ballymac

Thanks for the advice. Just picked up my 050 this evening so looking forward to getting the mill and having a crack. The 050 is a real throwback - it has a duromatic 30'' bar with 'made in West Germany' stamped on it. Made me laugh

Hi folks I've been thinking about getting into milling for a good while now and have put a few feelers out for suitable saws. After reading a few other threads I've been keeping an eye out for older saws and am hopefully picking up a 050 (might be 051?) with 30" bar next week. Also the same dealer said he may have an 070 coming up in the next few months which he'd give me first refusal on. So my question is what size of alaskan should I be considering? I'll not be milling everything in sight, just those occasional stems/butts that I come accross in ordinary tree work that are usually ringed up for firewood but might have better uses. It would be rare to come across much that was greater than 3ft diameter. Thanks

Thanks for that folks. There'll only be two of us but we should just about manage that. Thanks again

Just a quick question for the cs100 owners. I've hired one out quite a few times for the kind of jobs its suited to and now have an upcoming job where the wee chipper is going to have to be broken down into a few pieces to get through doorways up steps etc to get into a back garden. Is it relatively easy to take these machines apart with only fairly basic mechanical skills? Thanks in advance and Happy New Year to all

Thanks for the replies folks. Had a quick look at the 142 in the shed tonight and the oil holes don't quite match up with the bar holes on the stihl bar. The holes in the bar for tensioning just about fit. I think for a saw thats going to get plenty of use I'll do as suggested and get the drill out for some minor adjustments. Thanks again

Hi all Have generally been a stihl user and have had numerous 026's and 260's for forestry maintenance contracts and for light ground work over the years. I've used the 560xp and 576xp recently and have been very impressed so am picking up a 550xp next week as a direct replacement for one of my 260's on its last legs. I have the best part of a roll of chain in the workshop which I used to make up chains for the 260's. It makes sense to use this stihl chain on the 550 as they both use 0.325 pitch chain. I realise that the husky chain will be 0.058 wide and the stihl stuff 0.063 wide so plan to use a stihl 15'' bar with a little spacer my local stihl dealer gave me to ensure the stihl bar housed correctly on a husky saw. Does anyone foresee any problems with this set up? I've used this on a crappy old 142 husky that I have as a spare and it didn't seem to cause any problems (but then it wasn't used much!) Thanks

TomD's advice to price work at an easy Fridays pace has got me thinking. I usually look at potential work and figure out what the absolute quickest and best way is to get it done and then apply an hourly or daily rate including kit required etc to quote the customer. But in my minds eye when I'm figuring out how long its going to take me I'm working like a dog. The next few quotes I'm going to apply the easy Friday rule and see how it goes. Thought provoking thread Tom - has made me stop and think more like a business person rather than someone who bumbles along enjoying tree work (most of the time)

Our local hire centre bought one about 18 months ago and we take it out pretty regularily. It's a cracking wee machine and does all asked of it. The only problem we ever encountered with it was an overheating issue during the really hot spell in July when the radiator screen clogged up wiith dry material causing things to cook up a bit. Problem easily solved by checking and clearing the screen more regularily in those hot dry conditions (which we probably should have been doing anyway but we're just not used to more than 2 hot dry days back to back in NW Ireland!) Best of luck with the eco-arborist. Don't think you'll be disappointed

Thanks for the advice. Finished planing and sanding today and gave them all a good coat of a permethrin based preservative so hopefully that'll get rid of the woodworm. Fingers crossed

Class vid very funny:biggrin:

Felled a couple of monkey puzzles years and years ago and got them planked into 2'' boards at the time. The boards have been stored in a large agricltural shed. I've made a few small tables out of them awhile ago and wanted to make a large bookcase out of the remainder. I spent while yesterday with a planer and sander on the last 7 big boards and discovered small woodworm holes in nearly all the boards. There aren't many i.e it's not riddled with it but it is a concern. Is there something I can treat this with or is it madness to even consider bringing timber with woodworm into our house? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks

I have an 04 supercab and a 5 year old and 3 year old go in the back for the short school run a couple of days a week. There's not much space for a childs seat with a back but a booster seat without the back is ok. A rearward facing car seat wouldn't fit so reckon you'll need the double cab.

Thanks for the replies so far. I'll check out a few of the suggestions and report back. Thanks again:001_smile:

Thinking of getting a winch for the front of my ranger and just wanted to guage opinion. I currently have a tirfor for any winch work which is grand but slow and was wondering if a vehicle mounted one would be a better option. I probably only get the winch out a handful of times a year but I have a job coming up in the next few weeks where I'll need to be pulling some heavy lumps of stuff out of a river so its going to be tough going with the tirfor. If you have a vehicle mounted winch do you find it useful? What type should I be considering? What are the pros and cons? Thanks Ballymac

Have been doing the stay at home dad thing with our two on Mondays and Tuesdays now for about 3 years and have to say that I enjoy it. Their granny and grandad do Wednesdays for us and then creche for Thursdays and Fridays. My wife has a good steady job so it was just a decision we made that suited our circumstances to cut down on childcare costs. I work Wed-Sat and my wife does the regular Mon-Fri and we try to have a family day on Sunday. I have to say I found it tough for the first 6 months or so because I was trying to do too much around the house and not enjoying the time with the kids. I used to feel guilty when I wasn't doing anything constructive but some friends of mine gave me some good advice. They said that the kids will be grown up and away at school/college before you know it, so enjoy your time with them because it's only a blink of an eye in the big scheme of things. I took their advice on board and have a much better attitude to being at home and am consequently much happier. I probably do a couple or three hours housework a day and the rest of the time just have a bit of craic with the kids. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.