AHPP

Sorry. Say again. I could have sworn you said 2 men for 2 days. Wednesday off for a CSCS refresher and then a quick coat of red Hammerite on the Forth Bridge to take you to Friday? It’s a monster. I’d start with a full week hire and not have anything planned for the weekend. Or the following week, besides a shoulder massage. Actually no. I just wouldn’t do it. I don’t have the resilience. You’d need pictures of your loved ones in the basket to make sure you didn’t jump out.

Great photos. Slap them in front of anyone you’re trying to win bona fide subcontracting work from (or just anyone who knows what tree work entails) and you’re winning it. I did three memorable days in a wheeled 86’ genie a few years ago. Something like a seven tonne carrier. Great on the flat. As risk-averse on slight slopes as you’d imagine. Spent a lot of time cajoling the alarm.

Bolam has written most eruditely on the subject recently. Along the lines of you retire it from climbing because it can’t be trusted to support a 100kg man and the next thing you know it’s catching 400kg lumps over a £20,000 conservatory.

Is one government not enough for you?

Anyway. peds. Have you decided what tyres you want for your electric wheelchair yet?

Oh for god's sake.

Well done.

I had an 880 with 30” bar. Sold it. Been happy ever since. I picked up an 881 with a pretty big bar (five foot ish) in a shop a couple of months ago. Hefted it up as if cutting on spikes. Horrible. Right in my face. I’d just done a crane job on a fat beech. 36” was fine. You just dangle round. How many larger than six foot diameter cuts do you need to make a year in the UK? I’ve actually done a seven or eight foot cut with that 36” bar. Had to cut out a block the size of a washing machine to crawl inside and sweep the middle out. Depending on your interest in mining, you could theoretically cut even bigger diameter if you really wanted to go boring. I think triple bar length is a reasonable cutoff though, considering how little it’ll be necessary here. Anyway. Would have liked a bigger bar but that was only one cut in twelve years doing big trees. tl;dr: 36” is all you need in the UK. 661 pulls that fine. 500 would probably do it acceptably. 881s are miserably cumbersome, even with short bars.

30”, just use the 500 unless you’re doing loads and loads and loads of constant big stuff (oversize firewood or milling). 881 with 30” probably won’t be any quicker and will certainly make your life much, much worse. Don’t underestimate how shit they are to live with. I’d have one (with a 48”) for primarily milling but that’s partially because I already have 25” 500 and 36” 661 (mainly arb climbing, bit of milling). I know what you mean about the 661 seeming comparatively underwhelming but it’s good enough. Actual cutting is a fairly minor part of arb.

Thanks, doobie darling.

Someone repost the filter part number if they find it please. I need to do my Skidster.

Could not agree more. Manners.

Apologies. My mistake. I have a large blind spot for Husky.

On Makita generally, I confirmed a while ago something I’ve suspected for a while, that it isn’t great. I bought a beefy, pro level pistol drill, two batteries and a double charger. Was pleased as punch. Finally into a battery system of pro kit. This is the first day of the rest of my life. One battery was crap and had to be replaced by the shop basically immediately. I wasn’t blown away by the replacement. And they don’t do high capacity batteries. Then the drill itself lasted a fortnight. I was giving it hard use but you buy supposedly pro stuff to take hard use. Sent it all back and now my choice of a brand to go with (for a decade or two probably) has one less choice.

How big’s your house!?

Drill and cleave with a really slow explosive like black powder? Possibly sounds like I’m joking but I’m not.

1/4 1.3. Does that exist? Does gand mean 3/8 low profile 1.3 or 1/4 low profile 1.1?

Double check that please. Doesn’t make sense.

My skidsteer arms are twisted, I suspect from the pretty powerful auger I have for it. No blowoff valve and a Japanese infantryman's approach to surrender. Would worry about that but bigger and more expensive on a bigger thing. Plus what doobin said about manoeuvring around. You'll shred tyes and ground to bits. Short PTO extension and reverse into logs like Robot Wars if you want something really cheap (and sketchy).

.404 could just as easily be replaced with ‘3/8 big profile’ in the same way that 3/8 low profile (picco) is the same pitch as normal 3/8 but smaller in other dimensions. So you’d have: 3/8 low profile 3/8 normal 3/8 big profile And then narrow/wide options if you really must. Why did nobody ask me before doing all the confusing bollocks we currently endure? 3/8 low profile narrow up to 10” 3/8 low profile wide 12-18” 3/8 normal 20-48” 3/8 big profile for bigger and harvesters Right. Done. Sell that or gulag.

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And while we’re at it, saws. Why does the world need 231, 241 and 251? Just make one prosumer 45cc saw. Likewise the 291 and 391 farmer saws. They’re the same displacement as existing pro saws. Just have those. Unnecessary bloody stuff.

Whereas I quite like 3/8 picco 1.3. Dad and I have the same bar and chain combo across three saws (battery, mains electric, petrol). Absolutely smooth enough. To my mind, .325 is the pointless one. Stihl 231, 241 and 251 are all the same class of saw but the 251 awkwardly comes with .325 instead of 3/8 picco. Then it’s only the 261 that comes on .325 before you hit proper 3/8 for 60cc and up. I don’t think .325 needs to exist. Can only assume the tooling for making the chain was so expensive that they need to make the machines run for another fifty years to justify them. And likewise if this 3/8 picco 1.1mm full chisel works like I hope it does on the 2511, 151 and battery pruner type saws, I can’t see why the world needs 1/4 picco and its annoying little files.

Interesting. How does it cut compared to 1/4 picco on saws like the 2511t, 151t, 161t?