MattyF

First peas last night.

How did you get on growing the sweet potato ? I tried a few years back and it was an expensive disaster !

Typical guardian article ... load of absolute shite.

Rob D put some pictures up years back of some poplar that had some stunning rippling in he had milled, I'd never seen owt like it any way! Seemed to stand out a lot more than sycamore , I suppose the only down side is it will have dented easily.

Yard cat sitting on old mog around early 90's ... will dig out some more 80's ones when I get a chance and can find them!

Lot of very old timber frames done in black poplar .. I would say there would be potentially a big difference in hybrid black pop and the traditional black poplar that's nearly extinct in this country.

Absolutely , die back effects the trees ability to move water and nutrients as it closes down and blocks the cells the trees use, the lower stems and trunks seem to be ringing wet ...I've seen sap pour out when felled in the growing season as they can't transport it around the canopy. This makes it a right pig to season ... when they are off leaf it still seams to make good fire wood though.

Haha thanks !! I've had that time off trying to support misses and get used to sleepless nights ... well wasn't really time off as I've been in the yard doing firewood and the odd job.

Mk2 is a good saw imo so much so I've replaced my 560's with them for soft wood dressing small felling and brought ms400's for hard woods and more torquey bucket work when needed... Any one wants a ms400 I'll let my back up go for £500 has a dent in the handle and a broken fin but no way effects it's performance is a very strong saw , it's just after 6 weeks unpayed maternity it's time to sell any fishing , shooting and unused saws to claw some money back in the account.

Two of the goons , jack russell has never learnt to stay well out of the way with cranes , I hit him in the the top yard 6-7 years back when loading 2.7 's of soft wood with one that fell out of a bunch in the grab , bowled him and I thought this is going to be an expensive vet bill , he just ran straight home and hid in his bed and was fine.. sprocker just wants to jump in the cab and look out the window whilst jumping on the tractor throttle when I'm operating the crane, which can be exciting so I moved the tool box so he could sit on the other side .......unfortunately I put it on top of a fire extinguisher that went off when the corner of the tool box tapped through it this morning filling the tractor cab with fire retardant !!we had to bail out [emoji38]really they don't mix with work but they love it.

The process should or is relatively easy , it's just like every other civil service department after the whole covid debacle in utter chaos and does not know what is going on or communicate with them selves or any one trying to apply or renew .... whole thing is not helped by most of the country who have no idea of countryside management and think it would be as easy as releasing a few lynx to let it all go for the perfect wildlife management and pushing for a ban on all hunting as they see all animals like some thing from water ship down

How do you find the trakmet ? How big a diameter will it take?

Bearings and belts obviously off the shelf are not the same as modifying a machine to bypass a feature that would cost money to fix is what I'm getting at... take it which way you want I really could not give a ****************.

**************** off bell end , read back what I wrote , folk here are talking about modding grinders , I know of some one who would not get a pay out because the grinder had been modified for chance of spending money on it ... by all means do what you have too but I was pointing out some times it's not worth it....

That's all good and I don't blame you guys I would do the same .. maybe worth thinking about though if your not owner operator is that any machine modified without factory parts your insurance will be probably be invalid , not so much important on the wee chipper but grinders have pretty good potential to do a lot of damage to a person.

No the employer loses as they take on another bullshitting waste of space... I'll agree to disagree with you mick as I think your situation is entirely different.

I think with the main advantage with billets is it obviously shortens seasoning ... it does involve more work but ultimately I think the billets could provide a better product. I don't think the AMR would struggle to cut any billets with some of the lumps of gnarly ancient beech I've put through ours.

Ok here is my view , you should not be taking nptcs unless you are doing an apprenticeships or proven 6months on site experience with competent staff .. if you want to do saw training for home use a lantra course would suffice. In response to mick asking where is my evidence to say how long or how many people stay in the industry after training , I don't have figures but that is a conservative guess from working in a commercial setting to see how long the average stay for , I doubt a good half don't last more than 3 years , some less than 6 months. It would be interesting to see how many folk who where posters on this forum since it began have left the industry.. I would guess most of its members.

Probably not but the movement is still minimum , I've done stuff with green oak and it's moved inches.

Made this from oak about 5 years back , was seasoned when it went on and has had minimal movement......I'm no carpenter but I built this for my dad so he could get in and out of his garden with out climbing the wall when he was I'll.

Did you not find it leaked ? The fuel cap seals are junk , the crank bearings and seals junk , piston ring ... most of it is pretty poor, I brought one in bits to build one Christmas holiday years back and found myself replacing loads with OEM, then although it worked and maybe seemed ok I would not of had any confidence in running it as a primary saw.

Did you not find it leaked ? The fuel cap seals are junk , the crank bearings and seals junk , piston ring ... most of it is pretty poor, I brought one in bits to build one Christmas holiday years back and found myself replacing loads with OEM, then although it worked and maybe seemed ok I would not of had any confidence in running it as a primary saw.

That's good mick ... with out trying to make out I'm mint or something because your special too treacle is that only a small percentage of NPTC trained people go on in the industry more than 3 years , they should be more ruthless and kick out the dead wood to save accident stats that effect us trying to employ and maintain business

He was a good trainer , at the time I could not stand the guy but I'm sure the feeling was mutual , but my point being if more students where drummed in to basic training it sticks and being mentored by arbs who know what they are doing helps. The jobs pretty easy if you follow a few basic rules with out trying to to short cuts and keep it methodical , there is absolutely no need for two ropes unless the situation requires it and that's how I'll continue working for now.

When I was at merrist wood as a teenager desperate to get in the industry I failed my climbing nptcs and my felling once , I genuinely felt like I was being made an example of and picked on in front of the rest of my tutor group being the youngest , also I was probably one of the only ones with previous experience and bad habits already , I did have a problem with this.... the tutor glen who was an ex marine and rumoured ex SbS took me to one side after he passed me and said out of the whole year only a very small percentage of people here would go on and make it in the industry and in his view I had what it takes , also in his view I needed bringing down a peg or two and have it drummed in to me the correct and safe way of doing things as if I carried on so cock sure I would probably hurt myself... I walked away from that feeling pissed off but 28 years later after never falling or cutting myself out a tree and having done some trees in situations I don't think many could of done , being able to pass this information on to give a good base to any one I have brought on in to the industry I owe the guy , and so do they !! But I have seen and worked with folk though who in my opinion should have never of been passed ever in the first place... NPTCS have become far to lax.