Chris Sheppard

Finally eased off here, just got flask to fill and am a heading out

That's exactly what I've been doing - now sat here all caffeined up waiting for it to ease up enough to bother going out.

Windy and rainy here most of last night and no better this morning. We're going to see what it's like in a bit and maybe venture out. Thought of wading trough brash in this weather aint appealing!

They look good - postage seems steep though @ £18odd for a pack of 50 bags as that's nearly 70p to come off each bag jut on the bags. Oddly though, their plain ones are more expensive

I think they do look pretty funky They look a whole lot nicer than the flimsy mass produced stuff in our local garden centres

Yes, physically a bit smaller and lighter.

If anyone's after the Dan Milne book, it's currently half price here: Handbook of Canadian Log Building though only til the end of today - even if you miss out it's still only $20 plus postage.

All back to normal here at the mo - worst I saw was one Asda out of fuel a few days ago and longest I had to queue for so far was about 5 min more than normal. One station put there fuel up 1p and they are fairly dear compared to everyone else anyway so no prob.

I'd go straight for the 550 - mine IS a 2011 one (mid december built) and will kick a 346 properly in the goolies. I was very very dubious of going for a new generation saw but having had a 560 on demo, the bar had been raised enough to take a bit of a risk. There's no doubting the 346 is a good saw, but it just didn't inspire me enough to part with the cash for one. I'd been needing a new little saw for a while to replace my old 353 and was even considering rebuilding a 242 with shiny new gen barrel/piston instead but the 550 is like a 242 on steroids I'm finding I'm using my 550 in timber I'd previously have been taking a 357 into and so far it's been faultless (warm starting was a bit of a knack but I should have read the manual first ). It seems to whip through a tank of fuel a bit quicker than a 346 does, but it'll usually be a couple of trees ahead by then anyway. The way I looked at it, was that if it plays up I'll finish the day off with a spare saw and then drop it in to our dealer on the way home and they'll sort it under warranty. So far I haven't needed too.

Only had one day in York where it was mad and tht was a few days ago now. Everything was normal yesterday

yep, but only about half an hour ago.

It's definitely busier up here but nothing mad yet, just about queueing off the forecourts.

Those standard grease guns are cack - This one os the best I've used so far as it doesn't leak grease all over your toolbox. Grease Gun - New Saw Chains There's two camps for greasing the bar sprocket - some do and some don't. I don't tend to do and so far have only had three or four bars spit the sprocket out in 11 years, most of the time the rails wear before then. My thoughts are the gease will attract more grit and wear it even quicker. Greasing the clutch bearing bearing is dead easy but you need to make sure you clean any crud out of the end of the shaft before you try to put the grease in. If you think it's cutting well now - give it a week to run in and it'll fly once the autotune sets itself up properly Was using mine today in some beech thinnings and it still makes me smile

I'm not the best at regular maintenance. Generally though, IME, if something has broken it's been down to being worked hard rather than something that could have been avoided by cleaning/servicing etc. More often than not, something just won't feel right before it becomes a problem. Usually have some spare starter cord and a few clutch springs rattling round in the toolbox and worst case, if a saw needs anything that I can't fix there and then, then I'll pull another saw out the truck to finish the day off and drop by the dealer on the way home or on the way in the next day.

We had a 3.0 @ 140hp a while ago and it was ace. Would go all day with 3.5tonne trailer and fully loaded in the back and barely know it was there. This one was a downrated 5 tonner though so don't know if there's much difference between that and an off the shelf 3.5 tonner.

From what I've read (no actual experience yet ) it does't have to be perfectly straight, more important is that the grain is fairly straight rather than twisted as the whole shell will try to twist and the notches can open up I'd be talking to local estates and looking for blocks of over stood softwood for thinning as they should be some reasonably long/thin straight trees. Apparently, Poplar isn't bad for cabins either. Long term, I still want to build a cabin and really want to do it out of Douglas Fir.

Got my old Husky 181 put back together this afternoon and it runs - not ran it for long but sounds pretty good so far. Next on the list is a 42 special I bought cheap off ebay - supposedly a good runner but his idea and mine obviously differ Didn't pay a lot for it so kept it anyway. whipped barrel off - not good, but think I might have found the cause How someone managed to not realise they only half had the gasket in place I'll never know. Bottom end feels pretty gritty too - will get rest of it to bits at some point and see if crank is OK.

It lives Finally got the last gasket for it yesterday so spent this afternoon sat out in the garden putting it all back together. Always a bit tentative when it comes to starting up a fresh engine, but it all turned freely with no horrid noises. Checked for spark, all OK, bit of petrol in, fired after a couple of pulls and started on the third. Only ran it for a minute or so but should get chance this coming week to let it warm up properly and see how it's running

What sort of money do the Niab ones start at and how much HP tractor would it need?

Nice find Charlie If anyone's after a good cabin building book, I just got one delivered from the US last week direct from the Author for £29 all in (same one over here is £50 something plus postage!). It really does go into a lot of detail - if anyones interested in it, here's the link Learn Log Home Construction -- Book In his links page, theres a free downloadable book too that was done for the Alaskan government and that's not bad either, though it is a fairly big file.

If you can, swing by a local sawmill and beg/buy a bundle of slabwood - it'll cost you a lot less but still give the same effect. Round us it's usually worst case £10 a bundle and a bundle is usually thick end of a tonne or so.

For the extra £25, the 550 is, IMO, leagues ahead of the 346. My 550 is a 2011 one and has been great so far, working in timber I'd usually be taking a 60cc saw into. It really does rip and holds power when buried hard into a stick. Only thing I can think of worth mentioning is that warm starting is a totally different routine to starting a "normal" husky but as saws are a new thing to you, it shouldn't be a problem:thumbup1: I would say, however, that you might find it a bit lively for your first saw.

The current Ferrari/BCS/pasquali are all pertty much the same tractors (all owned by one big company) just with different coloured/styled panels. AGT - simple, basic, does what it should but maybe not the prettiest. Owned an older Carraro for a couple of years and never had anything much to do to it mechanically despite working it harder than I maybe should have. Best I've seen so far was a Carraro with 9000 odd hours on and still running well. Thought that was quite good for a small tractor. Never had anythng to do with Goldoni.

If I could justify it, I'd really quite like one of the 95hp Carraros. 16" ground clearance, 40K gearbox and a lifts somthing daft like 2000kg on the linkage. Weighs about 2 tonne and is only about the same size as a normal 40hp compact but still oscilates like a normal alpine. If you're not needing the stability of an Alpine, then a decent sized compact on the right wheels/tyres can be made to work really well, and come in cheaper too. Used to run a 50hp alpine, mainly for winching, and it would handle steep ground well, but lacked on ground clearance. Regularly work alongside a 28hp Landini that punches well above it's weight and we've recently picked up an older 40hp Kubota for pulling the forwarding trailer and that works well too. Only critiscism with any of the smaller conventional tractors is they cross axle really easily so you need to be thinking a fair way in front.

I've no experience of the little stihl, but our local husky dealer was telling me he's sold a few of the 435's to pro guys who were looking for small saws for underbrashing etc and they seem to last fairly well considering that's not the sort of abuse they were built for. If you've not got experience of usign a chainsaw, then I'm sure you' be fine with either. It will feel plenty fast enough,even on the 12" or so diameter stuff - loads faster than doing it by hand. If you were going to be doing it regularly though, 40cc would get boring fairly quickly