Chris Sheppard

Last winch I bought came with a knot already in it I've never tried splicing but I do like the wedge eye sockets. Something I first saw on an igland winch, but never on any others as yet, was a sharper edge ground onto the top of the butt plate for folding the wire over and hitting with a hammer. We'd alays managed in the pat either with a decent bolster or the hammer and edge teqnique but usually over a normal flat edge and it was never the tidiest. On the Igland a couple of good hits usually did the job.

That's worth knowing, cheers

An old guy I worked with used to say to leave a fag packet's worth of hinge either side of the bore cut, so maybe not far off the 150mm. First time I took my 372 out after dropping a new pot and piston on it (several years ago now) I had a very similar situation with a biggish Scot - bar and front handle but also creased the exhaust. Still has the same exhaust now as a reminder.

That's the posh way of doing it, wouldn't be the first time we've tied a big knot in the end to finish the day off

Sounds like you boys down there get it cheap then. Yep, we had some go recently that was 9 months or so old and where the wagon usually gets thick end of 19/20T on it went out at 15 and a bit. It's not fuel till it's cut into logs though, is it? End user pays 5% for the logs but processor pays 20%. - there's a thread all about it somewhere

After a few hours sleep in his cabin, his alarm went off far too early for a Sunday morning, reminding him of the fact he had to load up his saws, trailer and tidying up gear to load up and tidy the last of the wood now the wagons had finished when all he really wanted to do was eat a big greasy fry up

I'm going for wet and slushy We were getting bitten by mozzies and midges last week - in November - What's going on?

Sorry, what I meant was bored because of the slower pace

But do they have a normal skidding type C hook on the end?

I really like mine too At first I used to manage to flood mine fairly often but then sussed it and all good.

Marshalls had plenty of the bigger link chokers recently and Riko usually had a good pile of normal sized ones in stock when I was there.

I generally only bother on anything going for milling, but especially bigger or leaning ash, and usually couple it up to a dogs tooth. More often than not I'll make a small cut down either side of the hinge too, severing the buttresses to reduce the risk of tearing up the sides. Handy tip though, don't take the same 660 out to do lots of bore cuts when the last job it was on was cutting big windblown spruce off the stumps without changing the chain first Long bar and low rakers make it a bit lively

Try pumping th primer a few times more than you usually do, set half throttle (not choke) and it should go first or second pull Mine gets run dry 9 times out of 10 and once sussed is never a problem.

If you're going from production cutting to Estate working then you'll certainly not need to work as hard. Job security is great but don't be surprised if you get bored. I managed 9 months on the books for one estate before leaving - they, like many, were resistant to change and I suddenly realised that if I didn't leave I'd be doing exactly the same thing in the same place in 40 years time.

I think that would look cool

That looks lovely Used to drive a County 4600 - four a few years ago and was really nimble little thing.

Think there's a nice middle ground which works well for everyone - there's always going to be odd long days but there's always a few days of job and knock. We had a good one this week - nailed a 2 day job by dinnertime on the second day, got bought Fish and Chips and we had the whole lot logged up and in the barn and still got away early.

I agree - last big job my 550 was out on was some sycamore thinnings. Mainly 12-15" but an odd few 16-18" Ordinarily I'd have been dragging the 357 round but stuck a 15" on the 550 and was really quite impressed. Likewise, the 560 when we had it was tackling stuff I'd usually chuck the 372 at.

560 came out first, by a few weeks I think.

Am planning on making more next year Quite liking the fact every time I empty a demijohn it makes 6 bottles and a good glass full

If your hands get cold you're not moving fast enough Can only really comment properly from a forestry perspective, but when I started I had a 65cc saw and a range of bars and one saw did all. Then went 50cc and 70cc and if one broke the other could finish the day off at a push. I've ended up with a bit of a ramshackle collection of Husqvarnas (and a jonsered) from 242g through to 181se with a few 3 series huskies and the 550 thrown in for good measure. The 181 is 27 years old but will still work hard when it needs to. I've only ever used a 15" on the 560 as we only had it on demo, but I pre-ordered my 550 before we took the 560 back. If you're thinking 13" mainly, I'd go 550 and then later get something like a 372 which will comfortably run 20" but at a push run 24" or I'm sure there's some one here said they've tried a 28" on it (I can't see it being that good though)

But surely if the guys are back to the yard early that means they've got done what you had booked in for the day to get the full day's profit? Surely that's having your cake and eating it?

Just bottled up the sweet batch of Birch Sap wine - forgot to test the gravity but it tastes lovely. The Dry was good but this just beats it Got a batch of Elderberry and bramble to bottle that's made from last years berries - last time I racked it it tasted good so hopefully it will have gotten better by now.

I'd agree - 18" on a 50cc is on the big side. I've had 15" on my 550 and am sure in softer woods it would pull an 18" if it had to, but I'd be leaning more towards the 560. Once upon a time I'd have said if you wanted 18" with any regularity then go for the 372 but the 560 really did up the ante. FWIW my 550 usually lives on a 13", 357 is on a 15" and the 372 is on a 15" but up a tooth. 372 sometimes gets a 20" though. That's out in the woods though. EDIT: Should have said - do sometimes use another 357 with an 18" 3/8ths on it and it pulls it well. However it does run better than both my 357's and any other I've used - it's standard, but an older one so don't know if the emmissions gubbins made the newer one's a bit limp? When you say ground saw, do you mean for arb rather than out in the woods? From what I can gather, most of the tempramental 500 series saws have been mainly used for Arb rather than forestry. Have only limited experience of heated handles but I do quite like them, more for novelty than owt else though.