agg221

I do find the interface on the series 2 owners' club The Series 2 Club Forum - Index a bit easier. I particularly like the way that once logged on I can click on a button to reformat the screen to show only the threads I have contributed to. I know there are ways to do this on Arbtalk but they all require quite a few clicks, which is particularly fiddly on an iPhone. I have a tendency to forget the titles of threads and then not notice they have been updated, which is annoying if you ask a question, get an answer and then don't find it. I know David Humphries put a reply up to my question about formative pruning work as I saw it on the iPhone but I can't find it to thank him for the reply! I also find the parent board/child board interface quicker to navigate with less scrolling - I know there are sub-forums but the horizontal layout decreases the number of lines. Alec

Hazel does layer well, the technique being used for replacing missing stools in copses. The advantage of layering is that the stem remains attached to the parent plant, providing water and nutrients whilst roots form. This supports it during the formation of new roots, which is particularly useful for species which root slowly. I've done it with various things for propagation purposes rather than gapping up hedges and it's pretty straightforward. You select a stem which is flexible enough to bend down to the point you want the new plant to root, split and peg open, or gouge out an area at the point you want to bring in contact with the ground, then dig a shallow hole (a couple of inches) and peg securely down, the cover with the earth excavated from the hole and wait. If the stem is long enough you can repeat this at several points along its length. Alec

Nice with the poll intact. Did a make show up (looks like a stamp may be lurking there on the inside face and I'm guessing Brades from the shape)? Re. electrolysis - any washing soda from Sainsbury's/Tescos will do. Alec

You mean if someone stands on the fence to hold it down enough to get the mill past.... Yes - haven't forgotten the governor, just need to get to it with a big enough screwdriver to hand. Alec

Very nice, and just down the road from me..... Alec

ie not quite so handy when you have to mill round fence panels and a berberis like that last one Alec

No, it shouldn't split. The splits are caused by the difference in shrinkage around the ring between the rings in the middle and the ones at the outside. Take away the middle and it should control it. Alec

They are indeed Fridays - I mean Saturday 15th and 22nd and you would be most welcome. Alec

I would go for a 48" mill if you think you might get access to big enough timber, 36" otherwise. The extra length of the 48" isn't too inconvenient (Burrell uses one shortened up to a 25" bar for milling 18" stuff). 36" is a good all-round size and will get through almost everything you come across with a bit of work. Alec

Following on from the interest last year: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/52999-having-go-pruning-fruit-trees-anyone-interested.html I thought I'd put this up again for 2014. Pruning fruit trees seems to be an area which for some people is a bit of an experience gap, and it gets regarded as a black art. I've looked after Mum's smallholding orchard in North Kent (near Dartford) since about 1988. The trees are now mostly about 95yrs old so well over commercial age and the aim is to keep them alive, healthy and stable, with a reasonable crop for use rather than sale. There's a mixture of vigorous and semi-dwarf, with a few young trees planted over the past 20yrs. The trees are much more the kind of size and form you would find in a back garden than a modern orchard. I'll be going down there in February, either Saturday 14th or 21st, to do the pruning (apples and pears). If anyone is interested in coming along and having a go then they're welcome. I'm aware this could look a bit like 'come and do some free work for me' but that isn't why I'm offering it (I'll be doing it anyway) but it's an opportunity to see the difference between pruning forms and how they can be developed over time, and whatever else anyone is interested in (so long as it's within my knowledge). It would be very much my personal view and I don't have any formal training or claim to be an expert but hopefully anyone interested would go away knowing more than they did when the came Alec

Yes, 880 is a better bet. You will start off with a 36" bar, and end up fitting a longer bar when you get fed up with chopping the edges off to squeeze it through Alec

Check you've got the throttle linkage rod running the right way over the carb. You have to have the throttle pulled to the right position as you fit the top cover or it jams up. Alec

It's demand. Beech is out of fashion, oak is both in fashion and more useful (structural strength and exterior durability). Alec

If you have a look at Chainsawbars ? chainsaw chains, chainsaw bars and chainsaw accessories (Rob D's site) you will find the available kit, together with links to introductory videos. If you have any questions then the email address is [email protected] (and you get me answering them ) Alec

Age is one thing, condition is another. Someone who never services anything and runs it hard will have a wreck, someone who mostly does gardening and lovingly polishes their kit will have something barely run in and perfect. Going to see it will let you see both how worn it is and how he treats his kit to work out where on the scale it lies. Reasonable price IMO if it's sound but used. Alec

Do you periodically split a table leg to check..... Alec

Very good effort. For reference if anyone is looking at these, this is the small log mill. The Alaskan cuts horizontally with a clamp at both the power head end and the nose end. This keeps things level. The small log mill only has a clamp at the power head end. This means you can use more of the bar but the nose tends to drop. This means it is better suited to smaller saws with a maximum bar length of 20" and is always a bit less accurate on getting even thickness boards than the Alaskan. The mini-mill works vertically and is good for edging up or quartering big trees, or for making square beams quickly with no rolling. Alec

Measure the width at the narrowest point and do width x thickness (in inches), divide by 144 to get feet and multiply by length in feet to get cubic feet. I would sell green oak at £20-£25/cu.ft depending on quality of board (and quality of milling). Alec

Depends on dbh, clean length/knots, straightness, rot spots or other damage and whether you are buying standing or roadside but I would reckoning in the range £3 to £6 depending on the above and would normally reckon that if it looks good or suits a need £4 is fair to both parties. I would try to avoid buying the sc standing as it has a tendency to ring shake which makes it useless. Alec

Timber strength calculations for hardwood are usually done by 'book values' based on species and visual grading. TRADA have a publication on this but a little google research will find you the grading specs. The timber will almost certainly still be green (above 20% mc) which means there is no official grading scheme. This means that technically you just need to do dimensional calculations to meet building regulations. It would still be a good idea to visually grade though, just means you don't need to be in any sense official or certified when you do it. The brown ones won't be advisable for this as it is usually a sign of beefsteak fungus infection and although the timber is hard it becomes brittle, but if you are interesting in selling I may be interested in one as I have a use for some brown oak. Alec

I agree. The trouble is that you don't know how far down the metal is. You can ruin a lot of good timber digging for metal which you might have missed anyway with the mill. Most stuff is soft iron anyway so it dulls the chain but not much more, although it does make a mess of a bandsaw blade. You also don't find stones or grit by detecting. I have found barbed wire in trees growing in the middle of a wood, and garden trees without a scrap of metal in them. If something is obviously in a hedge and there is barbed wire going in and out so I know where the line is and cut it out, or cut the tree the other way, but otherwise I just carry on regardless. Alec

Our house now has a fairly conventional name, but on the deeds from when it changed hands in 1986 its correct name for the postal address was still 'The thatched cottage on the lane leading to the mere' Alec

Yes they do. The Oregon reference is K095 Guide bars Alec

There are many threads on this, but from my point of view there are three main advantages in no particular order. Firstly, it is consistent. Each batch is labelled and identified. I had two pots and pistons taken out by a bad batch of petrol (not supermarket) and Stihl confirmed it was the fuel but there is no way to prove that the fuel in your can comes from a particular garage some time later. This caused over £650 of parts damage, plus repair costs. That's a lot of Aspen. Secondly, Aspen doesn't go off in the can or in the saw. If you have saws you don't use frequently then this is really useful as you don't have to drain the tanks. Pump fuel also contains solvents which penetrate the rubber, causing it to harden when it dries out. This means that the saws which are used infrequently with pump fuel have a tendency to need replacement rubber components more often, and if you get an air leak you risk damage to the pot and piston too through seizure. Aspen doesn't have the same solvents and therefore doesn't cause the same problems. Thirdly, pump fuel contains 2% benzene. This is a significant carcinogen. 2-stroke engines typically only burn about 2/3 of the fuel, so the remainder comes out in the exhaust as vapour. That's 0.6% benzene. I would rather avoid this. There are also other nasty things in pump fuel which cause me to get headaches after prolonged exposure to the exhaust, eg milling or using a hedge trimmer. Aspen doesn't do this. That's why I use Aspen Alec

I'm very disappointed that you put them in the truck rather than taking them down the river Look really good. Alec