openspaceman

Acids, like tannin, will react with stainless in the anaerobic conditions inside the hole and similarly with zinc too. As SS will need to be a larger diameter for the same strength this should lessen the problem. I never did any rod bracing and only a little wire rope stuff (and all prior to 1976) but I would have thought it better to pull the top together high up before tightening the rods (with large diamond washers under the nuts in my day).

Too late the rods look like they are already installed on the pictures but lousy mechanical advantage compared with a brace higher up.

Yes I was thinking rivnut but not having seen a 260 for several years I can't remember what goes on there. PS I wouldn't consider splitting and rebuilding a saw that old, especially seeing the chafing wear on that spring, too many other parts to consider

The cell water becomes a more concentrated solution of salts as water is withdrawn in the autumn, this more concentrated solution has a lower freezing point plus I suspect the cells become plasmolised so if they did freeze the increased volume would not rupture the cell wall.

You might PM the site as I may know it

No it will have got lighter so less return. The chestnut thing is a specialist market and the produce has to be selected out of the tree lengths by someone with an eye for seeing which bits of the tree are best for the assortment of produce. For instance the bottom of a piece of chestnut coppice is often swept, so either cut an 8' post or discard 2' to give a 9" top 10' length which 6 rails can be cleft from.

In my day chestnut was worth far more than firewood when selected out for cleaving, 10' rails being the premium product. £60/tonne for fresh felled hardwood by the 18-25 tonne load seems good to me, collected in June not so good.

Thanks again, it had been puzzling me all morning and I had hoped someone with understanding of MEWP mechanics would chime in. I had decided it was possible by using counterbance valves rather than check or overcentre valves. These would need the full pressure of the hydraulics to the opposite side of the ram to develop before oil would be let out, this would labour the pump somewhat but if the boom became overloaded it would lower. before it snapped. The only thing different from normal this would need is for the spool that controls the lift to be a motor spool (i.e. both services connected to tank in neutral).

Unlike bigger countries you cannot get away somewhere to kid yourself you are in the wilderness, so they spoil the view, same as with electrification of railways. In the past even in SE England most buildings and infrastructure were hidden by trees, not so with Turbines or overhead wires. Still it has to be done and should have started fifty years ago rather than 20. The objections about non schedulability are spurious because until we actually achieve surplus RE we remain dependent on fossil fuels and existing CCGT are very good at load following as are turbines easily curtailed. As to cost there is little doubt in my mind that wind and solarPV are currently the cheapest electricity with nuclear running last and way back in the race. In fact bearing in mind our nuclear fleet are owned by the french government as are the two under constriction by the chinese and I am chauvinistic enough to think the money would have been better spent on domestic PV and srorage. I too like small scale and as a result only buy some electrcity for for 4 months of the year, even in those 4 months I self supply 50%.

I'm with @coppice cutter that old stove is not worth having, especially not as an open fire as you will lose more heat up the chimney from the house, The difference I have seen quoted is 20% of the heat gets into the house from an open fire whereas a modern ecodesign stove will get pushing 80% into the room. An open fire just sitting there looking pretty in a centrally heated house dumps loads of wasted heat up the chimney. BTW even if the back boiler is filled with sand it must never be sealed.

Its a smaller capacity engine ... I have never used either but that 10cc difference should be noticeable, obviously best power to weight is the ideal irrespective of capacity but price must come in to it also.

Yes mine too I'm not so sure about good paying it out, because they know the contract and the law they use that knowledge to limit the amount of any claim, especially in regard to "betterment".

Assuming fresh ash is 35% mc 615kg

Yes but how? My point was that there is a check valve on each ram port that won't let oil out until there is a positive pressure at the other port, there must be a relief valve on each of these also.

Never having overloaded a mewp it was fascinating to see how it lowered slowly, it would be interesting to see how the valves on the ram prevent lowering in the event of a hose failure but still allow oil to escape when overloaded ( this is normally done with a port relief valve at the control but that won't work with a check valve on the ram). Or did the operator lower it??

I have always taken the view that if your tree falls onto your neighbour's garden and there was no signs it was likely to happen then you should remove the trespassing parts of the tree back to your land. If the tree was obviously likely to fall then you have been negligent and should also be liable for any damage done. Interested to hear about the actual legal position. I would only contract with one party for the whole job too.

I'll not comment on the pricing as apart from being out of it for many years I was awful at that job. Looking at the pictures and given the description of the drag out plus the fairly informal garden I would have suggested burn on site.

I know nothing about the 357 but the early 346 had a smaller diameter piston than the later ones. I had an early one from new but it was given to my boss's son who seized it and after a few years it came back to me as a box of bits. Repaired it is my go to ground/snedding saw.

Yes email still received but the big problem is a chap from US is inclined to reply on every thread, he is pleasant enough but it dilutes the conversation somewhat.

I think @Ian C and @Justme have covered most of what I understand but would add a couple of theings; When I applied for our yard to be used as an operating centre for a second company (it was already registered as one for a tenant) it was made clear that reversing out or into the yard was a no no. The area in front of the gate had to accommodate the longest vehicle coming or going when the gate was closed. The Highway Authority were the only objector on the grounds the bigger vehicles needed to cross onto the opposite carriageway when turning left out of the yard. We would have had to expensively widen the splay but fortunately when we turned up for the public hearing, booted and suited, the traffic commissioner took umbrage that no one attended from the HA and granted the application as it was. The chap on the estate behind me used to park his local authority highways truck in the close with nothing said.

Exactly that so you match the curve of the handle against the nearest curve on your cleft bit of ash and then shape it with a draw knife (or in my case a billhook held in both hands)

I thought that was a benefit as you can move the handle to a point where it matches the grain. Holly is useful for small handles but it has half the modulus of hickory, most axe handles in shops seem to be imported hickory. Beech is up there with hickory for elasticity and is the preferred wood for pick axe handles but not used for axes. Yes the worry is that ash from diseased trees will have hidden loss of strength and will be used...

Because I am old and non pc I meant what I wrote. Up till recently I worked on a gang with two or three young ladies and they were excellent in most things except the sound and feel of a motor saw cutting correctly. This is just my observation as there are plenty of mechanically sympathetic women out there,

If it were that critical I would seize one every outing when in fact I have only seized a 268 back in the days of four star when I picked up the wrong can. I think only red metal cans were legal then. Trying to teach young ladies to hear the engine note and not cut at part throttle is a difficult job which I failed on but lack of mechanical sympathy is what contributes to most problems. Back in the day it was blokes tweaking the HI screw to get more revs and not realising it reduced cutting power that was the problem. Presumably less so with modern saws.

It looks like a good start, that little beech will look after itself if the squirrels don't get it. One of the good things about oak is they respond well to being given room for a free crown at virtually any age. The ash would normally be a short term crop on any but the best brown earth sites and given ash dieback even more so now, so simply do not favour an ash over a decent oak. At this stage I wouldn't over worry about a few bends but the straight ones should be the champion trees.