gibbon

Dam! due to fly to morocco on saturday

I do alot of work on that estate

David. There was Kretzschmaria and ganoderma between several butresses but very little decay where we cut the stump at around .5m. I wanted to leave the stump at 3m but the client arranged to sell the stem privately. Thanks for the positive comments Reg. I've had the opportunity to work with cranes quite a few times but this was the 1st time for 12months. I know it would have been an easy enough climb but I'm lazy and to be honest I just enjoy it. CTS. I always use Carter Crane Hire as the owner son is my mate and is the best driver I've worked with. He's working away at the moment so this was the new guy.

I wore shorts, tshirt and flip flops this week and won most of the work

2nd go with the head cam [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU-rmxJchkg]YouTube - EDTC2010[/ame]

Yes, the guy who I worked for in Costa Rica had one. It looked and felt flimsy and had very little back support. Not something you'd want to work in all day and I doubt it would be ce marked over here.

I'd coronet that bad boy just past the 1st main upright

I'm in Morocco then, but will go to Cirencester in June

If your that concerned about the environment you could save a whole load of co2 emmisions by going though you order book and cancelling all the jobs you have where you are not the most local contractor to the site.

Try ssg in Plymouth. They have a course on in June

I think non intervention is best for the tree in most cases. If I had decided to go for a more traditional reduction with this tree a lot more material would have been removed. By working to a different spec we were able to prune back to small areas of epicormic growth on most of the limbs. I think in this case coronet cutting was in the best interest of the tree. Hopefully what we acheived was a minimal amount of material being removed whilst retaining a natural look to the tree complete with dead wood, all be it at a reduced level. The other option would have been hat stand or fell.

I agree its cheeky when after they except a quote they go out and get try to get a cheaper price. If this happens or I've quoted a couple of times for someone and not heard back I will refuse to look at any further work they ask for.

Thanks for coming out of hiding Dave. I usually try to angle my starter cut at the angle which is least likely to be seen from the ground, (I hope that makes sense to you) which will very often be perpendicular. This reduces the amount of "slash" cutting needed to hide the flat chainsaw cut. Perhaps the perpendicular cuts help to lengthen the fracture, but I haven't really had an ideal opportunity to compare this yet. We do tend to bore in and create cavities on some jobs, but normally when the tree is being left as a monolith. For LA work where we are working these cuts into a given spec for a reduction I wouldn't feel comfortable inflicting additional damage by boring into stems. On some of the estates and the odd private client we do have a wider scope for this though. More often these days we do this on trees that we hope will continue to live and the cuts are really a tool in trying to disguise a heavy reduction as much as possible. My theory is that if the tree is in decline and is unlikely/unable to occlude the wounds we are creating then why target prune?

Just set it up as Steve shows in the product review. I used windows movie maker 2.6 as it has a speed up and slow down option too. "isn't it more natural for a oak tree to have those big rips in them? If you see them when they occur naturally they don't really sucker up that much... thoughts please" Not really clear what you mean there? Are you saying Oaks do or don't fail like that? This tree has a fair bit of epicormic growth lower down but was mostly dead for the last 3-5m. If you need to remove all the dead/dying branches back to cuts of that sort of diameter then I think a rip looks more natural than a flat chainsaw cut.

Thanks for the comments its good to get other opinions on what we do The saw was sharp at the start of the job Tony, infact I had just replaced the bar and chain that morning. Cutting agsinst the grain on old dead Oak does tend to lose an edge fairly quickly. All these cuts were a while into the job as the 1st hour or so the lense was covered in wet saw dust. Tim and Big Ammer. I have been doing this sort of pruning for a while and to be fair I think that although mewps certainly have a place it is possible in lots trees to still acheive safe work positioning. Using a back handed saw really helps in reducing kick back if you use the saw carefully. I find that if you are struggleling to get ino a confortable position you can always drop down to where a better position is acheivable. Using the winch is better than a tag line as you can place a shorter cut, leaving a fairly stable limb allowing the climber to move, or release themself from the limb before pulling if off. The danger with a tag line is you need to cut further leaving a limb flapping a bit while you move away. Although I feel very comfortable with this type of work its because I've done lots of it. Sending employees up is different and like all jobs they start off small and work up to fractures and bigger limb.

This is my 1st attempt. Cold rainy day [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB6358IVmCE]YouTube - ppoak.wmv[/ame]

Was if from Liston? I just bought the other one if it was.

Just think of it as didn't get it, got it, under priced it, nightmare job and this is costing me a fortune job. Then your there.

Seen the same thing today. Frog spawn on the upper side of 3 different limbs on an Oak. I have some photos which I can upload later.

It wouldn't get a lot of use really, mostly domestic but would need to be able to handle big stumps and highways. I like the idea of self drive. I have used push alond type where one wheel locks on the hand break and it always felt like a battle. Always falling into the hole

Goon on you Paul. However when I went through the process I though that you did manage to tailer the assesment to the size of our business, ie 2 day assesment. I think it would be a mistake to "water down" the criteria to any extent. It might be just as usefull to beef up the assesment for larger firms to give a better idea of the quality of work across their whole work force

is that the rg20? Is it self drive?

Looking at getting a Carlton sp2010, Danequip 27sp or predator 450. Is there much difference in any of these or do any have known problems? Looking at buying new and the Danequip is about a grand cheaper than the others. Advice please