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Big 'Ammer

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Everything posted by Big 'Ammer

  1. Sorry, I'm useless with electrics.
  2. I'd have rolled it downhill into the next field .....
  3. This seems a contradiction to me. I don't understand why, when you had anticipated the tree to have some twisty grain, that you would want to sever the central fibres of the hinge with a letterbox cut? Surely, if the holding properties of the fibres at the side of the hinge are likely to be compromised by the grain, then you would seek to retain the central portion of the hinge. If you wish to reduce resisitance in the hinge then cut it narrower across the full width. I would say that a letter box and plunge cut actually have more potential disadvantages than potential advantages for a tree like this. The main one being, if the twisty grain side fails early, and there's no centre to the hinge, the opposite side has too much hinge, the tree will likely fall away from the direction of lay, out of your control. We are talking fine points of 'what ifs' etc, as I stated beforehand that the tree went over as it should, where you wanted it.
  4. Tree goes right where you want it and so alls good. Thanks for posting. Whats the purpose of the letterbox in this case? You anticipated some twisty grain, so would a standard hinge not have been more appropriate in this case? If the tree's crown was weighted heavier at one side, and had nipped your saw during the backcut, before the backcut met or overlapped the plunge cut, you would have had to start pulling with the skid steer to help free the saw, when the cut was not finished. Letterbox and plunge cut seem unnecessary for this tree and overcomplicated. I spent much of this week pulling over similar backleaning sycamores, the properties of which are almost identical to Norway maple and standard cuts were fine for the job.
  5. No, its a fly stopping the crabs getting out! Sorry, Hama!
  6. Enough winding people up. Lets change the subject. My mum's tv picture isn't very clear. Would any tv engineers who are are passing with their ladder and toolbox like to call in and sort it out for her? Would only take an hour, and there's a tenner in it for you. Discuss. :lol:
  7. Maybe you could take the brash to the local tip in your sky engineers van. Couple of trips and save yourself £50?
  8. Nice one! It gives you confidence when they have that attitude. You can just focus on what you're doing rather than having to think about them so much.
  9. Nice one Dave, not a lot of sound stuff to go at there. I can just imagine the conversation with the client; 'So, just to be clear sir, you'd just like us to put everything in the field behind the garden and you are going to cut it into logs at the weekend with your own saw and we don't need to worry about the field as long we clean up the garden.' 'Yes.' '£2,000 OK? Fine, we'll be there in the morning.' :lol:
  10. I fully agree that a good operator familiar with tree work will speed things up no end. If you have a good relationship with a local firm and know the operators and they know you, alls good. But when you hire in from a national firm, you don't know who's going to turn up with the machine. And on the other side of the coin, if I were a truck mount driver/operator and had had one bad experience with a tree gang, I'd be very much on the back foot about getting up in the basket with a chainsaw operator again. I would insist on the mesh guard before starting work on site. Holding the relevant IPAF cert gives the tree surgeon the flexibility to to the job with or without the operator on board. However, as not everyone has the certificate, IMO it ought to be the hire company's responsibility to send a machine out in suitable trim (ie with a mesh guard) for the nature of the work that it has been booked for. They have to do risk assessment for their employees as much as we have to for ours!
  11. Having the machine you need to do the job delivered and taken away from site is part of the hire, whether it comes on a lorry or is the lorry. The job should be priced to reflect this. The advantage of holding the operators ticket is that you can just get on with the work your good at, without reliance on someone else having to be in the basket, who more than likely, isn't familiar with tree work. It would do my nut in having to tell someone every move I wanted to make and then wait for them to do it. Particularly if they are nervous about being near chainsaws. Usually, there are time and financial pressures on when big kit is on hire. I just want to get on with the job the way I want to do it and concentrate on that, not get irritated because I'm reliant on another, and lose focus on what I'm there to do. Hence, my earlier post suggesting that the cost of the training will pay for itself.
  12. You don't need a wagon license to hold category 1b IPAF, which is operate a static boom. Same course as for the popular towabouts. Categories | Training | English | IPAF
  13. Ditto that Andy. Good post. I wear my wp harness for mewp work as I occasionally like to get out and do a bit from the harness. If we have a lot of big trees to work on, the mewp can be used just for quick crown access for the climbers. So they are in their wp harnesses anyway.
  14. Its worth having a couple of 8 x 4 sheets ripped down the middle into 8 x 2's for those sort of jobs. Doesn't make a mark on a lawn.
  15. ..or arrange the job when they arn't gonna be in.
  16. The best way, IMO, if you are going to use mewps for tree work, is to make sure your qualified as a mewp operator and don't have anyone else with you in the basket with you while you are working with a saw. The money Conkers firm lost yesterday, when they should have been working, would surely have put at least two guys with cs 41 through an access platform course.
  17. Well thats reasonable of them. If that is their policy, they should really have made you aware when you booked it, assuming that you told them it was for tree work.
  18. Out of interest did the hire co. charge you for the day, because they refused to carry out the task they had been engaged to do?
  19. Just reading through this thread, and Dean has beat me to it. Pictures rarely tell the whole story, but there seemed to be adequate space. Bit of soil and grass seed is a lot cheaper than a mewp or a crane. I am a regular mewp user, and I would have prefererred to have cut the top out from a rope and harness than position a mewp that close for that kind of a cut. ( Using the mewp for access, because of my laziness and inability ) IME the most efficient use of mewps in tree work is in conjunction with climbing, rather than either/or. Matt Butlers comments about the boom configurations of a lot of mewps not being very handy for tree work, is very well observed. Anyway, good job by the OP and his team. All down safely, and thats what counts.
  20. + 1 ! We went too! Its great the kids love it and the weather was brilliant last Friday. Only 4 quid for the car park. A proper tightwad Yorkshire tree surgeons cheap family day out.
  21. Winter's good as well. Particularly with the dry conditions we've had this year. Which is going to stress the trees more? I am assuming Dean wants to get on with the job, though.
  22. Later in the summer to minimise silver leaf disease.
  23. Best time to catch moles is 10 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. Dunno why, but a friend of mine who did mole trapping, catching and shooting for many years, said it was generally when they were most active near the top of their hill. Didn't matter what time of year it was either.
  24. I like the new school mewp with the old school bale, there Rupe. Best of both worlds.
  25. Looked like a nice few days, Frank. Shame someone had left that pickup in the way in the last pic, you could have felled the tree into the car park otherwise and saved yourself all that climbing....

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