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
- Winnie the Pooh, as relayed through Author A. A. Milne
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No crane required. I have an arborist friend who takes down much larger limbs than that when they are hanging over houses. It's amazing to watch how he manages to swing the pieces away from the roof with nothing more than a rope - and the knowledge of how to use it.
John
