GardenKit

Ok. so substiute any figure you want for my 32K. i.e £20k needs £20 per hour profit over costs. its still a lot of money. The point is that there are very few workable hours available in reality, so they need to be priced accordingly. Too many people think along the lines of 40 plus hours available per week, but it seldom works that way.

I live in a little cottage beside a bridge over the Otter, It is a regular training route for the marines from Lympstone so I have tremendous respect for you guys. To see them in full kit, packs, rifles etc being pushed forward by trainers ( with no kit) makes me realise how unfit I am and how tough it is possible to be. Oh, and by the way, my teenage girls who used to line up at the windows when you passed are now over it. And your helicopters rattle my windows and effect the tele. And you gunfire on the common wakes me up. But we respect you for the job you do and did.

Agg221 has put that brilliantly. Take all of that and add this thought provoker to it. How much do you need to make in profit alone to have a good business? You have 52 weeks in a year, but you take 3 weeks holiday and may well be sick for a week. Now only 48 5 day weeks available to work=240 days. Now, you will need 1 day in case of funeral, 1 to mot the van,2 for kids school functions, 5 to look after kids when wife is ill,1 to go to a trade show, now down to 230 possible working days per year You need 1 day in 5 for looking at jobs and 1 day in 10 when you cannot work because of poor weather, take off another 72 days, now down to 158 158 x8 hour days = 1264 hours, but... You have 2 hrs travel and prep per day, so its 158 x 6 = 948 hrs. My mental arithmatic is rubbish so we will round it up to 1000 I dont know what you want to make in profit, but you need to be on at least 32k or you are better working for someone else IMO. You therefore need a profit of £32 per working hour. This is a profit figure. Work out your costs, divide them by 1000 and add them to £32 to get an hourly rate. If you want to earn more (or less) re jig the figure. i assume one man band. All of this can be taken loosely, but i bet its not far off reality.

Just one more idea. I had one with similar symptons, i.e playing up on an angle. It turned out to be a very small split in the fuel pickup hose which normally stayed closed, but the AV,s were also knackered and when the handle was pulled away from the tank at a certain angle it opened up the split. This starved the saw, but when the engine stopped the fuel ran out of the split and poured over the air filter until the saw was righted. May be worth a look?

Ok, so I am a mechanic, not a treeworker, but have good ideas on making money It strikes me as much too cheap for what seems to me, and therfore to your customer, to be a complicated job. If you do it for £875 I doubt you will make any money, in that case you may as well have stayed home and taken less risk. Think of aprice and then double it, you wont be far out whatever type of job you are in. At least this way you will earn something. Also, if you start out cheap, not only are you lowering the average rate and ruining business for others, but you will find it hard to up your prices as your business grows. Start as you mean to go on, charge a profitable rate and do a good job. good luck

It would be quite a job for a grave digger to do a re-open for a family member now. An exhumation would be difficult too, they could not do it quietly. Chainsaws at midnight.

Like the Aspen bit!! Also, yes I agree totally, dont rev it too high, but equally important dont let it labour. High speed equals low torque, low speed equals high torque. I would suggest to limit its use to what you would do with a saw half its size for the first couple of hours.

I,m glad to see a positive response , it just shows that Aspen really is not a problem, but an asset. With regards to Motomix, I downloaded the spec sheets and compared them to Aspen. I am not a chemist, and as usual the spec sheets follow a different format, but as far as I can see the products are similar, with Aspen being possible slightly purer than Motomix. I am happy to be corrected if I have read it wrongly.

This issue is of great concern to me as I am fully commited to Aspen. As previously stated, most of my conversions have gone perfectly, but the few that have caused problems have had blocked carb gauze filters. They have been blocked with a creamy gunk. This is obviously not from the Aspen, so where does it come from? I am wondering if this is seperated oil from a the previous pump petrol, especially if that mix was old (domestic equipment) As the Aspen has no solvents it may be unable to dissolve this, and just washes it into the filter. If this is the case then it may be best to ensure that an amount of perfectly fresh pump fuel is used prior to Aspen to dissolve any stale residue. As I say, this is just a theory, any others will be welcome.

Its a shame your saws have been problematic, at least the 880 is OK. I also sense that you are not totally anti Aspen. Maybe its worth another try. Its also worth remembering that Aspen is recommended for use by Huskie and that Stihl recomend their own version, Moto-Mix.

The variable nature of pump petrol has shown itself to me many times over the years, well before I had any expierience of Aspen. On many occasions I have serviced and tuned a 2t machine to run perfectly on my workshop supply of 50:1, only to have it brought back by the customer as it would not run properly after refilling with his own fuel. Before retuning I drain the customers fuel and replenish with my own, it usually then runs perfectly. If the customer insists on using his mix, then we will refill with his and retune accordingly. This proves to me the variable nature of pump petrol, wether it be due to age, brand or mix ratio. Pump petrol should always be used within 30 days, as it ages and becomes less volatile it will effectively lower the fuel to air ratio resulting in a weaker mixture which can result in lean siezure. Oil seperation can also occur Hence my opinion that it is inconsistant and therefore a variable factor. Aspen is chemicaly stable and therfore a constant. But I agree, that with careful fuel management there is very little problem with pump petrol. As regards the other benefits of Aspen, such as the health issues, well thats a debate for another day as I am off to bed.

The ms200t is a temperamental saw, even with pump petrol it is prone to carb problems if the fuel is dirty, stale or just poor quality. When I fix them and explain to customers that their fuel may be at fault, they are often defensive of their fuel (and fuel managemant) with such comments as 'my fuel must be ok, all my other saws run fine'. It is therfore amusing when I read these threads and see Aspen being immediately blamed for problems. As I said before, there is sometimes the need to rectify existing problems in order to get the best from Aspen, but I have converted hundreds of 2T machines to Aspen with no problem, and many without any tuning. Most carb problems with pump petrol are due to its INCONSISTANT nature, but Aspen is a CONSTANT, and therefore will cause less problems long term.

I find it easy, but its what I do. If you have to ask the question then its probably best left to a skilled person, because if you get it wrong, especially the tuning, you can wreck the saw. In defence of Aspen, its important to remember that saws (and other 2T machines) often need carb maintenance when run on pump petrol. I have been stripping, cleaning and re-kitting carbs for years before i even heard of Aspen. Your troubles may be just coincidental or due to the solvent issue I mentioned earlier. A good carb service will sort them out and you will be very pleased when they are running properly on Aspen

Spot on!

hi Spud, I keep the Walbro ones in stock, OK, I know this is a Zama carb but the walbro ones fit well enough. They come in packs of 10. I am home now so I dont have the part number to hand but can PM it to you on monday if you like. I find it cheaper to fit a new one than grovel round on the floor trying to find the one I have blown away!

You may need to adjust the low speed screw by about 1/8 anticlockwise to slightly richen the mixture, this should sort out the idling issue, The High screw should need no adjustment and is best left alone unless you absolutely know what to do. Aspen contains no solvents so it will not have an adverse effect on the carburettors, but diaphragms which have been exposed to the solvents in petrol for a long time may shrink when Aspen is present. The ideal solution is to overhaul the carburettor if this happens, then it will run on Aspen perfectly from then on, just as new machines will. To get you out of trouble for todays work, just revert to the (solvent rich) normal petrol, which should re-soften the diaphragms to the state they were previously in. The Aspen will not have done any harm. It is very unusual to have problems with the switch over so please do not lose your confidence in Aspen. I hope this helps.

or,, a strainer gauze for 71p!!

No, he would have just put his foot under the wheel.

Great find, remember collecting pictures of them when I was a kid. Did the bloke in the safety jacket push it on to the tiltbed??

Sorry Al, just cant agree with some of that. the number of premature bearing failures I come across are all bone dry. The important thing is maintenance, this should be done before the needles get clogged. Wash the bearing with petrol or solvent, regrease with Stihl multipurpose grease and refit. I do agree that any damaged bearing should be replaced (greased!) as you say they are cheap enough.

Defo fake!!!! And an MS 250 does not come in 20inch

Something looks wrong.... Have a look at an ms250 on stihl's site, then compare it. Don't bid anything.

We might be looking at the wrong area. have you checked that the 2 pawls mounted on the flywheel are functioning correctly? If they are stuck, or have misplaced/broken return springs they will cause the same symptoms. The first set of pawls we looked at allow the rope pulley to turn the ergostart unit, the ergostart then turns the flywheel via these second lot of pawls.

hi Pat. The MS361 is a robust, hard working saw, but in common with all others it does need maintenance to minimise the sort of problem you have had. Regular greasing of the clutch needle bearing is essential. Dry bearings cause wear to the inner bore of the clutch drum, and to a lesser extent to the end of the crank. This wear, if unattended to, allows the drum to tilt, putting stress on the clutch segment retaining clips which can fail just as yours have. The tilted drum also applies a thrust to the oil pump drive spring which causes it to wear the nylon worm. Once worn, it looses full drive to the pump which may explain your poor lube. The 361 usually has a good flow rate as long as the oil is not to thick. A badly worn drum can also tilt sufficiently far to score an arc shaped groove in the pump body. When deep enough, this groove perforates the pump chamber and lube is lost. I see a lot of these problems, its good for business but frustrating as they could have been avoided with a little maintenance.

Glad you are using Aspen, its a great product, but I dont think it can make a bad saw good, maybe just a bit better.