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Thanks Luke Alec

Yep. Haven't done one for a while but am always aware of nice staves, and the bit at the bottom of the picture looks promising! Alec

Hi Luke, Any of the thinner bits (3-8in) straight to 6ft without side branches along any of the faces, i.e. they don't have to have no side branches at all, but there's a line of sight end to end without side branches? Anything 6ft+ that meets that description is very interesting. Alec

I'm not quite sure whether this will work - I used to keep bees but obviously honey bees so the techniques might not carry through. When you merge hives of honey bees you put a piece of paper in between the two colonies. By the time they've eaten through it, they smell the same and merge happily rather than fight. I wonder if there might be something to be borrowed here - a big sheet of paper (offcut of wallpaper or lining paper, or the end of a roll from a big printer?) placed over the nest, with a pallet on top on the night before you're hiring in the splitter, when they're all nesting so you're not trapping any of them outside. The bees will start eating their way through the paper but by the time they've done it (about 24hrs) your splitter will be long gone. They will probably be quite happy to negotiate their way out through the gaps in the pile, and by autumn when you want to move the wood they will be gone. Any good? Alec

I run an 044 with a 36in bar when my 066M is sick. If you look at the older catalogues they suggest a 32in max for the 044 and 046, so I reckon it's OK if you take it gently and don't expect the same cutting speed as you would with a bigger saw (or a shorter bar). I do take care to sharpen more often and probably leave the rakers a bit higher, to avoid stressing the engine. I wouldn't want to do it too often though - too slow for pleasure. Alec

It's a specific type of soap, rather like swarfega in consistency. It's probably the base for the hand-pump type soaps, but without the perfume added and at a rather more realistic price. It dissolves up easily in water and wets out over the wax on the aphids, effectively drowning them (coincidentally in the course of washing your trees of course). I think the most likely supplier would be a proper old fashioned ironmongers or a horse type place as I think it's still preferred for cleaning leather. Alec

Unfortunately beekeepers want honey bees rather than bumble bees. Bumble bees are not to the best of my knowledge protected, so you could legally eliminate them, however some species are rare and none are harmful, and if you were inclined not to care about this you would have just wiped them out rather than asked on here? Why do you need them gone? Is it just to refill the bay? If so, could you put a fresh pallet down carefully to give them an escape route under the new pile? Alec

Whilst you're no longer allowed to use soft soap as an insecticide, if the owner felt inclined to give his tree a good cleaning and chose soft soap and warm water he might find the aphid problem didn't come back too quickly..... Alec

I would go for the 36in mill. The mill has rails at the top which bolt to cross-pieces down to the bar. The maximum distance you can set the cross-pieces apart is determined by the length of the top rails and the length of the bar, and determine the widest piece of timber you can mill by what will pass between them. With a 2ft bar, assuming it's a roller-nose one, the furthest out you can go is about 5in from the end to avoid pinching the sprocket. If you don't take the dogs off the powerhead, you lose the bottom couple of inches. The clamps themselves use about a further inch of bar each. This gives you maximum width of around 15ins. Allowing for lumps and bumps on the wood the widest log you will get through without any prior work is a little over a foot. Of course, that's only to split it at its widest point. If you come up a bit, shave off a side and then roll it over to do the other side, you can make sure it's a nice, uniform piece of timber and goes through easily. This is obviously a bit more work in rolling things around, but allows you to comfortably process up to about 20in logs. You also need to consider your powerhead. In my limited experience, on modern high revving saws 72cc.s will cope happily with a 15in milling cut, an 066M (93cc.s) copes with around a 2ft cut and for anything bigger you really want a 100cc+ saw. You can push these numbers a bit depending on species, but if you go too underpowered you will find it painfully slow and wonder why anyone does it! Based on the above, a 36in Alaskan with a 36in bar and 066M makes a good combination (max cut 27ins). A 42in bar would go nicely with an 076 and make maximum use of the 36in Alaskan since you lose the nose area. Oh and do buy a ripping chain, and remember (literally, time) your first cut and note the width to get a sq.ins/min cut rate. Then, when it feels slow, you can measure the time and width again and get a sense of whether the chain is dull - it makes far more difference than cross cutting. Rather a long answer, hope it helps! Alec

What -is- the animal in the third picture of your second post? Could just be perspective, but that alone looks like something out of Lord of the Rings! Alec

Oh yes, that's what my 076 is for! Alec

Should definitely have the manual oiler - may have a blanking plug fitted on the decompression (my 076 does). If it does, you really do need to pull it over gently to where it gets firm on the compression stroke, then grip firmly and pull hard - anything else and it feels like it could break your fingers! It's unlikely, but worth checking, that you do have an 075 rather than an 051. The parts are very interchangeable so it's not unknown for one to be made up from the other. About the best identifier is the layout of the plug and decompression valve hole in the top of the cylinder - if you can post a photo of these it's easy to confirm. Spudulike is near Baldock so not that near Derby unfortunately. Alec

They're slower revving than a modern saw, and much heavier, but will chew their way through pretty much anything. If you're planning on using it for anything other than cutting up well secured logs on stable ground on an occasional basis then I would seriously consider getting a chain brake retro-fitted. Unless you know your local Stihl dealer to be good, and prepared to work on older saws, I would look at someone independent for servicing - whereabouts are you? Spudulike on this forum can probably help. Alec

Unfortunately nobody in the UK currently stocks them, and no I didn't pay $1500 for mine (although it would probably have paid off by now even if I had). Mine was bought on ebay.com from the US when the dollar rate was good. Got away with no import duty somehow too . Where it scores heavily over the Alaskan is speed and kerf. Where it loses is that it's sensitive to snapping bands, or having them roll over the front of the bandwheel into the case, or at least it did until I patched it over with a bit of stainless. Band may have ceased to be quite such an expense though, as I've worked out how to use work's saw band welder, which if my repaired ones hold up (haven't tried one yet) will mean I can double their life. Alec

Yes it is. It's a 14" width, 9" throat, running on an 044 which it's about perfectly matched to. Alec

I set up this 14ft spruce log on Sunday and split it in half with the Alaskan. My wife took the children to Tesco's and an hour and two tanks of fuel later I had this: Then the saw band snapped and I stopped liking it so much Alec

Bit unconventional, but have you tried asking the neighbours - the houses along the street - it may also pave the way for better understanding of why you eventually end up following whatever course of action you opt for. Alec

Worst case you can always just chop it down and keep chopping off any arising shoots until it dies, but it will always be annoying until it eventually rots. I would be inclined to saw it as high as you can, say 6ft, then dig around with a spade and pull the top of the stump as a lever. You should be able to pull it out reasonably easily, which will give you a good clear space if you do wish to replant. If you do decide to replant something smaller, dig out a barrowload of soil, mix it with a barrowload of compost and replant. If you use a container grown tree you can do it as soon as you like if you get the stump out, and water it in dry spells for the rest of the year. Alec

I have two daughters, 2yrs and 4mnths respectively. I shall look forward to the time 5yrs hence when I can get them to do it rather than me. Sadly I suspect that if I can get them to do it at all they will insist on using the ride-on. Still, my elder daughter's favourite bedtime entertainment is to watch videos of people using chainsaws on Youtube and comment on their lack of PPE, so there's hope yet! Alec (anticipating building his character)

Nice trees, but completely the wrong site. I would have it straight out - it's going to become a nightmare if you leave it. I would then replace it with a weeping something else, grown as a standard. I would probably choose the weeping pear, Pyrus salicifolia Pendula, which will look equally if not more stunning, and won't outgrow the site. Just my opinion! Alec

pm sent. Alec

My experience is only with larger Stihls (044, 064, 066M, 076) being run for milling, so long bars - usually 36". As such I set them to max on the oil and this leaves a slight covering of oil in the tank. I think they're designed so that the fuel runs out before the oil on max as otherwise you could damage the bar and chain - run a shorter bar and you could be a bit more frugal with the oil. Alec

Yes, we had the same just over the border into Essex - hit the walnuts (hence my original post), sumach and sweet chestnut. The chestnut leaves hung on but are ragged around the edges, the walnuts are just budding up again and I'm waiting to see what the sumachs do. Alec

£14.30 for 5l about 3wks ago. My local stockist is also a tool hire centre, so they supply it to make sure their tools aren't wrecked on incorrect mix. They also find it keeps them cleaner so less servicing. Alec

I was in a similar position, except that my first saw was an 064 with options of a 2ft bar, or a 3ft Alaskan. This pre-dates CS30/31, but nonetheless some training of some sort might have been/be useful! The point being, it's not just about cutting up the odd bit of firewood, sometimes if you have access to woodland you are inevitably felling, and that doesn't conveniently stop at 'small trees'. In fact, the first thing I felled was 4ft6in oak, standing dead in a field. Perfectly sound timber and textbook cuts (really) and it still fell at right-angles to where I wanted it after snapping the perfect hinge clean off! I suppose things were more relaxed then, and I was lucky with the people I spoke to who were happy to show me how to go about what I was trying to do. I was having timber milled with a portable band mill at the time, and the owner showed me how to fell etc. Another person (tree surgeon) showed me how to limb up on a different tree, and the knowledge built up. The advantage amateurs have is that they're not being paid to do a job quickly. I'm always mindful that the tools I'm working with have a lot of power, and the potential to kill me. I can take the time to assess how to deal with a particular tree, and if I don't like the look of it I can leave it alone. Even now, probably 15yrs on, I would still be interested in some training - not because I need it to be allowed to do what I do, but because it would be good to see what bad habits I have inadvertantly picked up, and fill in any gaps in the information I've gleaned. It's possible that I am sufficiently uncommon for nobody to be interested in running courses along those lines, but maybe with the rise in firewood prices, the availability of saws of any size to anybody on ebay for a few hundred and the relatively easy access to Alaskan mills (and the pleasure of milling your own timber) which inevitably means using bigger saws and cross-cutting to length before milling, there may be enough interest to warrant something? Alec