pleasant

The Stihl HS45 24", although more of a heavy domestic machine than full pro use, will put up with reasonable punishment above and beyond its intended use. I have several pro users of them and they don't seem to break them. RRP used to be over £300, but Stihl have reduced the price from 2012 to a ridiculously low £259, so well within your budget.

Exactly- you can have the mose impressive and elaborate business cards you like......at a price. Most of those business cards in the link would cost thousands-if not tens of thousands for a bespoke design like those. Only a huge production run going to a huge customer base would probably make them worthwhile- providing you earn decent money out of each sale as a result. .....otherwise stick with vistaprint/goodprint.

Yup- if you consider Husky history to be a generic facory in the USA- where the 136/141 saws were made.

If you re-read your original post, I think you will see you have actually answered it yourself.

Don't recall anything in the product spec that states it's ideal for resurrecting chains that have been deliberately used to cut nail. staples, dirt, stones etc. Maybe if you used it on a regular dull chain that, say a home owner may have, you would see a more satisfactory outcome.

Very true. The ones that say " starts and runs, but may need a service" If it starts and runs, then why may it need a service? That statment is a get out of jail free card for sellers who don't want to list the item as spares or REPAIR so they get more for it.

Maybe, just maybe they are honest sellers who want the peace of mind that what they are selling is fit to do so- thereby reducing the likelyhood of the buyer returning it. If it's a good saw with a good re-sale value then the negligible cost of a service with a receipt to prove it pales into insignificance. Always annoying when you buy a second hand saw for example, and you can't use it until the chains been sharpened or replaced surely?

Lets be honest. No dealer in their right mind is going to spend £150 on an OEM pot and piston and then sell the saw including labour, vat, profit and any warranty to you for £200 are they? So let's take it as read that the pot and piston are not OEM to allow the dealer some credit shall we? Not all non OEM parts are sourced from china, and from my experience those that aren't are very good indeed. A good 026 for £200 from a dealer is very good value even with a non OEM pot and piston. They are excellent, bomb-proof all-round saws and I would take his hand off. Ones with no history that's been well used go for more than £200 on ebay. At least the one you have been offered has some credibility and re-assurances.

I use a patented spring rewinding tool designed for the job. Takes 5 seconds, does it right first time and without the hazard of the spring popping out dangerously.

.......not in the real world if you £5 is expensive for a bar cover.

Sold a very nice 254XP back end of last year on ebay and got £285 for it.

Yup: New stihl ms391 filter problem - Tree World

As with all manufacturers they produce a varied range of bars to suit all applications and pockets. So you need to compare like-with-like to come to a reasonable conclusion. Stihl are the only manufacturer to produce their own bars and chain, whereas all other manufacturers (chinese copies excluded) generally obtain product from Oregon- and that includes Husqvarna and I've never heard anyone complain about their bars not being durable.

Widsor chain is made by Oregon. When Oregon run out of a roll of chain in season it's always because they've switched production to produce Winsor chain.

....yeah- like the seller didn't already know. LOL Stock comment in the listing description " I don't know much about chainsaws" then distances themselves from the saw by stating it was part of a job lot at auction/house/garage clearance to make it look like the seller is unwittingly selling over a grands worth of saw for relatively peanuts. I gave up reporting stuff like this ages ago. In the beginning ebay pulled the stuff after it was reported- not just fake stuff but also sellers stating they will add vat to the final bid price which is against ebays rules and I just think ebay got p'd off with me constantly reporting stuff (which defeats the object) as nothing seems to be tugged that I report now and I have stopped receiving acknowledgement email from them. I also received some pretty nasty emails from a seller of a fake 395xp, who I emailed in much the same way as the previous poster has done, and I was told in no uncertain terms to mind my own business etc.

do you help/work for nothing .....well, my customers seem to think I should.

Impressive as it is, I can't help feeling it's just another ego massager for well funded blue chip companies to move from the previous high status address they currently occupy to this one-thus leaving other previous developments empty or at least in gradual decline. These status bulidings never, ever attract new business- just fickle current businesses moving on.

Hasn't meant any technical difference in terms of the Stihl line-up for many years now. Like previously said- it's just a name they add to their saws for the American market.

Right- thanks. Apologies.

Sorry for taking your good name in vain- could have sworn it was you.

each to their own I suppose.

A few years ago I purchased a set of those super wrenches that are sold on Ideal World. We often get numpties rounding off blade bolts and we used to end up welding a good nut to the old. I looked at these being demonstrated and thought I would try them. I can tell you they are brilliant for removing rounded off/damaged bolts/nuts. Three years of owning them and we haven't had to weld a nut on since. Would certainly recommend them.

I would say that is quick given the time of year. Personally our lead time is at least three weeks and is increasing daily. Gardenkit (arbtalk member) is quoting 6-8 weeks We are getting more work in every day than we can possibly cope with in a day, so the waiting list increases. This is due, mainly to foolish customers who put their broken equipment away in the Winter and remember to get it repaired the day before they want to use it- no foward planning. Likewise we get shed loads of get going work because customers are too ignorant to read their handbooks or take our advice when purchased and don't run their machinery dry before laying it up, which causes starting problems at this time of the year. We ALWAYS have two weeks worth of work at any one time of the year- the difference to the customer is that in the winter it doesn't matter to them if we take ten weeks to fix it as they don't need it. Customers always ask me when the best time of the year to bring their machinery in is, and I always tell them "when you don't need it for two weeks" We currently are getting an average of 35 jobs in a day. Each service takes around two hours for each of our three mechanics. Doesn't take a genius to work out they can only service/repair around 4 machines each per day= 12 machines per day. Therefore for every day we are open at this time of the year we are receiving 2 1/2 days work, so it's bound to back up. .....and you simply cannot employ a dozen mechanics for three months of the year and then lay them off every time. I certainly wouldn't work for a company if they did that on a regular basis. Before you chastise your dealer, I would strongly suggest you check the lead time with other, similar companies first, as three weeks this time of the year is good.

Quote then like they quote us "gorjers" Be ever so polite and charming and say it will only cost £100, then give them a bill for 10K and when they say you quoted £100 tell them in a stern, aggressive way, that was the price per foot. (still won't get your money though )

Sold a Stihl FS56R brushcutter to a (mobile) gardener on Tuesday. Just brought it back complaining it's faulty. I said whats up? He said when he got it out his van yesterday there was a slight fuel leak coming from the tank area and the bumpfeed head had jammed. Took one look at the head and it was covered in crud- unclipped it from the body and with a firm shove I pushed out the bump knob from the retainer and a load more crud came with it. Wiped it off, re-installed it and works fine. I said to him if you are filling the machines tank right up and leaving it for any length of time in your hot van, then the fuel had to expand and go somewhere- normally through the tank vent and on to the floor. I said is it always leaking or just the once. He said it doesn't seem to be doing it at the moment. Which would explain it as the fuel level in the tank is now lower. Wasted 10 minutes of my time- made the counter and showroom floor filthy and I can't charge him for wasting my time simply because he is incapable of basic maintenance.