# Flattening a stump



## Tripp1 (Nov 1, 2009)

Hello all,

Anyone have any luck flattening a stump?

Stump is about 3 to 4 ft in diameter.

Thinking boxing it out with joined top 2x6's screwed to the sides, with a sled on top to remove material.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Tripp


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Tripp1 said:


> Hello all,
> 
> Anyone have any luck flattening a stump?
> 
> ...


Where is the stump? In your shop? in the ground?Dug out laying on top of the ground? got a quick picture?

Herb


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

Tripp1 said:


> Hello all,
> 
> Anyone have any luck flattening a stump?
> 
> ...


That works. Seems to me I might have seen that on either youtube or one of the pinterest pages.


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## Tripp1 (Nov 1, 2009)

Herb Stoops said:


> Where is the stump? In your shop? in the ground?Dug out laying on top of the ground? got a quick picture?
> 
> Herb


In the ground, no pic to share


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## Semipro (Mar 22, 2013)

some reason you can not or do want to remove the stump completely for around 100.00 and be done with it.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Never meet a stump that a: 
mattock;
shovel;
digging bars; 
axe;
and unlimited ice water could defeat.....

OR PLan B:


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

Tripp1 said:


> In the ground, no pic to share


So that begs the question are you going to leave it in the ground, or take it out and eventually make something from it?

What kind of tree was it?


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## Tripp1 (Nov 1, 2009)

Want to flatten it for a friend to make some sort of planter for the top

Not sure on species


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

If you just want to flatten it, use a chainsaw...


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Build the dirt up around it and put a planter on top. My dad use to use 2 sticks and 50' of fuse. 

Herb


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

Herb Stoops said:


> Build the dirt up around it and put a planter on top. My dad use to use 2 sticks and 50' of fuse.
> 
> Herb


I like it!


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

I think what Tripp wants is to flatten and level the top surface of the_ in-situ _stump, for further development...a planter was mentioned.
No one I know personally has a chainsaw with a 4' bar...that's a serious machine.
Granberg International |


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

DaninVan said:


> I think what Tripp wants is to flatten and level the top surface of the_ in-situ _stump, for further development...a planter was mentioned.
> No one I know personally has a chainsaw with a 4' bar...that's a serious machine.
> Granberg International |


That looks like a 6',2-man saw with the outboard handle removed.:smile::smile: There is a serious amount of lumber in that sump.

Herb


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

DaninVan said:


> I think what Tripp wants is to flatten and level the top surface of the_ in-situ _stump, for further development...a planter was mentioned.
> No one I know personally has a chainsaw with a 4' bar...that's a serious machine.
> Granberg International |


Dan you don't need a 4' bar get through a 4' tree. My big one has a 36" bar (Husky 394) and the biggest arbutus I went through was 54". You have to attack it from two sides. If you want it level, you can use 2 x 4's nailed on to the stump to guide you. 

Not really a job for someone who hasn't used a bigger saw before.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Heh...road Tripp!!!
Sorry; I don't know what came over me 

This isn't helping Tripp with his project. Maybe a router ski setup?


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## BrianS (Nov 7, 2004)

Tripp1 said:


> Hello all,
> 
> Anyone have any luck flattening a stump?
> 
> ...


Yes, I see no reason why this wouldn't work to level the surface. Make sure your frame is solid and won't move on you... maybe go so far as to sinking it into the ground to help with stability, and take little bites at a time until you get it where you want it.


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

I can see this is going to take a while. Stick being the wonderful person that he is I bet he would do it for you. :wink:


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## sunnybob (Apr 3, 2015)

Plus 1 for the blackpowder approach.

Great entertainment value.


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## The Hobbyist (Apr 25, 2015)

Cut it into 3" slices, and sell them for $1,500.00 each. Retire!


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## Tripp1 (Nov 1, 2009)

Thanks, for the help


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Old stump in most climates attract termites, which soon discover your house. We kept a near 4 ft stump and within a year it was infested, and that's in a very dry region. Then had it ground down, which we do with all removed trees now.


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

I made a lot of burl tables, back in the day. Ninety-nine percent of my work was free hand using what ever gnawed off wood.

For example, I used a chain saw to rough it down, then an electric hand plane. I have a Porter Cable Siding Sander and a twenty-four grit, carbide disk for it, so using that, then a belt and ROS was fair game too.

When I was done, I had a piece of tempered glass cut for the top. To support it, I used car valves. I just drilled holes and, using a level, pounded them down, until they were all level with each other.

To disguise the use of car valves, I just took some PVC and cut it to the same length as from the underside of the valve to the wood. Then I used a round rasp to put a bevel inside the pipe. 

When done, I cut into the pipe with a band saw, so the pipe would spread to drop down over the valve and snap shut when against the wood.

No one ever knew.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

ew.. those are nice...


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Just a thought......I have never routed green wood before. If the stump is fresh cut ,how would green wood cut with a router? End grain too? Also if it were a Doug Fir,Pine,Larch, or such large stump , the pitch would be a problem would it not? 
I had several large Fir trees cut years ago ,and like Tom said the carpenter ants and red termites moved in a couple of years later. When they were cut, the pitch just poured out of the stump.

Herb


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## Ghidrah (Oct 21, 2008)

I did this one a bit over a year ago, transit and chainsaw and wifey. However a stick banged into the ground with another screwed into it with a cheapo centering bubble on the cross stick and a helper would provide the same result.

What I did discover, due to my lack of lumberjack skills is the top doesn't need to be perfect flat or level, it can be shimmed to perfect. What is important is the diameter of the table in relation to the diameter of the stump and what the tables function will be.

Big diam. table, small diam. stump
Supporting flower pots only, an equilibrium can be acquired by even distribution of weight. 

Table used for entertainment, food, etc.
If it will require bracing.

I cut the stump to its height during the winter after a big honkin snow storm snapped that trunk. Lucky only one of the large branches from it hit the corner of the house leaving -0- damage. You may consider treating the stump top with fungicide and insecticide to prevent rot and infestation.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Ghidrah said:


> I did this one a bit over a year ago, transit and chainsaw and wifey. However a stick banged into the ground with another screwed into it with a cheapo centering bubble on the cross stick and a helper would provide the same result.
> 
> What I did discover, due to my lack of lumberjack skills is the top doesn't need to be perfect flat or level, it can be shimmed to perfect. What is important is the diameter of the table in relation to the diameter of the stump and what the tables function will be.
> 
> ...


My experience was the termites bore in below ground and ate their way out the top. Would be hard to stop with insecticide.

Herb


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Ghidrah said:


> ... You may consider treating the stump top with fungicide and insecticide to prevent rot and infestation.


The big trees on my property were both Cottonwoods and their roots kept sprouting all over the yard. It helped when I drilled a series of 3/8th holes all round the stump, near the edge where the live wood was and pouring in Roundup. This has to be done shortly after cutting off the trunk, or after making a fresh cut so the sap flowing down carries the Roundup into the roots. 

I have used pieces of trunk here and there as decorative elements. I suggest if you do that, coat the bottom with a generous coating of a plastic coating of the same type you use to protect the interior of a swamp cooler from rust. Forms a barrier for bugs. I just wouldn't leave the roots and crown in the ground. 

If the tree were really valuable wood, you should probably dig it out. Most roots stay near the surface, so you can cut through to loosen it and then have it removed whole so you can resaw the crown where all the interesting burl is.


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## firstmuller (Aug 28, 2014)

Not sure how close to the ground it is but I would be careful of dirt in it dulling your bit.
Allen


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

Dejure said:


> I made a lot of burl tables, back in the day. Ninety-nine percent of my work was free hand using what ever gnawed off wood.
> 
> For example, I used a chain saw to rough it down, then an electric hand plane. I have a Porter Cable Siding Sander and a twenty-four grit, carbide disk for it, so using that, then a belt and ROS was fair game too.
> 
> ...


Kelly, those tables are exquisite. And the valve idea? How very ingenious. Great example of thinking outside the proverbial box.


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

Herb Stoops said:


> Just a thought......I have never routed green wood before. If the stump is fresh cut ,how would green wood cut with a router? End grain too? Also if it were a Doug Fir,Pine,Larch, or such large stump , the pitch would be a problem would it not?
> I had several large Fir trees cut years ago ,and like Tom said the carpenter ants and red termites moved in a couple of years later. When they were cut, the pitch just poured out of the stump.
> 
> Herb


Sir Herb. The pitch that comes out of D. firs is usually caused by a shake in the tree. I think that Chuck could explain this better than I, but essentially, when a big fir - or medium sized one I guess - goes through a big windstorm, it bends.

Now sometimes, adjoining rings inside the tree will separate just a little. Over time, this shake area will start to fill with pitch. When the tree is cut down, that pitch has nowhere to go but out.

Something else to look for when a fir starts to lean a little is pitch coming out one side of the tree higher up. This may be caused by either damage to the bark, e.g. a branch snapping off right against the tree, or a shake close to the outside of the tree. This usually shows up as a yellowish looking substance which will run way down the tree, or if the tree is over far enough, it will simply drip onto the ground. It's all but impossible to clean this stuff off if it gets anywhere on you.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Herb Stoops said:


> My experience was the termites bore in below ground and ate their way out the top. Would be hard to stop with insecticide.
> 
> Herb


top the stump the bet you can w/ a chainsaw...
bore hole from to to roots...
fill the borings w/ copper-tox till it won't take any more...
level the top w/ floor leveler...
add a top plate/table top to shed water...


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

DesertRatTom said:


> The big trees on my property were both Cottonwoods and their roots kept sprouting all over the yard. It helped when I drilled a series of 3/8th holes all round the stump, near the edge where the live wood was and pouring in Roundup. This has to be done shortly after cutting off the trunk, or after making a fresh cut so the sap flowing down carries the Roundup into the roots.
> 
> .


bore holes...
pound in soft copper tube into the holes...
the copper will kill the root structure...


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Stick486 said:


> bore holes...
> pound in soft copper tube into the holes...
> the copper will kill the root structure...


Good to know,those cottonwoods are a pest, taking over the world. Cotton Wood Terrorism, they are even cutting them at the mills for lumber . And Weyerhauser CO. has been planting cottonwood plantations for paper pulp for the last 20 years. To me they are like those Asian Carp.

Herb


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## cocobolo1 (Dec 31, 2015)

Herb Stoops said:


> Good to know,those cottonwoods are a pest, taking over the world. Cotton Wood Terrorism, they are even cutting them at the mills for lumber . And Weyerhauser CO. has been planting cottonwood plantations for paper pulp for the last 20 years. To me they are like those Asian Carp.
> 
> Herb


Cottonwoods for lumber? Sheesh what are they going to come up with next?

Up this way they are strictly a pulpwood tree. IMO that's all they are worth.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

cocobolo1 said:


> Cottonwoods for lumber? Sheesh what are they going to come up with next?
> 
> Up this way they are strictly a pulpwood tree. IMO that's all they are worth.


That is what they said about poplar a few years ago, "junk wood"

Herb


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Herb Stoops said:


> That is what they said about poplar a few years ago, "junk wood"
> 
> Herb


Now it's _really_ Poplar...


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## Ghidrah (Oct 21, 2008)

By far in my area, residential/commercial properties suffer from carpenter ants than termites.

Regarding trees, the big problem in our area are tree borers, they seem to go after live and healthy as well as aged and deteriorated. The white pine in my previous post was saved from pine bark borers about 20 yrs ago by the whole family and insulation retaining rods, my wife, kids and I would go out to the pines in the yard, wherever we found a hole in the bark, weeping or not we poked the rods into the holes to destroy the bastiches.

The woods behind our house look like a war zone with all the dead WP, but it's just as bad out front now with the pitch pine borers, a tree falls about once a month, unless its really windy. So many dead trees and all I've heard from the town and extension service is we don't know and we're looking into it.

Ants and termites will tunnel wherever the wood is rotting, I've seen mud tunnels running from grade up foundations on a few homes and condos.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Ghidrah said:


> By far in my area, residential/commercial properties suffer from carpenter ants than termites.
> 
> Regarding trees, the big problem in our area are tree borers, they seem to go after live and healthy as well as aged and deteriorated. The white pine in my previous post was saved from pine bark borers about 20 yrs ago by the whole family and insulation retaining rods, my wife, kids and I would go out to the pines in the yard, wherever we found a hole in the bark, weeping or not we poked the rods into the holes to destroy the bastiches.
> 
> ...


That is sad, Ronald, If it is not one darned thing it is another. You might consider planting cottonwoods , nothing wants them. and they are self sustaining, everwhere a seed tuff falls a new tree will grow.

Herb


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

Herb Stoops said:


> That is sad, Ronald, If it is not one darned thing it is another. You might consider planting cottonwoods , nothing wants them. and they are self sustaining, everwhere a seed tuff falls a new tree will grow.
> 
> Herb


and just may be the new poplar...


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

Cotten wood for lumber? Probably going to slice it up and stick it in Chinese plywood.


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## DesertRatTom (Jul 3, 2012)

When I built our sheds, I found a root about 7 inches across had grown all the way to the front yard and helped damage the septic system. In their search for water, the can and will grow beneath your slab and break it up. Root system is expansive and shallow. Best thing to do with a Cottonwood is have it removed. 

Out here in the desert, we also have an invader from China, the Tamarisk. Its tap root will dive a couple hundred feet for water and it sucks up about 200 gallons of water a day and on top of that, it adds huge amounts of salt to the soil around it so nothing will grow there. 

We just had to remove a number of trees recently, two Tamarisk, a beautiful pine that had become a fire bridge to the house, and a little ash tree that was nearly dead anyhow. Have some new small trees to plant, but they won't be producing any shade during my lifetime.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Re the Copper deterrent that Stick suggested, you can accomplish the same thing by pouring a saturated Copper Sulfate solution into those bored holes.
A long ship's auger will get you deep into the stump.


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

DesertRatTom said:


> Cotten wood for lumber? Probably going to slice it up and stick it in Chinese plywood.


I think it is already being used for that, Tom.

Tamarisk? that is a new one one me. Wonder how they got started here. 
Wonder if some creative landscaper planted them thinking they would survive in arid climate?
All of my blue spruce were killed a few years ago by some bug. At one time they were thriving and beautiful, then the needles all fell off and they were done.

Herb


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