Charlieh

oh well the piston is scored quite badly, looks like they knew the score as the spark plug was loose and several of the bolts including the exhaust ones were pretty loose (so had been out recently) further inspection shows a clogged airfilter so i guess they have just run it and its leaned out to much, problem is i cant get the cylinder off as it the p+c appear to have welded together! time for another phone call!

suppose i had it coming, i get quite a bit of kit of ebay, as normally i have a good idea what im after and only bid appropriately with some caution, well i bought a big stihl clearing saw the other day with a knackered gearbox, but sold as running. got it today engine is solid spoken to the bloke and have agreed to have a peek inside to see what the damage is and either return (i pay postage ) and get money refunded or meet half way on new parts either way im seriously hacked about them lying in the listing, also as i now have very very very strong suspicions about them being a machinery dealers (although they deny this quite badly i have cross checked emaill addys and phone numbers and somethings not right) what would everyone else do? should i just return it and demand the refund? i know even if i get a new p+c for it its still going to be cheap for what it is. oh well of to the workshop to see what the damage is! good job i had a free evening

right now im confused, my 130 is insured as a commertial vehicle, and taxed appropriately to what ever DVLA charge me, should i not have just had a normal MOT? does it need a class 7? whats the difference? proper confused!

i have had bit off them through ebay occasionally and always found the delivery quick, never had case to deal with over the phone or with a problem them so cant really comment on customer service. I have bought some bits from other sellers that seem pretty reasonable only to find out its quite old stock, and im not sure if there is a set limit on age of equipment?

could be the fuel tank breather needs cleaning, sounds like it could be restricting flow of fuel when the saw starts which would cause it to act as described. After it you have tried starting it a couple of times open the filler cap slowly and see if it sucks air inwards (although this probably isnt so easy on those horrid flappy type fillers)

Hi, random question as i cant find an online IPL for stihls strimmers, does anyone know if all the shaft sizes the same between the pro strimmers eg fs85 to fs100 and the clearing saws fs250 upwards? I know they have the same gear ratio but wondered if they have the same sized shaft as i have loads of bits for the strimmers eg hedge cutter heads, rotavators, spare gearboxes, shafts etc, and just wondered if these would fit a clearing saw? as i fancy upgrading to a clearing saw but wont bother if i cant swap my existing parts Charlie

did you make a smell in the car when you had the accident? as that seems like an awfully large amount of christmas tree air fresheners to hang from the rear view mirror

the 130 in its natural environment Was upsetting the public by re-enacting the scene from tomb raider!

30" is a bit big on a 77cc saw surely? maybe 24" would be a bit kinder on the saw (although only just) BTW: its the same bar mount as the larger current huskies 372xp - 3120

no mater what happens ask for feedback from the interview, it helps to highlight areas where you can focus for future and also looks like you take the process seriously even if you dont get the job, it makes you look more committed. May just sway the vote if the first choice doesnt accept it!

we have one smiliar for our mower but it has a plate that covers the side of the wheel, so you cant just take the wheel off, which would be my concearn with that design on the prolocker. i will try and find the manufacturers I must admit im a fan of two big chains one to a ground anchor and one to a structual piece of metal work, thus slowing the operation down unless they cut through the chassis (which isnt ideal if they want to re-sell it in a hurry http://www.mower-magic.co.uk/acatalog/Tractor_Security.html something along these lines!

surprised if its a HCPU its not already been on a commertial policy especially with NFU, i ended up going with adrian flux and saved about £100 over the NFU quote on my 130, but definatly shop around and get a few quotes and then go back to NFU and see what they can do. If they had been within £50 i would have gone with them, Charlie

student loan is a compounded interest if it goes above 3% its more economical for me to pay that than put money in my ISA, due to the way they charge interest

pay it off asap is my advice i paid £400 quid of my 12K remaining (i enjoyed uni....a lot!) and within 2 weeks they had £40 interest back on so within 2 weeks 10% of what i paid of had gone back on. simple fact is that if you pay what is required and you have a big loan, you likely wont ever pay it all off, Fact is they keep jumping the interest rate around, originally it was supposed to stay low, but at one point in the last 12months its been at 4.4%, its very bad to have if your self employed and trying to sort a house, mine has caused me nothing but trouble. oh year and 4 years at uni i cant remember oh yes and you cant fill in the short self assessment tax return if you have a stundet loan

there is no Salix fragilis on the area we are planning to work on, we have plenty here on the farm i live on and its shocking how well it can spread, tiny twigs grow so well, unfortunatly into areas designated for nature conservation! so we have to go round a few weeks after strong winds and pull all the new growth up!

many of my knives from finland have really nice birch burl handles on them, then seem plenty strong enough to have quite a lot of leverage placed on them without any bother at all

bumping an old thread rather than starting a new one, just sorting out moving into a new (to us) house, it has three open fire one of which will be having a log burner installed, in the lounge. (four open fires if you include the blocked up one i have found in one of the bedrooms) in the kitchen there is a knackered solid fuel aga the side has gone in it (badly), and its piped to do the hot water system with an immersion heater back up, so my question is do any of you run solid fuel cookers? if so what and how do you get on with them, the wife is keen to put a solid fuel back in and i have to say with oil and electric prices on the up shes probably right, there is an electric oven as well but being sourcing logs isnt a problem but electric bills maybe more of a head ache the way this country is going. anyway all feedback appreciated, Charlie

looks a handy bit of kit, will have to see if work will get me one! I like the idea of cutting some of the roots and pushing it over! i may try several techniques as this will be a bit of a demonstration to techniques that can be used so variety is a good thing! cheers for your input Charlie

maybe just pull/push them over with a digger rootball and all? or even do a back cut then push it with a digger so more of the cambium remains intact as long the back cut was deep enough so it didnt split down into the base of the tree

this is experimetal river restoration so there are no right or wrong ways of doing this yet, i have done some in the past with small stuff just laying over which works well, and have done willow weaving in the channel which works very well, but we are keen to introuduce some larger timber, and what i want to avoid is felling trees then moving them to where we want them and having to drive lots of stakes into the river bed to hold them, This is on a river which due to previous modifications doesnt vary much between winter and summer flows so were not doing this in areas critical to flooding, so i am keen to try just using the hinge and two additional stakes to hold the tree in possition, these trees will be in the 10-18" DBH range and will still have the canopy attached where possible. all ideas welcome...

cheers for the comments, Hopefully the hinge wont break on the trees ive selected as if they do it means im going to have to put my waders on and turn them into firework. I have selected a few trees i want to try this on but in true conservation style the site is really heavily designated so it will take some negotiation to be allowed to do it. Basically many of the rivers round here are degraded due to lack of wood being left in which provides refuge for fish and aquatic invertebrates, and hopefully we will soon be demoing a couple of sites where log jams/wood debris are being used for flood attenuation what are the chances of the tree surviving this if a decent hinge can be left? Charlie

Humour me please, just got back from a two day meeting, was still in Flairs in Doncaster at half one this morning Right if i wanted to fell a tree and keep the trunk attached to the stump, via the hinge would i be right in thinking that a very open notch/face cut of greater that 110degrees would be required? Also i assume i will need more of a hinge than normal, and just use some hi-lift wedges to drive it over, i have tried to illustrate below what i mean I think i may have to go and practise this first, but if anyone for any bizarre reason has tried to keep the hinge intact when felling how did you do it? i assume this will also be species dependant to some extent, i would doubt it would work on ash, but may be better on sycamores? Charlie please note the pictures are for illustration purposes and arent to scale! i dont normally do my felling cuts that high it will be as low as possible in this case!

oh great! cheers for the heads up, will start to make sure i lock and alarm it when ever i park up. the peak district is an easy target as there are lots of defenders, mostly on small farms where people dont lock vehicles, i have been out looking at work this morning and didnt lock mine when i walked off to look at the job. Just outside the peak district there have also been a spate of tractor thefts and not old tat, new £60K+ tractors although this seems to have quietened down now.

i remember when i used to go out on a friday night, i liked music like this.. [ame= ] [/ame] now im married and dont listen to music like this anymore