Rob D

Ah ok fair enough - you could do it - but it's more down to time - in that if you say cut to 4" as a rule of thumb it would take around 3-4 years to dry. But if you had the time then what you are suggesting does make sense. I often saw to 4" and then re saw at a later date.

No where near me but did anyone have this?

It's a big question - there's a lot to it and to understand it all I'd say is around 4 hours worth of info. It's to do with how wood grows/how it is cut/where the rings are/how fast it is dried/through sawn or quarter sawn - like sharpening a chainsaw or dismantling a tree. You need to already know a certain amount of info to understand it.

China had a lot of issues beginning of the year with their zero Covid policies. A major issue short and medium term I can see now is the £ to $ exchange rate. It hit £1 = $1.08 yesterday - that is the lowest since 1985. If it falls below $1.05 then that is the lowest in history. It may bounce back up but we could live in a world soon where the $ is higher than the £. That would almost stop us from importing some products. Almost everything we buy is in the $ so in effect it puts prices up by 25% on top of all the other price rises that have gone on.

This is the best method I have found to date - as everything matches up perfectly and gives maximum support. It needs to be refined [and another idea is to mill to say 3" or 4" - allow longer to dry - then re saw the planks afterwards if you need accurate 1.5" etc. Full video on the process here - I checked back a year later and it seems to be drying very well.

Ditto on this point - weight I have found the best as it is dynamic - banding needs a fair amount of regular tightening even if it's elastic.

I have a couple of the Stihl MSA 120s running 1/4 .043. Regardless of longevity issues I use them all the time - 1) it's much more relaxing not having to pull a saw to start it each time 2) lack of fumes 3) lack of noise 4) ref power usage - it doesn't use any when 'idling' - not a big deal but not sure that's been pointed out before I would of dreamed of having a little MSA 120 with an 8" 1/4 .043 next to the chipper in the old days to reduce any branches that were getting stuck. I reduced a hedge the other day using a combo of MSA 120s and 8" bar and 12" bar - it was a delight. I'm not sure about other applications but the more I use battery tools [for smaller work] the more I keep picking them up.

Haha yep it really bugs me the insistent meep meep meep when the dishwasher finishes - and then again if you don't open it 5 minutes later. Not sure why it bothers me so much!

It's really one of the reason Bitcoin came about - all currencies in the end go to nothing. Because the power to print ££ is in the hands of people that should not have that power. No one entity should be 'in charge'. It should be like Gold where is a finite supply that can't be made up by someone. In the end the debt is inflated away - all the sensible hard working people who put money aside for their older years lose the value of that money. It's theft.

Could get a rim sprocket kit for the 028 - switch to a lo pro set up - and run a 20" or 25" lo pro bar. We don't have the rim sprocket kit but any of these could be converted by swapping the rim.

I think you need to rule out some of the other more straight forward reasons before thinking too much about the chain or joining rivet that is at fault. Prob something else caused this to fail. The joining link is likely one of the weakest areas on the chain - but just because it breaks does not mean it's been incorrectly spun up - more likely it's that it's the first thing to break due to other stresses being put on the chain ie. it's the first point of failure. If you look carefully at this chain that has broken there is too much peening on the drive links to be regular wear - you need to check the drive rim or sprocket as first thing - and second the condition of the bar is 2nd thing - has it been de burred and carefully checked for any chips or damage inside the rails? These are what generally cause a chain to break IMO. That's not to say you can pin down exactly why the chain has failed - often multiple factors. But prob best to rule the obvious out before looking at the less obvious.

If you can take some vids of yourself milling so can see the speed. I have found that softwood can sometimes be harder to mill but saying that the lo pro chain seemed to find it ok.

Yep - and I remember buying that chipper almost 20 years ago - I remember turning up to the first job to reduce a laurel hedge - the guy that worked with me at the time was loving it [before that it was manual chopping down in the back of the truck and trying not to hit the bed]! Have to say I was loving it! What a difference a chipper makes.

😄😀

Hmmm.... interesting - well I expect whatever you're doing will likely work out well for the long term.

Yep I remember when you changed over arbtalk to this new format [which now feels very normal] - what a hue and cry that raised at the time 😅

First 'big' dismantle - Turkey Oak on Isle of Wight 2002 ish - it went ok. First commercial trannie - which was gas powered - quite a novelty and pretty cheap to run - burnt the head gasket out towing but other than that all good. My brother in the background used to help me at weekends.

I remember that Chipper Crazy that was 14 years ago now...

Ah here it was - 10 year ago now!

Yep gutted I never milled more of it and kept some as not come across anything like it since! Or now you mention it I do have an old bench type table gathering dust made from some of that wood. May resurrect that now you reminded me.

Yep we sponsor this and I put a listing and have had a couple of jobs from it. One job pretty much pays for the listing really...

Yep the tooth geometry is completely different to a standard chain - you would ruin a standard chain if you tried to sharpen it with the powersharp system as powersharp sharpens from top down.

I think if it works for you it's ideal - it didn't for me after numerous tries and testing - so much so we opted to no longer sell it [feedback on it was also pretty bad]. But as said we can agree on disagreeing and if it works for you all good.

I thought the chain was very cool and the sharpening tool an innovation until I used it and realised how wrong i could of been! First one or two goes it's ok and after that all down hill and if you hit something you never get it back to 'truly sharp'. We no longer sell them and unless they were greatly improved... once you have more experience of it and the chain is dull - you go through sharpening process - oh the chain is still dull - go through the sharpening process - still dull... you realise sadly it is more a gimmick. But it was great to see the new idea - but to my mind it simply does not work. There is as yet no easy way of sharpening chain other than pretty much the old fashioned way. Ref 'easy tensioners' agreed - why are they on there because personally I find them a PITA. No need and more fiddly than using a scrench - but I guess for homeowners who would not tension the chain otherwise maybe it works 🙄

We do now and again. But with no disrespect to the OP I'd be hesitant to put business someone's way until there was strong evidence that they were providing a good consistent service. It's more involved to do as people will ask 'oh you recommend this business to sharpen chains - are they good then?' and if you say 'yep should be fine' and it isn't - those people will come back to you with the complaint 😏