antwood

Give it a try... you can't beat a satisfying lay!

Maximum diameter for laying, depends on what the hedge is like and what you want to do with it. If it's really big overgrown and full of big gaps, with little regrowth we often tend to coppice the big stuff off, fence and replant as it's past keeping as a hedge, it's just a line of trees. However if you are a cheap skate like me and my farmer neighbours you lay what you've got regardless of size, if it comes down all well and good, if it snaps off then you swear at it; I've been doing an overgrown one of mine this winter and have layed some elderberry stems that are 10-12'' diam. Trouble is if you lay lots of big stuff you struggle to get a good angle for the pleaches and it ends up very flat to the floor. t'other thing I was taught is you aren't laying it for yourself but for the next bloke who comes to do it in 25yrs time!!!

No gold star or smiley badge. Think I was in trouble with head for not going to assembly to collect my award in person and sending a 5 year old to do it instead. I spend an hour on the naughty step most days.

I post this one in full expectation of having the mickey taken. Crown thin I did for my son's school. Was given a 'work of the week' certificate the following week in assembly. Fortunately I was working so couldn't collect my award in person:001_smile:

Hello All, wanted to canvas opinions on this one. Due you use a soft link between harness attachment and wire cored flipline or not? Question came up in brew time discussion, as all 3 of us did not, all having a crab between rope grab and harness. I am pondering what the pros and cons of having a soft link are having nearly got into bother without one... explanation below. Week before christmas taking down 50' multi stem Eucalyptus, I was taking top out of stems about 40' up wearing spikes, using wire core and top anchor in another stem. While changing position right foot slipped along sloping branch about 6-10" back towards left foot caused me to pivot on branch, unfortunately my right hand was braced against stem and didn't slip off as my weight went against it, result right shoulder dislocated; ouch! After couple of minutes decided I hadn't just tweaked a muscle and wouldn't be able to finish job so shouted I was in bother and was coming down. Said I could get myself down using left hand but got my oppo Jon to tail my rope in case I couldn't control speed of descent. Unfortunately half way down the snap catch on my flipline which I had managed to disconnect from harness caught in a fork above me... so now I'm suspended in mid air, can't get myself up or down, fortunately I'm 12 stone and Jon is considerably more so he was able to haul me up enough that I could undo crab on flipline with left hand, otherwise I was very stuck and feeling very sick! There were three of us with climbing kit and aerial rescue tickets but it would still have been a bugger of a job if I'd say gone unconscious and couldn't help myself. However if I'd had a soft link I would have cut it myself straight away. Sorry it's a long post just wanted to give you background to question Thoughts please:confused1:

No Vauxhalls not being made any more, for some bizarre reason they got out of pick ups just as the market took off?? mines a '99 T plate, they gave up badging them as Vauxhalls in about 2001 when they improved the model and started selling them as Isuzu TF's but I think they only sold them for a couple of more years before replacing them with the Isuzu Rodeo. The Vauxhalls were just Isuzu pickups all along, mine only says Vauxhall on front +steering wheel everything other label is in Japanese. Plus point, very cheap crew cab 4x4 , engines go on for ever 200,000+, 30+ MPG, spares are cheap. Plenty of room in cab and decent sized load bed for a crew cab, I fill mine to top of Ifor Williams canopy with chip and you can get a fair bit in (ton+) Minus points hard to find a good one, lots of Ex AA etc with galactic mileages ( I was luck mine hadn't done a days work till I got it). Good MPG = lack of grunt, noisy and poor towing limit 1800kg. It's a basic no frills truck that costs a lot less than others... but it's not as powerful or as quick. You get what you pay for, but I'm quite happy with mine:001_smile:

Bloke I was doing a tree planting job with last week threw this into conversation. "hmm yes, tree work, I always manage with a pole saw, I'm not really into swinging around up trees... I always think of tree surgery as another branch of showbusiness !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I have to admit to being unable to reply with anything witty, but that was only because I'd left my tap shoes and spangly leotard at home with the rest of my climbing kit:001_smile:

Vauxhall Brava... definitely not sexy but 4x4 and built in chip box (ifor williams canopy) and certainly looks less gypo than my mates old trannie tipper when you go to nice domestic jobs

answers to questions the winch was due to my cautious nature??? We took stems down in a couple of big sections and I wanted to be sure they went exactly were I wanted them as steep slope to right hand side of tree finishing at back of house so didn't want a couple of tons of timber bouncing and rolloing in through kitchen door at 20mph!!! Maikta/Dolmar, first job with it and very happy on this showing. Cost under 400 ex vat, 28" bar was only 70 odd quid on top and it went through beech like hot knife through butter (customer wanted disks he could manhandle about after we left) and it fairly wizzed through stem. All in all nice day, nice weather and nice view of Lake District too "I love it when a plan comes together"

Forgot last two pics

Taking down very poorly beech. Quite fun as everything to be lowered back on to 'our' side of boundary wall as neighbour had put an nice expensive and imovable hen ark directly underneath crown. Climber in pic Scott Reed, not me. Well why wear yourself out when he's 14 yrs younger than me and not recovering from a dislocated shoulder... scares me more watching somebody else though:scared1: Good test for new saw as well

Alasdair I have always found the coming back harder than going out! The best thing I did was change my climbing setup from a prussik, but if you are at college or being assessed they often want everyone to stick with prussick to keep things simple (and make sure that everyone's doing it right). Once I could do what I wanted I swapped to a swabisch hitch and fairlead pulley, it just meant I could easily keep tension on my climbing line whilst coming back in to the stem, something I always struggled to do with a prussik; it just never seemed to be the ideal hitch for branch walking as it tended to lock to easily or maybe that was just my poor technique!!!!

Bill I resorted to online shopping for my 7900 it came from Lawson HIS. http://www.lawson-his.co.uk seemed to be the cheapest ones online at £398.51 ex vat plus a measly £4.25 carriage, only minus point seems to be that most makita dealers only sell what's in the box ie an 18" bar so you have to source your own bigger bar (which I think is same as Husqvarna fitting), which again I bought online, if you're interested, from http://www.newsawchains.co.uk but give them a ring and they will give you trade prices which are a lot lower than website prices shocking not supporting local dealers but I don't have that many big dealers within easy reach nor the time to go driving off to buy stuff!

Well, had chance to give the new 7900 a warm up and a try out on the timber pile this morning, semms really nicely balanced, revs like billy oh and plenty of grunt too. Postie turned up with 28" Oregon Power match foor it about 1/2hour after I'd fired it up with 18" standard bar. Had a swap over to the 28", not done any serious cutting but still not bad balance especially when held horizontal as for a felling cut. Seems to have plenty enough acceleration and grunt with the bigger bar. I hope it is as good as it appears to be on first impressions especially as comes in for under £400 ex vat and delivery and even the bigger bar chain only adds on another £80. Surely I can't have found a really genuine bargain after 40 years of trying:sneaky2:

Been meaning to put these on for a while.. in the woods near our abode. Certainly the longest continuos split I have come across, even in a gentle breeze the two halves move independently of each other for the top 20' of the stem... nice but wouldn't want it in my back garden!!

And here's another blue one to add to the list. Just got nice shiny new Makita 7900 today, having used DCS5000 in the past which was a good machine for the money and comparing the Stihl and Husq offerings in the 70-80cc range it seemed like a no brainer when price was factored in... just have to see how it lasts. Pity it's blue but ah well customers won't notice, it'll just be a chainsaw to them! Think I am displaying lack of brand loyalty as now have a Husq, 2 Echo and 1 Makita!

Apologies in advance this will probably become a ramble... I've never yet mastered the art of brevity!. Firstly I should lay my cards on the table... I'm one of those "newcomers" mentioned in this thread, as such all I can offer is possibly some insights from the ground floor of qualifications. I am just finishing a 1 year 2 day a week course for my RFS Cert Arb Theory/Practical and have taken/taking 7 NPTC assesments. I am not a youngster - late 30's and running own gardening business had involvement with some tree work and realised what great work it was and wished I'd started sooner. Anyway, picked the only available route into geting qualified and glad I did, it's been a thoroughly rewarding and challenging year. Enough about me, I'm old enough and mature enough to know I may now be qualified and fully insured but I'm not experienced so if Mrs Smith rings up for dismantling of a decaying Beech leaning over her listed house I'll be phoning someone else to do it. The question was about NPTC/LANTRA structure and AFAG, trouble is it seems you can't really just talk about practical assessments of competence but end up having to talk about the somewhat puzzling nature of the industry. It all seems to be rather scizophrenic, one the one hand there are AFAG guides, CS units & Risk Assesments. On the other hand, there is "get the job done", "no substitute for experience" university of life school of thought. Hasn't the industry got to decide which way it's going because at the moment it appears (from my limited view) to be occupying some ground in between? In the last 12 months I have come across a number of enthusiastic, hard working youngsters already employed in the industry who appear to be being used as cannon fodder. Standard script seems to be, paid peanuts, told they can't get more money until got tickets. Being sent up trees under auspicies of training at work, if they want to get qualified they have to do it in own time with own money. Then when qualified they often get the bullet because boss doesn't want to pay more!! Same token very sound guy on our course just left Marine Commandoes after 10 years, be an absolute pleasure to employ (believe me compared to some of the dross I've managed in the past) , put himself through college for a year and all he's been getting from employers is sorry you need more experiance!!!! None of which sounds very professional or 21st century. It almost seems as if the industry and assesing bodies wanted to get rid of "cowboys" but haven't come up with any coherent way of professionalizing? the industry, it's all a bit piecemeal. Hands up how many people (other than those studying for RFS,AA or CS units) have looked at an AFAG guidance leaflet recently?. So where to go from here? Sorry no real answers it all just seems a bit random and un-joined up at the moment. Apologies for length of post again!

For clearing up mountains of small leylandii trimings after hedge reductions I always take my honda rotary mower. Works better than a blower, not tiring to use, chops all the bits up into the grass box then dump in rubble bags, even picks up all the nasty little bits welded to the grass... get the height right and it even works a treat on concrete+tarmac. Customers can't believe how tidy it is and it saves my aging back too.

Think that the DCS 520 is an older model, but still sold by all the big tool shifters Screwfix etc. Know someone who's owned one for a couple of years and swears it's very well made. The current 50cc model is the DCS 5000 which I have used as there has been one in service since September at Myerscough... so it's been getting all sorts of student abuse and doesn't seem to have missed a beat, seems well put together with plenty of grunt, certainly doesn't feel like any less of a saw than an MS 260. If you are looking for value alternatives to the usual choice of 2 brands there have also been 2 Echo CS510's in service for the same amount of time, similar saws, slightly lighter than Makita... can be got for good price and have 2 year commercial warranty bought one myself.