agg221

If you count the 066, so do I - although when I finally get the various non-running ones back from their respective states of disrepair I'll end up with, erm, 9! (not even I will have that many pack up on me in a day ) Alec

It's not the 070 I was using on Tuesday - that's the happy one. It's even happier now I've stuck the choke lever from the other one on it, as it no longer takes two people to start it. The unhappy 070 needs some welding up on the starter cup as the lugs have worn off so it just spins. One of the front handle bolts has gone so I need a new one, and a new thrust washer and nut, and the top cover is missing a screw. I'll also need to find another choke lever. The 076 wouldn't idle in the middle of milling on Tuesday (which is why I swapped to the 070) and now it won't start, although it will if you lob a bit of fuel on the top plate of the air inlet. May just need to wash the carb out (taking it off in a bit) but it may be that now it's had a good few tankfuls of Aspen through it the gaskets need replacing. I'll find out once it's in bits. Just a bit annoying having a pile of not quite completely working saws (to add to the other 076 and that Tillotson carb to complete). Alec

Not necessarily. You are allowed to take someone out in your car under your supervision so long as you meet the age requirement and have held your licence for long enough. In that case, you have no additional 'qualification' and have no specific insurance to cover you. The non-professional chainsaw user has a problem, in that there are few options for some basic, sensible instruction at a realistic price, since the professional route in effect requires a series of tickets to be obtained which represent a substantial investment. Agreed, there are some options such as Jonesie's course, but they are limited and may not relate to what the user wants to do. In my view it's a sensible request to learn by observing a professional - consider the person asking for the input is under no obligation to obtain any pointers at all. The process of talking through what you're doing, as you're doing it (so long as it's good practice!), and ensuring that at the end of it the person is fully aware that they have not received formal training, and are not 'qualified' in any sense would appear to be pretty clear, but in reality they are probably much better informed and aware of things not to attempt. For what it's worth, there is no qualification needed in providing private tuition in other fields - you get clients if you're a good tutor and if you're not, you don't. I'm not aware of anyone ever successfully pursuing someone over a failure to pass an exam following tuition. Alec

Looks like it hasn't been a good day all round then. My bench has an unhappy 076, an unhappy 026 and a slightly unhappy 070 on it. Fortunately the other 070 is still happy. I then topped the day off by trying to cut a rafter whilst talking to someone on the phone and cut the joint backwards. Hopefully a better day tomorrow. Alec

I can't see how you could be held liable. If someone does tickets and then injures themself, or someone else, the person who assessed them is not held liable. Assuming it's not for commercial purposes (i.e. it's for a bit of firewood) the person cutting the wood will be insured under their household contents insurance, for which they need no training. The fact that someone has been 'trained' doesn't lead to a presumption that they were doing it right! If you're concerned, I would avoid calling it training and instead offer to do the cutting and describe what you're doing as you do it. Coincidentally, this is how I learned. Alec

£5/cu.ft or Hoppus ft? 41" circ. so just over 1ft dia - is that top end, bottom end or middle? How wide is the sapwood band? Assuming an inch or so of sapwood, and 1ft dia top, I would say that's a generous offer. It depends a bit on where you are, but £3-5/cu.ft, or £4-6/Hoppus ft would be normal for something that's not exceptional. Small diameter produces less yield if it's being milled or turned into a beam or post, and the sapwood isn't durable for outdoor use, so will normally only make the bottom end of the price range. You have to take into account the effort of conversion, which applies whether you're making firewood or milling. Assuming milling, consider you would end up with an 8" square post x 12ft long, which would be about 5.3 cu.ft, so £107 at £20/cu.ft. Milling would take an hour or so for a portable sawmill (e.g. Alaskan) including set-up time, then add travel costs. You're looking at £50 (couple of hours all in) for milling. If the sawlog is costing £50 then nobody is making any profit on any end product. Of course if there are favours/not costing time or transport costs/slipping it through the local sawmill for £20 or whatever then it becomes more favourable, but the above example should give an idea of how costs break down. Alec

No problem

Until it stops fizzing. Alec

It was indeed, and very productive overall. A brief clip of Martin on the first ash: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he09i_eAo1E]Milling Ash with an Alaskan Chainsaw Mill/Stihl 076 - YouTube[/ame] Alec

Glad you got a pic of the oak. Got three more out like that today! Hopefully Charlie can get a picture of the trailer-load of oak and the trailer-load of ash. It's a fair lot altogether. Did the video I took on your camera work? I've got one which I'll get up once I've figured whether there's any editing software on my wife's computer. Alec

A couple more from me:

When you say 'will not run' what do you mean exactly? Is it that the chain won't fit into the bar groove, and is the bar new? If it is that the chain won't go in the groove, try taking a single drive link of the chain in one hand and bending the rest of the chain back on itself, out of the way, then running the single link all the way around the bar. This will establish whether there are pinched points. If one link won't go in, try it with another just to be sure. If it's pinch points, inspect the rails carefully (if the bar is not new). You're looking to see if it has worn down the bar causing a slight lip, particularly on the inside. This can happen if the bar has simultaneously worn and splayed slightly. Alec

Burning a sack of smokeless every now and again helps. We used to have an 18" open fire with brick chimney and I burned all the bits I took out of my old boat on it, sometimes literally covered in tar and soaked in creosote. I burned wood every night, and bunged a sack of smokeless through once every six weeks or so. It burns a lot hotter and dries out the creosote before it soaks through. The sweep confirmed it was working. Alec

You can borrow my big one if you like - you'd need to set up some lineshafting but about the only space you've got left is high up so that shouldn't be a problem, should it? (or set it up in the porch.....) Alec

That should be easier to trace back. If you've got huge quantities available it suggests you can go direct to the truss manufacturer. They should have traceability over source. Either they, or the source should be able to confirm, in writing, what they're treated with. The truss manufacturer should know this anyway - they're exposing their workers to it, and would have to dispose of it as waste if you don't have it. Plus, they will need to be able to specify it when the trusses go out. If untreated, all is good. Paper trail should be complete and no issues. If treated it gets a bit more complicated - if you find out what the treatment is I can see if I can get you anything in writing if it helps. Alec

The difficulty is in identifying exactly which treatment has been applied, which depends to an extent on whether it has been made in the EU or not. HT (heat treated) etc and all the other codes previously stated are obviously fine. One of the reasons CCA was withdrawn is because of its environmental effect when disposed of by burning, so it's reasonable to presume that the other preservatives don't have this effect. Copper is still used, which can catalyse dioxin production when burned at too low a temperature, as kindling would be. Organic biocides will almost certainly be fully decomposed in the burning process. Since organic biocides are much cheaper, they are far more likely to be the ones applied to pallets and similar low cost items. Coincidentally of course, creosote burns well enough - just makes the chimney rather tarry unless you burn smokeless from time to time. The difficulty is that if something has been imported from outside the EU on a pallet there is no clear way of knowing what the packing was treated with. When 'decorating' my boat an attractive shade of green I was able to obtain some copper naphthalate, in the UK. The remainder of the shipment was bound for Nigeria. Also, since CCA is an effective preservative I suspect that only 10yrs on there are still a fair few treated items kicking around. Alec

No longer have any chains on my bench, having just finished sharpening approximately 47 linear feet of chain. That's nearly half a roll! Tomorrow's job - find the socket and fix the 070. Alec

I'd buy from GHS - they offer a 1yr warranty on all their parts and I've had no issues with returns on parts which are no good. At the price they charge you can't go too far wrong, unless it absolutely has to be right first time. Alec

My bench has some chains and a Granberg grinder on it. Just done the 226 DL chain, now on to the 'little' ones (52" and 36"). The thing which is not on my bench and should be is the 17mm socket. 076 starter cup has stripped its lugs, so I need to rob one off the other saw until I can weld the lugs back together. This needs a 17mm socket which I suspect to be lurking in my car but can't find. Hmmmm. Alec Alec

I'm with Jon on this one - although for preference stack it for a year before applying. That way you get the benefits without the nitrogen robbery. It's a particular range of conditions which result in this. You need the right ratio of carbon to nitrogen for efficient decomposition. To make up the difference, the decomposition organisms take the balance from the surrounding soil. Grass cuttings have too much nitrogen, wood chip has too little (oak leaves are about perfect!) - no specific idea on leylandii chippings but I would guess they wouldn't be too bad. The big advantage of chippings appears to be in soil structure. It adds moisture holding capacity without waterlogging, which is good for both heavy and light soils. It encourages worms, which helps with aeration, and of course it suppresses weeds. There will of course be some direct nutrient addition, but I think this is probably secondary. In truth, the breakdown rate of pure wood/bark chippings is so slow that the benefits of weed suppression and soil structure improvement probably outweigh any minor robbing, but if you need to mix in the green stuff I would let it stand for a while. I do a lot with oak and used to save up the adzings/shavings/sawdust in a pile through the year, then when the leaves fell I'd blow them up into a heap and throw the leaves and oak bits through the shredder together, then stick the lot in builder's bags. By about this time of year I'd have brilliant compost. Alec

Thanks All, The bar is a bit special - I think it's longer than even GB sell. It came from the US for handling really big stuff and this is its first real outing. The tree was just a little bit too wide to go clean through so I had to make a series of fan cuts down, then go round the other side to see where it broke through and finish off from there. The main cut took about 1.5 tankfuls on the saw, so say 25mins. It's a 226 DL skip-link chain but Rob D can't get the ripping one at the moment, so I had to re-grind a crosscut, which took about 3hrs! Alec

A pretty good day on the whole. The 090 pulls the 88" bar with skip-link full chisel ripping chain like a train. It's an absolute monster. When I got within a foot of the ground I had to stop every 30 seconds or so to clear away the pile of sawdust. There's a bit more rot than ideal, although it can be dealt with. The lump is now 2' thick, having cut deliberately a bit oversize to give myself something to play with, so the face in the first picture still contains some bark in the centre. I reckon the middle 1' or so should be pretty clean, so three boards 7' square should be acheivable (alongside some useful bits and pieces from the side sections). Also found that the 076 needs a slightly lower drive link count on the 52" bar than the 070 does, so the chain doesn't fit, and then the starter on the 070 stopped working properly so the only back-up saw was the 066 with 36" bar. It did a lot of work today, but it would be better with a larger saw, preferably the 076 as I'd rather have the chain brake. Anyway, first stage dismantling was achieved, so pretty good all things considered. I now have a few hours sharpening to do!

Went over today for the next phase and found I had some company. I did wonder whether I could harness them up to drag it out for me, but didn't have enough bits of rope.

I know what you mean, and I know it's a risk, but I'll give it a go. If it works out, great. If not, not too much lost. Alec

I've got one of the Teles equivalents of these I'm gradually putting back together. It now runs, but it needs 3/4" pitch chain and I can't find a source. When I get some, I'll give it a go, but I'll have to convince someone to take the other end of it which could be a bit challenging. Alec