Daniël Bos

Eventually wood will always end up being cheaper. It may take a long time though:sneaky2: The simple fact that anyone can grow a tree and burn it and just about nobody can home-produce heating oil will make sure of that.

I think it would help if you showed us some pics of your carvings, the dog is ace!

Thanks for clearing that up, so I could mix aspen4 with stihl hp, and leave it for a year and still be fine? I've an old hedge-cutter that bluntly refuses to run properly on anything else than 1:33 and as mentioned it's a right pain when you only need it once or twice a year.

I don't think the issue is trying to make money Mike, it's trying to figure out whether or not the huge amount of extra spending that is needed to qualify for said scheme will be money wisely invested. For me the answer was no. Having said that, there is always the option of "the green deal" basically a government backed mortgage-type loan with low interest rates specifically for improving the energy-efficiency of one's home. It's worth researching as I know there are a few people that are financing their PV panels with one, and expect the FIT-returns to be higher than the GD-repayments, effectively the government is funding their "eco-guilt buy-off" and they are getting paid for it!

I've never had any formal chainsaw training and don't intend to do any either. I've felled a fair few hectares of wood in my short life so far and seen a fair few "qualified cock-ups". I don't think there would be any point, as previously mentioned qualified does not mean competent and you'd just create a more "shadowy" market for top-handled saws. I don't think unknowing first-time users are likely to buy a top-handle anyway as they fetch stupid high prices on ebay.

As I stated before it was a rethorical question. I don't really care if it's hard economic times, trouble with the boss/mrs or anything else for that matter that's causing the increased levels of bitch, I just wanted to "flag it" and I feel from several of the reactions that it was beneficial. People stating they'll "stay out of threads if certain people are involved" or "best to keep quiet" and "having to be very carefull what you say" that just does not add up to the atmosphere of Arbtalk. If my choice of rethoric did hurt anyone I'd like to offer them my heartfelt apologies, I meant no such thing. I really appreciate the efforts of all you mods trying to keep a loose reign whilst staying in control, you're doing a great job. I just felt the need to direct some attention to the responsibilities of the "normal" users. Bless ArbTalk and all who sail in her!

I opted out of the RHI thing after some lengthy discussions with a friend who runs a renewables company. The tarif has been set, but there is no saying it won't be changed. It won't be changed for existing customers as there are none yet as the scheme has not yet started for domestic users. One of the main issues is it has to be installed by an MSC accredited installer wich pushes the price of the most basic system up to about £10K. Then the actual RHI is very unclear. You're going to be paid by how much heat you produce (not an incentive for frugal use of fuel) but there is no way of measuring how much heat that is! There are technically means of doing so, but these have not been aproved by the RHI. When we put it all on paper, it would have had a "payback" time of about 34 years in our case, that is if this and all consecutive governments honour agreements made... I opted for solar hot water (wich I can install myself as the extra cost of having that qualify for RHI would never ever pay back) and a rayburn with back-boiler, again self-installed. Do your research, put everything down on paper, talk to several installers. Good Luck

2nd thread on this today... http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/chainsaws/36640-whats.html

Was it from here? Looks like they're still made.

There was a thread on one of those a while ago, with a vid. Can't remember what it's called but it's for logging wood on the floor, the design of the bar means that it does not get pinched by the wood and allows you to work more ergonomically... I believe...

In the saxon region of the Netherlands we build easter-bonfires, and hold the world-record for the biggest one at 27m high!

If you google him, make sure to google for "John Moorbey" not moorby as stated above. He'll be high in the google listings as a local food producer as he's big in bees. Are you a native st Neotian? His accent is really thick and most people struggle to understand what he says most of the time:biggrin:

I'm not experienced in picture-framing, but I'd avoid using that lump until it's 100% certain to be dry. The frame could easily crack the glass, at any time during the next two years or so. So maybe the real question is: How well do you get on with your in-laws?

Do you know John Moorby in Colmworth? Not cambs I know, but very close to you. He's a very good woodworker.

You seem to have missed the point:001_huh: I'm doing well, never had it this good, I've got work booked solid till the end of march and a few weeks in late spring/early summer confirmed already as well:thumbup1: I was asking a rethorical question to get other peoples' opinions on wether or not there seems to be an air of bitchiness over the forum of late and it's possible causes:001_cool:

Like the hedgehogs, they're funky!

start of rant: Well, is it? Or is it that the days are getting shorter? Or have you got issues with the Mrs? It has to be something major I reckon, as the amount of bitching that's going on on here at the moment is unreal! It's like in the past two weeks or so some people have had their dummies nicked so they're whining and winging like babies. It's starting to get me down, why the hate? It used to be a friendly, matey, pubbie, campfire-ie type of atmosphere, can we have that back please:thumbup1: rant over, thanks

the worst I've ever seen: Sitting in a traffic jam, smelt quite a strong petrol smell. Looked at the car beside me to see the side is a bit crumpled, and there's no lid on the fuel tank, instead there is a rag stuck in the opening, the driver's window is open because he's having a fag... I remained standing still for a good while so some other cars could get past me and create a bit of buffer whilst phoning the police.

Is driving diggers across saws covered in CS32? Glad it's fairly unscathed, sound like you got away lightly:thumbup1:

As I said, I own both aleady, the question is wich one to use on signs ads etc? Thanks

Thanks Steve, I'll deffo keep both and redirect one to the other, but wich one do I put on my advertising? What's your reasoning for using .co.uk?

As above really, I'm trying to build my own website. Nothing fancy, basically all it has to do is state the services I offer and get people to be able to contact me easily. I want to put some signs up where I'm working as it's along a very busy road and next month will be around the corner along an eve busier road (hedgelaying) and thought a catchy web-adress is easier to remeber for the drive-by potential customer. I've registered both DanielDoes.com and .co.uk (I'm Daniel and I do stuff, sometimes...) but wich one do I use? Is .co.uk more "homely" or is it just more to remember? Is .com too "corporate", or "international" or just easy? Or do I worry too much about the details:biggrin: Cheers, Daniel

I suppose they're ok, but they have a few major issues to sort. I drove down to them with one of my 4year-olds, as she was off school with chickenpocks and needed to use their toilet, it was not "customer friendly":sneaky2: (read: a bit minging) But much more importantly, I was offered no tea, no coffee and most offensively: no cake! Apart from that, friendly service, returns easily sorted when needed and very fast postage.

Ginger nuts:thumbup:

It should be a thread to raise awareness of the health risks associated with the machinery and fuel we all use on a daily basis. There is loads of evidence and scientific studies to confirm what should be obvious to anyone that works in the industry. Have you ever held a hedgecutter at head height for eight hours in a day, cut big stumps with a beast of a saw, reduced leylandii hedges on a still cold, damp day? The fumes hang around and soak into your clothes and every pore in you skin. It may be convenient to ignore the issue. At the end of the day it's our livelihoods. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Or does it just kill you later? Maybe not. Maybe you are not genetically pre-disposed to certain diseases. Maybe you are. How do you know? Do you care? Thanks, I think... I don't really need convincing of the benefits of Aspen, I use it in the saws. I just asked a technical question relating to Aspen. If you know the answer that'd be grand:001_cool: