To quote Kleeman, "I'm not a welder, just a guy that owns one" 😂. Looks good!

Welding the grapple was a good project in itself. Returning it in better condition than it was, was the "neighborly" thing to do. The paint was a nice touch. The tree being cut down was a great lesson. Your KZfaq videos are top notch. Thank you for sharing.

Mitchell is a distant cousin of mine, I grew up in the town just north of him. Someone is always someone’s cousin in your videos, ha! I found you from your pond videos and it’s always interesting watching you drive through your part of the state and when you cross into mine.

Temporary permanent repair. Who's never done one of those? Love it Neil!

It would be a great project video of you rebuilding the grapple. Thanks for always being there for us Neil. Matt

Wow he's a good tree guy ... Great to see the safety and skill he has in tree work. He's concerned about it not being perfect but he's super skilled and for me his safety and the safety he takes is key... Seen so many guys claim they are pros.... He is a professional

Great video I have to say I love when your brother in law is on I love how precise he is cutting down trees todays video taught me a few things I do wrong and will change

Neil… you are correct on the grapple. A grapple like the one you used is great for brush clearing, root raking and rock sifting… but not for logging. One made with a different geometry on the bottom would work a lot better. Here’s a piece of advice from a long time grapple operator… when you find one, make sure it has a similar set up on the top. You definitely want to have two independent top claws like that one did. A single center or, full width solid, upper is ineffective at grasping logs safely. It’s always a joy to see Cousin Tony display his expertise. He and she are consummate professionals. I have a video coming up where Brandon (Elite Earthworks) loads logs on our flatbed trailers with his excavator… it ain’t as simple as dropping them into the dump bed. But… I enjoyed watching a pro at work all the same. You are definitely headed for an appointment with a different tailgate!!! Have a great weekend bud.

Neil Koch, the bravest man of them all for showing his welds on the internet - Love the Channell - all the best Neil from SW Victoria Australia

Traveling abroad and love to have this regularity in my schedule! Much love from Lebanon

Thanks for showing Neil. You have a great Family. Greetings from Germany

Live generously.......God bless this family!

Hey Neil, a grapple is a man's best friend when it comes to cleanup and firewood. I have a frostbite log grapple and I absolutely love it. I use it on my compact 40hp tractor and my 74hp bobcat skidsteer. However there isn't one tool that's perfect for every job. It does decent for cleanup but leaves the small stuff. Unlike a grapple with more bottom teeth. But I've got a few teenage boys that do well with the smaller stuff! Great video! C-ya next week

I love that you showed your welds, that's the awesome thing about DIY is everything is as good as we can.

Gm Neil! This was fascinating to watch something you are not a master at doing and learn at the same time. I always enjoy your journeys each week and watch you complete projects.... I wish you had time to do more. Thanks for sharing!

I thought Neil did a great job on the video showing what was right and wrong about the face notch and hinge. I was the cutter in this video. If you have intrest in learing about these things I would highly recommend a series of books by Jeff Jepson, please look into his books on this subject!

Wow, what a beautiful shop, it`s massive, be well Neil.

Great video, as always! Just a tip I've picked up in similarly frustrating welding situations - slow down your wire feed and weld at a snail's pace in order to get the little unit to produce enough heat. The heat sink capacity of the entire grapple is what's working against you, but high heat and slower wire will stretch its boundaries better. With your creativity and ability to source a good deal, definitely put the word out that you're in the market for a decent 220 machine; especially with the bigger equipment. Have a great week!

Neil that little 110 welder has done so many jobs over the years, i have a couple items in my garage you have welded that i'm still using to this day!

Welding duty cycles typically are based on a 10 minute window. So a 20 percent duty cycle will let you weld 2 minutes out of every 10 minutes. I have welded a bunch with one of those little lincoln welders with flux core wire are pretty decent little welders.

Nice load of wood, nice job of loading it. Nice little quickly repair job on the grapple, your welds didn’t look all that bad on cam, and they held, liked the idea of returning something borrowed in better shape than when you got it, I try to do the same. Thanks for the video, enjoyed watching.

I need to learn some welding. Definitely need welding on the farm. Great work! That truck loading was the work of experience!

Big equipment and firewood together in one video: that's a golden combo in my book. Thx voor the video and Hi from The Netherlands.

Grinding and Paint make us all the welders we ain't! Great video as always.

Geweldig om te zien hoe jullie het allemaal gedaan hebben top job. Met ook nog een mooie video. Bedankt daarvoor Groetjes van uit Holland 👋🏼🇳🇱

Great work! I need to look into a mini skid to move things around my property...

Cool stuff. Best thing is you get to use equipment !! Loui is a sweet rig. Old dump trucks sure are interesting. Nice you have all that family around you and you’re a great neighbor. Dave.

Thanks Neil like the video ,Love that big Garage Wow .

Duty cycle on the welder is usually for 10 minutes. So 20% = 2m welding, 8m cooling

You’re living the life most of us would love to have.

If your going to use a small mig machine for a job like that add some preheat to your weld joint first. Could be just a little propane torch but if you can raise the temp a couple hundred degrees it helps the penetration and weld flow. I have the same little lincoln mig and love the machine bit that job would have been a stick job.

My cousin has all of his certifications but I've never touched a welder in my life... good video, Happy Sunday.

If you looking for a stick welder look at longevity welders,it runs on 110v or 220v. I’ve had mine for like 4 years and love it

Love the Thrivent Live Generously t-shirt Craig is sporting! I think I’ve seen one or two of those previously on your channel. I used to work for Thrivent and worked on the project that facilitated the Action Teams programs where these t-shirts are given away.

I was just thinking how brave you are for showing your welding when you brought that up. Braver man than I am!

That skid-steer is really coming in handy!

Good work on that grapple. That was some thick tree, and the chainsaw was impressive. The skill shown is testament to the guys in the TEAM, that makes all the difference. Team-work solves many problems before they arise. Nice ending too, could be foreshadowing the girls at a later date. From UK.

I would recommend you check out Express Steel attachments. They are local to you. I've had one of their grapples for my tractor for years and it works great. Use it with all the downed trees on the property around here.

Hi Neil. If your weld held up, then it's a good weld. Not everyone can make beautiful, stacked dimes every time. I rarely do. Love that shop. That is what I need! I have to find a suitable property first.

My part of Texas is called The Livable Forest. We just endured a hurricane that took a toll on our trees. You could get enough firewood for a decade. Sadly, it will probably end up in a chipper. Beautiful, hundred year old trees deserve a more dignified ending.

They looked like good beads to me, Neil!

Great watch, thank you.

I’ve got a friend that has a boiler like you use except the top of it opens instead of using the front door on, he loads it with a skid steer with a grapple and loads entire logs into it he can place like 4ft logs into it and doesn’t have to deal with busting up firewood.

Waiting anxiously for the “60x80” series videos!!! 🤣👍

You are surrounded by good people. I'm not surprised, though. Have a blessed week.

I’m not a welder either but someone once told me that if you need to weld thick metal with a small welder, you can preheat the metal with a torch or map gas. I have never tried it so I can not claim that it works. Sorry if this comment was already made be someone else. Have a blessed day my friend.

Great video Neil!

your welds are better than mine.. so with that said... you done good Neil. atta boy ! haha

On your welder, I'm an Amateur (with a capital A...lol) welder but, I have a Lincoln 215 mpi and really like it. It's a multi process welder (MIG, TIG and stick) that does both 110v and 220v. You might prefer something that's dedicated to one process to avoid the Jack of all trades, master of none thing but, it does a great job for the DIY type welder for sure. Thanks for another enjoyable video. Take care.

Thanks for sharing!

Nice learning to know how to use pulleys for falling and tree cuts definitely a system for sure

The 20% duty cycle on the welder, will be at max current setting. At lower current settings, the duty cycle will be higher. The sticker on the back will include the duty cycle at probably 3 different current settings.

Neil, welds did the job got done what you needed that makes them perfect! Enjoying my DDD hat but that T-shirt looks mighty comfortable.

Duty cycle on welders go off 10 minute increments. So a 20% duty cycle means it can run continuously for 2 minutes and needs to cool down for 8 minutes until it can be used again!

Great job keep up the great work love your videos thank you

I would love to see your skid loader painted (eventually) in the same scheme as the rest of your trucks (whenever that happens).....same base color, same stripes, your DDD logo for Dig Drive DIY and a QR code so no matter where you go with the equipment people can find your KZfaq channel.

Great Video as always Neil! If you are looking to buy a grapple bucket of your own, i would highly recommend one from Joe’s Attachment’s made in Iowa. I have been extremely happy with their attachments on my CTL!

@ 00:34 I would call that a full on Kleeman ! LMAO

Great job!

Just about to watch. This looks like a GREAT one!!

Thanks 👍

Bonjour Neil. Super vidéo. Il faut effectivement veiller au bon entretien du matériel qui travaille à l’effort. Sympathique couple de bûcherons et bonne information concernant la technique d’abattage. Passez un bon dimanche.

You need to get one of those skid steer mounted firewood processors!!

That white oak is gold 😍

When you're not the best welder you just have to be a good grinder! That has been my experience. I have The 180 amp 110/220 version of that welder and I am a heck of a grinder! 🙄

Good Job 👍👍😀

Good job guys

hi there nice show and building , best to all john

Grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain't.

Great job Sir.

Whoa! That unload got sketchy for a sec there :P :D

The compact track loader is called a skid steer great vid

Definitely need an upgraded welder for that size material. I would highly recommend a miller 211 for MIG. If you are looking to expand into TIG their multi process welders like the 250 are really good too. But pricey.

Stay safe and we'll see you next time.

I struggled with a 110 welder for years. Had a structural welder tell me he won't use anything less than a 220 welder. Moved to the Lincoln 220 machine and will never go back

Check out grapples made by W.R. Long. I have one on my Kubota tractor and have more than abused it over the last five years and never had even a crack. It is designed more like what you were describing.

Good morning & God bless you all

remember, a grinder and paint make you the welder you aint!

"Welds held...you know what that means".....psh, psh, psh 😂😂😂😂

My sister was taking night classes to get her bachelor's degree in nursing. She had to spend the weekend on a mercy flight helicopter crew. Anyways a guy was on a tractor trying to push a tree over. The tree ended up coming towards him and he got hurt very badly. She said that it was ugly

As the late Dr Ruth might say, "You may have a little case of shop envy" 😢

Good Morning from Kentucky!

If you want a grapple go to Jenkins Iron and Steel. Good price, unreal HD grapple.

Check out a lincoln buzzbox arc welder if you want a 220 welder that's inexpensive and won't be a big deal if it's not used as much. You can usually find them used pretty cheap.

Hey man you need to weld it with some 7018 rods and beef it up it would be good

To quote Matt from Diesel Creek: A grinder and paint make me the welder I ain’t

Another good video...

Good morning from Texas!

i have a little 110 welder myself since i do not have 220 vac avail, but it does ok , and i am out of practice also

You should do a post frame build collaboration with Kyle at RR Builders.

Great video! See ya on the next one neighbor!

I have the exact same welder. Yeah it's not a 180 (240v) but with fluxcore it will weld pretty thick in multiple pass. with gas it doesn't weld much..even with ,025 wire. (,035 wire built up way too much for its power)

Welds don't have to look pretty as long as they hold 👍

Here's my weekly contribution. Welding is 90% equipment, 10% skill for 99% of the applications. That was once told to me by a weld salesman. I think you have now graduated to needing heavier welding equipment. Along with the machine and supplies, comes additional electrical service required to power the equipment. That pretty much explains why so many of us DIYers buy so many 120 volts welders. You did just fine with your welds under the conditions. A perfect looking bead doesn't make for a perfect weld.

Good morning Neil!

"A grinder and paint makes me the welder I aint!" John @ Farmcraft 101

Hauled 2 loads home yesterday similar to that myself.

Buen vídeo gracias 🙏

You need to get a John Deere grapple they are really good we have two 331g and they work great

That wouldve been nice to run through the sawmill. Not a fan of that brand of grapple. Theyre not very robust.Espacially on your size machine. From my experience youll be doing alot of repairs on that grapple.I love my grapple and its alot more durable. We will grab a whole log. Buck it all up while holding it at a comfortable height. (No bars pinched or chains in the dirt) .Then my wife drops the leftover log from the end and I finish bucking it up. Then use the grapple to throw all the wood in the dump trailer. You can then almost grab all the branches and tops at once and put them on the burn pile. Saves time and your back.