Pedroski

Just been reading about non-pneumatic tourniquets. There are potential problems in addition to toxic shock syndrome, and it's to do with the high pressure gradient. If over-tightened there is serious risk of nerve and muscle and soft tissue damage which might lead to a limb being lopped off. Guess it's important to tighten just enough to stop a bleed. Trouble is, my work mate over-tightens absolutely everything he touches. If he were putting a tourniquet on then I can almost guarantee he'd sever a limb with it! Apparently, there are small size, one handed, pneumatic military tourniquets that greatly reduce risk of damage and are also more effective at stopping blood flow.

Sorted!

Yep

Penguin Recruitment are advertising for an arboriculturalist. This is nowt to do with me, but for anyone interested, details are here: Penguin Recruitment - Jobs Listing

Certainly is. I've got to go by at some point for a night shot!

Drove by this a few times this week. Looks terrific. Anyone here do it?

Stihl Motomix

Not being funny, but how many normal people, even with first aid training, would have their wits about them enough to apply a tourniquet to themselves with blood pumping out like a hosepipe on jet mode while dangling in a harness?

Wife bought a couple of antique soup bowls for 50p each, in really good nick. Googled them when she got back and found they're worth £50 each. And the keyboard I'm typing on was an unused Dell one, just a few weeks old (bloke had bought a wireless set), and I got it for a couple of quid. Got nice sledgehammer for a quid, and a pickaxe. No need to get up early either.

What, that little loop that's only rated at 15KN?

Looks good does that hitch. Found a vid on Youtube of the Sooper Cooper - def seems to work well. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4fCH39pUIU]Sooper Cooper climbing hitch - YouTube[/ame]

I was just reading the Treepeedo thread from the beginning, thinking to myself that it would make quite a good ball weight. Then...the illuminated one... bejesus.... that would great in the dark swinging from the ol' nutsack

USA 0.0000003 medals per member of population China 0.00000006 medals per member of population UK 0.00000085 medals per member of population Our medal count, per member of population, is 2.8 times higher than that of the US and 14.2 times higher than that of the US. So far in the Olympics we have been 2.8 times MORE SUCCESFUL than the US and 14.2 times MORE SUCCESSFUL than China!

Mate had exactly same with his old tractor. Problems went on for months, burning out jump leads, replacing wiring ripping out ignition switch so he could just short the wires, spanner across solenoid...all sorts. The he finally put a new battery in it!

You're doing this wrong. If he needs to lose weight then you should be charging him for making use of 'drag n chip bootcamp' - after all, it's doing him good

If it was £68 TAKE HOME, i.e. after tax, NI, etc and with paid holidays, paid sick, decent workwear supplied, etc.... then I might consider it. But £68 gross... nah. Not enough to feed the family and pay the bills. I'd be able to make more door knocking!

That's £68/day. I wouldn't work for that, but if he's happy with it then all good. And remember, if you're charging him out at £140/day (which you should be) when pricing jobs, then he's putting money in your pocket. Rather than faff around with hours, paying him on a weekly basis will be much simpler. And don't begrudge him holiday pay.

There be some proper numpties about! What you say about running around for materials is another reason to price per bay and not to do it on a day rate. Customers don't seem to be able to comprehend that they're paying someone on a day rate to not be on site, but to be running around here there and everywhere picking stuff up, and eating bacon, sausage and egg baguettes from the roadside food place!

Closeboard fencing - 3m length bays, 1.8m high, 2.7m x 100mm wooden posts, wooden gravel boards, 2 bags postcrete per hole - we price £195 per bay all in. Covers all contingencies. There are plenty of knobs about who charge £120 per bay, which is stuuuuupid. The materials alone are ~£70 per bay by the time you factor in reels of nails for the nail gun etc! It's much easier to price per bay like this, allowing enough in the price for hard holes to dig, previous concrete to kango out etc. By pricing per bay you can measure the length of the run and easily give the customer a price. Some people do it on a day rate, but the customer then doesn't have a clue what it's going to cost unless the person pricing decides up front to put plenty of days on it knowing for certain it's going to take less. And by pricing per bay you can sometimes come out well on top. I priced like this for a job a few weeks back - £195/bay, 5 bays, and got the lot done on my own in a day. Meant I walked away with £565 profit. Customer very happy, If I'd done it on a day rate then I certainly wouldn't have worked like a nutter on a Saturday for £150!

Shame you're not a bit closer to me. I've got 2 brand new, unused, inspection chambers with risers and covers for 160mm pipe, and a couple of lengths of 160mm pipe as well.6 inch pipe too - up for grabs as surplus to requirements and Mrs keeps nagging at me for hording!

That's interesting and maybe useful to know. Thanks for the update. The plastic end caps of the Stihl kombi system shafts are crap anyway and do nothing to stop the tool twisting. The plastic notch that holds them in just gets worn and the plastic bit ends up twisting round and round.

Yeah, building sites are terrible. Good job qualified arbs are all so perfect and would never drop several hundred kilos of limb onto the deck in a gateway without making sure there's a proper exclusion zone and road closure in place.

They'll be in the Bentley what he bought with the change from his business start up finance

Yep, like the £85 charged to the council for a compliant, problem free, single lightbulb replacement in a house.