sime42

Cheers guys for all your thoughts. Some good advice there. And re-assurance. The trees are only a foot or so from the back of the shed, it's a squeeze to get between them and it. So the area for cutting and chucking into is a bit too small. Just the bit beside the shed between the fence on the left of the picture. Hence why I decided to rig it. I did think about a speed-line initially but then got put off by the sideways forces it would create. I like the idea proposed by Arrozdoce - of effectively having a double sided speed-line. I'm pretty sure it would work, makes good sense to me. Trouble is its neighbour’s gardens behind the tree and I probably don't have a long enough rope anyway! (I've been reading the article about the importance of angles in rigging work, that someone put on here recently on the rigging forum. I think it’s great, really useful. I’ve attached it again to this thread in case anyone facies a read.) I’ve decided that I really don’t like Lombardies. I did some over in France a couple of years ago. Once I’d got them down to the stump I discovered that most were rotten in the middle to a greater or lesser extent, (no wet red cheese though thankfully Timon!) As someone else said though, they are stronger than you think. It’s only really in the outside rim of a tree where most of the strength is. Think how strong a scaffold pole is. Even knowing this doesn’t stop “the twitchy feeling in the pants” though! Good point raised by Jamie Bray. I’ve thought about this in the past. Sometimes there is a huge difference in stability between the tree at the start and the pole left at the end before blocking down, if you strip it as you go up. It’s all about inertia and damping I reckon. I’m sure it’ll be a real pain in the ass to lower through, (I’m imagining Velcro), but I’ll try an experiment this time. To see if the trade-off between stability and lowering is worth it. I’ll pass on the compliments on his stylish attire to my groundie! Who happens to be my bro! Working-the-Angles-i.pdf

Evening guys I'm halfway through this job of seriously reducing, (and ultimately removing completely) these three Lombardy Poplars. The first one, multi-stemmed job on the right was fine. I just climbed it and rigged off the second, the middle one. The second was more nerve racking but we sorted the worst part of it without any issues. I rigged it from itself, but because it was unpleasantly "mobile" towards the top, (and also has a large section of trunk rotted out at the butt), I anchored my lifeline to the third tree on the left. Topping it out wasn't very nice, it whipped around like a b*stard. So I'm left with the one remaining tree to take down. I'm nervous about this one as I don't have the option to lifeline off another tree. It's also higher than the others were. I'm hoping for some advice or reassurance. Maybe I just need to "Man-Up"! I've not had much experience in this type of tree. How weak, or strong are they actually? There seems to me to be a trade off between anchoring the rigging block as high as possible, (to minimise the size of the topped off piece), and making sure its attached to a strong enough section of trunk wood. What's the minimum diameter you'd rig from? What's the minimum diameter trunk you'd climb up to on a Lombardy? I went up to about 5" which didn't feel nice at all, but there was still a good 15 - 20 ft above to the top of the tree. I think the picture should show the situation but just in case;- it's all got to be rigged down unfortunately because of the shed directly underneath the trees and neighbours gardens all around.

Thanks. Fair comment about a weaker attachment point being safer. I use a so called "tear-away" strop anyway but have never tested it. I'll use the back handle in future then.

Hi guys How do you attach your tool strop to chainsaws that are not top handled only, i.e. saws other than the likes of the MS200T, designed specially to be used aloft? I was doing a job today where I needed to use a bigger saw, I think its a Stihl MS361, so not huge. I attached the strop to the top handle of it, but have previously tied on to the back handle. I'm never sure which is best as probably neither were designed to be used to suspend the saw from. The back handle looks weaker, but has the advantage that the saw hangs with the bar pointing downwards so obviously safer. Any thoughts, tips or advice please anyone? Thanks Simon

Thanks for the suggestions. I know Chris Cooper-Abbs is very good, he used to do my stuff years ago. But only on the back of a bigger outfit that I was subbing for at the time. It wasn't worth his while just to do my stuff as I'm only a one man band.

BTW Arctostaphylos uva-ursi;- I've just noticed your avatar. Its great. Crazy, a spiral that's not a spiral. Messes with my eyes!

Thanks guys. Some good feedback there. It looks like I've not completely wasted my money so that's reassuring. I still haven't tried mine yet as waiting for my Silky to get too blunt, which seems to take forever! So I guess that says a lot,

Hi all, I spent an interesting day at the APF at Ragley a couple of weeks ago. Whilst there I was drawn into the Samurai pruning saws stand. They were offering a Silky Zubat equivalent saw for £20 and a spare blade for £10. Since I was planning on getting a spare blade for my silky anyway I couldn't resist the bargain. My question is;- does anyone have any experience or opinions of these saws? I've not tried mine yet. I've always been very happy with the performance and durability of Silky, but they are too expensive. Since these Samurais are less than half the price they must surely be a serious contender. Any thoughts? Are Silky really worth it? Ta Simon

Can anyone recommend a good LOLER inspector to me please? I'm on the south side of Birmingham. I've always had a very good guy to do it for me in the past but he moved away from the local area last year unfortunately. Thanks Simon

Thanks Gary I found something similar but more detailed, (too much mechanics for me to completely understand!). So the essence is that as long as the thickness of the wall, (of intact sound wood), of the hollow trunk is greater than 1/3 the radius we should be OK. That's reassuring as it seems that a lot of the central wood of a trunk can rot away before the strength of the tree is too much impaired. This is obviously only theoretical so each tree is different. The rot is very rarely perfectly central in the trunk for example, so if it was over to one side you could still end up with too thin a wall thickness from a relatively small cavity. In my example that started this whole thread the t/R value was about 0.75. Or maybe more like 0.5 as I remember the rot wasn't central. Either way it was fine. I was worrying too much. But as someone else said; a little fear is a healthy thing!

I'm Devon born and bred so you'll find no Brummie accents here! (I have a great liking and respect for all Midlanders though;- before any of you get offended! I've been here a long time.)

I've thought about this as well Paul. In this case the cavity was off center though so I might have had to drill holes all around the tree before I found it. Hence weakening the tree further .......................... Small cautious sections was definitely my way forward on that one. There was enough sway from the wind, without adding extra with reaction forces. Actually it was quite a dilema between keeping the sections small and wanting to get it over and done with as quick as possible to remove the wind loading area!

What's this t/R formula you mention Gary? it sounds interesting, not heard of it before. I just done a quick calculation and I estimate that the 6in hole was only 6.66% of the total cross sectional area of the tree's 24in diameter. Doesn't look so bad when it's put like that.

A resistograph sounds like a good idea. A worthwhile investment I guess if the budget will stretch to it, sadly it would be way above mine though. I would have preferred to fell all the trees. The problem with the last two was that the lean and overhang were too great to overcome with just wedges, and I couldn't get access for a pull line in the right direction due to rough and tree covered ground. It was the opposite situation to normal urban working;- there was nothing around to be avoided, (except the barn), but no clear access. Maybe a re-directed pull line could have worked, thinking about it ...................

My insurance is sorted thanks. Though it probably doesn't cover working abroad ............. It was more damage to myself or other that I was concerned about anyway, rather than property.

Thanks guys Ty: You're spot on with the location of the job. It was in Broons, just S.W. of Dinan. I'm impressed, almost to the point of disbelief! It was only the end of a barn that could be seen in those pics. The house itself is very pretty. How on earth could you tell? What are the distinguishing characteristics of the architecture from that region? I guess you must know the area. I'm actually based in Birmingham. I was over in France for a bit of a working holiday. Some friends of mine own the property. I've been a few times, always to take down dodgy or mis placed poplars. I love it there, it has a proper old rural France feeling. Plus I don't have the normal headache of getting rid of everything I cut down, that I always have working here in a big city!

Morning all I'm hoping for some thoughts or advice on how best to deal with suspect poplar trees, (or I suppose other types of trees as well). I recently had a job to take down a number of trees. I completed it successfully without any mishap, but have been wondering since if I did it safely and in the best way. It was a group of about 9 trees most of which were about 20 -24 inch diameter at the bole and in a close group about an arms width apart. I think they were Lombardy poplars or some kind of hybrid. A couple of them were clearly dead, most were sickly looking and a couple were overhanging a barn. Hence why the customer wanted them down. (Two or three had already fallen, away from the barn luckily). I felled about four of them from the ground, the sickly ones. No problem with a few wedges. Once down I discovered that they were all rotten inside at the base. The two dead trees I also felled from the ground, with the help of a pull line. This just left me the two overhangers which luckily were the healthiest looking of the lot. I decided the only way for these was to dismantle from the top down as the overhang and lean was too great and I couldn't get a pull line in the right direction anyway. Number one had quite a severe lean so I life lined off it's neighbour as it was only a couple of feet away, and then lowered and dropped it in bits to avoid the barn. The final tree was the one that made me nervous, (well I was slightly bricking it at times if I'm honest! ), as there was quite a breeze at the top so there was a fair bit of swaying around. I found it particularly unpleasant having seen the state of the other trees, (even though this one looked healthy), and my brain kept telling me that since I was tied into this one remaining one I had no insurance if it went, "if it goes I'm going with it!!". Anyway, it turned out fine and boy was I relieved to get back down to ground with just a section of stem to fell! Having done so I saw that it too had started to develop a rotten cavity in the base. (About 6in diameter in a bole of about 24in). Hence my consternation! So any thoughts anyone? How would others have handled that situation? Am I just being unduly nervous or was it risky to climb that final tree with the unknown cavity? It felt really solid apart from the movement at the top but that was just due to the wind that day. Apologies if this is an overlong post! I just wanted to give as clear a picture as possible of the scenario. I've attached a few pics as well. Thanks all. Simon

Dean - At one point I used a second lifeline, from a second tree next door. I figured that this should reduce the swing in a bit, but more importantly I would not swing in directly to the trunk but in between both trees instead. I admit that I don't normally use two life lines. Contrary to what they teach you on the NPTC courses!

Thanks guys for all your thoughts, some good ideas and advice. I feel re-assured that there doesn't seem to be anything obvious that I've missed. . OMTC - I find it difficult to walk forwards as the attachment point on my harness is on the front. I tend to walk sides ways, crab style. I find that works well, I can still lean back into the line and grab branches as well. AG - Good idea with the slings for footholds. I've not tried that so will try to remember next time. Also I forgot to mention that I was actually using a redirect. That always helps. The only problem is that sometimes the friction gets a bit too much with both ropes going through the same Bina, (I use DRT). Obviously using a separate one for each rope will resolve this, I hadn't thought of this so I'll be trying that next time as well. I think someone suggested that SRT makes re-directing easier. Can someone explain this please? Because I've always found it easy enough with DRT, especially if I use two binas as previously mentioned.

Hello all This question may already have been covered, but I can't find the exact answer that I'm looking for so I'm starting another thread. Apologies if I'm boring anyone! I was recently doing a job that involved quite a lot of limb walking. It was a few Oaks that were seriously overhanging the house, the reason being that they were on the edge of a wood and south facing so most of the growth was in that direction. The customer wanted to removed some overhanging limbs to balance the trees up a bit as a large one along the same row had recently come down, (though luckily missing the house). Without wishing to large it; I'm fairly competent at limb walking, i.e. don't have too much problem with balance and getting out on a limb by walking backwards, bracing against the lifeline and using branches as foot holds, especially since I was on a strong as Oak in this case. I also get the TIP as high and strong as possible. My issue is what would happen if the limb I'm walking on was to break??? I worry about:- a) swinging into the trunk and causing myself injury as the swing in would be significant b) the broken limb dropping and causing damage (in this case to the house below) In this kind of situation I normally look for a parallel limb above me to re-direct on and/or strop on to. If there is no such option then I strop on to the same limb on which I'm standing, to stop swing-in in case I lose my footing. In this case I worry that if the limb was to break I could potentially end up in a situation where both (A) and (B) were true, with me stuck in the middle with the weight of the broken limb trying to tear me apart!! What does anyone else do on this kind of job? The only half decent solution I can come up with is to have an extra long strop or the other end of the life line to a fixed point on the ground or a solid groundie. A good distance away from me out from the trunk, to control swing-in. I'd like to know peoples thoughts on this please It might look a less that impressive photo but it felt quite dodgy to me! Cheers Simon

Cheers all for your helpful thoughts. My plan of action is to get the exhaust off and check the piston. If it looks OK I'll try a retune. As a last resort I'll have a go at repairing the previously mentioned well known faults / replace the whole carb, depending on how brave/broke I feel! First I'm going to buy myself a service manual as they look pretty cheap on Ebay. I'm assuming there won't be too many differences as I'm not sure I'll be able to get one for the exact year of my saw.

Thanks for the offer Eddy-T. I'm in South Birmingham. Where are you? Wolfie;- I appreciate your advice about getting a new carb. It would be ~£100 that I'd rather not have to pay out though if I can avoid it. So is there any harm in adjusting the idle screw a bit in the hope that fixes it? Can anyone point me in the direction of any documentation for the MS200 please? A workshop/maintenance/service manual or exploded diagram for instance. I've seen various references to them on here but all the links I've followed didn't work.

Thanks for the re-assurance Wolfie. If it is the "normal" carb fault, dodgy accelerator pump, would that happen suddenly? I'm not sure if I made it clear but the idle problem started immediately after the leylandii milling incident. Before that it would happily idle all day. Unfortunately I don't have another ms200 to swap the carb from.

Hello all I've got a bit of a problem with my trusty climbing saw, (Stihl MS200T, 2008 model). It doesn't want to tick over nicely at the moment. When I first start it the idle is a bit uneven and after a while it cuts out altogether. When hot its even worse, it just dies as soon as I release the throttle. Apart from that it seems fine, it revs as good as ever and has plenty of power for cutting. I should mention that I may be responsible for this problem! A couple of weeks ago I was doing a reduction on a leylandii hedge, and using a skip to get rid of the waste. I was getting short on time and skip space so decided to mill the brash down a bit with the chainsaw. I went at it pretty hard and after only a few minutes the saw started cutting out on idle. I figure I must have overheated the poor thing as it was a stinking hot day and the exhaust was pretty stifled as I had the bar in the brash up to the hilt. The exhaust housing was smoking afterwards. I feel a bit stupid writing this now! I'm loath to take it to my local service place again as I feel that since I'm normally pretty mechanically minded this is something I should be able to sort myself. Judging by a lot of other posts I've read on here I reckon this is the best place to come for advice as of few of you blokes seem to be chainsaw Oracles! What does anyone think;- have I indeed overheated the thing and caused some damage to something? (or maybe the smoke was just resin burning off on the exhaust. He says hopefully!). Or is this just a question of re-tuning the carb? If anyone could give me a quick tutorial on the three screws that would be much appreciated, (H, L and LA). Thanks. I've always wanted to get my head around these but never plucked up the courage to fiddle with them in case I muck up a fine balance of something. Thanks in advance. Sorry about the long post!

Thanks all. This is exactly the kind of response I was hoping for. Some good advice there. And pretty much a consensus too! I wasn't too keen on giving the tree as drastic a cut-back as the customer seemed to want. I'll have a chat with them and convince them that less is more! I thought beech were pretty good at healing up over cuts. I've seen scars that have almost disappeared. But, I guess that they could have been done at an early age as the smaller the branch cut the better it heals. cerneARB - Do you really mean only cut off 30mm? That seems tiny to me. Would take forever;- there would be that many. Cheers