Daniël Bos

I've aquired a mint ms650 which I want to use for milling. Now my understanding of the difference between the 650 and 660 are only three things: the Piston, the cylinder and the badge. The saw has the original p+c which are in as new condition. I understand milling can be quite hard on saws so I wondered if it would make sense to get a cheap aftermarket p+c kit for a 660 and put it on my 650. Anyone done this? Got any thoughts on it? Oh yeah, it'll be milling with a 36" bar so 30"-ish max but probably more like 20" most of the time.

This is actually quite a clever feature, as it's a bit more complicated than you think. I'm not sure what the technical term for it is, but I've only seen it on £100 + muffs before. It plays the ambient noise through the muffs so you can hear the mrs talking, al good so far. Now when you look at that nice pair of legs walking past for just a little too long and she starts shrieking, it turns the mike off and you're bathing in serenity. When she's all calm again it'll let noise through again. By the way it also works with the chainsaw, ie saw screaming > mike off, saw off > mike on. Bought two today...

Just wondering, a fairly old but in good condition 046, no chain brake (but just for home fun so not a big issue) and a 24" bar. Could a chain brake be retrofitted easily on these saws? How much is reasonable? There's a guy near me selling one, and he'd like £150 for it. Seems reasonable to me?

The only one I know is called the "eco-rider" (a good reason not to want one:biggrin:), a stocky little motorbike with a 100mpg diesel engine, fat atv tyres, a towbar etc. I believe they are no longer made though, but they come up on ebay sometimes.

Sorry can't help but thanks for the reminder, Swaton is about a mile from my house, as the cow flies! Don't know any local carvers though I might know someone who does, will enquire.

Seller pretends to be too busy for fixing a collection date, payment is to be via some sort of "pay the courier" voucher, which is when you get shafted. read all about it here , its the exact scam and the same person/people doing it!

I can guarantee you it's a scam. Send them a mail, with your phone number in, they'll send you a text with an email address, google that and you'll be sure as well.

It's a scam:thumbdown:

Think it's a pretty standard Ford F650, you can buy toys like that off the shelf...

Not very clued up on the actual workings but I've found it starts to get too snappy for me when the first flush of leaves is out. The stems just get more brittle, you can still work them but it takes much more skill, care and practice. This snappy fase is over by about the end of June. I have a friend who lays a section of hedge on the 21st of June every year, just to prove it can be done. Initial regrowth is slower but regrowth after 5 years is the same as winter-worked hedges. As for size, I've laid 12" with good regrowth as the customer was adamant she wanted it laid (and rich enough to pay for the huge extra effort involved). I had to rig them all down of the next stem along simply because of the weight involved. Fun but very tedious. Not sure if I'm qualified to comment as I never studied not nuffink, but I've laid maybe 15 miles of hedge so far? Daniel

The first ape to drop a heavy object on its foot invented swearing I bet, it's all evolution from there on.

Don't know, but my 550 runs nicer with no spark arrestor, so a bit of muffler modding may help. When cars were fitted with more and more complicated electrics people said they'd become unfiddlable, now we have very easy, effective and cheap chip-tuning...

Crows will take any young birds they can, including young buzzards... In the south of the Netherlands, there is a stable population of eagle owls, they have reduced the population of hedgehogs to a small but viable population, now their main prey is buzzards, adults as well as young 'uns. My point is that there is always a top predator, they don't hunt their prey to extinction, only humans do that. Oh and Sam, it's predation not preditation (friendly smiley here but on phone, sorry)

I wear my trousers like a girl (so I grew a beard to compensate) and always wear braces AND a belt. If it had to one or the other I'd choose braces though. Another option to consider are the bib and brace ones engelbert Strauss do, they do a long version of all their sizes and are very comfy indeed (plus you get a choice of fashionable colours) If they don't fit they're normally happy to refund without hassle.

I know of a German retailer that will sell these for €60 (=£50) +postage which is €17.50 (=£15) to the UK. Postage to the Netherlands is €9. so I thought I could bring a loaf back with me (going over for a bit this weekend) but then sending them in the UK for less than £5 would be a bit hard, so for £65 you can all get your own. http://bit.ly/KQ7TOA I have no ties with this here vendor, I did enquire about a bulk discount or discounted postage but the man says no.

It'll be fine! Just takes a bit of practice! Once you're used to it you'll find it much easier and quicker to start your saw, just a quick flick of the wrist is all it takes....

Hi all, I'm after some ingenious solution. I have loads of poles to sand, 12ft long, nominal diameter about 1.1/2". It's a lot of work so I'm after mechanisation suggestions? Thanks, daniel.

My wife got given this here tree and told its truly amazing, grow 150ft/year, is the saviour of the free world and will cure all known diseases and then some.... But what is it? It's really stout, short and quite fat with no thin twigs at all?

Dont. When you're coasting down a hill in neutral it takes fuel to keep the engine turning, when it's left in gear with your foot off the pedal the momentum of the car is what keeps the engine turning and no fuel at all is injected. There is some use in all this electrickery in cars after all! I get about 52 overall in my 01 rover75 (199k) which is mainly short runs.

Hi and welcome to the forum. I suggest you use the search, as there have been loads of threads covering the 261 recently...

Rim sprocket is much cheaper to replace and gives an easy option of using different configurations for different bar sizes etc.

How about having the handle on the end of the side-board, with a sprocket on the inside. Then another sprocket on the (tailboard mounted) roll, a loop of bike chain and you're sorted. You'd need a bracket to hold the tailboard level (and thus the chain tight), probably a solid one on the cranking side, and a bit of chain on the far side. It would be easy to make, strong, you can use readily available parts and it gives you the option of gearing the mat speed up or down. The handle would be nicely out of the way, at a much more convenient hight as well. After you've produced and sold the first 100 you can start transferring the millions, I'll pm you my account details. Daniel

Questions to ask yourself; Why do you want it cut up? How much money are you willing to spend on it? How much time are you willing to spend? Seems like too much effort to me, just take it to the council green-waste tip. Not likely to cost you much if anything, quick, low effort and easy.

I thought the twisted wedges were for splitting rather than felling?

I've got a rover 75 and it's been awesome! Doesn't mean they're a good car overall though, does it? There have been many many (insert many more many's) people with issues with their 261, and dealer response has been quite poor overall as mr Stihl denied there was an issue at all for quite a while. I run a 346 and a 550 side by side and the 550 is miles better. More nimble, more powerful and faster, Much faster. I had a few big (45-50") ash to fell and don't own any bigger saws. I threw caution to the wind and put a 20" bar on the 550, it coped admirably. Then when ringing up, the 550 (still on 20) was still way faster than the 346 on 15". The only downside I've found is that the noise of the 550 hurts my ears more when unprotected. My monkey however finds the 346 worse, noise-wise. Might be a matter of age (of user, I use an old monkey) or just preference I suppose. The 346 is a safe bet, the 550 is way better but of unknown longevity. Having said that, I've not heard of a single issue with a 550.