djbobbins

Just been into my local Lidl - 53cc saws, 18” bar, including ear defenders, mixing bottle, 3 year guarantee.  £89.99.  
 

The best bit - they are on buy one, get one half price.  So two saws to abuse for three years for £135…

5 minutes ago, adw said:

Bloody plastic!

Perhaps it’s some new kind of fireproof plastic.  
 

Or perhaps the person who has made it is either a moron or a chancer.  
 

Seeing as it’s for sale on Facebook Marketplace I think I can guess which it is…

I think there’s a reason why this barbecue is for sale in unused condition…. 
 

11 hours ago, PeteB said:

Pretty sure a Torquay (or near by) Contractor did the the M5/A30/A38 with a bin lorry as a chip truck. All I could think of was that there was a tax advantage or the truck was cheap!

I think we’ve found the answer if the trucks are selling at not much over a grand…

There’s half a dozen of these under auction, some have short ticket and a few more kms on the tacho, but this one has got MOT until February next year and only 180,000km.  
 

Given that you couldn’t buy a sh*tbox Corsa or Bipper can of the same age and mileage for the current bids, it seems an astonishingly cheap option for someone who wants to shift decent amounts of chip…

On 24/05/2023 at 13:26, eggsarascal said:

It is, the work is handy though, little travelling because it’s a franchise and they can’t go out of their territory, he’s just pissed me off. He text me earlier asking me to call him. When I’m off my high horse I’ll see how I feel.

You mean he wants you to call him now he knows you are moving on?  
 

If so I’d say be polite but factual - apart from a short-term vent, I’d say not a lot to be gained from giving it both barrels.  
 

So along the lines of: 

- I’m an experienced subcontractor and I want the job to be beneficial for me and my employer

- It wasn’t helpful to feel like I was being micro-managed (saying how you feel is good - he can’t say “I wasn’t micromanaging you” because you didn’t say that he was, only that it felt that way)

- I’ve found a different opportunity now so am going to move on, no hard feelings

If he promises to keep his nose out and potentially comes up with some sweetener, would you stay?  If so, then worth having in the back of your mind what you (realistically) want before you pick up the phone.  

20 hours ago, Mesterh said:

Brilliant. Get a pizza going and get some pics up. 👍

I’m going to do a few bigger fires as the week goes on; might be ready to cook in it by the weekend.  
 

It’s taken me over 18 months since digging the footings; don’t want to risk cracking it now by having too big of a fire too soon! 

But to be honest if I had my time over I would probably do the dome out of moulded sand.  That would have allowed me to customise the size and shape a bit more.  

22 minutes ago, peds said:

Keep us posted, the pizza oven is slowly creeping higher up my To Do list, now that the fresh water pipe, waste water pipes, and electric duct have all been buried... just got to finish the balcony, all the wood cladding, windows and doors flashing, landscaping etc... hopefully by this time next year!

 

How did you make the dome? I was thinking of doing a long brick arch over half a blue plastic barrel, but I'm flexible with that plan.

 

I bought a 65cm gym ball, found a large pallet, filled the gaps in between the slats on the pallet, cut a circa 63cm diameter hole in it and inflated the ball.  
 

Plywood forming for the doorway, plus also cut a 85cm diameter semi-circle out of another sheet of ply - so I could try to get the dome walls 10cm thick all round.  
 

The mix was 2 parts sand, 1 part hydrated lime, 1 part fireclay and 1 part fast-setting cement.  Then 5 parts coarse perlite to 2 of that.  

Just seen from the last post it’s taken me nigh-on a year to get around to actually casting the plinth, installing the fire bricks and moulding the dome for the pizza oven.  
 

But first firing this evening. 😊

Will do a few bigger fires over the next couple of weeks; I’m hoping the birthday present fairy brings me an IR thermometer later this week too… 

Sorry, I should have been clearer - my acquisition is a Husqvarna 66 🙂

Apologies in advance to the Stihl fans! 

Looks to be in good condition for its age, running an 18" bar and went through some knotty pieces of oak happily.  

I've ordered a 24" bar for occasional use on bigger sticks.  

Any heads-up on things to look out for / be aware of would be appreciated.  

Ah, okay, thanks.  
 

The guy has just messaged me back to say he has just sold it 😞

2 minutes ago, pleasant said:

Logo looks normal to me. Whats weird about it? Admittedly i cannot zoom in for a really clear look

It says “Jonsereds” rather than Jonsered.  Rest of the saw looks kosher, but well used from the pics.  

Seen this for sale locally; last time I used a baby Jonsered (Husky copy if I understand correctly) it was okay.  
 

This one looks like a different beast - it seems to have been well used but previous posts rate Jonsered 630 saws highly - which it looks like from what I can see.  Although the slightly weird naming on the starter cord cover is odd…

Thoughts on ID much appreciated!  

That sounds like exactly what I am looking for - rugged dependability and hopefully decent grunt from the 66cc (which I think the Super of that vintage is).  

13 hours ago, GarethM said:

Think I'd rather the Aldi special than buy anything off Facebook.

 

Vintage doesn't mean it's better, collectable maybe but a definite it's going in the collectable scrapman pile when it breaks.

 

Buy once, cry once as the saying goes.

I am quite undecided - was pleased with my £99 56cc Scheppach until I killed it.  
 

Also seen a used (but looks in v. good condition) Mitox 6224 which would probably do the job.  

In case anyone is interested, this is a different seller (has got the grace to call it a Stihl copy) but looks like the same model of saw that I didn’t buy yesterday:  

Fair enough!  

4 hours ago, pleasant said:

Thats an early one...pre 1990 as it has the metal name tags

 
Other than age in calendar years, is that a good or a bad thing?  

Anyway - just seen an 038 Super advertised, so hoping to find a suitable time to go and have a look at that.  
 

About as old as the hills I suspect but the photos look tidy enough.  

14 hours ago, GarethM said:

I'm not sure if it's going to be dog rough or definitely stolen at that price.

 

Bite the bullet and get a 261, for firewood processing it's pretty hard to beat.

I went to see it.  
 

It wasn’t in rough condition.  
 

Not sure if it was stolen.  
 

But I am sure it was about as German as I am.  A few Stihl stickers (and maybe even a Stihl bar) do not make a Stihl.  Plastic mouldings were wrong, choke looked wrong, the address turned out to be a pub car park and the guy turned up in a brand new Renault van with a heavy Irish accent.  So that definitely felt wrong.  He claimed it had been used to top some nearby trees (behind the fairground - any more cliches out there?!) but it was spotless - either someone had pressure washed it or it had never seen a tree.    
 

So much as I want a saw, £225 was not leaving my pocket to pay for some Chinese thing - I’d rather pay £100 for a saw from Aldi, which would at least have 3 years’ warranty…

So, the Oleo Mac I was hoping to buy has been sold already, back to the drawing board…

I have seen an allegedly little-used MS391 for sale fairly nearby at £225.  Sounds cheap - but then I read a few reviews and it gets a bit panned.  
 

Thing is, what I want it for is to chug through bigger bits of firewood and maybe fell the occasional tree, but it will probably get used a few hours per day for about 10 days per year.  So I’m not fussed about it being super lightweight (I’m not 😉), just want something that will be fairly robust.  
 

Thoughts appreciated - I’m scared I am trying to talk myself into it because it sounds cheap and I like a bargain!! 

34 minutes ago, GarethM said:

You could be cheeky and see if they'll honour the three year guarantee, they are known for being good at honouring it.

 

I know it's your own fault, but I don't think they'll physically check it over providing it's clean.

I hadn’t thought of that.  But just checked and I bought it in October 2019 so it is just past the three years anyway.  

I quite like the idea of durability (i.e. you struggled to kill it!) but am worried about why you felt the need to do so?!