Chris Sheppard

I've probably got some birch ones here, but the tree's been down a good 9 months or so now so I dunno if they'd still be any good as it's been left outside. Will try and get some pics but it might not be for a bit as it's salways dark when am at home now (well it seems that way )

Cheers guys. Sounded like today wasn't exactly a normal day, there was that much rain over night it was touch and go as to whether they'd run this morning, then one guy got muddled up and tried to combine the emergency stop and collision avoidance and ended up sliding along the tarmac on his arse with bits of CBR fairing flying all over, and guy who was straight after me tried to brake halfway through his collision avoidance and ended up laid in the middle of the site waiting for an ambulance which meant 3 or 4 tests getting cancelled. Think it was more precautionary than owt else but even if his ankle isn't broke it's going to be sore for a bit. Neither were deemed to be due to the weather - more braking when they shouldn't. Am hoping that was the harder bit - Mod 2 isn't worrying me quite as much.

Looking back at my previous posts, if they sound argumentative, I didn't mean for them to I totally get that drier or less dense timber weighs less and won't get up to weight, I'm not debating that. What I'm saying is that every single haulier/contractor/landowner/buyer/merchant/sawmill I've ever had anything to do with so far (other than for decent mill grade hardwoods) has been done by tonnage on presentation of weight tickets. If you're able to work on a load basis then that's great - All I know is it wouldn't work round us.

Yes, I do.

That would be fairly rapid Depends on how much wood you are going to be cutting each yeaar of what sort of typical size. In my opinion though the more power the better for lots of crosscutting, but unless it's all big stuff, something 90cc is going to get a bit tiresome after a few tanks.

What he said ^

Had Mod 1 this morning................. ...... Passed it One minor for doing 48kmh not 50kmh on the collision avoidance - can live with that.

Very few wagons, especially 8 wheelers, will be able to leave site with a full load of fresh hardwood firewood on up to the top of the bolsters and not be over weight if they're loaded by a good driver. Of course price is going to vary per ton depending on what it is and how dry - but you're talking tonnes one minute and volume the next - make your mind up. When wagons are going out up to weight but not up to the top of the pins, it's a full load in sense of weight but obviously not volume. The landowner/contractor/buyer whatever is still going to need some sort of definite point of reference as to what's gone and there's no real arguing with a weight ticket. It wouldn't take much for an unscrupulous driver to fill to the top of the pins, drop some off on the way and roll up with a part load on would it? Not saying a weight ticket solves that problem but at least there's some part of a paper trail.

Something you don't really see though is an 8 way knife for the big horizontals as it's pretty hard to make them strong enough to take the strain of pushing big stick at it - it's a bit different to pushing a 10" long log through a processor. Seen a few 6 ways but the wood needs to be the right size for it to be much good from what I've seen. The other thing is that unless your timber is fairly straight grained, you'll find you end up with some fairly interestingly shaper billets.

What a load of balls. Everyone in the chain wants/needs to know whats gone - volume can be made to work in either buyer or sellers favour depending on who loads it. Going by weight there's no arguing. Doubt you'd be very busy round us.

T shirts and sunnys here today (it definitely wasn't yesterday though )

I found having a small (A6 size) book to list all invoices in with dates, amounts, when paid etc was a handy little thing s it meant I could keep track of what was outstanding at a glance and it made it easier for keeping track of things. I used to have an accountant but did my own tax return last year - it wasn't half as scary as I was expecting and saved me the usual £400 bill from the accountant. Keep all your receipts and if you can, get into the habit of putting them in date order as you go. Try and keep all your bank statements/receipts/invoices all together too - saves hunting stuff down when you do your accounts. Get yourself a separte account for your business stuff - you don't legally need to have one but it makes things so much easier to keep track of. Also, try to only pay yourself once a month rather than keeping dipping into your business account - again, it makes it so much easier to keep track of when you come to do your accounts (which in my case is usually late January so takes some working out at the best of times )

I bet they're all Southerners too

Long johns under saw kegs? No wonder you're itching Don't you get too warm?

Read on here a good reply by someone to customer a while ago "It's a stump grinder, not a root finder"

Do you mean as soon as it's started and you're trying to rev it out? Or do you mean after a few seconds but before it's settled down? Quite a lot of 2 strokes are a bit farty for the first few seconds but settle down fairly quickly - most of the 357's I've used are notably like it and my old MX bikes were the same. Dunno what causes it though.

I'd agree with that. Put one of the new type vsors on earlier in the year and not only is it a lot easier to see through, but it doesn't get water collecting on the mesh half as badly as the old style ones. I'd say go for the Husky balance helmet

Did a bit of an experiment with mine today. Not had it out for a few weeks but it ran as good as usual. Filled it up, pumped primer 4/5 times one there was some resistance. Choke, pulled couple of times til it fired, choke off, pulled a couple of times and it started. Ran til it was dry, refuelled straight away, pumped primer 4/5 times once resistance felt, no choke or half throtttle, started first pull. Ran part tank through then did something else for an hour or so. Set half throttle, started second pull. Ran til empty and did the same as first time. Had I been trying to start it lke an older saw and used choke after refuelling and cold start it would have flooded in no time.

Most of the plastic parts will have a date stamped into them - it's usually a round mark with the last two numbers of the year (if it's still fairly legible you might be able to pick out the month from around the edge. Whilst it's not fool proof as parts could have been replaced over the years, if enough bits give the same year there's a reasonable chance it's right or at least fairly close.

If it was me, I'd bung a fresh filter in, have a look at the colour of the oil just to be sure and see how it goes. As the Xantia is pre electronics, it's probably cheaper/easier to go grab a complete engine from a breaker than do open heart surgery on yours.

Nice one - It's a good feeling isn't it But, surely they should be in a state of repair to go through at any time in the months between MOT's

Got one similar - was on a job that left about 25 fairly big Leylandii stumps (every one minimum of 24" diameter) and the guy was going to go at them himself with a hire machine. Funnily enough it's to go back and do with the 70hp Carlton at some point

Has it sorted it?

Don't think of it as coming to the dark side - more like seeing the light