djbobbins

Looks good to me, maybe a bit more like a meths drinker than a wine connoisseur?! I wouldn't know where to start on something like that so more power to you...

I was sitting in the pub beer garden this evening and for some reason the answer to your problem came to my mind. It involves a bit of carrot and stick. My suggestion would be that you carry on providing the tools, fuel etc (so no minefield about whether your people are employees or self employed) but consider: 1) dropping base pay by (say) 50p/ hour 2) paying them all an equipment bonus when stuff doesn't get trashed (say £1 per hour) - or proportion thereof, reduced from the top whack by the amount you have had to spend on broken or lost kit. You might need to tweak the numbers a bit; it's got to be meaningful to the crew but likewise you should make sure you end up saving money overall compared to your current level of equipment replacement costs. This way the team get a common incentive to look after the gear and you should save money.

Hoping you opened them first...

We had one in the kitchen of the pub I worked in as a teenage skivvy. Flies made a quick bzzzt, on the summer evenings when it was hot and we had a window open, moths and crane flies really lit the place up.

We made one and ran it on lighter gas, opted for a smarter projectile than spuds though. Spud = need to cut them to size / risk of getting jammed / propulsion gases passing round the outside. Get 40mm pipe, use most of it to make the barrel and cut the rest into 60mm lengths, stand them all upright in a flat tub of water 50mm deep then freeze it all. Hey presto, perfectly fitting disposable projectiles 😜

Not sure there are many cheap petrol golf carts knocking around this side of the pond, plus it probably needs some guards, but I like the ingenuity...

I know... but let's not even start with the tonne bag thing!

Oh God, please let's not start the discussion that a builders bag which will hold a tonne OF SAND, WHICH IS DENSE AND HAS NO BIG AIR GAPS will also hold a tonne of thrown logs!

Imagine a block 1m x 1m x 1m. That's 1 cubic metre. 1x1x1. Now cut that block down to 1m x 1m x 70cm. That's 0.7m3. 1x1x0.7. Now cut that down to 1m x 70cm x 70cm. That's 0.49m3. 1x0.7x0.7. Now cut that down to 70cm x 70cm x70cm. That's 0.343m3. 0.7x0.7x0.7. A 700mm by 700mm by 700mm bag is only very slightly over a third of a cubic metre.

Any thoughts? I have got a pair of iron gates at the side of our house, which are desperately in need of a couple of coats of paint. I've been putting off painting them for the nearly 10 years now, as I reckon it will be a pig of a job, but it can't really wait another winter. I've had an expensive experience in the past trying to paint a single garden gate with a hammerite spray can and these are about 4x the size each, so the idea of 8 spray cans of hammerite means that's out. But my laziness / dislike of fiddly gloss painting leaves me wondering if there's another option? Any thoughts much appreciated.

I did think about bidding on some of this to re-sell, as it's only half an hour up the road for me to go and collect, but not really got time with the day job and all. So if any of you gets a bargain Husky backpack blower (currently 2 available at £20 starting bid), Stihl blower (starting bid £10), tractors, sweeper etc, remember where you heard it from when you've got some surplus hardwood arisings in the Warwick area! http://www.eddisons.com/online-auctions#!/auction-catalogues/eddisons/catalogue-id-eddiso10059?page=2&pageSize=60#1479c6e7-fb79-491c-8b3a-a60500fdd280

In fact, just re-read it. £2.80 postage to the UK. And I thought Royal Mail had been putting the price of stamps up; I must have been wrong. Seriously though, still think it's cheap hardwood if someone is nearby.

Actually the timber is a good price at 99p starting bid for what looks like a tonne and bit, maybe more, from the photos. But I am tempted to enquire how much the postage is to Hong Kong, since that's one of the delivery options available... Logs Firewood Kindling Woodburner Hardwood | eBay

Not specifically arb related, but check out http://www.toytowngermany.com for lots of expat advice and opinions, answers to random questions, stuff for sale, jobs etc.

Headmaster issues? I think you need to learn your lesson and move on... (I'll get my coat!)

We had two eucs, both significantly larger than that, in our garden when we moved in (2007). I originally thought they would have been about the same age as the house (mid 1970s, similar to yours by the looks of the design) but no, my wife met one of the previous owners by chance and found out the trees had been planted some time around 1990 and had been heavily pollard at least once in the interim years. As an indication of scale, I stood in the crown of one tree and was above the apex line of our roof, house is 2 storey plus pitched roof like yours. One was where I wanted to put a shed, so I dug out the roots. Lots of spread just under the surface, which was doing the surrounding garden no good. In terms of getting the stump / root removed, the stump that I left I did try to grow (vigorously at that) but I bored 25mm holes about 50mm apart, a few inches down from the hinge, then painted generously with creocote. This didn't kill any of the other plants around the stump but did stop the Euc growth. So in summary - fast growing, too close to the building in your case - get rid now before it grows more. But unless you need the space for something urgently, no need to get the stump ground out IMO. Great firewood once seasoned by the way, although seasoning takes about 3 years and it is a witch to split!

Had the same thought about petrol. I was thinking of trying paraffin... got about 600 litres in a tank normally used for running my boiler and having used paraffin in one of those Sheen flame guns in the past, I seem to remember it being a PITA to light with a match, let alone a spark from a motor ;-)

I had thought exactly that, since the level in the tank did seem to be going down a bit when I used it previously. However, yesterday I ringed up about a cube and a half of arisings, plus had to slice up into logs a couple of knotty pieces and also had a go at making a Swedish candle. The oil level barely if at all moved and when I finished one of the longer cuts, the tip of the bar was hot - blued and smoking, with the metal distorted from heat. 😩 Fortunately I have got a spare bar, so the old one has gone in the bin and the spare is fitted. But I don't want the same thing to happen again.

All My Titan electric saw, used for logging at home, has stopped oiling. I have had the bar and side off but can't see anything visibly wrong; any suggestions on where to go next? My guess is there's a blockage somewhere so the oiling mechanism will need to be dismantled but any suggestions are welcome Cheers Will

The more I think about it, the more I think the angular forces from the tip of the cone would muller the motor bearings on the wrench.

There'd need to be some kind of frame to hold the wrench in (that's not a problem to knock together out of strong ply or as a practice exercise for me in welding) but I just don't know if an electric impact wrench would have enough torque? Mind you, I also hadn't realised how much a cone is to buy!

I was just thinking about options for a small screw splitter. Impact wrenches are coming in offer in one of the German discount supermarkets in the next few days IIRC; would it be possible to fit one with a splitter cone?

In not quite the words of Homer Simpson, "mmmm, firewood...."

Thanks all!

Could anyone ID this and let me know if it's harmful? I'm an Arbtalk member but posting on behalf of a family member, who I told that someone on here would be able to help! It is growing on fruit trees in Kent, most prevalent on plum trees (two different species) and just starting to appear on pears, but seemingly not yet present on apple trees. Is it harmful? If so, how to treat?