Timber Man

Yew is not a good plan around livestock,..particularly horses.

Try looking on Forest Machine Operators Blog on facebook,or put a shout out on there.

Its actually getting to the point where its actually not a job any longer, unless that is you want to cut timber that is too small , edge trees that are too big and rough or on ground that is inaccessible for the harvester, cutting for the skyline . A lot of this work apart from skyline cutting amounts to the odd week here and there, involves a lot of travelling , lodging out, and tbh theres a mentality that runs through the trade where the contractors decide what a faller is worth on a day rate. When I first started good fallers were highly regarded by timber merchants,piece rates were in place , a good living could be earned, particularly on big hardwood , and it wasn't uncommon to be falling on sites for 6-12 month at a time, fell and hand burn. Fallers nowadays are very much an accessory to an over financed contractor who is competing with another over financed contractor, very few of them seem to factor in there will be x days of cutting oversize/edge trees on a site, consequently the rest of the site has to absorb the cost of the faller, hence the culture of trying to screw day rates down . If a job was advertised on the above I doubt there would be many applicants.

The long stretch of road between forest and major mills has always been a problem for the south west, particularly for lower grade and chip.

....and ring shake.

If Allan cant help you could try Carwynn,. Dragon Forestry Failing that someone might have a breaker on Mascus or Aggrifaires.

Allan Marshall could be worth a shout. Sussex / Kent

Ha, by hell it gets me spiteful working alongside that.

Even more so if its full of shake .

If its for conifer thinnings you are better without any at all.

I remember them if you mean Goodearls,.Keith Thompson was the buyer/ manager. We put a lot of beech in there in the late 80s early 90s. Summer cut sycamore tends to get black fleck in it,..its in the grain rather than on the surface, that's why good syc is felled with the sap down .

Barren shooting grounds? kinell Kevin we dont have any of those around here, all harvested sites are mulched and replanted. Any of the racks we cut through scrub to assist beaters are paid for by the shoot and not government coffers, its just another industry and probably best left alone. Bob I know, I can go off on one sometimes..... No expectation that it'll change anything but it helps to get it off the chest sometimes!! A lot of these grants are on top of area payments, thousands of acres with virtually no stock on it . I have close family that farm these moors , one of them in particular has received hundreds of thousands in stewardship payments under a 10 year scheme for rebuilding walls that they have neglected down the years, it doesn't sit well with me.

For sure,..and at the same time keeping the "ordinary " people where they rightly belong. There has been an increase in entitlement issues down the years, and the biggest culprits are those that already had it in the first place,.not those at the bottom of the list,..think its commonly known as greed.

Are they beefed up or just added to , I guess added to. However , I have run a couple of Fastracs, the first one had that perkins in , and theyre a bomb proof engine. Fastracs are really the equivalent of an off road truck and as such need driving like one and servicing like one,if you don't it will come back to bite you. They need weight on the back offroad in wet conditions,.. with weight on I would put them up against most things. 5/6 k hours and things start to need replacing, although I would imagine ex forces will have good history and these will never have been killed with work. Just had a quick google and tbh they look quite expensive for their age, and unless you intended keeping a low hours one for a number of years would struggle to recoup.

Is the crank in yours past grinding ? Whats wrong with the flywheel ? Have you had a look round on Mascus and Agriffaires ?

My money says there is some in there with that staining .

Ive run 15s on 372 a lot,...never had any problems,.cut for fun and a pleasure to use.

Another thing worth mentioning,..if you may want to use the rope for winching in the future you must get the correct wrap of rope,.i think from memory it is r/h Laings lay,.Bridon would advise you on correct one. Most wire rope wraps are designed for fixed rope applications and will unwrap if used for winching,this is because the load can roll , whereas in crane work etc its straight up an down lifting.

Bridon,..Doncaster...They are anufactures and will supply with eyes.

Ive always used singe cut ,whatever brand.

Agreed, I haven't used this chain so will not knock the product. I have used one cheap brand chain and only one when we were really stuck for one and it was all we could get,..it was useless and based on that would not buy another. I can honestly say in over 40 years of cutting I have had no issues with major brand chains, apart from the odd one needing a rub when new, bearing in mind when I first started a lot of fallers used waste oil for chain lube it kind of speaks for itself. Theres nothing , apart from a saw that is a pig to start, that pisses me off more than a bad chain.

According to the original blog one is a dolly 7900 the other is a 576 , I think they put the chain on the husky back to front. Whichever way you look at it its hardly a comparison and however much we mock it its hardly us that's taking the mick here is it ?

Tbh for anyone doing a lot of clearance type work where its possible to write a chain off in a day there could be a cost advantage,by the same token a lot of people would do themselves a favour by using chipper type chain for this type of work. I am a bit of an old fashioned bugger and always use chipper, but it suits me and the kind of work I generally do,..and its certainly kinder on the wrists when you are cutting big hardwoods.

Might be best if you supplied 20 or 30 of us with a free chain, good way of getting feedback.

It normally gets sold by the ton,which in an ideal world is ok, but timber has to be moving quick, 10% weight loss from drying out doesn't take long. Part loads at the end of sites rarely get paid for ,etc etc.