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Stephen Blair

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Everything posted by Stephen Blair

  1. Stephen Blair
    They all have their own job, take a look at the tree then decide what’s best, If I take any saw I’ll usually have a silky in a saw pod too. I’ve got the pillenic back pack saw too, the automatic chain break and not having a running saw is great.
  2. Stephen Blair
    What I found is my transit with tow behind many years ago, couldn’t reverse up steep driveways and was underpowered for the drive home as a lot of the towns I worked in were on the coast. Also my chip sites were limited to clean hard standing. A lorry was too big, even a 7.5tonner and I was still stuck with where to put chip. A Mog was compact and narrow, in the cases of poor driveway access many a time there would be a field, park or no mans land behind the house so I could drive in that way. I think it’s perfect for the owner operator, within a big company their benefits as a Swiss Army knife are not as high because you can swamp a job with labour if you need to.
  3. Stephen Blair
    There’s not anymore mogs for sale then there usually is if you are looking at Ebay, Vos and Ac Price. If there is somewhere all these other mogs are for sale then share away.
  4. Stephen Blair
    Just have to suck it up and crack on!
  5. Stephen Blair
    My 2013 models were terrible. When I collected them they felt lighter, had nothing but bother with them. I would just use either top handle or 461 as I lost faith in them. I persevered and got them fixed until finally buying a new 1 in 2017, it’s like an original 26, feels better and runs great.
  6. Stephen Blair

    Poles

    Stephen Blair replied to AHPP's topic in General chat

    Nice 1, I love a bit of A team ingenuity, and the tougher the better[emoji3]
  7. Stephen Blair
    On young Larch you can easily drop 80-100 on a fill (about 30-40 mins ) once you get into it, personally I’d break the shifts in 4 hr blocks but there are so many variables on a site which will dictate the most efficient working practice.
  8. Stephen Blair
    If you are young and very fit and go as hard as you can no matter what you do then it’s an even playing field imo. Your weaknesses will come out on certain physical tasks. Except grounding, that’s not even on the same page as the other 2.
  9. Stephen Blair
    Scorchio here too!
  10. Stephen Blair
    Fair play on being a supportive dad, unfortunately I’ve binned so many young lads because their dads have bigged them up so much so I give them a start and it was usually a huge anti climax when a wee shy goofy teenager would turn up who sometimes helped his dad with logs! Get the lad to start his own thread I say, goes a long way using your own initiative!
  11. Stephen Blair
    It’s a break cut, the wood holds not you! Usually a front cut, a stepped back cut, chain break in, put saw away and then break off with both hands and throw to the ground.
  12. Stephen Blair
    Register you company is the Outer Hebrides and your sweet!
  13. Stephen Blair
    Holy drama pants! The guy slept in, knock the door , get set up, send him a text, fire up the saws and chill out.
  14. Stephen Blair
    QTS Group.
  15. Stephen Blair
    I would of thought after loosing 50 pieces of kit it would only encourage you to be patient.
  16. Stephen Blair
    I only use fast tracking for getting from A-B and knock it out for turning.
  17. Stephen Blair
    Neil will keep you right on your course, lots of work for anyone keen to work hard and learn and being realistic about what they expect to be paid at first. Start of dragging branches for companies and learn how a job works be it a back garden hedge reduction or on a large felling job. If you can drive, be on time, not complain and be polite then you are half way there imo. Apex Tree surgeons in Drumnadrochit is always looking for workers and covers a huge amount of work in the Inverness area and is a really descent guy. David Wakely tree surgeons in Elgin are good too. Drop each of them an email and expect to hit the ground running.
  18. Stephen Blair
    I’ve never understood wanting to lift the heaviest thing possible at full reach, it’s a digger with tracks, just go closer and tuck it in, wrestle it, drag it or cut it smaller. I’ve rolled 6 tin out the woods and dragged 3 up some serious inclines. Once you get in the way of it you can swing 3-4 times in nice and close and past you compared to what you will ever lift at full tilt. I would only have a zero swing now on a small machine for working close to buildings and trees. I’ve got a 250kg weight on the back of mine that sits snugly around so still zero swing. It’s held on with 3 bolts so if you want it off you can do quickly and stick it in the back bed of your tow tug.
  19. Stephen Blair
    I feed my TW 190 with the grab, works well, no humans to get fatigued, grumpy and annoy you. Take the hopper off and you will have a good output, all job specific obviously. If you mount it on the bed then you can offset it do chipping is easier, feeding a set of rollers you can’t see is a pain and very time consuming booming in and out all the time.
  20. Stephen Blair
    I’ve got a hydraulic to PTO gizmo, you just plug into hydraulics then onto the pto on the machine. If you have enough hydraulic pressure it will work, you may need a donkey engine if you want to crane at the same time. There won’t be much power, better to get an old TW 190, take off the axle and lift it on and off as you need it.
  21. Stephen Blair
    Felling skills level, Grandmasters!
  22. Stephen Blair
    Maybe an OCD woodpecker!
  23. Stephen Blair
    Most of my work over the years has been topping unmanaged self seeded sycamores on steep banks and cliff edges, all for views . 5-10” at the bottom growing like bananas to 40-70’ It’s butchery for a view so spiked it is, trying to throwline amongst 10’ of rhododendrons or carry a ladder is impossible especially since decades of garden rubbish has been tipped over, so spikes it is. I tried to teach myself how to climb like a jungle native with a strop between my feet and shin up but could never manage it.
  24. Stephen Blair
    5” if it’s fresh lime epicormic or young conifer and you hold onto it. When you start using a Wee chipper you need to change your whole approach to garden tree work, it’s not a miracle worker, it’s a gravity fed 250kg petrol chipper. Keep as much wood as possible for logs and don’t expect 2 groundies to be busy chipping. Most of the time I’m using a pole saw and silky for all the pruning and the customer already has agreed to keep long lengths of wood for them to process and piles of chip spread for mulch, removing chip off site with 1 is not economical although do able.
  25. Stephen Blair
    Does it have the oiler button! Best saw Stihl made!

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