Tom D

I am in a similar position myself, I am currently running 2 teams and although I have 2 362's, a 357 and a 254 I don't have a second "big" saw. I love my 385xp, it has been brilliant in the 9 years that I have owned it. I don't like the newer generation of husky and stihl saws and would have ideally liked another 385. I have used the 441 and 372 and liked them both however not as much as the 385. So after doing a little web research I bought a makita 7901 on impulse, hopefully it will arrive tomorrow, it is the only saw in this class to have a 1HP per KG power ratio and i have used one and been impressed, it has a nice design and feels nice in the hand, also it has no fancy auto tune or any other gismos. I will stick a 24" bar on it and run it for 6 months and report back. I am only thinking of you lot, sticking my neck out to try a non stusky saw in the interests of research. It only cost £411 new! so no great loss if its crap, it may turn up on the bay though, watch this space...

This really isn't about the employees, its about the business owners. Its not like its easy for a newbie to get work in this business, and 100 - 120 a day is good money for a newbie tree worker. The reason we are cheaper than other trades is simply supply and demand. If Dean had quoted the same hourly rate as the dish fitter he would have lost the job. We price our work according to our local market, (not that some couldn't charge a bit more if they tried). If there was a shortage of tree surgeons we would all be making more money, but there isn't. When people ring for a plumber in some areas they are so grateful to get one that they will give him the job whatever he charges. We rarely have that luxury.

I have been saying this for years, if you wanted to be a tradesman and took a cold hard business decision as to which trade to take up, tree work would be at the bottom of the list. The fact that I like being outside and not under someones kitchen sink is what keeps me from being a plumber. Most trades are easy to learn, and get the associated quals, CORGI etc, the cost of equipping yourself is minimal compared with tree work less than £1k for top quality tools. And you can charge the same rates or higher as a tree surgeon who may have £100k worth of kit. Why do we do it??

Kill bill and dusk till dawn were shite.. Its started now ..

On 4 at 10. worth a watch. I saw it when it came out and enjoyed it... Tarentino's take on how WW2 could have turned out.

I was going to say use them... and also the cement mixer option... both will work well..

I was driving late at night down south about 15 years ago, I saw an animal at the side of the road, brown, bigger than a hare, just didn't look right, as I got nearer it hopped further into the verge and I saw its tail, it was like a huge rats tail... It took me a few moments to realise that it was a wallaby! I later looked at the map and realised that i was near whipsnade zoo... Just shows that animals can and do escape...

Check the compression before you shell out on a new turbo, with the engine warmed up take off the oil filler cap and rev it up check for smoke coming out and put your hand over and check for it blowing...

There will be oil in the intercooler, from the breather pipe, a little oil could look like a lot.....

some of that beech is sycamore BTW Where a bouts in the borders r u?

Very nearly Dave, but the trailer was pretty full of leylandii logs. I did wonder about chucking the whole lot in the sea as we were only 100yds from the beach...

This dead pine had a massive climbing rose in it so we ended up felling it over the top of a wall, a nice wide gob so it landed tip first and rolled over. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcl1eWti3hs&feature=plcp&context=C3b714a0UDOEgsToPDskIGwmKKEQntGdCQektdNeCk]VIDEO0059 - YouTube[/ame]

Problem is, although the first fine is light, your number plate goes on a database and they target you from there on.. get caught twice and you may be in bigger trouble..

Still loving my HTC desire HD. does same as iPhone but has bigger screen and better battery.

Interesting, we don't have one, I had always assumed that it would only be really necessary with solid fuel as this would b more likely to release odourless fumes. wood smoke/ fumes stink so you'd probably know about it. I should get one though, why take the chance.....

I think the biggest risk is that the rope wraps round the drum or disk shaft and rips the anchor point out of the tree, If you are anchored to anything 6" or smaller I think it could easily be broken out with a decent side load. I have come close to catching ropes with the wee tractor when grabbing brash....

The "tang" on the adjuster that fits into the hole in the bar will be tapered, if its not fully seated home it will pull tighter as the bar nuts are tightened. maybe you had the chain off the sprocket when it threw it? Like others have said fit bar and chain properly and loosely fit side cover then check the chain is rotating freely then tighten the chain. One final thought, perhaps some of the drive links are damaged, if they have become burred by the chain being thrown they will not sit properly in the rails in the bar. Take a flat file to the burrs.

I hope it all works out well for you. One thing to remember about running your own business is that you are learning every day. Learning the skills of the job is easy, learning to be a businessman is hard. Well done on making the effort to learn that side of the job. Be prepared for a few eye opening experiences though...

Work can be hard to find at the moment and qualifications are expensive to get... Better that than the dole though.

Its not the glass thats the problem, the back of the pick up and the glass part can be forced apart quite easily. Two still hedge trimers were taken out of a ranger and truck man a couple of weeks ago up here. so easy to break into.

I posted a link on here a while back from the customs and excise website. reading that it is quite clear that unless the logs were part of the farms business then they wouldn't have a leg to stand on. Has to be white. its a greyer area when hauling timber back to the yard as it depends where it came from. But hauling logs to a customer is white all the way. I know of a farmer round here who was done for hauling scrap from the farm to the scrappy and heard of another who was hauling waste wood for the village nov5th bonfire. Question is will he get caught?

I know a guy who will have that.... 6 Coldstream Road Swinton Duns Berwickshire TD11 3JE Telephone: 01890 860 223 Give him a bell... His name's Tom BTW

Problem is Tony when government bodies thin out the deadwood they don't. they have a last in first out policy. so the old hands jobs are always safe whereas the keen youngsters are the first to go....

I have at least 400 ton in that case. I sold some wood to a firewood guy the other day, he was buying in arctic loads from scotts at £60 a ton. the processor size loads looked like that, the over size loads looked a lot smaller... probably same tonnage though.

Thats it in a nutshell. If someone wants to buy off me in bulk and do the deliveries they can charge what they like. I was doing a £90 for 1st bag 70 for second 50 for 3rd and so on. even so people still kept asking for 1 bag! trying to fit that around the rest of the business is not easy. I will see how many bags we can fill in a day with the new kit and work out and work out a wholesale price from that. it should be £30-45 a bag. How long are you going to be over here? If you want to meet up and have a chat let me know. I will also be looking to hire out the processor and splitters when we are not using them....