agg221

I recognised some of the pieces, but there were a lot of bits I'm sure weren't available 30yrs ago at the peak of my mechanism construction efforts! Alec

Good point - I presumed it was the 056. Alec

There are special stud extractors but the easiest way is to take the two bar nuts, a socket that fits and an open ended spanner that fits. You screw the first nut right down the stud, screw the second one on top of it and 'lock' the two together with the spanner and the socket. You then use the open ended spanner on the lower nut to unscrew the stud. Once removed, socket and spanner to 'undo' the nuts from one another and they can be screwed off the stud by hand. Alec

I would start at scrap price, plus pay him to deliver it. That way he's better off than having to cover his time and diesel to take it away, and it doesn't cost you more than it would anyway. Alec

Please can I echo the comment about length. An 8ft length is a lot more useful than two 4ft lengths. You may not be able to remove it from site but others can and quite often the log can be gone with cash in your hand before you have finished the clear-up. Alec

That elm burr bowl is particularly nice. Alec

Where roughly in Essex (and photos would help)? Alec

This I do see as a substantial issue. I think there are three separate scenarios here - urban/suburban, countryside and commercial timber. Taking urban/suburban first, we live in an increasingly risk-averse and litigious society. As has been posted many times before, it is always easier to avoid risk by -not- doing something than by learning enough about a subject to understand the risk thoroughly. From the perspective of the decision maker, this can't always be blamed on laziness. Sometimes it is down to the range of knowledge that an individual is expected to be competent in being excessive, or that they are obliged to rely on external advice which they may not be able to get the confidence in to trust implicitly. This leaves the simplest way of dealing with the question of what to plant being to stick to a very narrow range of 'safe' species. Smaller is safer, avoid things with invasive roots in case someone wants to build there in the future, people don't like trees where 'bits' fall off them (large fruit, large amounts of pollen/blossom etc). Sterile flowering cherries and the odd rowan and willow-leaved pear is about as far as this allows. Countryside - very few people planting so whatever grows stays. With luck, some native species will be successful in out-competing the ubiquitous sycamore. Commercial forestry implies virtual monoculture. Trying to get a return on land which is cost-competitive to harvest against lower labour costs overseas there really isn't a margin for concession to ecology. So overall, ash isn't going to get planted in an urban setting, and it would be a brave person who planted it commercially, so this leaves it dependent on self-sown trees in hedgerows and copses. If the experience with elm is anything to go by, the density of the surviving population will be critical. The problem with elm is that, although there are resistant trees, the very limited genetic diversity means they are a very small proportion and compared with 4000bc the density is much lower (far less tree cover). As such, a surviving tree every few miles means they are not able to pollinate, hence natural preservation of genetic lines becomes very difficult. I have seen large elms removed for reasons which have nothing to do with DED, as you would expect with any species, however the impact with elms is significant. By contrast, if we have the same effect on ash as in Denmark (10% survival) there is a reasonable prospect of retaining trees sufficiently close together to allow fairly rapid recovery relative to the lifespan of a tree, ie the current generation of resistant trees should produce resistant progeny in sufficient numbers to replace those which are killed. If this happens it will be rather bare for one human generation though, and sadly that will be ours. Alec

A photo would really help on this one, but one possibility, is your bar splayed? This would cause the chain to rock over as you file, having the same effect as filing 'upwards'. Alec

I wouldn't worry about the Magnum bit - American marketing hype, but the 046 and 064 are both good saws with good parts availability. Alec

Cheers Steve, some good toys there! Alec

If you are going to cut them back hard then I would go for summer pruning - around June but don't leave it until after August. I suggest going for a drop-crotch approach to minimise regrowth and then keep the water shoots under control. Try to go for a single layer structure if the shape is up to it - otherwise it may be worth looking for opportunities to form a new framework if it has gone too high and died out underneath. Alec

Dexta - I do like your mower, I remember using Dad's one of those on much rougher stuff than you should and it still coped! Alec

I always cut a bit of 3" and 4" for legs and frames. There is some demand for oak for exterior and structural use - prices are lower but the section is usually heavier so less milling, and they may take it green. Alec

Hi John, New toy arrived (you still haven't told me how much I owe you!) but I'm not sure whether it needs the 026 or 066? When I work out which, I'll drill the appropriate bar and I'll also need to sort out a toothless chain to fit. Has been flat out recently on collaborative submissions but I'm off next week so may get a chance to play. Alec Ps have you heard from Nadia re. resubmitting the proposal?

We bought our current place with it already there and the surveyor didn't pick up on it. Patch is about 20' square. I am hand pulling it once a fortnight - I started last year and will continue this year, hopefully having wiped it out by then. I pull all visible leaves, then let the pulled bits wilt off and dry out until they are crisp (ie very dead) and then don't worry too much about what I do with them - the pulled bits are not re-growing. What does seem to be helping is that the area contains various fairly dense shrubs. Nothing special, and I will be removing the lot once I have wiped out the knotweed, but it is shading it out successfully. If only I had as straightforward a solution to horsetail.... Alec

If you are planning on taking out huge elm without disease, can I suggest contacting one of the elm research projects before you do. East Anglia has a much more genetically diverse population of elms than the rest of the country, mainly because of the prevalence of hybridized trees with fertile seed. There are various efforts to propagate surviving trees to retain the gene pool - ultimately it may be possible to re-establish disease resistant elm so that it becomes a familiar feature in the countryside again and propagating the currently surviving big trees is critical to this. Alec

Can't see a holly? Since this hasn't gone by lifting the root plate, but rather by dragging particular roots out, I would dig out the ground where you need the roots to go back in, slightly deeper than they are going, then lift it upright and fill in the holes - don't stamp the earth down as you want it aerated (and the tree will be held up while the ground settles anyway. It's a fair sized tree so I would probably prop it rather than stake it. Straight up (or currently down!) from the blue fencing stake there is an obvious point to put a prop under once it's upright. I would use an old railway sleeper or length of telegraph pole, resting on its base on a concrete block (standard concrete construction block) and with the top sculpted to lie neatly against the branch, on a bit of old inner tube. Once it's upright you can see what to prune (I agree entirely with Peasgood's comment on taking a third off). You are looking to retain a balanced structure, probably shorter, maybe with a single 'layer', thinning out some of the spur structure where the branches are straggling to reduce wind resistance. It's hard to describe how to do this but if you can put up more pictures I'll try to mark it up. Alec

I have felled and milled oak in full leaf before with good results. If you can, I would ideally do this - wait until it leaf out and then fell it but leave the branches on until they wilt as it pulls a lot of the sap out, or ring them standing to do the same thing. I would also split them in half lengthways ASAP to minimise end cracking. That said, if I had no other options I would still regard it as worthwhile to fell now and mill late September onwards Alec

Here it's been deer (wild). Every time I got decent growth going on the fruit trees they got taken out. I thought it was muntjack so put 4' wire mesh tubes over them, only to find it was roe or fallow, cue re-think on bush form trees and a installing rings over the top of the tubes. Alec

I'd say that was a fair price on the 070AV. The 08 is a bomb-proof saw, much used by hire shops for that reason. Heavy but fun from time to time. Is the 2-man Danarm complete and running? I have a Teles but it is missing a couple of bits - not much to get it useable but it's finding the time. Not sure I want to use it for milling though! Alec

Pictures are clear - it's an early-ish 070AV. 070 can be identified from the clutch (3-shoe with cover washer), the concave starter and the fact that the decomp lever runs across rather than front to back. Early can be identified from the fact that the AV handle is painted white rather than black. I can't give a definite date for the changeover but I have a c.1978 model with a black handle. The clutch cover is a replacement, as is the top cover, but the rest looks to be original. Both these parts are notoriously easy to break. The top cover should be red rather than orange and should have STIHL cast into the front half with a recess in the back half with the number in on a transfer, although finding this still present is very unusual. Notably, I can't see any cracked fins in the starter, which makes it quite unusual. Value - have a look on ebay at the 070 currently running. It's very variable at the moment - £300 on a normal day, £500+ if things get silly, although you can sometimes find them for £200 or so still. The 08 (or 08S) is beyond me to distinguish I'm afraid - only difference I know to look for is the bore (44mm cf. 47mm). Alec

First one: It's an 070AV rather than an 076AV. It has had the top cover replaced at some point - the frame is early 1970s, the top cover is 1980s/very early 1990s. Given that the top cover has been replaced, please could you take another picture with the clutch cover off, showing the clutch, one showing the recoil starter and, ideally, a third picture with the top cover (orange bit) removed completely, both parts. If you can do the above, I can tell you what you've got. Second one: Late model 08. Could be an 08S (super) but I would need more to go on to tell you which. Alec

The saw shouldn't stop by itself - it should sit idling happily. Turning the switch to the 'stop' position should kill the spark so it stops immediately. If it isn't stopping on the switch, this indicates that the wire is disconnected, either at the switch end or the other end, or has broken somewhere along its length. The fact that it stops when damp but not when hot suggests a poor connection rather than a total break - the water is bridging it. Alec

I wouldn't write the tree off unless you really don't want it anymore. Either stand it back up, stake/guy well (depending on size) and possibly head it back quite hard to let it form a new head, or leave it lying, cut off the branches which will just be in the way and let it re-grow a new head lying on its side, using one of the branches as a new 'trunk'. Wisley had a lot blow over in '87 and they just stood them up and on they went. I did the same to some which blew over in '87, only I didn't get at them until '88/'89. These were big trees (about 70yrs old at the time) and we pushed them up with a car jack and an Acrow for want of anything else, then propped them. Only lost one which had virtually come out of the ground and had no roots left. They are surprisingly resilient. Alec