martwizz

I cant believe I have never seen that sequoia video before, its absolutely incredible! For a bore cut to tear that badly, the stem would have to be extremely weighted. For it to tear like that relies on leaving a relatively tiny amount of holding wood for the dogs tooth. And it also depends on the width of the hinge. You could leave a fairly wide hinge if the lean is heavy, which greatly reduces the chance of it ripping of its own accord. right?

very smart! Wouldn't the bark fall off fairly quickly?

The winch provides a 22:1 advantage in one direction, and a 44:1 in the other. I've used it to pop 250kg lumps off a step with ease, and we have lifted bits in excess of 1 tonne. The website says "It has a dead lift rating of 3,000 lb. and a working load limit (WLL) of 2,000 lb." the crane lorry was 12 tonnes, the driver estimated the 3 logs at almost 10 tonnes in total! He said it was the second biggest thing he had ever picked up! The use of copyrighted music means that the videos cant be shown on mobile devices Youtube can detect it automatically! Its madness. Might consider hosting stuff on vimeo or something if it is a problem in the future.

Another video, big tree, big bits Learnt a few lessons from the last video I made. Tried to shorten it and focus on the big / cool bits. Also less fade in/out transitions. Hope you guys like it! Using the GRCS as a winch for felling is awesome. Also, our arb trolley saved us so much hassle its unbelievable! So worth it Enjoy.

Fuligo septica, commonly known as the dog vomit slime mold. Wonderful, thanks for your help!

the white powdery substance are spores I think, the brown patches are where it has been touched, and the spores rubbed off. It was all very spongey and soft.

This was found on a macrocarpa. Unfortunately, i didn't take pictures of the entire tree/crown, however it was showing no signs of dieback, and there was very little deadwood. The tree had been reduced prehaps 20% in the last couple of years. I couldn't identify this from my fungi app, and I don't recognise it at all. Can anybody shed some light on this? Thank you very much

A few years ago I started a BC1000, not realising that there was a MS460 in the hopper (someone had put a bunch of brushwood in with it). Luckily, the chipper was fine. The saw ended up in a thousand tiny pieces. Somehow, the bar came out in one. The engine block was sliced clean in half. Since then, I always check the hopper several times, and make sure there is literally nothing in it. Also, if see someone pushing stuff in with their hands close to the feed rollers, I make a point of giving them a broom. I cant stand seeing people face first in the hopper.

A few years ago I started a BC1000, not realising that there was a MS460 in the hopper (someone had put a bunch of brushwood in with it). Luckily, the chipper was fine. The saw ended up in a thousand tiny pieces. Somehow, the bar came out in one. The engine block was sliced clean in half. Since then, I always check the hopper several times, and make sure there is literally nothing in it. Also, if see someone pushing stuff in with their hands close to the feed rollers, I make a point of giving them a broom. I cant stand seeing people face first in the hopper.

I got some new husky chainsaw gloves, they have a thick leather palm which ascends halfway up your fingers. Cant find a link online to show them, i got them at WGM. They are awesome, well worth a look.

I have tried this. With the dynamic loading I tended to use the bollard. The issue I found was that I wanted 3 wraps to hold the weight, but this wouldn't let it run very much. However 2 wraps wasn't really enough to hold the weight safely for bigger bits. I feel happier replacing the winch with the bollard for dynamic loads. Only takes 60 seconds, and its what the dvd reccomends As far as step cutting goes, we learnt from that piece, and did much closer cuts, which was better. It gives the climber more of a chance to get out the way if necessary. Altohugh i will keep the one-cut in mind, it makes sense. The step cut that popped was awesome though!

it should be embedded and working now!

[ame] [/ame] My first real tree movie, put together with a load of footage we got over the last couple of days. First day was just a single position, but hopefully that's not too boring. Thought it might be cool to clearly show a couple of GRCS applications, there isn't that much about on the old youtube currently. This is only the second time we have used our GRCS so we are still getting used to its limits and applications. Needless to say that its totally changed the way we work! So so worth it Also using a petrol winch for quick ascents back up the tree between breaks... saves so much time and effort! Well worth a look into if you do a lot of large removals I am on the ground for this video, lad in the black vest using the GRCS.

ditto

Thought i'd throw in an update Its been 4 months now, and its been going great. The responce to my letters / flyers was good, a couple of reminder calls a couple of weeks on helped things along a bit. The first month was mixed tree work/landscaping, but the second month was pure tree work. By the third i was on 5 days a week, between 4 employers. One of the employers i recently decided to stop working for, and i am focusing on the employer i get long with most, which has lead to alot more work with him. We are getting on so well, we have joint invested in a GRCS and some new rigging kit. Im super excited about this because it was one of my original aims, plus it already shows me how much trust/confidence he has in my ideas and abilities. In addition to this, every time we use the GRCS I am going to be paid extra on top of my day rate (this doesn't subtract from my ownership of it), so it seems like a pretty sound investment. Bigger jobs done faster and easier, get paid extra, and have the equipment to make me more attractive to other employers! I'm going to drop my working week down from 5 days to 4 soon, so i can spend a day a week focusing on my online degree. I didn't give it my full dedication last year, and therefore struggled. This way i figure i can study, work, AND have a weekend So far the self-employed experience has been great. There are a few bits of advice i have to pass on to anybody else looking to do this! - Take the time to write a clear well structured letter, and don't forget to sell yourself. This gives them the heads up that you are around, and they get to read all about you. If you phone straight away, they get to say no before you are given the chance to sell yourself. - Anybody who doesn't respond to said letter, then give them a ring. At least find out if they don't want you or not, so you can cross them off the list. - Stand up for yourself. Your price is your price, don't let them beat you down. If you are not happy with how things are going, tell them. Do what makes you happy. Don't put up with poor practice or unsafe workplaces for the sake of getting work. It isn't worth it! - Think very carefully about what you want to reinvest your money into. There is an awful lot of gear, training and shiny toys to think about! - Be positive, have faith. If things get quiet, work on making those phone calls, doing research, or at least go and look for some fungi to ident - Be polite, reliable, on time and work hard I searched the forum and asked questions when I was looking to start doing this, i hope this thread helps somebody else out sometime!

Try and get some experience with a local firm before you invest in tickets. Make sure it is for you. Dragging brush and hauling timber is going to be a pretty big part of your job regardless of what tickets you get.

I am surprised we have a CS45 after only 4 rounds of voting! Most people dont even know this exists

I'm interested in training for 32 / 33 / 40 / 41, because I think it'd look great on paper and probably teach me some nice tricks and methods I don't already use. However, I've been sectional felling / pruning etc without these tickets for a while now, and i don't know many people who do have them. I thought I'd run a poll so we could see what proportion of people have these advanced tickets. To those who have done the additional tickets i mentioned, is it worth it? The courses run from 500-700 smackers. Or did you just do the assessment straight off, based on your own experience/training? It doesn't seem to unreasonable to try. You can vote as many times as you want, so vote for every ticket you own on the list!

Milllets/Blacks sell a clear plastic water flask which has a webbing strap on the lid, which was perfect for climbing with. It was pretty much indestructible. We used to have a display model on the counter full of water which we used to throw on the floor, lasted a good year (and it never broke, we just got told to stop doing it) I can't for the life of my remember what it's called though. It's just a clear flask with a grey lid. EDIT: They are usually behind the counter, so you can get them for half price if you buy anything instore (£10 goes down to £5). That applies to anything, so you can spend 50p on an energy bar and save £5 on the flask. (and no, i dont work there anymore )

Went exploring in some ruins today and came across this oak tree(s)... never seen anything like it. Absolutely wicked!

excellent first post, you sound already sound like an asset to anybody who wants to take you on good luck!

i like the careers section of their website

Really terrible photo from ages ago, but you get the idea

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Im guessing this is St Helens, Merseyside, and not St Helens near Bembridge, Isle of Wight?