Timberjack Plans, Build It Yourself

A Timberjack or log jack, "log lifter" is a tool used to get logs off the ground.

These tools serve a couple of purposes, they lift the log up into a more comfortable working and cutting height, and they elevate the log so that your chainsaw or saw blade wont be digging into the dirt and ground around the log when cutting.

They are handy tools for loggers, or homeowners that heat with wood, and are simple to build with the right plans.

Log Lifter Timberjack Plans DIY Guide

As described above, the Timberjack is designed to get your log up off the ground and into a more workable height. These Timberjack Plans show you how to fabricate and build your own Timberjack / log jack from scraps of metal you may have around your shop and yard to use in order to keep the cost down.

Video: How to Build a Timberjack Log Lifter

Video: Timberjack Modification and Use

The Homebuilt Combined Cant Hook and Timberjack!

This home built steel cant hook for rolling logs includes a quick change log stand for jacking the log off the ground for easier cutting etc. It is made with 1" inch steel tube (3mm wall thickness) with larger tube that slips over to bolt on as interchangeable ends.

Video: Cant Hook Timberjack Combination Interchangeable Design

Vintage Log Jack Patents

This picture describes a log jack design that can be very handy to hold and raise or lower a felled tree.

Log Jack Components

planks with holes bored
felled tree log
iron chain
crotched tree limb
wood pry lever
iron pins

The main frame is made of two hardwood planks about 1-1/2 inches thick bolted together at the top and bottom, with a 2-inch space between for the lever to work in. One-inch holes are bored through the sides of both planks, in which iron pins are placed for the lever to pry over. The lever is made of white ash, and has two notches near the large end, with a chain link attached midway between notches. A stout chain is hooked in the link, passed under the log, and attached to a crotched limb leaning slightly against the opposite side of the log. By working the small end of the lever up and down and moving the pins up one hole at a time, a good-sized tree can be raised from the ground high enough to be sawed easily without a backache.

Timberjack log lift designs vary greatly but all serve the same purpose, to elevate your logs off the ground and into a much better working position. Depending on your working conditions, many variables apply to the bottom leg, or legs that stabilize the log once lifted. Soft ground requires a wider foot to avoid sinking into the ground. A double foot design generates even more stability.

The timberjack, or as some people call it a log jack, log lifter, is a tool that can be your best friend when it comes to lifting felled trees off the ground, so they could be bucked (cut up into desired length logs) easier. Without such a tool, it can be pretty awkward and dangerous to achieve the same result, since you will have to lift and somehow support the trees you want to buck on other trees, logs, or something else.

If you don’t elevate the trees you want to buck off the ground, you put unnecessary stress on your back and body, and risk digging your chainsaw chain into the ground, most likely requiring you to re-sharpen it.

A well built timberjack can support fairly large logs, some log jacks can support logs up to 20 inches in diameter.