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I go into mild anaphylactic shock from bee stings but I'm quite happy to have bumble bees around - they are so good tempered and don't seem to have any desire to cause harm. They live in my shed too most years and I help them out when the young ones get confused between the window and the exit. I have only been stung once, when I accidentally knelt on one. If you do decide to move them I would do it sooner rather than later as the nest and the numbers will be smaller that way. I would put them somewhere frost-free and let them get on with it. Alec

If Steve has run out and anyone else is looking for some in similar sizes drop me a PM. I have some stashed in the shed from when I laid the floor at our previous house - it was sawn at 32mm so will plane up to 1". Alec

I should add that there are also a number of Husqvarna saws which will do what you want, I just don't know the model numbers so well, and specifically I don't know the older (ie cheaper) ones, or their parts availability. The ones I listed out are all still well catered for in spare parts. Alec

I think the part you are after is the shroud - 1124 080 1610 If so, the part number is different on the MS880 - 1124 080 1602 Not sure if they are actually interchangeable. L&S Engineers list it as available: Shroud for Stihl 088 - 1124 080 1610 | Other Stihl Spares Alec

I would avoid boiled linseed. The driers are metal salts and not exactly pleasant. Not sure what they are using these days but it used to be cobalt which is relatively carcinogenic. This has probably changed, but still unlikely to be good. Alec

I think a lot depends on the longer term need. If you have an ongoing regular need for a big saw then buying something reasonably modern would be the best bet. It depends on how big you need and how often, but an 066 or MS660 would fit with the 30" bar, or if there are bigger things to deal with an 880/088/084. If 25" as a bar length was the very top end of what you need on an occasional basis I would look at the 046/460, as a good option. For a one-off, where everything else is more like 18-20" I would go for an 044/440. If you don't need to use the saw on more than an occasional basis, I would look at the 051, 075/076 or the 064. The 064 comes with a chainbrake, the others either have them, or can have one retrofitted. Which to go for would depend on what turns up at the right price - in my view there have been a lot of overpriced 051s recently so the 075 can be better value for money. The 051, 075 and 076 are big and heavy so you wouldn't want to use one for long but would be fine for the odd job. I wouldn't go for an 070 or 090. They are very nice saws (and I have both) but they don't have chainbrakes so I would be concerned that if anything goes wrong you may be in a grey area if there is anything other than personal use. Another option though if this is a true one-off would be to advertise the job on here and see if anyone local with a larger saw wants to do it. If it's simply cutting it up then it may be significantly cheaper than buying a saw for a single use. Alec

Yes, cedar would be much easier but I fancy trying it in euc. It's for my own stuff so I can afford to play around with it and see if I can get it to work. It should be pretty stable once dry, it's just the drying itself that's tricky. Alec

Cheers Jon, gunnii is fine for what I need. It's a nightmare to season without splitting and I will get a lot of losses but if I can get enough of it to come out OK it's great for drawers and carcassing wardrobes etc. as it repels the moths. Alec

What size is the euc? I'm after some to do some carcassing. Alec

Yep, it washes all the sap away Essex/Suffolk were badly hit yesterday - our village was cut off at one point due to water up to the car windows. We are by the river and the water was up about 6' over normal level, flooding right out over the fields. Came within about 15' of the house but that's about as close as it gets. The house is at the highest point, so most other things go under - you can get a sense from the fact that the front stack which has tipped over was parallel with the others, so the whole stack had floated off before it tipped! No real harm done, just a bit of re-stacking needed and a call the Environment Agency to clear out the ford (again). Alec

That's some very nice walnut. In my case, milling may have been rained off....

I know what you mean but I've done it slightly differently. I am not the expert in this but I bought a load of 3" elm in 15" average width that had been seasoning since the 1970s and I needed it at 3/4" finished size. I took it to someone who is very good at this and we ran all of it through a big vertical bandsaw, against the fence but the top of the board was a long way above it. The saw has no infeed or outfeed rollers, so it's a person on each end of the board. This made it almost freehand splitting by eye, but the wide band kept it true and we didn't lose a single board. Obviously you can't take the cup out (although you can deal with a bit of wind) but it did work surprisingly well - the inner board was flat both sides, the outer boards flat one side to use as a reference to plane the other side from. Alec

I have one which I run off an 066 for use with milling. It is very handy for pulling butts out to where you can get at them, so long as you can get a good anchor point. It doesn't get as much use as I thought it would though as generally if you can drive up to the butt you don't need it, and if it's a long drag then it's one more big heavy piece of kit to lug so it's often easier to just work in the awkward location then have to take the winch in and out. Alec

I agree - a racksaw would give you more for a lot less. Either that or a big old Stenner or equivalent vertical bandsaw which will take a thinner kerf and allow a wider cut, which is handy if you want to re-saw wide boards, like when you suddenly find that your stack of nicely seasoned 2" needs to be 1". Alec

The Magnums were American spec saws - I'm not aware of any difference in pot and piston so the same .cc but they sometimes had things like dual port mufflers as standard so got a bit more power out of them. More recently they just call everything Magnum and it's the same as the UK-spec normal saw, apart from the sticker! Alec

The 084 is good but the cheapest option is usually an 070 (no chainbrake option) or an 075 or 076, which are basically the same as each other but with different recoil units. 111cc and happily pull a 50" bar. These saws are all about torque rather than revs. They will chew their way through anything in a sort of unstoppable fashion. If you end up with an 075 or 076 without a chainbrake they can be retro-fitted but make sure it has the cast lug on the front of the crank case, otherwise you end up doing a bolt-on job illustrated on here by Eddy_t. Alec

Just the fuel, or any underlying faults found? Alec

You're welcome - doesn't half show up that I know a load of random stuff though! Alec ps when it's done we will need pictures...

Not quite so good if once you've started keeping them you find you go into anaphylactic shock as happened to me. Fortunately the mild kind rather than the dead in 10 minutes kind but still enough to decide perhaps there were safer hobbies.... Alec

Hazel doesn't appear on the list but I've always thought of it as fairly shade tolerant, which appears to be consistent with the information on the current coppicing thread. It also lays well as a hedge, so even if you're not laying the rest you could finish planting 4ft away from the oak and lay towards it to close the gap? Alec

Yep,video captures it. In my rather more basic version I tend to just stick my dowel plate over the top of the slightly open jaws of the vice. Alec

I'm actually viewing on an iPhone. Alec

Yes, but cut them as rough blanks. Not sure on the size of your structure, but say for convenience you opt for 13mm pegs. Chop a bit of wood of a convenient length - assume your structure means you need 4" long pegs, cut it at something around 5-6". Split it up - if you haven't got a froe then a billhook rested where you want to split it and banged on the back with a wooden or rubber mallet does a good enough job. Split it into square bits about 5/8" across and point one end up a bit so it just enters the hole in the plate, to act as a lead. Stick the square bits as above in the airing cupboard for a few days. When you are fitting your structure together, bang the pegs through the plate (known as a dowel plate) using a mallet. You would ideally do this in the morning, then fit them in the afternoon, or the next day. The pegs, having been made dry and then freshly compressed will fit the hole fairly easily, although there will still be some grip. Over the next few days they will expand and grip tightly. Alec

It doesn't need to be bigger - I drill the hole in the plate the same size as the hole in the wood. Driving the peg through the hole in the plate compresses the wood fibres so the peg fits the hole in the wood. When it relaxes over a few days it expands again, locking it solid. Alec

I drill the hole in the plate and the hole in the wood the same size. Alec