Chris Sheppard

Really does depend on what you're doing with them. General arb, a small pro saw should last a good few years before it expires as it's unlikely to be going hard all day long every single day. Production thinning you could kill a saw in a year if you were particularly rough as it would be screaming it's nuts off all day. Don't think I've ever totally scrapped a saw yet, usually end up on ebay once they're getting past their best, or they get treated to some fettling and keep on going. Other than my 550, the rest of my saws are mid 2000's and I'll happily take any of them out to work. I've a 1985 Husq 181 that got used a fair bit in the woods last year too with no probs. Definitely a how long's a piece of string question though.

SOLID OAK WOOD WORKTOP 4M x 650mm x 40mm £170 inc VAT! | eBay They have a website too but it's cheaper to buy it through ebay. Even with the carriage it seemed the best deal we could find. We used some stuff called Top Oil, by Osmo - dead easy to put on and brought the colour out really nicely (photos don't really show it that well though). There's a base coat available too (can't remember what it was called but by Osmo) that's meant to give it a more durable waterproofing.

I can see where you're coming from and before I tried one I was exactly the same way of thinking. Took a 560 on demo for a week and was convinced within the first 5 minutes that it was the way forward. The way it put down power was just nuts. I ordered my 550 off the back of the demo and haven't had need to take it back for anything as yet - it's now 13months old. Even if you can find a 24" bar to phsically fit on a 357, I think you'd be fairly disappointed in it's performance. 18" on a 357 is as big as I'd want to go, IME. I'd tend to be running a 15" on it, with the 18" occasionally. The 372 would be my go to 18-20" saw but mine tends to live with a 15" and a bigger sprocket. I've never tried a 24" on it but on the whole I'd be reaching for a bigger saw again by then. I'm sure others might disagree, it all depends on what you do with them mostly and how patient you are I suppose.

But it's not a pylon, Twisty

How solid do you want? We got the butchers block type (2 inch square in strips) in Oak for something like £160/£180 for 4m off a company on ebay. That was abou best I found. Can try to find details later if you wanted.

The few times we've priced up a 205ltr locally it's never worked out any cheaper per litre than buying the 20/25ltr drums. Think we're on £2/litre at the mo - it's a bit of a bad show when it was more like 70p a litre not that many years ago. Seemed to go up £3-4 a barrel every time we went in and over the course of a year had doubled.

Either would be ace but both would be fairly dear as they are desirable engine. If going 2 stroke, I'd be thinking a 250 crosser engine from a cost point of view - theres' probably as many 250's out there as 125's and 500's put together. Water cooled 250 2 smoker should be high 40's hp and shouldn't take much to get a bit more out of it. Aircooled MX engines are going to make strong money now too as twinshock racing seems to be the big thing.

All depends what you think you'll be doing most with it. Tirfors are great for big pulls but are slow and heavy and a faff to set up, in my opinion. The lightweight ones in the first post are ok for pulling down hangers when thinning, saves carting round something fairly heavy. If you want a good quality version of the pressed steel ones, look for a lugall. They're expensive but really well made.

figured with a name like that it'd be a boy Is she noisy? Ours have always been fairly vocal.

Like some of the others have said, fuel injected bike engine would be where I'd be looking. Plenty of multi cylinder engines about and 100hp shouldn't be too hard to find. Choice of gears, or, whip out all the gears you don't need to make it lighter. Only thing to get round would be that the sprocket would be effectively going backwards unless you brought the countershaft out bit and had the bar pointing towards the front of the engine.

I'm one of two, have a younger sister.

He (guessing ), looks like a right little dude. We've had two Pattys so far now and no doubt will have another.

Worked alongside one of those whn I first started, just without the crane. Think he only paid 4 grand for it too! They sound amazing - 6cyl detroit diesel if I remember right. It was the only machine on site that could get up the track to where we were felling as it could back up to the rock step, chuck the cable round a big stump and winch itsef backwards up the steps. It was ace. Remember it on a frosty morning coming down the valley on full throttle and the noise was just like nothing else Bit that always threw me was the spool to steer it with went up and down rather than left and right and it took a bit of getting head round.

Even if it does fit, I'm pretty sure the 359 is open ported. That said, my 2159 Jonsered (same as 359) isn't a bad saw, just not quite as punchy as a 357.

Can quite believe it - I have a 357 that was previously owned by probably the same government funded body and it was fitted with a timer so that the user knew how long they'd been using it each session. Apparently they were only allowed to use it for so many minutes at a time before taking a break and only a certain amount of time in a full day. I was told the figures but don't remember them, other than them being low enough to wonder how theyever got any work done. In 12 years of cutting I can only ever remember having to replace an AV about 3 times.

Had similar happen a while ago and it was one of the wires somewhere between the switch and the relay rubbing on the bottom of the engine bay and earthing out. Put some tape round it and rerouted it a bit and it's been fine since.

If you want one saw to do everything, then a 560's probably the way to go. All depends on what you think you'll be doing mostly really.

No pics, but the birches where we were today have started to drip sap and it was freezing within minutes of being cut. According to the thermometer in the garden where we were it was -2.8 degrees C

I've not heard anything bad, other than they can be a bit warm at times. It's a shame they don't do them in normal colours as I hate Hi vis - if they did something less bright I'd have bought one by now.

The iveco did carry weight well and towed fantastically - fully loaded and with 3.5T behind it it still went at least as well as the transit without the trailer. We put a 2.5T mini digger in the back of the van once, only to move across a site, and if the back doors would have shut you'd not have known there was anywhere near that much weight in it.

Probably not practical on the site, but when we've had decent hardwood to fell later in the year we've laid it down and left it in full feather for a week or so til the leaves started to wither. Definitely makes a difference on Sycamore as to the colouring - maybe not as white as it should have been, but not half as orange as it could have been. Don't know how it fairs on more denser timbers though.

I think the problem you might have is finding a 4600kg truck that once down plated will have a payload of anywhere near 1.5T. I know it's slightly different, but the Iveco daily van I used to drive was a downplated 5.5T and it had a payload of about 800kg. I'd not have though the flimsy van sides and roof would make that much difference weight wise.

It might not be a case of being offered a certain amount - it might be £X per tonne and no matter how good you might think you are, you'll earn not much of anything to start with. If the wood's worth £X per tonne, so no matter what you might think you deserve, you're only worth what you can get on the floor. You'll soon learn not to do any movement you don't actually need to. That's how some of the best production cutters look like they're moving fairly steadily but actually outcutting everyone else. I love proper forestry, there's nothing better than crashing down big sticks all day, but, it'll never make you a rich man. Sure, you might have a good run, but for every good site there's a bad one and then there's the weather to contend with. We've lost plenty of days in the past from wind making it too unsafe to be on site (feeling rootplates heaving while you're putting the felling cut in is a strange sensation!). I hope you find someone to give you an opportunity, I'm sure you'll love it, but don't get too disheartened in the beginning. It's not for everyone, but once it takes a hold of you, no other job comes close Main things people get fed up with are high stumps, poor snedding, inconsistent measuring and stacks that look lik they've been dropped from a great height. Any one of those is likely to put the forwarder operator in a bad mood and he isn't someone to get on the wrong side of.

A few years ago I'd have said Hobbies were something that people who didn't work hard enough did. Pulled my head out of my arse though and realised there's sooo much more to life than working every hour of every day. Like to get out camping when we can but it's never as much as we'd like. Quite like making wine and beer (though the beer has always been from kits so is cheating I suppose) and then drinking it too. Used to really enjoy a bit of rough shooting but just don't seem to get out anything like as much. Recently got back into motorbikes again - not quite sure how I managed so long without it. Enjoy fixing them about as much as I enjoy riding them. When it's dark and cold outside on a night I tend to find myself wandering round the internet on Arbtalk or other forums, or looking at stuff I don't need on ebay

Looks ace Geoff Been at home today, ended up browsing ebay this morning and now got a most of a leccy start DR 200 sat here The yellow 125 made it to the finish on Saturday - Buzzsurgeon, Spoonz and me all finihed in the top 5 in the trail class