doobin

You mean you were hoping someone would tell you the wood was worth a fortune...?

At the other end of the scale, today I brutally abused my micro by climbing twenty steps with it, before grubbing out a load of roots, riddling through the soil to get them all out before chucking them ten feet down into the tipper parked below. First proper go with the grab on her, she took it like a champ but by god the foot pedal aux takes some getting used to after being spoilt with all kinds of rollers on my other machines! This micro constantly surprises me with the power it has to offer. Almost like an old school 1.5t, in a tiny package.

A polite yet firm email with sample rates from a hire company for both a mini digger and a tracked or wheeled loader of some kind should do the trick. Telling them to shove it but politely is a useful skill! Good luck mate.

More like 8 men to lift it safely mate, and even then tricky as not enough room for everyone to grab hold of it! On that job it's worth whatever a hiab would cost to bring in. That sounds like some pretty skilled work in a usually restricted environment. Don't take this the wrong way, but what is wrong with your buisiness model that you're not in a position to tell a particular client to shove it because he only wants to pay mini digger rates for a specialist bit of kit? Are you subbed in all the time?

Trouble is, as you say, five-ten years of experience needed to hone your client radar.

Same as above, but not used it much. Real nice saw.

Assuming taper bearings? If so, you never torque a tape bearing hub nut up!!! Do it up until it just starts to go tight. Spin the wheel. If it slows down, back it off. When it's spinning freely, back it off a touch to get the split pin through a castellation. Don't be tempted to nip it up a touch to get the pin through a castellation. Tighter is not better when it comes to wheel hubs. It's preferably to have a slight side to side wobble in the hub than no play and it slightly too tight. Otherwise as you use it, the hub will quickly heat up and destroy the bearings if you're lucky, the hub itself if you're unlucky. Hope this helps- the principle is the same for all taper bearing wheel hubs.

Easy. Tell them if they want the tree dead they will have to pay whatever it costs to dig/grind/crane/whatever it out. Or they can pay a tenner for some eco plugs. Bloody councils- they're all the same. No sense of reality. I've never met a parish council that can draft a proper spec yet either. So much for a level playing field. Quoted a local job, and the fat git showing me it said 'dig out from about here, to about in line with that tree. See where my colleague is? Take the other line to him. Put some planings down'. The difference in price could have been in the tens of thousands. I sent the prick a coloured map from Google Earth and suggested that we standardise on that between contractors, but heard nothing. Fuck em.

I agree there’s good guys out there. Few around me however, and by the time I’ve explained what I need I could have done it myself. Won’t work for everyone mind,but I personally wouldn’t have it any other way. Totally self sufficient.

You wanna go the other way mate. If I could turn sawdust into dust extracted shavings I’d be a rich man.

Timberwolf?

V8 Jeep Cherokee is a cheap tow vehicle.

Who was it who said that logs are selling the unprofitable to the ungrateful? Whoever it was, they were right.

Draftsight is free and the learning curve not too bad for basic stuff like bolt circles ??

Personally I buy mainly from the internet, on price. This is because I've learnt the hard way that (around me at least) most dealers, fitters, welders, mechanics etc aren't worth a wank, and I can do a better job myself. The trade off is that I have to carry a lot of steel stock, tools and fittings myself- but there's not many Sundays when I can't get myself out of the shit with what I have in stock. Approved wanted £280 for a headstock for my rotator. Having seen the 'standard' of some of their mini digger headstocks (6mm plate on the cheeks!), I think a good morning in my workshop was time well spent. A pound saved is as good as a pound earned. I also got the angle of the holes spot bollock for my particular digger's crowd angles. Here's a tip for anyone doing similar- if you have to do a complicated bolt circle, plot it out in a CAD program and print it at 1:1 with centremarks. Use spray adhesive to stick it to your plate. Centrepunch, remove template and centre drill. Stick it on the mill and bore the holes. On a ten bolt circle with M10 bolts I drilled the holes at 10.5mm for clearance, and it was spot on.

18mm is not a common size head- could be anything. You will need to corectly identify thread, both size and pitch. Furthermore, you can't just run a die through and expect all to be well with the situation above. You need to either drill out and retap to a larger bolt, or drill out and tap to fit a helicoil. I've never spent Dormer money on taps and dies.

God, you're not one of those types are you? ? If you really want to save the Earth, you should reproduce so that your eco friendly genes are preserved for posterity and the hopeful saving of this planet.

How much will it cost just to put a mulcher through it? Only fair way for the client is to price this option up, then if you want the chip you can undertake to remove them for this price. The chip value is your profit.

So glad I paid for a second proportional rocker switch aux on my machine. Can't believe the latest JCB 2.7 tonner is still pedal only, not even an option for an aux on a proportional rocker switch. Sales bloke said I was the third person that month to decline a quote based upon that.

I'm pretty pleased with my workshop. Just read the whole thread, and my eBay basket is only £32.39. Phew.

I'm dicking about putting a hydraulic motor on a flail deck I have from a 2-wheel tractor. It's a strong deck and the right size- question is, how fast do I want the rotor to spin? I have 50l/m available- I'll be conservative and say 40l/ min for normal use (?) and then work the motor size out from that and the desired RPM. Any ideas?

Apparently the E20 is basically a ZTS E19. So that's true enough, but comes down to transportability and access in the end. 2 tone machines are very much an oddball- I'd imagine a Kubota U-20 is a lot more than their basic 1.5t? The E19/20 is a much higher spec than the E17, much the same as the E27 is much higher spec than an E26. Larger engines, more capacity. The E27 has 1km/h faster tracking than the E26. Might not sound like much but tracking requires huge hydraulic capacity. It's the premium machine in the range, they do cheaper ones but not sure if the E17 can come with cab. You can spend even more on an E19/20 if you want, and have a 'comfort pack'- air seat and the boom swing on a porportional rocker. I'd happily put down the extra 1k for that were I buying one. I think Jack might have ticked that option too ? I've bought on price before though- the Hyundai was shortlisted due to price (£14.5k from memory) and a decent demo won me over with it's silky smooth hydraulics. Shame the dealers gave such shit backup, and shame I needed so much backup.

Let’s talk ex vat so we all know where we’re at. I had a quote for a Hyundai 2.7t at 22.5k, but by the time you add interest you’re closer to 26k from memory. My e27 was 27k and worth every bit of it. Way better spec than the Hyundai. Oodles of power and just wants to work. Loads of extras as standard too such as extra counterweight. The E19/E20 is a top end machine. An E17 is a good deal cheaper. The E27 was what I wanted, and the price was 27k before theyoffered free finance, as I called a year ago and decided it was too much. The free finance meant i could justify it easily E10s fly off the shelf for 14k as the best micro going, and you can get free finance on them too. ?

You can finance one at a later date- just make sure you buy an S30 hitch and buckets now, and spec a second aux in case you want the cheapest tilty with no control system. There's a spread on a DX19 (same machine in orance as E19) with a tilty in this months UK Plant Operators- doesn't look half bad with it.

ZX19 was almost as bad- I demoed one before buying my Hyundai. I don't rate them much. Very tall to get on and off and lacking in power, particularly tracking.