Matthew Storrs

Trouble is, I live in a very rural area, iv had two chippers in the past, one was a tracked timber wolf and the other a TP200 which ran off the tractor. Wth both machines I often ended up not using them as timber/brash was burnt on site as it was quicker them chipping. The problem is when working in more urban environments/back gardens etc, burning is both time consuming and a general no go, so was trying to find a neat solution to be able to take on these type of jobs without having to hire a chipper. I had hoped the CS100 might be the answer, but notsure now:laugh1:

Dealer wasn't very helpful at all when it came to demoing it, he said they don't tend to demo the smaller machines:sneaky2: If seen videos but can't really appreciate how good or bad they are from it.

Yep, you may be confirming my thoughts. Iv never used one so not entirely sure of their capabilities but a few threads seem to rate them highly on here. I used to have a tracked 6" timber wolf which was great when working but because mine was starting to get quite old there was a fair bit of down time. I certainly couldn't warrant a new 6" machine at the moment but the cs100 may be a good option just to get me through the next year or three until I build up more tree work to justify a bigger one.

Just about to put in an order for a greenmech cs 100. Now, I don,t do tree work every day, probably about 40 percent, but having recently taken on a fair bit more I realise that mashing down on a trailer OR hiring a 6inch timber wolf is starting to kill quite a few jobs. I can't justify a new 6" chipper but at 5k a new cs 100 is more realistic, but, should I just stick to the trailer method or are these micro chippers actually quite good for general tree surgery/take downs ?

Been bright blue skies all day since 9.30am! However today's job was cancelled today, crown lifting trees hanging over a river- river had swollen so much over night that it had risen 2-3ft, came over my waders and couldn't see where the deep bits were as it was so cloudy. Ended up going to look at a greenmech cs100 which I think I may buy:thumbup1:

Yes, at first I thought I wadn't doing the side case nuts up tight enough allowing bar to move slightly (as much as the chain tensioner allows) which would cause different chain tensions but it still does it with the nuts done up tightly.

Chain does seem dry no matter how much oil is turned up- there is always a puddle of oil on the workbench from it too - not sure why it does that. This seems the most likely explanationas I have checked for wear everywhere else and its minimal. Thanks

And air compressors too. Its a dangerous world out there!

Perhaps someone could shed some light on this, I tighten up the chain fine- go to use it and after a bit it goes slack- but sometimes it seems to tighten itself back up when I rev it or put it back in the cut:confused1: Any ideas, cheers:thumbup1:

I run a 36" on my 395 and it pulled it through a 4-5ft diameter dead beech which had been standing dead for 20 years and was as hard as glass, well impressed how it coped all day long. Never tried the 390 so no comparence unfortunately, Another vote for the husky 576xp too, I loved mine until I stupidly went and sold it. But its not in the same league as 395 of course. I reckon 395 will serve most people in this country as their 'big' saw. Not many folks are dealing with 4ft dia trees day in day out and the added weight of a 880/3120 just makes them hard work for what could mostly be done with a 395 anyway.

I had a hydraulic connector fitting 'blow' near my the other day whilst using the post driver, it squirted a fine spray over a fair distance, I was lucky it missed my hand. But this is something I'm always aware off when around hydraulics. I assume if it happens, you will know about it straight away??

Agreed the gripple is a mighty fine invention, I went back to a job the other day which I did 4 years ago it was only 100m but I was a bit dissapointed to find the gripples had lost a bit of tension, its just a case of tightening them back up and tieing off the tails but still. How much are the Gpaks to buy?

Do you tension the netting at one end or pull in the middle and join with crimps? If never really used crimps for this as i thought there is no room for adjusting individual strands if some are tighter than others?

I find they can slip at a later date, ie in a year or two, I wondered whether it was water getting in and freezing/ expanding the little wheel inside the gripple that causes them to slip?

I don't use gripples at all on box strainers if I can help it, for this reason, I use a double loop of hi tensile wire and tension and join using the Hayes wire strainers, there is a bit of a technique to make sure you tie the knot without losing any tension in the retaining wire but if never had a strainer fail this way, but I have with gripples. Most contractors round here only use the gripples to join and tension netting and then tie the tails off so the gripples can't slip- but then you cant't retension them... Nice work Aaron by the way- pretty similar style to mine.

I certainly wouldn't want to go round for dinner in case I ended up being it:lol:

I've been told by a pretty reliable source that Malcolm barnecutt in Bodmin make superb pasties.

I used to have a tractor which had insufficient hydraulic pressure to run a post driver, the solution was to have a pump which ran off the PTO plus a 25 liter reservoir for the oil and it worked very well. I'm sure you could do similar but how it would compare in price against having a spool fitted I'm not so sure.

I actually found that a very interesting watch! I don't intend to eat roadkill myself but can definitely see his logic behind it.

Day rate can be a good way particularly with smaller faff type fencing jobs particularly in gardens/around houses etc where unforeseen circumstances crop up or the customer changes their mind about certain aspects. I so often find they take longer than expected whereas big runs you can crack out pretty quick and meter rate tends to work out more favourable for the contractor. I prefer to pick up the materials myself over supplier delivering them, firstly you can check the quality as they are loaded on to you trailer but often the delivery lorry can't get in somewhere so you end up double handling stuff, and then there's all the nick nacks , gate hangings, different bolts etc which I prefer to see when I'm buying to make sure they are exactly what I'm after. That said by the time you have done all of the above you can waste up to half a day going to collect materials and what not. Specially round here where its at least 30 mins if not 50 to the nearest supplier:001_rolleyes:

Funny you mention that, the brake band was one thing I thought looked a bit weedy on the echo top handle.

I don't see the problem if the customer supplies the timber, in many cases I prefer it as you don t have to faff around collecting materials and getting them on site and if the timber rots in 5 years time then its their problem. The trouble is making sure the customer gets the right stuff and enough of it to eliminate downtime/delays.

Its impossible to have a conversation about Cornwall without the discussion turning into a pasty debate, although recent research indicates the pasty might have actually originated from Devon. But the Cornish get very aggressive when you mention this to them:001_rolleyes:

:lol:genius.

This thread was started some years back but it would be interesting to see if opinions have changed, me and my mate went to the APF with the intention of buying a new top handle, we ummmd and arrrd between the stihl/husqy and echo, the echo we felt had superior build quality in the majority of aspects and also felt the nicest in the hand/handling charecteristics,having never actually tried one (but tried the other two) ended up taking the risk and getting the echo, we were both very pleasently surprised when we tried it out, revs well and didn't bog down in the cut at all. So this saw definiatly gets a big thumbs up- great price too. When raced against my husqy 550xp the Echo 360 top handle wasn't far behind if at all, and I reckon given a few fuel tanks to run it in it will improve further. Look out Husky and Stihl!