Ty Korrigan

Evening, Well, we have in the past been trading as 2 individual businesses doing tree work and a whole lot of other shoite for a coin. Now, we are a 2 partner limited company gunning for the tree coin and so are also looking at various grants and finance packages. Electric hedgecutters and pruning saws, pesticide courses and interest free loans blah blah blah... To be honest, the French ask so many questions of you when you apply that all the info I can muster, print off and thrust under the sweaty jowels of a 'functionaire' (government employee) is more grease to our elbow and grease we will need to squeeze through the eye of their needles! In France, the limit for t.v.a is a mere 33k after which hells doors open up and swallow you and your dreams. We are there and at the moment stand there tweaking the tax mans whiskers and laughing at the storm crows who predict doom. A correlation between 2 man teams, 3 man teams, and 2x2 teams etc is our aim. Business in France IS hard and complicated. You must compile a 'dossier' for everything, they are obsessed by paperwork. One interesting thing here is that limited companies publish their accounts on the web and as there are so many of them it makes interesting reading...if your that way inclined:001_rolleyes: Ty

I understand about turnover/profit equation. I'm not asking about profit here. I'm asking about turnover, just typical turnover. I'm also recording jobs and giving them a simple profit rating so I can better justify why we should or not do certain works. Other questions I want to ask are how many working days per year? How much time spent commuting from yard to client? Here, we have no minimum vat level if you wish to be able to offset expenses. One thing is for sure, grinding is a goldmine so I take Mr Blairs comments lightly (previous thread somewhere...hhhh:biggrin:) Ty

I understand about turnover/profit equation. I'm not asking about profit here. I'm asking about turnover, just typical turnover. I'm also recording jobs and giving them a simple profit rating so I can better justify why we should or not do certain works. Other questions I want to ask are how many working days per year? How much time spent commuting from yard to client? Here, we have no minimum vat level if you wish to be able to offset expenses. One thing is for sure, grinding is a goldmine so I take Mr Blairs comments lightly (previous thread somewhere...hhhh:biggrin:) Ty

Weeeelll... Just turned the blades around today on our Quadchip after 25hrs. I tooka peep down the chute and ran my fingers along to feel the edge. Better sooner than later! 1st time I'd I had done it and it took me an hour. I think the next time maybe 40min. We have done at least 20hours of pure Lawson chipping since new and I know this tends to pick up small stones and dirt as the branches are being dragged to the chipper. We too have had our teething issues with the machine but G.M's international aftersales service has been excellent.

Weeeelll... Just turned the blades around today on our Quadchip after 25hrs. I tooka peep down the chute and ran my fingers along to feel the edge. Better sooner than later! 1st time I'd I had done it and it took me an hour. I think the next time maybe 40min. We have done at least 20hours of pure Lawson chipping since new and I know this tends to pick up small stones and dirt as the branches are being dragged to the chipper. We too have had our teething issues with the machine but G.M's international aftersales service has been excellent.

Well, we have just become a limited company and our expected turnover should be no less than £70k (80k euros) for year one. Revising a long term business plan to give us some clear targets in terms of money and equipment. We work hard and long hours, far harder than if we were simply employed and with more energy. I've stood and watched other larger companies at work and wondered how they earn a coin plodding along as they do. I should not have clicked 'Public' as I didn't intend to pry, I just wanted an idea, I don't need to know individuals turnover. Is it too late to change that? Ty

Well, we have just become a limited company and our expected turnover should be no less than £70k (80k euros) for year one. Revising a long term business plan to give us some clear targets in terms of money and equipment. We work hard and long hours, far harder than if we were simply employed and with more energy. I've stood and watched other larger companies at work and wondered how they earn a coin plodding along as they do. I should not have clicked 'Public' as I didn't intend to pry, I just wanted an idea, I don't need to know individuals turnover. Is it too late to change that? Ty

Hello, Question for the honourable members of this online community. I would like to ask what people believe to be a reasonable average annual turnover in pounds sterling for a 2 man team with chipper, generally well equiped and also running pedestrian stumpgrinder. Please respond to my poll. Regards Ty

Hello, Question for the honourable members of this online community. I would like to ask what people believe to be a reasonable average annual turnover in pounds sterling for a 2 man team with chipper, generally well equiped and also running pedestrian stumpgrinder. Please respond to my poll. Regards Ty

Frankly my friend, The G.M CS100 is small beer money for the value it gives and anything else just a waste of said beer money. I know, I'm a 'user'... You know the type, bought one so rants about how good it is to hide the error of his purchase...BUT NOT I! We started with a CS100 which helped us on our way to a QuadChip. Anything smaller than a CS100 is just REALLY SMALL. Don't go smaller, go CS100 or bigger! Regards Ty (Now PeteB where is my beer money...?)

Bed by midnight, read until my eyes close down. Up at 6-6:30am Sleep like a dog all weekend at the moment except for a bike ride perhaps. When my wife eventually moves in I'm sure it will be different. Rumpy pumpy from 9pm until late, rumpy pumpy from 6-7am then rumpy pumpy 12:30-1pm then rumpy pumpy ALL weekend! and sleep...forget it! Ty

Right, call me Mr Thicky here... But, if I de-burr like our teams old man does by running a piece of wood across the chain after sharpening, then why does de-burring not AUTOMATICALLY take place when the chain touches its first wood after a good sharpen...? Mr Thicky:001_rolleyes:

Oy! Get your tongue out of my a***! Ty

I'm a fan of the Honda own brand Hydrostatic pro model. I think its around £1200 in the U.K but frankly its a beast that can also serve as a rough cutter by lifting up the rear chute and driving slow on full revs. Very powerfull, reliable and long lasting. Ty

Ha... I once asked why some-one was so cheap at 45% less than I:sneaky2: The response was 'No mortgage' Obviously no aspirations either... Ty

How do you know that particular 'factoid'...? Ty

Took it home, quick rinse under the tap and 'Hello Mother'... Ty

Well, Team of us out strimming long grass in a rural area of Brittany when 3 Velociraptors came after us from all sides. We ran for the truck but they caught the work experience lad and ripped him apart as we made our escape by throwing ourselves over some falls where my groundy got snatched mid fall by a flying lizard and carried off to be fed to its young. I hit a deep pool and blacked out. When I came too I was tied to a cross over a roaring fire with naked semi-evolved simians dancing and waving spears at my man bits all shouting the latin names of trees I have trouble with like Metasequoia glyptosroboidies... Now that was a genuine nightmare. What you had was just a SH#T morning....hhhhhh! Ty

And so the moral of the story is... Grind the teeth in short sharp touches and they will be fine:confused1: Ty

Really, some of the language here is appalling! (if you read in between the lines...) Hedges I love doing them and would rarely turn one down. I even use the tag line "Extreme Hedge Cutting" for the oversize windbreaks of Lawson and Laurel we often come across over here. The French love a nicely squared off effect and seem obsessed by trimming lawsons until they go brown. New bylaws for new builds now dictate no more lawsons! Damn, there goes our bread and butter in 10years! We bought a henchman to help with cutting, its an expensive piece of kit and not that well made for the price but VERY useful indeed. Hedges, to be frank are too good an earner to pass on to any-one although we get hedges from others less well equipped. Best of luck! Ty

Ah, that all sounds to be good advice but can I ask... What do you mean about 'inclusions...?' Metal, stone etc...? Ty

Back again, short day today. After a days work I usually clean the and sharpen some of the saws. As the saws are partly dismantled for cleaning the time to take off the chain etc it changes nothing. I was thinking of the grinder to save my aching elbows as well as time. Also, each saw has 3 chains allocated to it and so we normallly just change chains in the field except when I've been too tired to sharpen any at the workshop. Stumpgrinding eats chains... Although I clean off the bark with an axe beforehand the chains still take a beating often losing half a tooth on one side only. I just can't face sharpening a whole half chain at the end of the day! So then... I like sharpening but not that much to take up my evenings. Should I buy a grinder to save time and elbows or just put up with hand sharpening? May have to vote on this one! Ty

Thank you the responses so far. So, I guess the technique is to touch light and fast several times rather than holding the wheel to the chain continiously. Basically, at the end of the day, I have several chains to sharpen and what I really want to do is go home... So I am considering buying a grinder from Honey Bros (£450+v.a.t+ If I win time then over just a few years it will have paid for itself and also helps my tendonitus. Cheers Ty

Ha... There is a French way of stump removal which involves drilling holes then pouring 'Lait Ribot' a kind of vile yoghurt drunk by Bretons. It tastes like vomit from the last lepper in hell and has no effect at all on the decay rate but it is promoted as an 'ecologic' method of stump removal. Ty

By grinding. Here in La Belle France I am told by now 3 other arbs that this can 'case harden' a chain and so make it difficult to sharpen by hand. My question is this... "Really?" Answers please! Ty