jrose

If memory serves me correctly, the Stihl cordless is only good for 150 cuts in 8" larch was the figure I heard. When you translate this to the real world, that's about a tank of fuel through a 50cc saw, if that! Whereas the Pellenc will run all day I think. There was someone poaching for firewood with a Stihl cordless on a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago near me - fallen beech on FC land, nice and quiet so as not to attract attention

About 60% of my chainsaw work is done on my own, don't see the problem with it as long as you respect the saw but are confident at the same time if that makes sense. It's all about common sense - on a wet, windy, slippy, miserable day like today there's no way I'd head out into the woods on my own, too much could go wrong! But going up the yard to cut some firewood on a nice dry sunny day, I don't have the slightest problem with.

If it's any help, I know someone who has size 16 feet, and had to take his CS tickets in normal steel toes as he just couldn't find any saw boots that size! Apparently if your size is not manufactured in boots at least, you are allowed to use steels as there's nothing else you can do, guess this works for very small sizes as well?

I try not to think about this sort of thing too much... Luckily for me, old land rovers don't really depreciate too much! Brought mine for £1900 a couple of years ago and could sell it today for more than that

I brought the Blacks tree guide for my younger brother who wanted a good id book that wasn't too heavy going, it seems to be very good for a pocket guide. Most trees, shrubs and climbing shrubs are in there. [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Britain-Europe-Blacks-Nature-Guides/dp/1408101521/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335089664&sr=1-2]Trees of Britain and Europe Black's Nature Guides: Amazon.co.uk: Margot Spohn, Roland Spohn: Books[/ame]

No worries, like I said I don't use carving bars myself so my knowledge is limited - I did try one, but found it more limiting than useful. I did see a little Efco on ebay a while back fitted up for carving, but not sure where to get the bits from! So it must be possible...

you can definitely fit a carving bar to the Stihl, as they produce their own carving bar chain and sprocket. For any others, I'd contact one of the below suppliers and have a chat with them. Cannon Bars UK - Recommended chainsaw Fitment Ed Robinson's Wooden Things. Cannon carving bars - buy direct from a carver.

If you look into the cheapest homeowner level saws - Stihl MS171, Husky 236 (think that's the right model), etc... they tend to come with a 12 or 14" bar which tapers significantly to the end, not as much as a carving bar but will let you get a lot more detail with very low kickback. This will let you get a feeling of what a carving bar will allow, before spending £80+ on a carving bar, chain and sprocket. They don't have a great deal of power, but for about £150 they're hard to beat IMO. Personally I use a Efco MT3500 for carving, I don't use carving bars just the standard bar as shown below.

I have a HS45, it's seen a lot of abuse over a couple of years and keeps on going, for the money I can't really fault it. Only issue is anti vib isn't brilliant, but if you're not using it a lot it would probably be a good bet.

are you not allowed to squat down for the back cut? seem to remember that was allowed in cs31, much more comfortable than bending over and you're still on both feet...

Landy 110 if you need pickup space, or 90 if you want it small and compact(ish)

my apologies, I wasn't trying to make you out to be daft or otherwise insult you. I only used your post as an example to show how posting on a public forum can be easily done without thinking through the possible consequences, it may have been wrong to use you as an example - it wasn't meant as a personal attack!

I would have thought a lot of people would hesitate before admitting to regularly overloading their trucks on a public forum, especially when including links to webpages, location etc... If I was Mr VOSA in Newcastle, I know whose yard I'd be sitting outside waiting for them to return with a load of chip next week

ringed up a load of leylandii that had been felled and left for firewood, the owner had the intention of doing it himself but quickly realised how much work was involved! Was about a weeks work just ringing up, my second hand Husky 365 paid for itself easily on that job alone.

900?!?! That's ridiculously high, around here it tends to be about 100 more than the LANTRA, which is purely because of the NPTC assessment fee I think. The course is the same though as far as I'm aware. MAybe look round at other places and see if you can find a better price?

gits and shiggles?

I think as long as it has a Walbro carb it bolts straight on, if it has a Zama carb there could be more fiddling to get it right? Not 100% though, sorry!

Welcome to the site! With regards to tickets, there's no "law" saying you need tickets to carve stumps in peoples gardens, and you're not doing any wrong by carrying on as you are. However, I'd advise getting public liability insurance for carving, just in case something goes wrong! And you'll struggle to get public liability without tickets I would have thought. I don't know much about LANTRA, but I don't think everywhere accepts them - I know the Forestry Commission don't, not sure about anywhere else. I'd look at doing NPTC CS30 if I were you, and CS31 if you plan on doing any felling. cheers, Joe

A word of caution - the company who put my General Grabber AT2s (tubeless) put the old inner tubes back in as they didn't have valves big enough to fit my wheels on the shelf. A week later I had two tyres that wouldn't hold air for any length of time. Turns out on most tubeless tyres there are ridges in the rubber and sometimes stickers as well, these can rub on the inner tube and wear it down.

Hi all, I've been using chainsaws for 8 years on and off, been self employed for 2, doing what I can do myself (coppicing, felling and very occasionally scrabbling up a conifer hedge) and getting climbers in on the rare occasion I take on a job that's too much for me. It's been my plan for a while now to do the climbing tickets, once I have some money and time spare... I have been offered some work for an ecologist company, carrying out bat surveys. I mentioned to them I was thinking of doing the climbing ticket, and they seemed very interested. Is CS38 what they are likely to require, or some other ticket? cheers, Joe

I go for in the middle, it looks neater...

if you're after work experience, I would have thought offering your services with a van and chipper means you will get a lot of experience at chipping, but not much else!

by the way, I'm glad to hear someone else plays the "what's that noise" game in their truck! Have you progressed to "what's that smell" yet

I did this about a month ago with my 110 pickup. It's a very bodged job, as is anything I do that involves machinery/electrics! My speakers are just behind the middle seat, wedged in between the rear bulkhead in a box I knocked up out of ply. Can't really remember much about them, they say JVC and cost 15-20ish quid? Wire going from them to the head unit, each speaker has 2 wires coming from it you need to make sure the wire with the black stripe down the side goes in the right hole or I think the world ends My head unit is resting on top of the cover for the ciggy lighter in the tray thing, one wire goes straight to battery positive (with fuse in the line) for power, as I gave up on the tangle of wires that were in place! Another wire for earth, I fixed this to the nut holding the fusebox onto the bulkhead. Again, I think you need this one or electrickery goes all over the cab. After sorting all this, I couldn't be arsed with the arial and so I jammed a bit of spare speaker cable into the back of the head unit, and draped it up and around the sat nav cradle, seems to work pretty well. Hope this helps, Joe

I've had a pair of type A hiflex for 18 months or so, brilliant trousers. They've seen off countless brambles, thorns etc and only had to see a needle and thread for the first time last week. Don't really know what all the fuss is about with regards to them tearing easily