doobin

Stihl bars are like Stihl saws- they just work; day in, day out

NFU all the way.

Round here joinery shops can't give it away. I find it hard to believe there's a market for it. Luckily my yard burner runs great on sawdust, so I happily provide heavy duty sacks to my local joinery place, and return all dust extractor bags intact. Win win.

Just because 'the figures don't stack up' doesn't mean the free market gives a toss. I bitched and whined about this myself whilst putting in fourteen hour days. Got there in the end. I outlined the way I did things as a subby in my previous post- why not share your experiences rather than saying 'companies must pay subbies more'?

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/74363-legalities-burning.html HTH

Own insurance counts for nothing when working as a labour only subcontractor. Own saw? I'd rather they just used mine, at least I know they'll start. Seriously, it's a bone of contention that people think they're worth double an employed person just for a grands worth of expenses. That's all it costs for a saw and basic kit. OP is in an excellent thing called the free market. I myself started off in a similar way to him, though on agricultural rather than arborcultural work. With a borrowed MS230, happy days! OP, fill your week with work, for as many different people as you can. Once you have a solid week booked, up your rates by £10/day. Some people will stop using you. Doesn't matter. If you are good word will get around (especially if you do as I said and work for as many as possible) and you will fill the week with work at £70, all the while whilst building a toolkit to make you worth more. The more people you work for, the more different skills you will accumulate. I remember thinking 'it's got to be a onner a day with a chainsaw' way back when. Looking back I knew nothing. I'll probably do the same in another five years time Repeat this process until you are earning £120-150 a day as a subbie, and then you will become too expensive for most employers. Either stop there or start taking on your own jobs. I'm happy to pay certain subbies £120-150 a day, and do on complicated fencing jobs. That doesn't mean that every subby with a chainsaw is worth anything like that however. It's called a free market, find your place in it I've been spending every penny I earn on tools and toys since age 17. I still remember spending my first pay packet from the farm in the Screwfix catalogue. I still have tools and consumables bought that day and they still earn me money.

:thumbup1: Also, can't imagine one feed roller will be any use whatsoever. Most of the Chinese junkers only have one.

You could have done that for about £250 for an electric changeover valve and some fittings. The hiab looks a complete bodge. They've cut the back of the lorry off (even left the number plate! ) and welded a shoddy 3-pt linkage with very little structural strength. I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. Soon as you swing a reasonable load out towards the back, sides or front that linkage bracket will part company with the rest of the crane. Previously those jacklegs had twenty foot of lorry chassis and the associated ground footprint via the wheels keeping them vertical. Now they have three inches of crappy welding on some second-hand box section. That thing scares me just looking at it. It's amazing how much people will bid on the strength of a quick paintjob.

It's legal to burn on site (unless smoke control zone?) so that's an option. Or hire a small chipper/shredder and use the chip on the beds?

Your local muck away bloke will probably uplift it cheap. He can screen it and use the soil in the topsoil pile and mix the gravel in with the crush. Skips are a horrendously expensive way to get rid of soil and stone. The price accounts for landfill tax. A muckaway firm will screen and re-sell the stuff they take. Hence clean concrete is a free uplift as it can be crushed and sent straight out.

Those two bolts where the pipes go in are almost certainly blanking bolts that you remove and fit pipes to for another service. Easy peasy. Looks a nice clean tractor by the way

You can get loader mounted screening buckets so I'd think you'd be able to hire one somewhere. No idea where though, try the company mentioned in that link. If you have someone local it's probably cheaper to have the gravel uplifted by grab, screened and returned. Depending upon how bad the soil contamination is, could you just use the gravel for bedding pipes on? It's so cheap to buy in fresh washed gravel for drives, etc, I can hardly see it's worth screening it.

:lol:

Any update?

If you got 1749 Arbtalkers, that would treble the population of that area of Scotland

20t/day isn't that much, what size excavator do you have? Screening bucket - The British Construction Equipment Forum

3 £27 combos without a doubt. Spend less on the chains and more on an alarm system.

I did try to explain all this in my first post Hope it works out to be that.

Here's a new thing from them, and already helmet mounted. FM radio, line in and automatic amplification of voice, warning signals etc. Looks perfect for what you want. http://www.howardleight.com/ear-muffs/sync-electo

Best radio ear defenders ever are these: Bilsom Radio Ear Defenders 28dB SNR | Screwfix.com Quality and reception will knock the spots off Peltor etc. However, they've been superseded by these: Arco Website - Howard Leight Sync AM/FM Radio Hi-Vis from Howard Leight - Product 211000 which are a digital type so may well suffer from the same problems as the Husky as regards turning your head/loosing signal. Can't comment as I'm sick of the radio these days and only use MP3- those ones above have an aux in socket anyway. Before you decide what to get, make sure you can get the helmet mount. Both as different. You will need to buy a non-radio helmet mount ear defender with the same shell type, and swap them over. For the most recent one, this kis what I used: Arco Website - L1 Helmet Mounted Ear Defender from Howard Leight - Product 211005 Another way of doing it is to use behind-the-neck ear defenders. My guys like these but I don't. Arco Website - Howard Leight Bilsom Leightning L1 Ear Muffs SNR29 from Howard Leight - Product 210003 You can just stick your helmet on the top then. So onto helmets- you sweat a lot? Me too, get the lightest and most vented you can. I use this: Arco Website - JSP EVOLite Vented Helmet from JSP - Product 4J4900 Buy some extra sweatbands: Arco Website - Centurion Safety Helmet Sweatbands from Centurion - Product 422600 Be aware that you can get stuff like this, and new outers for the ear defenders: Arco Website - Howard Leight Cool 2 Ear Muff Absorbent Pads from Howard Leight - Product 201200 Hard hat adaptors are needed to fit the helmet mount ear defenders to the helmet of your choice. Usually one of two, decide upon your helmet first. This is the importers page which is good for listing all the accessories for those radio ear defenders: All adaptors have the standard Euro slot for you to use the mesh or plastic visor of your choice. Howard Leight | Hard Hat / Helmet Earmuff Adapter I got mine from Arco but you may have to ring them as their website is pretty shite, epspecially when looking for specific extras and adaptors. Thinking about ear defenders again, you could always get the cheap MP3 only ones: Howard Leight | Sync Stereo Earmuff plug your phone in via a cable with mic, then use the phone radio and be able to answer calls. I have those ones on helmet mounts and they're excellent, only about £45 with the mounts.

You mean something like this? Ripper Blades | Blackdiamond International, Diamond Blades I've got one. It comes into it's own for certain jobs, but stumpgrinding wouldn't be one of them. The gyroscopic force it generates is immensely tiring, and there's no way you could safely sweep it over a stump by hand. Cutting through roots when digging stumps out, and general demolition cuts is about all I've used mine for.

Make your own helmet. Spec it how you want. 'Forestry helmets' are simply helmets with a mesh visor and ear defenders, and a high price tag. You need to work out what slots your chosen helmet has. Euro slots are the most common. Then you choose the ear defenders you want, with a helmet mount for that slot. Then you can add visors etc. Tell me exactly what you want and I'll tell you how to do it. Bin the helmet and start over- a brand new shiny vented reduced peak helmet is only a tenner, and much lighter than the Husky.

This can happen if the clamp holding the outer shaft to the clutch housing becomes loose- it simply means the inner shaft will not be engaging properly with the output female shaft. You won't notice it's loose as the anti vibe will stop the outer shaft from rotating and mask the extra half inch of length.

Sstick the outer shaft into the clutch housing (all the way), and then insert the inner shaft. You can leave the antivibe and handlebars off for now. Ideally clamp the shaft in a vice with the head end pointing slightly up, then start the engine. If the shaft turns when you rev it, turn it off, stick the gearhead on and test it again under load. I'd do all that (about 5 mins work) before messing around with the clutch.