PeteB

I scan photos with my printer and they come out okay! Easier and better quality than trying to take digital photos of old pictures!

I signed with BT in the end, I hope they are better than last attempt! On a similar note, I actually looked at my combined energy bill for the first time in years. The leaflet about changing tariffs and saving money piqued my interest. If I moved, I could save myself £400 on what I'm currently paying! I phoned the E.On call centre and the Asian sounding lady offered me her best deal which would save me £4 per month! She suggested that their online deals where fair better - that will save £6 per month! It seems that they cannot be that enthusiastic so I'm going to swap.

I am on cable and all VM could bang about was how fast they were,which is fine if you got a house full of gamers, stream films at the same time and all phones connected. But I am not..... when asked why i was leaving, I did admit that when I attempted to leave last time to drop down in outlay - something that they couldn't/wouldn't help with, I signed over to BT only to be contacted by VM three days later to be offered a spanking deal and that I was furious that they tabled this offer after I had agreed to go. The girl agreed that they get flack for this, I then asked for her to put a note on file that I didn't want any further contact with them on the matter. Guess who phoned with a 'top deal' this morning? It was a short 'call....

Signed up with BT. No automatic upgrades/uplift, UK call centres, listened to what I was after, same price now and in two years (no new customer deals that loyal customers don't have access too), and Frank openness that confirmed that they were pish poor in the past and did a lot to please the OfComm people. Virgin mediocre given their notice, I had to enter my 3rd, 5th and 6th letters of my password and that failed but they agreed I had punched in the right numbers. I had to give bill date and amount too, the algorithm rejected it but the operator agreed I was right! I hope this works as new technology/supplier is supposed to work, I'm the sort that doesn't have tech work properly! Even my own mobile is silent, although the volume is high and ringtone selected, it is silent. My newish works iPhone has gone through stages of not recording numbers called or missed. I had a BlackBerry which I cursed daily, I got blamed for being a technophobe, but after 12 months, it was agreed that I hadn't done anything wrong but it didn't work! We shall see.....

Curtilage? Should I have a broddle with a set of rods? In your experience, would they go towards the brook behind the house or join mains sewer?

The drive, garden and garage flooded again yesterday. The butts overflowed despite them connected to hoses that went to the bottom of the garden and on the other side of the house, the water from the down pipe wasn't getting into the hole quick enough and overflowing, with the surface stuff coming down the hill, it was couple of inches deep pdq! I checked my bill and I pay a rainwater tariff so decided to route the one down pipe direct into waste water. The OfWat web page seems to say that this is okay. It rained again and the garden and garage etc flooded again! Water was boiling out of the 'soakaway' and this was causing the flooding. It appears that I don't have soakaways, but have drains. Somewhere between me and the brook, it is blocked! I got to find out who is responsible for it next.....

Years back, my local chap would routinely use a surface grinder to dress out a bar. He would also assess the gap and depth for us. Yes, we paid, but it was a good relationship and paid dividends in terms of freeing up people to do work and he was always there for us. Shame that his son didn't want to carry on the business. He couldn't then get a Stihl account then but we still brought stuff through him although it would have been cheaper to buy from a catalogue (no internet in them days), as he always helped us at every turn. Top man!

I haven't logged on for a while and, like a div, forgotten the password. Following the online prompts, I supply my account number, bill date and amount bit it isn't recognised. The web chat doesn't go anywhere and the phone line needs the password input! I had a bad do with them the other year and got rolled over by BT too so had to go back to VM. Anyone know of a decent supplier of broadband and TV packages?

I reckon we make over 5000kg of blades per year and don't ever recall any bad batches. Goodwill?, yes, I have given a number of free sets away, I don't recall any on an accusation of being too hard, just goodwill or thanks for a favour done like the use a machine for an hour etc.... I did get told that batches of blades are made from a known type of steel, machined to tolerance then heat treated to a set standard. There a number per batch that are tested as part of that suppliers routine quality control and CE compliance certificate. I've seen some very good (and very cheap) copies too, but would never advocate using them.

True enough, but add professional fees for the report, the time sending them off and all else and for what end? If they are within specified limits, what is the gain? The chances that they are wrong are slim and one cannot be sure that something in the material chipped did not start the damaged? To be honest, I'd chalk it up to experience and walk on.

It used to be a notifable disease. Burn on site and no removal etc. I had a load to do in the 90's and it cropped up regularly. I've had a few episodes of pneumonia etc since but then, I smoke, weld smoke, wood dust, animal dust etc, so hard to blame anything nowadays!

Rockwell is just a measure of hardness and with hardness comes brittle. Tto hard and things shatter, too soft and the edge goes off really fast. A test would be expensive and even if they are too hard, the damage is done. Hopefully, not other damage has been done to the blade bed, bolt hole or the rest of the machine. Check shear bars, bearings and the 'wrap' or chipper casing. There may be a hydraulic tank which is part of the casing and you don't want that punctured! I doubt that it is covered by warranty.....

Sure nothing bad went through to start it off? Was the infeed speed too high and the blade was being asked to par off too much in one bite? I 'ring' blades before fitting them, my old arboreater used a few blades and we learnt after a similar failure to check before fitting. A dull ring and that set was put aside!

Alan Oldfield at Beaver Plant has a decent sized forestry spec excavator with a good mulcher and he knows his onions, thing he has a big Valtra set up too. He will quote a decent day rate etc....

Ring the factory for advice. You do have the numbers.....

You could fit a 'gag' in the circuit? Basically an insert which has a small diameter hole in it that restricts the flow. No good on a high usage circuit as it will heat up the oil, but for a rotator, it might work. Have a google on some of the hydraulic suppliers web pages.

Uh oh! Bearing is US, quite rare too. If you are lucky, two bearings and job is a good un! Hopefully shaft is okay, blades and shear bars need checking too. Call GreenMech or take it to your local GM dealer.

I would think I live in a pretty ordinary, early 80's, three bed detached house, thrown up with some haste and maybe some corners cut in the name of profit/haste...I've lived here about 12 years and had a constant battle with rainwater sitting on my driveway and on several occasions, flooding my drive, garage and garden with surface water and "brown" water. Over the years, myself and others have moaned bitterly about this to the various bodies involved and got fobbed off by their experts who claim it doesn't happen, is beyond physics, the once in 50 year event etc.... Basically, we are at the bottom of the hill so any rainwater that misses a drain heads my way. There was a blocked surface water drain into the brook behind which was fixed but the puddles still kept getting into my brick blocks...sensors where fitted to the sewers to alert them when they were flooded and a NRV fitted in my system to prevent it coming back up my loo. A short time ago, a well informed chap came from the council, took one look and said that there was a surface water issue and he would try to get it altered but not to anticipate anything too quick. He took me to one side and we had a deniable conversation. The estate was built with too much haste, the inspections at the time were wrong and incomplete, the drainage was inadequate and wrongly laid (it has to flow uphill at one point), the rainwater off the roofs should have gone into either proper soakaways or fed back in to the drains. Each side of my roof drains into a gravel filled hole, possibly a meter square, and added with the stuff that flows downhill, cause the flooded driveway. He suggested that I get a couple of water butts and regularly drain them. This was done. Last week, they were both at tap level as I let them drain slowly into the dried up lawn. This morning, they are full again! And, my drive isn't flooded! I never really considered how much rain falls and how crap these house were built!

Tbh, most main suppliers, like Greenplant, or any of our dealers, they would despatch parts by courier direct to your door. If they do not have it in, then their supplier, whatever the make, will dispatch direct too. There may be a cost, but, say it is £15, that is cheap in comparison with the time lost going to the dealer when you could be doing something else.

Ooph! "Not take long to change?" Altering a manufactured machine and then getting it through CE Ccompliancy? I seem to recall that it took Orange Plant over a year to get it done on a Carlton wood chipper and major expense!

Drones are amazing pieces of kit, and you need some practice and skill to fly them. I got a small one which has decimated the house plants, scared seven shades out the the cats and I still dare not take it outside for fear of losing it! Good luck to him!

Save up and get a GreenMech?

Ex hire machine?

Update! Finally got mine back. To be fair, they went on furlough for a while then they were doing only urgent works. I asked what had been done but got told, "everything Ford told us to!" And Ford paid the expected +£2k bill. I did ask if they expected to see me again and they told me that if it goes again, one of two things could happen, firstly, they would prefer me to crash it hard and secondly, the Ford Technician would have to trails North again! It was really weird getting into a smooth automatic, comfortable, powerful and tight suspension etc. Rather than the frankly awful 63 plate, 2.2 manual old reps Express!

If it is as in the picture, don't bother, the infeed chute controls etc do not adhere to the HS&E regulation.