MattyF

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.

When have any of us disrespected American veterans? Dear god.... Does remind me of an old boy telling me a story about his wife in the pub years back as she was chewing his ear off. " you know I used to fight the yanks over her when we where courting , wish I'd let them take her" I found out something the other day I thought was relatively interesting another time the America government had our pants down for its benefit before joining in Destroyers-for-bases deal - Wikipedia EN.M.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

There must of been guys doing that.. but of what I'm aware the first serious sit harnesses I remember seeing where troll rock climbing ones.

WTF are you on? We stood alone against the Germans and Russians whilst you where selling them fuel for there panzers and sitting on the fence still, the fact your country still had apartheid for its own citizens until the the mid 60's should tell you how much you regard human life.. to be honest though I'm out, I refuse to argue with some one who thinks tying a large mature tree to a skid steer and making a single cut until it barbers chairs is an acceptable felling solution....... good bye and stay safe [emoji106]

Only idiot is you Daniel , I've watched some truly utter dangerous and stupid videos from yourself over the years. In this country we have a highly regulated , trained and equipment checked industry ,loler, nptc's are required all on all sites, along with the safe practice and guidance inline with current regs .. whilst I might not agree with a lot of it I have always felt it gives a lot of British arbs a an edge and why are death toll is know where near your levels.

No sorry , I have not watched any for years but one popped up one day , some kind of conifer , over a house , fence etc no crane access , the sort of bread and butter of UK felling we get and just wow, every rigged limb getting hung up , no tag lines and for some reason two climbers when the whole job would of gone smoothly in my view if they had one climber on SRT and the other should of been more use on a tag line , that's my opinion though.... none of it would usually appeal to me and I can see why it would to a lot of people , he has an audience and his good at his job and can provide entertainment .

Lay them flat ? Rig ?? I'm not impressed by smashing out big bits of wood ... any one can do that it's not rocket science..: and the one vid I did see of a technical takedown was an absolute shambles ,most of the others are gun Ho ,suicidal,Xgames out of control special Olympics .. I'd take reg coats down to earth and in control any day of the week.

No comment

And the advantage to having them go down brash first ?? Hit the ground and like a spring put the butt through your truck window or neighbours shed

I've had some right weirdos wanting too , I got on well with the last ranger and we had an agreement ... he's been moved on and to be honest I would rather do it myself as I'm always at a loose end when the salmon fishing season is over.. it just meant I didn't do any planting but broadleaves in shelters this year and that was limited as shelters are bloody expensive !

Good luck with that !!! Unless your eating road kill you will starve ! You can't shoot Deere with air rifles and I'm pretty sure bow shooting in the UK is illegal ... you will struggle to find any ground to shoot on and more importantly trying to get any gun licence from your local police force right now is near impossible even if you have very valid reasons , I've been waiting since last august and I am still waiting for a reply.. I've given up planting trees on our 33 acres of Christmas trees as Deere are jumping the fence and eating every thing, forestry commission rangers have been replaced by contractors who have no interest in shooting anything unless they can pull the trigger from there vans.