onetruth

I would guess 15 Tonne. Could be half that, could be double.

Hello all, I hope posting this doesn't violate the forum's product-promotion rules (I don't think it does)... I have (very roughly) 20m^3 of freshly cut pine in 30cm lengths, thickness 20-60cm (unsplit), which I can make available for roadside collection near Durham (DH2) in January. I don't fancy transporting or finding room to store all this pine - can anyone suggest a suitable method of disposal? I'm looking for a solution which is quick and easy rather than especially profitable. Thanks for any advice you may have, Tom.

Hello all, As part of my HND research project I need to get an idea of the value of the timber in a small woodland near Hexham, Northumberland. There are 200 larch (european I think), very clean and straight, 50 years old, 30m high, DBH 40-50cm. The site is undulating and steeply sloping (30%) down away from the nearest vehicle access point - lorries would be able to park some 100m away. My questions are: 1) What could I expect to receive if I sold the timber in situ (ie. the buyer fells and extracts)? 2) What would be the smallest quantity of trees a buyer might be willing to take this way? Measurement are approximate at the moment. I'm not looking for accurate quotes, just reasonable suggestions from people more knowledgable than me so that I can make an educated guess at a figure as part of my assignment. Thanks, all!

Hmm. "Common sense" must mean something very different where you are...

There arn't many people that can say this. From what you wrote it sounds like business is viable, albeit hard work at times. Also, being paid a salary is not the same as having a dependable income - it just seems that way until you are made redundant. I think it's pretty obvious what to do.

That's got me thinking - I've got some cheapo brand power tools that recommend 25:1. Do they do that because they expect their users to use cheap oil too? If I'm using Stihl oil for everything, should I run everything at 50:1?

Cool, thanks for the info, guys.

Location must be the biggest factor here. I live in Durham - it's one of the smallest uk cities (north-east England), has fairly high unemployment, and one of the colleges does arb courses. £60 a day for a groundsman is appreciated here. Obviously in London it wouldn't, and I bet the rubber loggers in Liberia don't earn that in a month. Most people are saying between £60 and £100, which isn't a huge disparity for accross the UK.

I've bought a second hand Echo CS2900. The guy I've bought it off says he's been using 50:1, but the manual says "any mixture other than 25:1 can cause malfunction of the engine". Should I stick with 50:1 (which the engine's used to) or go over to 25:1? I'll be using Stihl 2-stroke.

Great idea! Where can I get the specs?

Work is a little slow atm, so... I'm going to make a chainsaws version of Top Trumps. I'm get some business cards printed with a template, when they arrive I'll fill in the values and prit-stick in some images. It will give me sense of purpose for a day. So to the details.... The cards will be playable as both Top Trumps and a standard deck (52+ cards). The categories for the Top Trumps will be: Engine size (highest wins) Weight (lowest wins) Output (highest wins) P/w ratio (highest wins) I'm toying with some others, but not sure if I'll be able to get all the info for all the saws: Bar length (highest wins) Price (lowest/highest wins?) Vibrations (lowest wins) Noise level (lowest wins) Build quality (how would this work?) I'll use 13 Stihls (Spades), 13 Husqvarnas (Hearts), and 26 other brands. The original Stihl chainsaw will be the Ace of Spades, the 880 will be the King, the 660 the Queen, and the remainder of the Spades would be made up of the current Stihl catalogue & classics that I can get the stats for. Anyway, that's my day so far.

I've not heard of them. What were they offering, and why do you think it would generate leads? It looks like "customers" give their mobile number to receive free quotes from subscribers. I'd never give my mobile number to a website for that reason (ie. asking for spam) - who would? How would they find that website in the first place? Have they offered something else? Such as a first-page listing on Google for just £99 / £150 / £300 etc. If so, I suggest you stay well clear. There seem to be lots of firms offering this kind of thing, quite often with terrible reputations for being scammers.

The crane didn't impress me much but - Linnaeus' house?!?!? Wow!

Would I be able to change the sprocket on my MS340 to take the .325 bar and chains?

andriod, on a samsung. no interest in iphones as they operate such a "closed shop" for developers. software for android must massively outnumber iphone/ipad stuff (even though they have nothing like the same popularity), the os is more stable, and the phones tend to be better. blackberries have a feeble market (hardly any good apps). no idea about windows phones, but having used windows computers...

No problem at all with bringing along relatives of either sex as long as you take sensible precautions. Since my gf became pregnant I insist she uses timber-tongs.

I don't know statistically - data may have been published but I think it would be quite hard to interpret. It seemed to me that Ltd cos nearly always paid up either on receipt of judgment or as soon as the bailiffs turned up, unless of-course they were about to go insolvent. It's a lot easier for private individuals to run or fiddle the system. Personally, if a customer just plain refused to pay me (and wasn't disputing the work or price), I would think very hard before chasing the debt in the Court, which could end up costing me more than the job was worth: I would need to be sure that the Court would decide they can afford it. I certainly saw lots of statements of Admission from debtors who owned up to debt, which they offered to pay back at the rate of £2 per month. It's an Admission, it goes through automatically, and the creditor gets his sealed Judgement: "the defendant owes £xxx + £xxx in court fees, which must be paid back at £2/month". It is now the claimant's responsibility if he wants to apply for an amendment to the order. No asking for the bailiffs until the terms of the order are breached. And if the defendant's income can be hidden, or they can make it look like their "priority" outgoings are high, it is quite possible that a Judge would agree with them. I can't recall a single case like this where a defendant was even asked to provide proof. Also, the interest you are allowed to claim on a debt (8% pa I think) stops when the judgement is made. I'm certainly not suggesting it was always like this. Most people want to pay within 28 days of judgement because that is the only way of having the record of a CCJ removed from credit referencing. But I will say this: only do it if you think you'll be able to get what you're owed, never do it just out of "principle" because if there's no money (as far as the Courts can see) all you'll end up with is a very expensive bit of paper that says "the Queen agrees that you are right!" (or jargon to that effect).

Do their kids go to the same school as yours? Are you likely to bump into them in your local? etc.... etc.... I think you need to do something, but exactly what you should do all depends on who they are and how you know them. If you didn't know them, police.

One other thing I'll mention - the records of insolvancy proceedings are (I think) public. Your local CC may also be the area's insolvance court: and IVs, winding-ups and bankruptcies must take place at the debtor's local insolvancy court. It might be wise to check there's nothing happening before you fork out on the first of possibly many court fees. If they are insolvant, depending on when the debt occurred, you should be able to add yourself as a creditor (it may or may not be worth it!) ^^^ same disclaimer as for previous post!

Your and your debtor's status will be key in deciding if it's worth taking out a CC claim. If they are a Limited Company, and they are not in or about to enter any kind of insolvency proceedings, you will have a good chance of recovering your money if your claim is successful. If they are an employed (not self employed) individual and they dispute the invoice, you should be able to recover the money if sucessful. If they own their own home and the value of the debt is high (I think over about £2k), you will have more options open to you. Unemployed, retired or self-employed - much less likely. You may find the Judge decides they can only afford £5 a week. CC bailiffs cannot levy on goods that are a self-employed person's "tools of the trade". With good reason. If the debtor doesn't dispute the invoice but instead has chosen to ignore it completely (as for the O.P.), they may, as others have suggested, believe that they will be able to get away with not paying even if enforcement is attempted. The methods of enforcement open to you are: send a CC bailff round (Warrant of Execution) ask a CC Judge to make their employer pay you out of their wage (Attachment of Earnings Order) force them to pay you when they sell their house (Charging Order) start involuntary bankruptcy proceedings (or winding-up if a company) - if I remember rightly the debt must be >£500, and the Judge will need to be satisfied that they cannot pay their debts (there is one other "standard" CC enforcement route but I can't remember what it is) The price was (when I worked in a CC about 10 years ago) about £45 for a WoE, £50 for a AoE, and £500 to begin bancruptcy proceedings. I can't remember what a Charging Order cost. The amount is added to the debt, but you still have to pay it first! If the debt is big enough you can upgrade the Judgement to the High Court. Their enforces have greater powers (especially when siezing goods). No idea on what this would cost - it seemed to happen very rarely. A couple of other things: probably best to start the claim in your local CC. If the debtor is a Ltd, the claim should stay in that Court. If they are a private individual, however, and they choose to defend the claim, it will probably be transfered to their local CC. Disclaimer: info offered to give folks an idea of how the system works, I'm no solicitor and don't know if there have been any changes since I left that particular soul destroying job, and I have smoked a marajuana cigarette in the intervening time, possibly causing irreparable damage to my memory of English civil law proceedings. Get advice if it's big bucks - the Citizens' Advice Beurea was ok for individuals (not Ltds). Also... first you'll have to win the judgement - you will need to prove your case to someone who knows nothing about arboriculture. Someone said: "i also sent bailiff round but they would not take stereo computer etc unless i payed the storage till sold" - never heard of this. CC bailiff or private debt recovery firm?

I set up as self employed as soon as I finished the 2 year ND. I only had the felling & climbing NPTCs - no chainsaw up tree etc. No experience outside of college. I'm managing to make it work, but after several years I'm still under minimum wage if you include all the business related stuff I do. The experience thing wasn't as much of a problem for me as other posters suggest it could have been. I simply didn't quote for work I didn't want to take on. I'd say "sorry - too big for me... try these guys", but left them my card. Amazing how often those customers or their friends got me in for smaller work later in the year. I still can't dismantle big trees myself, but I've enough experience by now to be able to judge how much it will cost me to get in some more experienced climbers with the right kit and put a quote in. I've never so much as touched a stump-grinder, but I've had lots of quotes for tree and stump removal accepted. I know what a big local firm charges to grind, so I factor this in and quote away, then give them a ring. Even though I always explain to the customer that I will be doing this and they could save a few pounds by contacting the firm themselves for the stump part of the job, people seem happy for me to take care of it. I guess my point is that if you know your limitations and have a reasonable head for figures, you don't need the 10 years experience before earning your freedom.

I'd heard somewhere that 170s didn't like being used at funny angles (ie. ok for cross-cutting, no good for tree work). Correct? Has anyone here used the Hitachi I mentioned? So light; I'm very tempted to take a chance on it. Out of interest (not that I'll be in a position to afford one), will the new top-handled Stihl have a rear-handled equivalent in the UK?

If you have a new stihl knocking about I'll swap it for my bar and chains!

I dislike these "Rogue Traders" programmes. I think they confuse consumers more than empower them. Take, for example, the first criticism they came up with about the guy. The customer asked "What tree is this?" and he said "I'm not sure without the leaves on" (or words to that effect), for which the presenter and his oh-so-funny sidekick ridiculed him: "Hang on - arn't you supposed to be a tree surgeon?" I only caught a glimpse of the tree, but I am pretty sure I wouldn't be able to take one glance at it in its winter state and proclaim Salix caprea - this does not mean I'm a rogue trader or unfit to work on the tree. People watching this programme might pick up on this and think "ok, a bona fide tree surgeon won't say 'I don't know' when asked about a tree". Better to bullshit "tree of heaven" than truthfully admit one's limitations if you go by that rule. What's so wrong with that? I was shocked at the size of logs his missus was hauling around in her trainers, but I think you may be being a little snobbish about the fact she was there. Family businesses are the cornerstone of our ecomony. I often bring my girlfriend to work. I don't give her a 200T and tell her to get on with it, but what's wrong with her being around to chat with the customer and unclip the odd branch I send down if she's wearing PPE, and covered by my EL?