doobin

Never a truer word spoken.

You've completely lost me with this particular ramble? :confused1:

We look after a local one. I use a local contractor to do most of the grass with a ride-on and collector, my guys strim all the gravestones and keep the hedges in order. So far so good. I make reasonable money on it, the vicar and churchwardens say it's the best it's ever looked. I priced it for a years contract to keep money coming in every month. Little things mean a lot- keep in touch with the church wardens re timing of services, special events and try to do your cut as close as possible so that whenever there are a lot of people there it looks great. Most days of the week only a couple of people go there so timing of cuts is important. Do your hedgecutting little and often to keep it looking great and not have to bother clearing up. Keep on top of weedkilling- it really spoils the look otherwise, and weedkiller costs are negligible. What seems like a tiny job to you will be much appreciated by an ageing congregation who struggle to do it themselves. Twice a year I pop in with my mini digger on the way past and just push up the grass heap.

You mean on the hedgecutter head? What do you mean by sliders? Do you mean the rectangular spacer that the bolts go through? These should stop the blades from pinching when you torque the bolts up. Loctite might be a cure for this problem. However unless someone has tried to take a bit off the spacers to remove play in worn blades (and gone too far) then I can't see why you'd have a problem to begin with?

He's having a laugh at that money. Importing logs by the container anyone can do. 62k a year profit sounds good but 13k then 19k for the previous two years seems funny. A good website is all very well but if the competition wise up and run an aggressive SEO campaign it will go sour quickly. No mention of any customer lists either.

Your dealer is having a laugh with blades at £120. Can't remember how much the genuine ones are (sub £100 though). However, these have been fine on a couple of my heads: HEDGETRIMMER BLADE SET FITS STIHL HL45 HL75 HL-KM COMBI | eBay

It wouldn't burn it out. The only thing to take into consideration is whether it's worth your time sitting there with a small saw- possibly not, when a larger saw is not much more money. Full chisel chain won't make much difference if any on a 181. With a properly sharpened semi chisel chain my 181 is always on the cusp of bogging down- there's just not the power there. What will make a difference is changing to a thinner kerf- a 1.1mm bar and chain.

You may as well leave it as it's bugger all use for anything else. Timber fairies are welcome to it!

Rubbish. Everyone can be marketed to. The Stihl ads for farmers are completely different to the ones for homeowners. If they now wish to target professional arbs, these adverts will be different still. They may even be devoid of all 'slick'- and work because of that! I don't see anything wrong with what the OP is asking. If they were in my town I'd pop along.

It's Stihl. Not difficult to find. Clients : BWP Group

From my hazy memory of owning an 023 with tool-less adjustment, half the problem was when the assembly got oily it wouldn't have enough friction to hold. So using the hand wheel etc may still be no good. I agree with everyone here- tool-less adjusters are for tools.

I do love my MS250 but it's clearly a cheaply built saw. Oiler is temperamental, the plastic around the clutch is not in good shape and I'm not sure how long it will last! That said, I only paid £40 for it so I will run it into the ground and then get an MS241 Same power and .2kg lighter, plus pro build. They don't half fly with a 1.1mm 12 or 14" bar on.

Sounds like a large chipper and operator may be sitting idle whilst you bring the stuff to him, unless you plan to have it all stacked (where? Nightmare to pull apart also). I'd get a small chipper and run it through as you cut it, filling bags of chip to take away. And leave a few out front with a sign saying 'Free- help youself. Great for the garden!' Saves a lot of dragging and mess. Big chippers are great when you're taking down trees. For garden work plodding along is often better.

Sadly true for a good proportion of employees.

A second vehicle for you will depend entirely upon what you need one for. For me, my second vehicle was a small van- cheaper and more convenient than the LDV for smaller jobs and running about. Third vehicle is a motorcross bike- worth it's weight in gold on a lot of the work I do.

True. When one of my guys car had a puncture (and no spare), I called him a ****, drove twenty miles with a compressor and repair kit, and fixed it. For free. When they are drunk, you have every right to be angry. But a broken down car and a genuine apologetic phone call is different. Your attitude to a 'genuine' reason will of course depend upon the employee in question's previous attendance record.

Can't you burn on site? Or hire a small chipper and re-use it as mulch.

Start with this: Fox Garden Commander 52cc 4 in 1 Petrol Trimmer with Oregon Chain I've seen one in the flesh and you could do much worse for the money.

PS. It's now 6:50, shouldn't you be at work?

There's a great thread on here about stress if you search. I had a look but the first page was all about chipper no-stress controls, you'll probably need to scroll through to page five or six! What is it that you're actually worrying about? Dig deeper, isolate the one thing that is worrying you at this exact moment in time and you will probably realise that there is an easy way around it.

I just charge usual day rate. Glyphosate isn't expensive and it's a nice little extra that the customer is happy to pay for on top of grass cutting. It really makes a difference when there are no weeds growing around the place, even on the busy farms we strim. On existing grasscutting jobs I make more than enough on the extra labour to do the spraying, so I can avoid looking like a skinflint by charging extra for chemical. If it's a horsey place that will mess you around and they only want spraying done, charge more! Also be aware that horses are thick and will spook easily at the sight of a big yellow backpack. If it's equestrian I'd tell them that all horses need to be boxed whilst you spray. I'd recommend a decent sprayer such as Cooper Peglar or Berthoud if you don't already have one.

I read Peat's quote, and thought what about Wednesday? Then I scrolled down and see you do it! I shall do the same.

Three times what he will want to pay you. Good find, Adam.

Good luck with that.... all you'll get back is a list of 'authorised service centres'! I feel your frustration- knowing you should be able to fix it but it won't play ball. Honest advice? If you need a saw, skip the McCulloch and buy a small Stihl or Husky.

Just use near boiling water to free it up.