agg221

Try sending Simon (Big Beech) a PM. Alec

It depends a lot on what it is/how old. You can usually flush from the tank to the carb on an old engine by taking the float bowl off and running a bit of neat petrol through. The bowl and gauze filters will need cleaning anyway. The taps may well have cork washers, which will need to soak a bit to soften up. Very little gets held above the float bowl, so unless it's clogged, it will clear any final oil residue once it starts running. Oil residue in the crank case and exhaust - the easiest thing is to run it on Aspen and let it clean itself out. It will smoke a bit (a lot!) but will soon clear. Haven't done this specifically on a motorbike, but have done several old Villiers 2-strokes (of the same basic type as found on motorbikes), with no issues. Alec

Dip treated won't do you any good - they'll need to be pressure treated to last. Calders & Grandidge might be able to tell you if they can supply or have an outlet (I've found them very helpful). Sweet chestnut is probably a lot easier to obtain in modest quantities and will last 25+yrs, longer if you pack them round with rubble rather than soil. Alec

No, sorry, overqualified. What you need to become a chainsaw tech is to perfect the art of sucking in through your teeth, shaking your head and saying 'well I could fix it, but to be honest it will be cheaper for me to just sell you a new one'. Alec

I've got this pile of logs I've been building up/tree I'm taking down. If I offer it for firewood should I pay someone to take it away or expect to get £1000 for it? Alec

Hi, haven't got a link as it's an old piece of laboratory equipment. I scrounged it when we scrapped a lab as it's dead handy for electrolytic cleaning (de-rusting) but have also found it useful for other things. Next time I'm sharpening a chain I'll ask my wife to film it. I reckon with the sound on you can hear how hard the grinder is working relative to the reading on the needle (yes, it's the old type ammeter/voltmeter with needle readings!) Alec

Interesting curve. Mine is hooked up to a power supply with voltage and current readout (you can set one and monitor the other). I set it at 12V and find that 2A is about right. Any more power risks putting heat in to the teeth. Alec

Current production saws available in the UK, pretty much yes. Older saws - the 075 and 076 will run one happily, and can take a chainbrake. Non-chainbraked the 070 and 090 are built for it. Alec

Cordless dremels are good bits of kit, but they don't do the precision adjustment of tooth length/hook/angle that the Granberg grinder does. The grinder will run perfectly well off the cigarette socket - it only draws a couple of amps. Alec

Looks like you've got a strategy planned, but for reference I do have a bar that would probably go straight through it (88"), with a suitable ripping chain if you need to quarter it. Alec

If anyone is interested in the following, drop me a PM and I'll pass on contact details. Alec : We have a Beech stem at Matterley Estate, Winchester, which we'd like to have planked up asap. Dimensions are 4m in length and 1-1.3m diameter, although can be trimmed down to 1m quite easily. Boards are to be used on site as bar tops for upcoming event. Thomas Owen NCH/Advanced NC/Arboriculture

'Not as good' is subjective. It's a lot heavier for its power than a modern saw, and it won't win any speed contests, but it has pretty high torque so won't bog down as easily with a longer bar on. It would be OK milling with a small log mill or a 24" Alaskan. Not the quickest, but it would handle it. It looks very much like the chain brake parts are interchangeable with the 051 and 076. If so, they are no longer available new, but are easily available from Ebay in Germany at the moment. The brake is mounted in the bar cover (not the same cover as the unbraked one unfortunately - it's deeper). You also need the hand guard with the spring. Edit: Just checked your pictures - I think yours is the earlier type without the cast lug on the top/front of the crank case to take the chainbrake hand guard. If so, it won't fit I'm afraid. Alec

Woolly aphid won't have much effect on fruiting, even at that level. It may make the fruit smaller or increase the level of June drop if the tree is stressed, but that's about it. Lack of fruit will be more down to the season, or the lack of a suitable pollinating tree/pollinating insects. But yes, it's a bug and you can kill it. The wax coating on the aphids limits the effectiveness of contact insecticides, but two approaches which give reasonable control are to use a systemic insecticide, or to spray with soft soap solution which won't work on its own too well, but if applied properly will then allow you to knock them off with a pressure washer, drowning them in the process. If you try the latter, be careful not to get so close with the lance that you damage the bark. Alec

I quite like the beach at North Berwick. Been a long time since I was last there though, nearly 20yrs. Alec

Oddly enough, spares are no problem as all the parts are made by Hutzl, except possibly the badges as they don't supply these via ebay. The problem is that, as you suggest, it doesn't operate to the same standards as Stihl. It's the quality of the mechanical parts which has previously let them down (think about the various comments on 'cheap chinese pistons'). There is a possibly significant trend though. For the past few years, Hutzl were the supplier of cheap, unbranded parts. Progressively they have started putting their brand name to things and you don't generally do that unless you believe you can generate a good enough reputation that people will buy your parts, rather than seek to avoid them! This suggests a rise in quality may be underway. The reason I think this would be interesting (and it would follow the trend in some other sectors for the rapidly increasing quality of manufacturing in China) is that with Stihl's current approach, the difficulties in obtaining Makita/Dolmar and the less than perfect reputation of Husky for reliability, combined with not exactly being a lower cost option, there may be a gap in the market for a decent, solid, dependable saw that doesn't set the world on fire but does what it says on the box. I wonder whether in 5yrs time Arbtalk will have Husky vs. Hutzl threads....? Alec

Once cleft, they will probably not split further as the stresses tend to run radially, so once cleft the stresses are relieved and they can shrink naturally. They will rot slightly more easily if they are unseasoned. The pores in the wood structure close up permanently when the water content drops below about 20%, making it harder for fungi etc. to penetrate them. Still pretty durable though due to the tannin content. Alec

Walnuts are known to live up to 500yrs, so at 100 it is not old. Alec

Also Costa Rica, where you can also buy a brand new 090. I fancy a Caribbean holiday..... Alec

They are good enough fakes that the parts are interchangeable, however the badges should have the registered trademark symbol after the word STIHL. The bar, and probably chain, will be genuine. The problem appears to be the poor quality of mechanical parts leading to premature wear - someone on the Aus milling site bought one (at the right price, knowing it was a copy) to see if it was a cheap milling option. It wasn't. Alec

If Felix no longer wants the strimmer I'll happily take it. Alec

Gransfors Bruks side axe (double bevel) for taking the sides off those logs that are just too big to fit, one of Rob D's Granberg precision grinders, a big pile of 8mm silver steel pegs of different lengths which lock the starting rail into place on the Ripsaw system, an endless supply of Allen keys and a six foot length of 3"x2" steel box section with an angle plate welded to the end for moving just about anything. Alec

Something you like the colour and grain of Seriously, doesn't make much odds. I would avoid pine and spruce as there's a risk of resin pockets, ash and oak as you'll have a lot of end grain which may well split, and for ease of cutting I wouldn't use yew or elm, but a nice fruitwood such as pear or cherry, or sycamore/maple, or lime as you originally suggested (which is particularly stable and nice to carve) would probably do well. If the grain looks good you could oil or varnish it. If it's a bit boring then a simple stain before finishing will brighten it up a bit. Alec

If you can find a bit big enough, I would split it in half first, then chainsaw out the rest of your cube and use the cleft face as the top (tidied up as you see fit). That way, when you cut it off, you effectively have a quartersawn board as the lid, which will be least prone to warping. Alec

Unless your table is going to have a seriously thick, wide top, there is a lot more timber in that than you will get through for the one project. You don't specify the thickness or width you want the top to be, or the style. Is this something sort of trestle-like, maybe 4' across the top? It's also important to consider how you are going to move it. Make it too chunky and at 20' long you are going to need a forklift! If it was mine, I would look to mill it slightly differently. I would take the length off that you are looking to use as the top, then take the centre slab out with an Alaskan, thick enough to make three boards. I would then split this in half and mill each of these blocks with a bandsaw into three boards, around a foot wide. This would give enough 'top' material to make effectively quartersawn boards for a top up to 6' wide if they are all perfect, 4' if preferred. I reckon 8" width boards would look a bit out of scale for something that length. Being quartersawn, the boards would be pretty stable and shouldn't cup. This would allow them to be used relatively thin, about an inch finished thickness. This would make the top liftable, just, by two people. A half inch allowance on an inch board would be fine. You could then cut the shorter length for rails, bars, legs etc. This would leave the rest of the decent length to be cut into full length boards for something else. I would also not touch it until October otherwise the risk of surface checking ruining it is very high. Alec

As Ray1 says, take the oil filler cap off and look for 'mayonnaise'. Also, start the thing up and run it to warm, then when you stop, leave it for a few mins and have a look underneath for anything wet. It could be a hose has perished, radiator has corroded through etc. but you could spend a lot of time guessing where, hence much easier to look for a wet bit. If nothing is wet, I would put it down to the heat. Alec