oldwoodcutter
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Everything posted by oldwoodcutter
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Job description/What they mean (Just for fun)
oldwoodcutter replied to Mick Dempsey's topic in The Lounge
A local dyke dweller recently put his heap of a car on a village centre layby, the only information scrawled on his ripped up cardboard box in the window was the price, and “radio works”. -
Job description/What they mean (Just for fun)
oldwoodcutter replied to Mick Dempsey's topic in The Lounge
Due to continued growth we require additional workers. Due to the boss constantly balling and shouting nobody stays longer than 3 weeks anyway, and even the sub contract climber steers clear unless he’s really desperate for a handful of cash. -
Job description/What they mean (Just for fun)
oldwoodcutter replied to Mick Dempsey's topic in The Lounge
Need gone tonight . . . before the police come round here and give it back to its rightful owner -
As presents very seldom come my way at xmas , I treated myself to a 462 3 weeks ago, very nice .
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As tree workers we work day in day out close to stuff that’s bad for us. Even with aspen (which I am) using a saw you’re breathing in fine dust which is well known to be nasty, using a chipper there’s still dust so we wear good quality masks if it is bad eg filthy conifer hedging. Even swinging an hs45 along a connie hedge all day is putting those spores and pollen in your lungs. My coughing and bedtime wheezing comes and goes, I’ve been checked out with x rays and they say my “lungs are clear and my heart is strong “ although they did add I’ve built up a protective membrane around my lungs due to long term exposure to something, they used a lot of long words but that’s the gist of it, but you know when you’re not right, and often I’m not 100% . All a question of moderation I suppose, of course it’s impractical to wear a mask most of the time, but absolutely necessary at other times, but when my deathbed comes, I don’t want to lay there gasping for breath thinking ‘if only’
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The bolt and nyloc nut on the opposite side of the chute to the wrench and washer is critical. The adjustment is not done just by tightening the nyloc nut as you’d think, it is adjusted by the bolt which has only half a revolution of travel. Once that bolt has set the torque if you like, then tighten the nyloc to that. My lads take the spout off every night and we have no probs at all in it moving whilst at work my friend.
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Just last week I was asked to price removing some limbs off a Robinia. These were from his neighbours tree overhanging my clients lawn. The tree was leaning towards the owners house and both property’s had small back gardens as is the norm nowadays. The builders had kind of built round it. The tree owner wouldn’t touch it and wouldn’t pay for overhanging branches to be pruned. Now I knew if I had them off to the fence line the tree would be seriously unbalanced and was already leaning towards owners house, and I would be liable if it crashed on his roof in the future, so for once I declined to do it, and offered a price to reduce it all round or take it down, which obviously my client was loath to pay for, even if the owner had said yes. I left with my client assuring me he’d get me back after he’d had advice from his solicitor who he jovially referred to as ‘the Rottweiler ‘
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I guess that most of us if you’ve been in the job long enough lose our mo-jo now and again,however motivated we are. It helps if you price your jobs high enough so even if it’s a kind of boring mundane kind of workday,at least you’re going home with a wad of the large variety. It’s the money that has always kept me going, and continues to do so,even though most of the boys I grew up with retired years ago to sit on their sofa watching homes under the hammer or walk their dog down the street 4 times a day. But most of the time it’s a joy to be out in the fresh air with the sun shining, and woodchip flying, and still getting paid for it.
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Fantasy to reality, hot saws... Spud? and others
oldwoodcutter replied to David Dobedoe's topic in Chainsaws
Spud opened up the piston on my 660 , reshaped the inlet and exhaust ports, and did a big muffler mod , 20mm or so. Apart from using it myself , I only allow one or two trusted and very experienced employees to stand behind it. And I doubt I will ever sell it, it’s my favourite saw of all time, and I’ve owned most of them at one time or another. -
You missed out Mick Don’t get under the feet of your guys when they are busy, if it’s all straightforward clear up time, go and sit in your truck and study your diary, do a bit of forward planning, make some calls.
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Well most of us get asked to quote in CA’s, and I dare say a fair few have knocked an odd branch off in 10 minutes from that tree tucked away in Mrs Miggins secluded back garden . And of course most of us know who our competitors/colleagues are in our own area and you never know what the future holds. So to use a relatively modern term, I’d say suck it up and try to make a living for yourself without pissing on any one elses strawberries.
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What a lovely saw the 2018 version is, so very handy and usable for felling small stuff and snedding up. I’ve obviously been keeping an eye on the clutch bearing, and in 9 months have only had to regrease it occasionally.
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I change the solid to pneumatic on my chippers from new, TrailerTek do the full range
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Nice bit of entertainment for a Friday evening, I thought it was coming back over the road for a minute , so that’s some consolation i suppose.
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I noticed my Aspen bill has gone up , maybe they had there budget in Sweden last month
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I seem to remember seeing something similar in Boy English’s yard.
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I generally like to see everyone on the job site and working for 9. After clocks change this weekend I’ve changed it to 8 start on the job, leaving yard at 7 to 7;30 depending on journey in front of us.
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My old dad had a ladder similar to that, but during the bad winter of 47 decided to cut it up for kindling.
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Alder conversion m3 - ton?
oldwoodcutter replied to Boy English's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
Best of luck with that Adam [emoji106] -
I certainly wouldn’t lend my truck, chipper, saws or anything to staff. If they put a job my way , and I get it, then yes , generally 10% ( within reason) popped in their pay packet as a thankyou.
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Staff woes, getting ready to chuck it all in
oldwoodcutter replied to Scott95's topic in General chat
But on the other side of the coin, I had a very slow raker and dragger who was permanently in bottom gear, a guy in his late 40s but funnily enough fit and strong and something of a comedian . When I set on a second labourer (who worked like a trojan and had a first class work ethic) this indeed spurred on the first guy to levels of productivity hitherto unseen, and they both worked their nuts off until leaving a year later, both for personal, but very different reasons. -
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I’ve seen all manner of so called jewellery on hapless youths turning up for work on their first day, you name it, they’ve had it pierced and adorned. Taken quietly to one side, and a few well chosen words of advice and they have been unplugged, unhooked, dismantled or unscrewed. Our work is dangerous enough without inviting anything to be ripped off.
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Often you’ll rock up to price some hedges that are well shaped and look to have been cut well and regularly in the past. I immediately say I can see they’ve been well looked after, who normally does them for you? If they say it’s ‘old Bob the gardener down the village but his knees have gone’ I know works for an ounce of shag and half a gallon of petrol, I explain we can never compete with him, and often the customer is agreeable to paying tree money on hedgework.
