Scottie

Was working in a garden last week and I was doing a bit of stump grinding (as usual) and a bright red velvet looking spider caught my eye. I first thought it might have been a shield bug but on closer inpection it had 8 legs. It was only about 4mm big and on its back there were markings similar to the garden spiders that you can get. The amazing thing about it was how bright red it was and it looked velvety. Anybody got a clue? Cheers

I use a Husky 357xp which is my own saw and it is an excellent little saw. The other guys at work Sthil 361 which I find that I can't throw about as much because of the front handle being too square.

Brilliant:thumbup:

As I use Bandits, I can't imagine climbing into the hopper and using my feet to push something through. It would take more effort to do that than use the push board. What was the guy thinking or was it just 'a moment of madness'? I am sure he won't be able to explain why he had to it. I am sure we all have done something like that just to make the job quicker. Just like Ty said when ever we get a blockage, everything is shut down and the key removed. I have sliced my hand open enough times by just changing the blades on the damn thing! My thoughts go out to him and his family. It has been a life changing event which could have been easily avoided with a bit of patience. Let me put something out there to you all. How many of you leave the chipper running unattended when you are dragging brash and it isn't in eye contact, say it is round the other side of the house to the garden you are working in? I admit I do it all the time but I am always worried that some-one will 'un-intentionaly' do them selves some damage and then try and claim. Does that sound too far fetched?

I think the grinder would be useful if the wheels were braked. That is its biggest let down! On 1 or 2 occasions if I am taking the grinder down the ramps of the truck, it has run away from me. The first time was towards someones wooden garage and thankfully it stopped just short.

It was under ground about 150mm down and about a third of the root was blue.

Was grounding out a stump of a cherry and when I finished I noticed that part of the root was blue. The last time I saw this was when I had to grind out a couple of cherries after someone was pouring diesel around the tree to kill it. There was no obvious smell of diesel from the stump today unlke the other cherries when it was really smelly. So does anybody know what the 'blue root' could have been cause by? The cherry looked dead as cherries do and I didn't come across any noticable fungi.

It is the Bandit hb20 that I use.

I use a danequipe 25 grinder and a bandit and I find the smaller danequipe much better to use. There are a lot of reasons why I don't like the bandit. I can't remember the model of the bandit I use even thought I have been using it all week. The wheels are not braked: this means it moves really easily, backwards away from the stump. It moves forwrds into the stump then twists and falls onto its side. This happened quite a few times when I was getting used to it, while I was grinding large poplar stumps. It is really heavy at the handle end, so when you are taken it off the tralier you are basicly holding up the whole weight of the grinder. As it has a big sticker saying DANGER! This machine is not designed to work on non-level ground. When you start grinding out it creates a large pile of grinding at the wheels, which then makes the grinder become un-safe because it begins to roll backwards. Then you have to stop and clear away the arisings so that you can keep a level base. Sometimes I put wheel chocks behind the wheels to stop it moving but then this can become dangerous. This in turns makes the machine in-effitient because to do it safely you have to stop and switch off the grinder, then move forward, put you chocks back in place then begin again. I have had the grinder handle slam down on my left leg after it twisted, no brakes on the wheels, into the hole and then grinding wheel hit a log. I am sure my leg would have been broken if I wasn't wearing my chainsaw trousers and boots to cushion the blunt force onto my leg. There have been very few times that I have commented that I found the Bandit actually came into its own.. But then the stumps where big and it was really level all the way through the grinding. Because of the hydrostatic drive to the wheels there is a delay before the grinder moves and this is really un-helpful when you are trying to get out of the stump before it tips over. When you are needing to lock off the table to move the grinder it is easy to miss the slots and then the grinder can twist on you. Also the cable underneath to the pins gets clogged up. When I first started using it the locking nuts underneath for the table came loose. this meant that there was down time trying to keep the grinder together. The bolt holding on the clutch has came out while I was grinding out a fairly large horse chestnut stump. I wouldn't give the grinder to a novice because as it is so difficult to control. I think it is the non-locking wheels that cause a lot of problems. The above is what I have experienced with the bandit grinder and does not represent other users.

All I can suggest is be conifident in the tree, if you look as though you can climb and know what you are doing, it goes a long way. Also look for the quickest way down with your 'causulty'. You might be able to put a lowering line right above your head rather than using your main anchour point. Does that make sense to you?

It was in a customers garden and she gets the job done every 2 yrs.

Had to work on and reduce a hawthorn with a rose going through it. It can't get worse than that surely?

Glad I asked, but I think I got it.

Ask a daft question, but what is a hoppus?

I once worked for a farmer who grew willow for the power staitions and to be honest I couldn't see how he was making money from it. It took around 1000hp of tractors to harvest the willow. A contractor with a massive tub chipper and loadall, would come into chip the billets of willow to dust. It would take around 8hrs to fill a 40ft trailer, around 28 tonnes, the trailer was driven to Drax, around 26miles away. it took 28 minutes to burn the dust. There couldn't have much profit in that!

Dare I say it, had a few traffic wardens pass us and turn a blind eye in York City center on every occasion. Even though we were parked partially in a bus stop and on double yellow lines. We did have cones and signs out and had taped off the bus stop. So I think if you are set up proparly you should get away with it.

The local farmers take loads of woodchip from us for bedding his animals.

Have you tried Drax?

Ok I know its not about the cost of red diesel, but I got talking to a petrol station attendant and he was saying that the cost of petrol in Sweden was a staggering 2.50 euros a liter.

I am in the middle of an airspading job in Sunderland town center, airspading around 7 street trees. My question of the night is: what is the proper way to airspade? Do you just break up the top layer of compacted soil? Do you keep going until you have exposed the roots? All I have been doing is breaking up the top 100-120mm of soil, which has been a mixture of stones, soil and concrete. Then thrown on fert, airspading that in then some more fert, a rake over and it looks good. Tomorrow we will be adding tree start to give the soil some substance to make it look like soil a bit. After all that work the townscapers want to put a resin down over the soil to level the soil to the height of the pavement. I am amazed that the trees have survived as some of them have been palnted too deeply and while I have been airspading I have been exposing the buttress. So if there are any tips I will be glad to try them out. Cheers

Does anybody know what the legalalities of removing wood from rivers for your own use? You know the stuff that floats down the river after the banks have burst and it is all caught up at the nearest bridge. Cheers.

Andy click on the link on the first post and just follow it. Its quite self explanitry.

I would do it tonight but have to go out. The draft letter is on word ready to go!

Did you know that if you are provided with a uniform for your job you can get a tax rebate for having to wash it? My good lady has pointed this out to me and I thought I'd pass it on to you lot. the web address is Wash your uniform at home ? - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums Another address to look up: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/eimanual/eim32712.htm Just follow the instuctions. I am going to do it pretty soon. the money is better in my pocket!

Cheers for the heads up and I found it. Arb Fair North