spudulike

Had the first cucumber off the plant, lots on the way. The tomatoes are forming and the spring onions are looking good. On the spring onion front, last year was a disaster so this year, I mixed a load of sharp sand in with the soil and planted in clumps, they looked a bit iffy for a couple of weeks but now, they are thickening up a treat and doing well. Onions like free draining soil, too much peat and they get mildewy and rot.

Glad it ended up OK. One up to you and a loss to the neighbour that doesn't know what the regulations actually state.

Try L&S, they stock Makita spares.

Pretty much what I did say - let us know how it goes, should be interesting.

Don't consider doing anything to the bloke who has complained. A better tack is to show the council guy that all you are doing is parking your work vehicle in your drive and trying to minimize any effects of doing this by doing your land mods etc. Prove that you have business premises elsewhere and that you do no work activities from home apart from your books etc. The council fella will be rolling over all the items I have listed and being open, friendly and positive is more likely to get the result you need than being down right aggressive. Once he has made a judgement, it is unlikely they will get involved again. If any of the things I have listed are happening then try to minimize them. In my case, a simple one was customers only parking in the drive, sending out a number of parcels via one courier pickup not many plus no noise at the weekend. It works for most but you still get the odd annoying fecker complaining.

Interesting post as I had to look at this carefully when I started up my business from home. Firstly, if you ignore it, it will get worse and is likely to make you look guilty so talk to them, be polite and be open, no hiding vans round the corner on the day of the inspection. From what I learnt (you can look at your local councils web page) , councils to determine there has been a change of use to a property will be looking for: - 1) No excessive visits from your customers or deliveries or pickups. 2) No blocked roads with excessive customer parking of vehicles interrupting neighbours access. 3) No excessive noise from visitors or running the business - milling in a residential back garden for instance! 4) No excessive smells from running the business 5) No advertising boards outside the property 6) No change of structure to the house or land to accommodate the business - having a four pillar hydraulic ramp, inspection pit and cars parked up and down the street will be a red rag!! 7) The time that anything happens for - a couple of deliveries a day is pretty average for an eBay fiend or a lady that likes mail order clothes..........etc Getting on with your neighbours helps a lot but it is often not them but the neighbours neighbours or even people further away. In your case, I would say you are OK if your wagons are only parked on your drive with nothing else going on. If you are maintaining chippers, taking the vans apart, having a load of workers coming and going using up the parking spaces along the road, it may be viewed differently. Your business yard will be a big help in your defence. It would be good if both wagons were parked up the side of the house but guess that can't be done. You could phone the council, express to them your current usage and then see if they still need to come out and see you. They may just need a letter from you stating your use of the property and it may go away if you don't deviate from it.

Well....saws deposit greasy oily chip all over your workshop and tools as few arb types clean their saws regularly. Stone cutters deposit fine gritty dust over everything which is much worse and it takes forever to clean up plus stone cutters are cleaned even less and they always have shot main bearings and bores. I have a dislike of working on them, especially the knackered ones!!

Bloody stone cutters, detonation is the best thing for them, destroy themselves in a puff of stone dust.

We used to do similar with rabbit shyte when we were much younger and had them as pets. The grass always grew mad where they "went" and the bucket of slop was like turbo charged nectar to plant life.

A B52 and a direct strike with agent orange should do it!!!

Toms now around 1' tall all have their first truss, Peppers are around 10" and have flowers, courgettes outside at long last. Pigeons or sparrows have decimated some purple sprouting broccoli but have since put a net over the small raised bed, mainly to stop cats crapping on the veggie patch!!!! Spring onions good this year, dug a bit of sharp sand in and it is helping them as last year was dismal. Runner beans in pots and have started to come up.....will be in over the next two weeks.

I have never started a saw with the brake on but there again, I am just a scummy saw tech that fixes them Looks like it has been left on fast idle with the brake on and it has caused some damage. Fit a new brake band and see if it is OK....Probably worth getting some instruction as well!!

If anyone is feeling nostalgic, I have a 280CD on the shelf that needs selling!!!! No Abba 8 tracks though.

The choke "Throttle" position is what I refer to as "Fast Idle" and is to aid starting. The chain shouldn't spin with the chain brake on at any throttle speed. The brake should stop the saw dead even if the engine is revved near flat out. If the chain is still spinning or even moving with the throttle open then the brake has issues. If the brake makes no difference then the band is probably broken or the spring has failed. Unusual on a new machine - take it back to the dealer for a warranty repair.

Loss of compression or a faulty ignition unit would be the biggest issues....loss of compression being the worst.

Not sure I understand what you are saying but...... 1) The chain should not spin when the machine is idling, even with the brake off. 2) The chain should never spin with the chain brake on at any revs. You aren't related to Mendiplogs Jon are you?

If it is off, change it. You may be able to squeeze another chain on it but why do that if the thing is off and worn!

Have you checked the ring is loose in the groove? I had one once where the ring was a bit stuck. I just freed it up carefully and it was enough to make it run again.

I am recently back from two weeks at Winterton on Sea and we noted that the Gorse there was really suffering. We thought it may be the very dry and cold April, It all looked near dead, dry and brown but the broom looked much better. Seemed pretty widespread in that area....very strange.

Difficult to say but would start looking at compression - guess you can't measure it so pop the muffler off and look at the piston. I would avoid using the decomp when starting it hot, that may help otherwise it may be fuel related so check the gauze strainer, pump diaphragm and metering arm height etc. Worth checking the tank breather as well, they do get blocked. I have found that you can often start these AT saws with no choke when hot so worth giving this a go.

I had a similar issue during the hot summer three years ago and it killed much of my lawn and it was only a local guy who wanted his Mantis tiller serviced that sorted it. Dug it out, tilled the lawn and replanted it! The tiller was tested.....well tested! Stick a spade in it and see if the soil below the fungi is white with Mycelium. If it is, expect the grass to die if there is a hot dry period!!

Don't judge others by your own infatuations Mr Chippyles, I just fix the dirty little feckers and wrench them out of the depths of fooked depravity!

Had to read it three times!!!!

Drain the fuel and oil, pull the plug, turn it upside down and pull it over lots of times, make sure the muffler has no water in it, refuel it and get the fecker running as quickly as possible as the water will rust all the bearings very quickly. Time is of the essence, get it going fast - try the redneck holding the throttle open and pulling with the left hand if it won't go. Run it until hot and allow to let the heat drive any moisture off.

Just run the saw for a few seconds, stick the tester in the plug hole, don't use the decomp and pull the saw over once, look at the reading (should be 70psi+) pull it over 5-6 pulls more and expect a reading of 150-175psi on a decent saw. Lower than 150 and it isn't too good. On saws that haven't been used for a long time, the fuel in the bore can evaporate leaving a coating of oil that can create a better seal and more compression than the saw will normally have. A saw that has been apart and is dry, will drop compression from not having fuel oil mix around the rings. A saw that is hot will make around -20psi than a cold one! Lastly, make sure the gauge has a schrader valve in the brass union and is a very light pressure one as many cheap gauges are for cars and a small engine won't open the valve in these gauges enough.