Matthew Storrs

What reasons do you want to expand for? Whatever they are they will probably incur additional stress as a result- especially if more staff are involved. theres more to expanding then taking on more staff or another team- perhaps head the buisness in a different direction, branch out into another sector. invest in some speacialist machinery that would enable you to consider work that you normally wouldn’t. Just ideas, but if you have a good nucleus of staff as it is a good man and a machine will achieve far more IMO than simply throwing more staff at something and all the stress of it.

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/MiddleofLidl.htm?articleId=16973

Lidl are doing a ash vacuum on offer I think this coming week. Basically looks like a Henry but with a metal dust collector incase hot ashes are sucked up. Dyson= biggest pile of plasticity crap Iv ever had the displeasure of owning- complete over priced garbage. Henry- much better, reliable, sucks pretty much everything up without a hitch.

Precisely my experience of cordless grinders too- I have a 115mm cordless hitachi and it will gobble through a 5ah battery within a few minutes. brilliant thing for convenience and wouldn’t be without it though.

That’s interesting, I buy to order so generally the posts get used as soon as they come in- fairly sure they’re freshly coppiced more or less. perhaps id be better buying and leaving in the yard a year off the ground- they’d lose their ‘new’ look which my customers may question but If it makes for a better product.... trouble is I order specifically for the jobs I have lined up so hard to order a year in advance.. should add all the Chestnut is winter cut apparently, which I believe helps ?

All well and good but not sure where I’d find the kind of quantities I’m after of Robinia. Although it does sound perfect, but never heard of it being used as fencing stakes round here- barely see a Robinia unless it’s in someone’s garden...

Was that untreated Larch? Ithibk of all the choices I’m swaying towards Larch- it’s natural, looks nice enough and durable, plus won’t split open like Chestnut does when knocking in. The spanner in the works will be there’s barely any Larch left! failing that might offer the heat shrunk bitumen sleeve. I always imagined they may do more harm than good keeping the moisture against the post and not letting the post breathe but that’s just a theory.

Good suggestions- although it must be said any methods that requires a lot of time treating myself isn’t going to be a feasible option. I don’t fence full time but put in about 7000 meters a year so it’d be just too time consuming- if it was on my own land it’d be different. got to be an off the shelf option really, Beau- I’m not against Clippex, they definitely have a place but they arnt particularly conducive to Dartmoor ground conditions- not enough mass to hold in soft Peat and when it gets really hard and a lot of granite around the pre-determined wire slots means little flexibility to adapt to ground conditions if you can’t always get them to depth etc. The problem with Chestnut is the split stakes contain a fairly high percentage of sapwood- this just rots in no time so you need a good lump of heartwood to be durable, I’m reluctant to use Chestnut now unless it’s chunky stuff 4-5” minimum for stakes- another thing I noted was that as the sapwood rots of the post can become a bit loose in the hole after 5 years or so.

I think this is the trouble- as you say there are durable timbers out there- but yew is far too slow growing to be grown for fencing and hardly any yew round here. id prefer to use a naturally durable timber if poss as prefer to minimise amount of chemical use if poss- in any case, short of creosote not many treatment processes seems to be effective at the moment anyway.

I do a fair bit of fencing, mainly stock proof. Iv been a big advocate for using split Chestnut stakes. Tannalised is a waste of time now as Iv had stakes rot in as little as 3 years. Iv noticed that some of the split Chestnut I installed on a job 5 years ago is also rotting at ground level. really not sure what to use now- I use telegraph poles for strainer posts and they last for ever. Thinking Larch- but supplies could be hard to get hold of long term. oak- not sure this would be cost effective. any other ideas anyone?

The way I see it- oil is cheap and a service is pretty easy to do if you have a spare hour. Obviously modern vehicles seem to have a longer service interval, I do my Landy every 6 months which is about 4000miles. I tow a 2.8t digger around almost daily so tend to be slightly OTT with it all.

Good post, thanks. I certainly wouldn’t sell it with out asking the finance company what to do first. i fear that the whole procedure may well end up losing me too much money- in which case I will have to live with the purchase and try and make the best of the machine untill such a time where it has done enough work to justify the depreciation. At the moment it’s only done 50hours! thanks for your help everyone.

Indeed- I think a big smile is going to be required somewhere along the line. I always have used the same finance company- independent firm so hopefully they will be kind! the machine is HP hire purchase which is a bit different from lease in that I will own it once the repayments are complete. Lease you have to give it back at the end- although often there is an option to buy too.

It’s a 1.8t digger. I bought it from new and really just too small for most of my work I seem to be getting in. generally depreciation is low but that would be over a few years not 3 months! Hiring it out would break my heart, but I see your logic. TBH I think I just want it gone and start again with the bigger machine, I’m just figuring out the best method of loss limitation!

Yes. I suppose that’s what I’m wondering. What’s the standard procedure- whether the machine can be sold and I just pay off the finance company the remaining amount, then start fresh with the new one. As you say I reckon I will lose a few £k in depreciation and all the vat on it.

Basically I bought a machine 3 months ago on 48 month finance repayments, I now think I made a bit of a mistake buying it and wondering how you go about things. Anyone had this before? I have a nasty feeling il be losing a fair whack if I go down this route particularly as not VAT registered so the 10% and all the VAT will be lost now. But at the same time probably prefer to lose now and get the right machine rather than keep paying off for the next 45 months on the wrong machine!

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tiger+seal&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari here you go Beau- if this doesn’t stick it nothing will!

I think I’d be tempted to try Tiger seal in there. Use a caulking gun. Put a good bed of it on the sole and then keep the pressure on for 24hrs. It’s pretty industrial stuff, stinks but sticks like s**t.

I think it’s clearly someone trying to branch out.

I would have used to say my 357xp, but after 4 years of owning a 550xp I would now say this. Lovely and light, very responsive and for doing hedgelaying and fencing- felling small stuff it’s just perfect. These days I’m becoming a bit of an advocate for battery saws though! 357xp just feels like a lump now when I pick it up!

I’d say that would be achievable but at that rate you’d be needing to keep a steady 2 plus plants a minute all day which is fine but I always find with planting that dealing with the plants, organising a sequence (if not random and making sure the hedge is going in straight etc all takes up a bit of time too. we planted a new woodland back in the winter. 700 120cm plants with guards and stake took 2 of us just over 2 days.

Breaking concrete out the ground isn’t always straightforwards either though if they’re 2ft deep as he says. Personally I’d sooner use a digger, minimal manual effort, and can bury the concrete/prep the fence line too. Can’t you just cut the posts of at just below ground level, leave the concrete insitu and put the new posts in at staggered spacing. No concrete to get rid off!

Sorry, slightly misread your first post, your hoping to pull them straight out with out any digging? Micro may struggle with a straight pull. Even my 3 ton will grunt a bit pulling big lumps straight out of the ground without any prior digging to loosen it.

Getting a bucket tooth under the ball of concrete then curl the bucket in effect leavering it out.