pleasant

Keeping on topic. Bahco are a very good brand of Axe. Blackspur and silverline are far eatern noddy stuff- hence the reason they are rubbish.

Had a Husky 340 come in last week and the guy had somehow managed to break all the throttle trigger components in the rear handle. Ordered the throttle trigger, throttle lock and return spring and thought this is a five minute job going by the Stihls I've done in the past. Jeez, what a pain in the backside- even with a picture and description from the workshop manual of how to re-assemble it all, the spring took two hours and three mechanics to work out how to re-fit it. Could only charge the bloke £20 labour even though two hours is £90, so that's a winner.

What NGK number are you using for the application?

Busy day so far today. Sun out and nice and warm, so the weekend warriors are out in force! So far today 42 pairs of shears for sharpening, 15 chains for sharpening. 22 mowers for full service and 13 to get going (just stale fuel, so a charge of £40 each to flush through) 17 new mowers sold and ready to be PdI'd when the workshop opens on Monday. Three week turnaround now for service/repair work. Sadly it also brings out its fair share of idiots. Heaving showroom and everyone running around like headless chickens. Bloke comes in and plonks a well used Honda blade down and asks whether we can sharpen or supply a new one. Said I would have to order a new one but could arrange for it to sharpened. "that's great, can you do it while I wait" yeah- right, like I'm doing nothing else on the busiest day of the year so far and I'm just waiting for something to do! Told him if he was prepared to wait 7 days then tha'ts fine otherwise leave it with me and I would call him next week.

...and I don't sell second-hand machines for similar reasons. So my nicely repaired Harrier BBC will be sold at auction, so no worries there.

To be honest anything associated with my name above the door is strictly adhered to in terms of quality of repair and traceability and accountability. Yes- I would prefer to lose some jobs if the customer doesn't want to pay to have the job done properly (not saying you don't do a job properly, but you know what I mean) by replacing rather than attempting some sort of ad-hoc repair. If I fit a new part in keeping with the manufacturers recommendations and it fails and causes injury I then have a paper trail of accountability and someone else to blame.

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/4166-pfanner-air-stretch-chainsaw-trousers.html

PFANNER Schutzbekleidung GmbH; Hohenems - Austria

Yup- sorry. More haste and less speed in posting I feel.

Don't be fooled into thinking you won't get cut- it just means you won't get cut quite as deeply or as quickly with your choice of trousers/chaps.

....and before someone mentions it- yes I know there's two different classes of chain speed protection on top of Design A and Design C, but I didn't want to confuse him further.

Generally there are two types of protective trouser/chaps. Design A which is allround protection- generally for off the ground use or Design C which is front protection only (obviously chaps fall into this category) which are designed for ground work. Personally although I don't climb I have the best protection I can get, so use all round protection for ground work.

Well, it's all up to the job it's intended for. Occasional non-pro user stuff.

Sign writting ....just make sure you don't do it yourself!

25 is a Stihl chain number. Can either be 25RM 25RS or 25RMZ. These are just designations for different types of chain- full chisel etc. However the guage remains the same for all 25 spec chains, which is .325" so you need a 3/16" file.

Sounds like you did the owner a favour by repairing it. I would just mention thought, that a repair like that which involves "modifying" from the original spec of something as potentially dangerous as a chainsaw (and the adjuster) may compromise your liability insurance should it fail and cause injury. One of my competitors had a situation a few years ago whereby they repaired a machine by "repairing it in a non original way to save the saw" and it failed causing albeit a minor injury. The HSE inspected the saw and noticed this "modification" and the operator said who it had been done by and my competitor ended up with a court case and hefty fine. Because of this we don't waver from modifying (bodging or whatever else you want to call it) anything to cover our backsides. In your example with the adjuster we would have reported to the customer what had happened and quoted him for a repair using a new crankcase half so it was as original when finished. Expensive, but at least we know we are in the clear should something happen in the future.

Yup- spot on £500-£600 is what I was thinking. .......and of course it will all be declared in keeping with my tax obligations.

so far this week I've had a Qualcast classic 35s complete with instructions, long grass wheels and the scarifier cassette. An earlier model (but very late) 1990ish Qualcast Suffolk Punch 43SK (yes- the key start model!) in immaculate barely used condition. A Hayter Harrier 41 BBC (rare and desireable blade clutch version) again in immaculate condition- and a 3 year old lawn-king self-propelled rotary with a Honda GCV160 engine. All just given to me to "dispose of and recyle" The Qualcast 35S classic runs- just needs two plastic drive gears to be perfect (£10) Customer has just "had enough of it" The beautiful Qualcast Suffolk Punch- runs and works perfect just needs a keystart battery (£25) The old boy has another mower now and he just doesn't use this one. The Hayter needs a new BBC @ £175 ish (already been quoted by his local dealer) but after he had gone, I took it off and sent it to my local ferodo brake relining centre and they relined it for £25. He purchased a brand spanking Hayter from me to replace it with. .....and the Lawn-king rotary was stale fuel, so a quick drain down and re-fill and away she goes. Customer also decided to give up on it and buy a new cheapie from me. A pretty good result this week. May be able to afford a holiday this year after all.

Run it with the fuel cap loose and see it it does it then. If not then replace the fuel cap and/or tank breather. Easiest and quickest diagnosis in the first instance.

Yup. I know what you mean. If I can't cure it in 15 mins then it's a new carb, no questions. Cost of brand new carb: £35. One hours labour fiddling with a faulty one: £40. Just doesn't stack up for me or the customer plus the customer and I have the re-assurance that at least with a new carb you know where your are and you're not likely to get a freshly fettled with old carb back in again in a couple of weeks time with the same fault. Do it with all machinery now. Far better from our service and reputaion point of view to fit a new unit than attempt to repair old. Saws, brushcutters, mowers etc. The price of carbs compared to labour is a lot closer than it used to be.

ooooooohhhh.......controversial.

Quality would vary from supplier to supplier. "over priced" is relative- if they sell well at a certain price then they're not over priced. However someone who has a plentiful supply of logs and has the means to process them for their own home use then they would probably consider them dear. Convenience cost money.

Hmmmmm.......maybe it would be cheaper and quicker to cure that end of the scenario- wait a minute don't local authorities, the police and trading standard already spend shed loads of my money doing that already?? Maybe, just maybe there are some people that just can't help but be continuously ripped off. No demand- no supply. Simple.

well- a copy of the real thing