openspaceman

4 hours ago, Johnsond said:

Busy on a UXO job upstream of the Montgomery at the min

If I don't hear the bang from 70 miles away you can always drop in for a tea if you go home clockwise then north.

58 minutes ago, mtt.tr said:

I just use motorbike intercoms mainly as I also have them for motorcycling 

Which ones?

I suppose that stops you driving for a while?

Best wishes for pain relief and recovery Eggs

5 hours ago, Doug Tait said:

 

Can I ask the reason?

I've never really thought about it, I just put the file in the gullet of the next cutter and pull it back to a comfy position. Hope I'm not committing a heinous act while sharpening!

Well as things get worn the chain can snag more easily when you pull it back, if you do it with an ungloved hand it can injure. If you use the file and it jams the file can take the tip off a full chisel file. I move the teeth forward with the file on the back of the cutter for the left hand set  and my hand with the right hand set as I advance those two or three cutters and sharpen them in one position.

Mind I only sharpen a chain occasionally now whereas it would be a light touch up several times a day at work.

13 minutes ago, Doug Tait said:

Helps more as the eyes diminish, also it's quite nice when you draw the next cutter toward you to file it and see your marked cutter come up over the tip, you know you are nearly there.

I never pull the chain back, only forward.

12 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

There's a chap in Greece with loads of meteor pistons and cylinders, think you'll find him on eBay.

DLA Engine Parts | eBay Stores

WWW.EBAY.CO.UK

---

Welcome to our eBay Store. We sell Parts & Accessories for 2-stroke Engines such as Chainsaw, Brush cutters, Blowers and...

2 minutes ago, Olddevonstihls said:

 But if those aftermarket circlips wreck it everytime it doesn’t look like such a sensible thing to be doing

Reuse the Stihl ones or buy genuine circlips for the aftermarket pistons

2 hours ago, Olddevonstihls said:

That piston is not just scored, its gouged

It looks like the sort of damage you get when an aftermarket gudgeon pin circlip has shed its tang.

54 minutes ago, cjdg said:

6) If so, what is the purpose of the split pin ?

 

7)  If so, and the ONLY way to disassemble this is by unscrewing the bent threaded rod by force  would it not be best to try to bend at least some of the bend out of both threaded rod inside and the outer casing ?

6 to stop the handle falling off

7 yes you could move it up and down and bend it  a bit straight but it will never be good enough to use so follow @GarethM's advice then buy new

4 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Cash usage discussions, draws me like a moth to the flame…

 

They want to get rid of cash so that EVERY transaction is taxed.

Don’t let them do it, do like I do, pay cash for your weekly supermarket shop (and restaurants etc.)
I go to the ATM and withdraw the money before going in.

 

 

I seldom go shopping and use the "pay at pump" machines at petrol stations and buy most toys online else always pay cash whenever I can.

I also wonder who pays for those ATMs? As only the amount drawn out shows on my statements.

18 hours ago, Kia said:

Hi All,

I am looking at purchasing a logging trailer for my quad, any recommendation and advice greatly appreciated..

If you want to take it on road at all look at the tyres as mine are marked not for highway use.

1 hour ago, maybelateron said:

But (my understanding is) that they actually run on a 4 stroke cycle and have sort of valves. Hence why they sound slower revving. If someone wiser can explain otherwise please do. This was explained to me by my local Stihl dealer.

They do and the fuel air mix also passes over the valve gear and into the crankcase, lubricating them so they still need a petroil mixture. Also I think that on the induction stroke some of this mixture is pumped into the cylinder.

16 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

You do realise that 4-mix are still 2 stroke?

Que?

I do realise they are still lubricated by the oil in the fuel but...

9 hours ago, gand said:

Husqvarna tend not to replace warranty items for some reason. We get far more of them coming back than the Stihl chargers. Not sure what the problem is. I've had 3 come back this week. Our problem is people won't take the knackered ones home and we have to get rid of them. Got about 40 sat around waiting for disposal. It's the same with batteries. We get far more Husky ones coming back than Stihl and they are also sat around waiting for disposal. Neither Stihl or Husqvarna can give us a clear answer on how to get rid of them. It's rather frustrating 😒 

That's interesting.

From what I understand it's the fast charging that means the electronics have to be complicated, to avoid over heating. I have opened up a failed Ferrex charger and have not been able to see any obvious damage. I shall take it to the repair cafe and ask one of the electronics people to have a look. They are very good but do give up on highly integrated stuff like flat screen TVs if nothing is obviously wrong.

In the meanwhile if you know the number of cells a generic low current charger should work. 18V packs are strings of 5 cells in series often two parallel strings. I would still not charge indoors just in case. In fact I charge mine individually to 4.15V.

The batteries are nearly always packs of 18650 lithium manganese cobalt cells and if one fails it can mean the whole pack can. While the pack will be spot welded you can buy the cells with solder tags for £4.5 and solder them in to the nickel strips (best not to apply heat to the cells).

I have dismantled an 80V battery from a 2016 mower and 50% of the cells were still good, my Ferrex battery had one bad cell but I was a bit hamfisted taking it apart and that made it difficult to reassemble as each cell has a pair of wires connected to the battery management system.

19 minutes ago, Stubby said:

I think he has done that from the post above ...

It seemed to be a slightly non human response

1 hour ago, Steven P said:

Pretty much yes, but I am not sure of the alternatives to hydrogen at the moment if we want a liquid / gas fuel to replace gas. Heat storage sounds OK but over time you loose heat - not sure if that would work to capture solar power in the summer to use the next Easter? So I'd go for a system that can be stored longer, and one whose technology isn't too far off what we have now.

 

Having said that, so much going on out there that next week there might be something new and better announced

The heat storage is in order to pass back the heat into the liquid air as it expands through a turbine, similarly the cold this generates is stored to cool the air as it is compressed. It is all part of an integrated system to maximise storage efficiency, it will never get close to a battery but should approach pumped hydro efficiency at a fraction of the capital cost. Pumped hydro only stores up to a day's usage.

Compressed air was stored and used to start big diesels, often on ships. When I visited the internal fire museum the owner said he went to pick up a diesel engine and its compressed air starter that hadn't been used for over ten years. When he set it up at the museum the air in the tank was still good enough to start the engine, not many batteries would manage that.

6 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Typical! After me eulogising the 2511, it broke today.

The bar nut threaded bar bit stropped the internal thread.

I seem to recall it was a common problem, was there a reliable fix?

I have never done one with a bar nut but if there is enough meat left in the plastic one of these warmed up and screwed in may work. You will need a new stud to screw into it.

22 minutes ago, Peter 1955 said:

The Makita ( 36v) saws are very good, but they're not Pro saws. Hobby/occasional. Can eat batteries for fun if you're logging, they're more for making stuff manageable. 

So won't even manage a boot load of logs on a full charge?

4 hours ago, william127 said:

Makita 36v, (18vx2), bought mine before Christmas and it's my most used saw now.

I suppose yours is the top handle?

I see a back handle DUC353Z and two 6Ah batteries is just shy of 500 quid. Maybe ok to fetch a boot load of logs quietly??

1 hour ago, Steven P said:

However when it comes to instant power supplies - short term at least - not a lot is quicker than pumped storage the 'hollow mountain'... it will still take some time to replace gas as a power source but a necessary evil to do so.

Dinorwig pump storage is a marvel, was designed to absorb electrcity from a local nuclear plant and continues to provide peak lopping now but there are not many places else left for pumped storage.

1 hour ago, Steven P said:

I'd be putting my money into something like Hydrogen - an easy conversion from fossil fuels and can be stored in existing facilities

Hydrogen makes no sense to me, very low overall conversion back to power. Liquid air with heat storage is looking good though.

The thing is we will be dependent on natural gas for quite a while yet even when a lot more wind and solar PV comes online. My feeling is they will build cheap open cycle gas turbine generators rather than the far more expensive (and thermally efficient) combined cycle gas turbines we depend on for all loads now. The perceived wisdom is they will then only fire up at peak times, the baseload still being provided by nuclear, Drax (unless it gets canned), imports from France and Norway plus the existing CCGT fleet (some of which will be turned off when wind is good).

28 minutes ago, peds said:

I'm guessing it's the droughts that might kill them, not the draughts. 

 

 

Yes I guess that @sime42 did mean drought.

27 minutes ago, sime42 said:

 

The issue is more that our increasingly hot, dry summers and resulting draughts might kill them off I think.

Long ago I was told wind would prevent UK growing tall trees but I haven't seen an open grown wellingtonia blown down. I have seen lots with their tops taken out by lightning.

1 hour ago, Chamski said:

Their M18 chainsaw is ok ish! Fine for chopping up the odd log on a Sunday, but the balance feels wrong and vibration is high compared to a pro petrol saw. It feels like a cheap b&q electric chainsaw imo

That then begs the question; what is an acceptable small battery saw that uses the same batteries as other portable tools? I discount Stihl as I have had a battery failure on the brushcutter the volunteers use and I want something common with power tools.

21 hours ago, openspaceman said:

I'll try to remember to take more pictures tomorrow

For completeness here are photos of the carb and coil, now that @pleasant has identified it I am not rushing to delve into the innards. It does seem to have a spark screen but I have not yet managed to hook it out through the silencer.

4 hours ago, rapalaman said:

I got the Ferrex one from Aldi for £100 - seems to be good for the odd bit of work I’ve done with it. I have several Kangos needing work but the spares don’t seem to be available anymore so I replaced with the Ferrex

I now worry about getting ferrex stuff from Aldi, not that I would knock it, my 40V 4" grinder has been a game changer for cutting hydraulic hoses and wire rope cleanly in the field. The problem is they sold the batteries too cheap, people bought them just to strip them of their cells such that spares are no longer available. I have the grinder, impact driver, drill and tyre pump with only three batteries to go between them and nearly got stuffed when the charger broke. I managed to get one off ebay from a bloke who bought surplus stock of chargers when Aldi bailed  out.

Now I'm thinking I will buy milwaukee stuff; has anyone tried their M18 chainsaws?