doobin

Facebook marketplace is full of fairly fresh diggers. For sale 'due to change in business direction' It'll accelerate greatly after Christmas when the shit really hits the fan.

What are folk at? Cordwood prices are stupid. We are selling with around a 50% conversion rate £120 a m3. Thinking it needs to be more, much more. Obviously we are early in the season, the have a go heroes need to clear stock first. But if this is the only proper cold weather we will get, then seems silly not to sell whilst we can. Just won’t be buying any timber in except as an when we can locally at fair money.

I’m being quoted stupid money currently. Like, £2500 cash.

It looked genuine. I’d say it was a fair price rather than a bargain. Prices are coming down a lot. it was a basic tractor, low hp and no reverse drive. Hydro transmission im a fan of though. i did consider it but realistically I have a 26hp tractor in the Kubota (much more agile) and a hydro alpine with more hp. Plus an Iseki. Was tempted though.

Looks well old. There's a more modern Ferrari for similar money on eBay currently- better be quick as it ends in two hours! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285056782071

You're only sitting it on the sawbench, what does it matter? 😂

Lol. **************** em.

Should have kept the old leyland!

That's not terrible given than a pattern part was quoted earlier in this thread at £115 (presumably including vat)

Good shout.

It’s not really a seal is it? That’s the point. It’s a bit of plastic. They really aren’t complicated machines, and I’ve seen enough failed due to lack of grease to know that they need greasing regularly. The point about grease melting is a valid one, however once grease has emulsified it will no longer melt and flow. Keep your greasing regular, keep the grease fresh and they will not give you any bother. You could also look at using a moly based grease as used on pins/bushes and breakers. Should leave a film of moly as a protectant even when the rest of the grease has retreated to the outer recesses.

An immobilizer that needs a code from the key to unlock the fuel pump rack (receiver on injection pump, hard to get at) has been standard on cars since 1995. WTF not plant engines?

You’ve got to keep pumping it into the petrol ones. It will get thrown off the gears during work, and then will just sit in the corners emulsifying. You won’t hurt it, any excess will just work out past the plastic seals onto the blades. Plenty does this when it gets warm too. Basically, gears like that should run in an oil bath but that makes the sealing too complicated so Stihl used grease. To prolong life you need to be regular on the greasing.

Why the heck didn’t you just take one home from work? That’s all I do. If I had kids I’d take them to pick from site. I’d make them pick up and stack a hundred first though 🤣

Looking at that, drainage is your main issue. I wouldn't mess around with anything until you've sorted that. Even your track has a bank draining onto it! It's a lost cause until you fix that. If you are near to a quarry, then the easiest way is to dig a V-ditch and fill with 75mm clean stone- like track ballast. Ideally wrap the bottom section in terram and then have a few inches of clean to run on. This ensures you can still use the area as part of the yard. We did this for a customer who's drive was very similar water running across it from the bank when it rained. Completely solved it.

You never regret having more horsepower. 6hp does indeed seem rather lacking. I'm a big fan of the Hakke Pilke Eagle, the saw and guarding is well designed and the cone splitter is a nice addon.

Whenever I read articles like this, my brain automatically replaces ‘she’ with ‘it’ I can’t help it. It’s just the way I’m wired. I identify as a bullshit hater. It’s my human right, innit?

I’m assuming you want rid of the tractor bench as it’s the old school table type with maybe a sliding carriage? I have no experience of that sawbench you posted but there can’t be much to it. Honda copy engine (reliable enough), some bearings and a blade.

For gods sake guys, sticks a Tile on your key rings!

Absoloutely fascinating (in a geeky kind of way!) Thank you.

Very. It's over near Coates. @stere- you are correct! See below. Also take a close gander at the pic post flail collecting- you'll see some heather that I deliberately missed. The grassy patches in the other photos are areas that we cleared a year ago. They have come back (along with supplementary bracken rolling and flail collecting) to a good variety of fine acid grassland, which along with some heather is just the ticket for the field cricket- what this is all about. Of course we're balancing other interests here too, so there are some scrapes for lizards, beetle banks from the scraped turf, plenty of scalloped edges, various growth stages of scrub, some deadwood and some songposts for the birds. Acid heath with the right boxes ticked is worth £700 / ha /year under the new stewardship options. Yet desite this, correct manangement is very often lacking. Sometimes just a pass with a topper so that if they are ever inspected for compliance it still vaguely resembles heath. I'm torn between being grateful for the work, and wishing that it was just maintained correctly in the first place. When it gets too far gone, capital works projects like this are applied for. By pulling the scub out by the roots and moving it to a dump site, you remove the potential nitrogen loading that would arise from just mulching it and also end up with randomised bare ground- which luckily is exactly what heather (the seeds of which can lay dormant for 80 years) needs to germinate. Basically, if heather was present in the past (and it was here before it was all put to pine plantation) then it will come back given the right conditions. It's quite an interesting job. I really like it- it's a long run of work, nobody bothers you, you deal with one set of staged payments, it's reasonable money. And if you take a little bit of time to understand exactly what is required and learn some plants you can do a really good job. Quite satisfying when you're ripping out the gorse taller than the machine, and you come to a little patch of heather just hanging on. So you clear all around it and give it space to breathe, along with some bare ground to spread. Not all the gorse needs to come out, and the minor gorse can be left wherever it is found.

Acid heath.

Some scrub clearance. Both the alpine and multione flat out carting to the dump site, this is pretty dense. The site scrubs up well with a pass from the cut and collect. Might be just in time to save the habitat.

Every day of work. 8hrs is normal. Use decent moly pin and bush grease.

Love it!