Quickthorn

So who exactly gets £11/hr stacking shelves? I've just had a search, and I can't find anything over £8/hr..and that's for nights and includes any night premiums. Pay rates have always been poor in this line of work; there are other rewards. Anyone who goes to work purely for the money would be a lot better off retraining and finding something else, for everyone's sake. When I employed people, the ones who moaned about money all the time were never satisfied anyway: a pay rise would shut them up for a month or two, then they would be off again

I've just had one made up for a trailer. Like they say above, V5 plus driving licence needed.

If it is mainly 6-12", with the odd 18" thrown in, i'd say 346xp. I'm using a 15" bar, full chisel chain on an older 346, doing that sort of stuff at the moment, and I can't see the need for much bigger. If it was mainly 18", then 357xp plus for sure. I think it also depends on how much rubbish you have to cut through to get to the trees. If the site's full of honeysuckle, bramble, thorn shrubs and all the rest, a bigger saw isn't going to help that much, but you'll feel the weight. If you're buying new, the new edition 346XP (silver side) is not far off the 357 anyway..it's a 50cc saw now, rather than 46cc or whatever it was. I used to have a couple of 026s, but I much prefer the Huskys. Can't help you on other makes, sorry.

This might be more of an issue on harvesters, where a chain breaking has led to chain shot, which has penetrated the cab and the operator himself. A lot of those accidents have happened where chains were made up in the woods by the operators themselves. Personally, I can remember only two chains breaking when I was using them: both were cutting at the time, and stayed safely buried in the wood, and both were bought in as loops.

That's the bit that interested me. I thought they'd be lifting tax free allowances to £10,000 pretty much straight away. However, if you read the actual text of the agreement, it says: "We agree to announce in the first Budget a substantial increase in the personal allowance from April 2011, with the benefits focused on those with lower and middle incomes. [...] "We also agree to a longer term policy objective of further increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, making further real terms steps each year towards this objective." Which says pretty much nothing, and leaves plenty of room for them to wriggle out of it. After all, it would get to £10,000 eventually anyway. Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.

That's incredibly mean spirited, given the amount of public money you've received recently for your CHP scheme. £150 k was it?

..and this is your problem. However you justify it to yourself or anyone else, it's what HMCE think that counts.

Also, any red diesel use would only be for forestry, agriculture or horticulture, and won't include arb.

Is this for a set of audited accounts? £200 isn't too bad if that's the case.

I've used a 390xp with 28" bar, only a few times, but it seems a pretty good saw. Had no problem ringing up 30" dia ash. I'm thinking of getting one myself

I think you mean ICB qualified. Anyway, do you have any evidence for this? I can't find anything that says this. Dean, the best thing you could do would be to go the source of information that HMRC use - their Staff manuals. The one you want for this is the Business Income Manual. In that, you'll find the advice they give their staff on how to judge various claims, etc. The section BIM4000 will probably be the most use, and it's probably what you and others are paying your accountant to flick through.

If all you do is firewood, and it stays at 5% for fuel, I'd agree with the above, but I don't think the flat rate scheme would be a good idea for you over the long run.

Some good shots there. There are some good walks around there; well worth going in the week, when it's quieter. Funnily enough, I drove past the place both on Saturday and Sunday. Didn't have time to stop though, as I had 14 hrs of chipping to do in selston

Nice pictures.. CJ, Do you have a rough idea of how much you're extracting on the average day, and over what sort of distance? And are there any deadlines on the felling to do with bird nesting and other wildlife?

Good find, but I think this one is worse. I mean, what on earth did they think was going to happen? [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW9-bCb1RVY]As above..South African style[/ame]

I know.. ..but has anyone had this problem and succeeded in curing it? Over a year (7-8000 miles), I'm topping up both transfer and main boxes to the tune of a litre or so each. They only seem to leak when they're on the move, as they'll drip dry after a journey, but after a period of being stood, the drips stop, so I'm assuming main box output seal and transfer box input seal are shot. Now, I had the transfer box seal done a while ago, and that worked..for about a week..so I'm supposing that the track on which it runs has also gone..the only problem is that this track, as far as I know, is part of the main box mainshaft. Does this mean I've got to rebuild or replace the main gearbox to cure these leaks?? I hate oil leaks, especially the thought of trailing oil everywhere I go, but replacing the gearbox seems like an expensive fix, and I've had to put up with them so far.. The problem is that it's looking more and more obvious when I turn up to sensitive sites, nature reserves etc., especially on wet days, when even a teaspoon of leaked oil stands out on puddles.

It depends a bit on what gear the customer has, I'd have thought. I've been working in some coppice on a 20 year rotation. There was ash regrowth there around 15 cm dbh, with timber heights of up to 12 m or so. The majority of the regrowth was all handleable, so if the customer isn't really kitted up with cranes or loaders, it's a good size, but output on the felling is a bit low on such small sized stuff. If he's got bigger kit to handle bigger stuff, perhaps a 30 year rotation might be more efficient, if that is an issue, although on 3 ha, the plot sizes are getting a bit small; you'd have 30 plots of 1000 square m. Alternatively, just tell him to carry on what he was doing and call it continuous cover forestry! Broadleaves yield about 4-6 cu m./ha/yr, so his 7 t p.a from 3 ha sounds sustainable.

Mine used to be £30. If you thought about doing it, getting in with the National Association of Chimney sweeps might be the best way. The sweep I used was a member, and used to issue a certificate to show that the chimney had been swept - that's why I used him rather than the cheaper and nearer bloke, as regular sweeping was in the tenancy agreement. This might be more important these days, because an insurance company might ask those sort of questions if a chimney fire did break out. Also, this sweep always used the chance to drop a leaflet for his mate, who runs a mammoth firewood business in the area

Hawthorn again, with ash as a close second. The thorn seems to burn a little hotter, and stays in longer; ash does almost as well, and is a lot easier to cart about and process when green.

If the wood's dirty, you might make more headway with a semi chisel chain. The corner of the chain is slightly curved, like on Oregon Microchisel rather than square. This sort of chain is easier to sharpen, and doesn't lose its edge as quickly as full chisel if the wood is dirty. There's slightly less risk of kick back. The down side is that it doesn't cut as fast as full chisel.

Western Red Cedar?

What about the forestry exemption? There are a few people on here who cut firewood or other forestry products. Surely this should apply to us? "Vehicles used or hired without a driver by agricultural, horticultural, forestry, farming or fishery undertakings for carrying goods as part of their own entrepreneurial activity within a radius of 100 km from the base of the undertaking"

Failing all of those, I've used Burdens (N Kyme, Lincs) before. They delivered it to N Notts for a Monday 8.30 start with no problems..Nottingham's a similar distance from them.

You know your bloke better than I do, but IMHO, that's not a good start.

I've heard that some Husky bars are prone to the nose going. The bearing goes, or the sprocket breaks up, and the spreading is the damage caused by the fast moving chain coming to a sudden stop.