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The Milwaukee is self propelled, steel deck, equivalent to 200cc and a three year warranty which is what I'm looking at. The commercial outfits I know use Ego because they have the full range of battery tools for gardening right up to ride ons.

I think the Husqvarna/Stihl battery saws are better than the Milwaukee ones (for example) because they don't need to be compatible with everything else and obviously they have more experience with the saw itself. For something like an impact wrench you can't really beat a Milwaukee, which are even better than air ones now, but while I'm glad they've stuck to 18v batteries that's probably holding them back with saws because even with 12ah batteries it's not quite enough for bigger saws. I've swapped all my power tools for batteries and it's brilliant; plenty of power, can take them anywhere and all batteries fit everything. There's even a Milwaukee lawnmower now that will beat petrol which I didn't think would happen but saws are too unique to be just another product in a range. Milwaukee make a big cut off saw that's equivalent of petrol but at 17kg and £1800 it's not going to replace chainsaws yet although I would be interested to see them try. MX FUEL™ 350mm Cut-off saw | MXF COS350 | Cordless Cut-off saw | Milwaukee Tool UK UK.MILWAUKEETOOL.EU MX FUEL™ 350 mm cut-off saw. The world's first 350 mm battery powered cut-off saw to deliver the power to cut...

The Milwaukee rear handle I have is good to keep in the cab and cuts well enough for small jobs but the chain speed is too slow to compete with Pro saws. Hopefully they release an upgraded one with their mx fuel battery soon.

Yes, you'll always get less with bent and smaller diameter. Ash with dieback will always be lighter as well. Not the best photos but theres 8 ton of fresh cut in the first one and 14.6 of dry 2 year old in the second. You would expect the weights to be the other way round.(obviously the second photo is an extreme example because it's oversized).

Average hardwood thinning (decent sized trees, bit of winching, few hundred meters haulage) I would say £30-35 a ton. Felled, snedded and stacked at roadside. I've had some good cutters asking me for work for between £120 and £200 a day recently if that's any help. That's all their fuel and no climbing.

There is a degree of trust (and arguments over stack sizes usually lead to only weighs being used) but in general it's separate people doing the felling, haulage and purchase plus usually an agent or overall manager checking things so any discrepancies would get picked up on. Not to say it doesn't happen but a bad reputation gets around fast when it's a relatively small industry.

£55 haulage seems extremely high assuming you mean by the lorry load. I would have guessed £10-15 unless I'm missing something.

Processor grade I would offer £65-75 per ton in Mid Wales.

Apart from the belts I wouldn't worry about spilt oil. Every machine is going to have a burst pipe at some point and it won't do any harm. The dealer/manufacturer should get it repaired but the first thing I would do is open it up and check if it's just a loose pipe. It would have to be a major failure that is likely to repeat to get a replacement machine I think.

They get too hot to touch without gloves on with the 550 I tried.

It's nice to see them adding more features to the electric saws, I think I saw a clutch recently, and I like my little Milwaukee for keeping in the cab but we really need a 50cc equivalent as a minimum. Electric motors are always better and I can't wait for the end of pull cords but I think we need another leap in battery technology to save weight before there's any serious development for heavy users. Edit: I just read through the specs and it looks like it's not as far off petrol saws as I expected.

In Wales roadside is around £45 for ungraded larch chipwood and £65-75 for processor grade hardwood.

I would probably want £150 for our similar Ryetec one. As long as the user is someone you know will be careful with it.

It's easier to split fresh wood on paper but sometimes harder ones like oak crack as they dry so you can see the weak points to hit then they pop apart so I can see an argument both ways.

That's probably about right if it's with 25 year posts. I would expect a bit less if it's straight and level but prices went up a lot in the last two years.

Dai at hw is good to deal with and knows what he's doing. If you have access track and just want to thin it will be easy to get a felling licence and find a decent contractor. If you want to put new tracks in, replant or make a long term management plan you should probably talk to an advisor like Dai. It's a decent sized wood to fell and prices are good at the moment so unless it's a first thinning of smaller trees it should be a nice job for someone.

The kramers actually 4.6m I think but unless you're always loading lorries I don't see why you would want an extra long reach machine. They're (generally) less stable with a bigger turning circle and, as above, limited in the jobs they're suitable for. It's going to be a balance between the biggest that's practical on a small holding and the smallest that will load a lorry. I think bulkers are usually between 4 and 4.5m high?

Depends how big the lorry you're loading is and how often but our Kramer 750t (4m) is fine for tipping bulk firewood into a 40cube lorry.

I use blademaster as well, it's worth looking through to see if he has the right size. I think he's retired from sharpening but there's still good service on sales Order Ripper37 Blades | Online Store | Next Day Delivery WWW.STEPHENCULLBLADEMASTER.COM Order all your Replacement Ripper37 sawmill blades online now! Get 37% more from your Wood-Mizer, Roltrac...

I wish that was closer to me, you won't struggle to sell it anyway. If it's thinning you can probably get a felling license fairly easily yourself, clearfell is a bit more work, then contact local contractors to fell it. Just make sure you agree how it's being weighed/measured, extraction routes, brash management, minimum diameter to cut etc Alternatively you can pay someone else to do proper contracts and manage everything but if you're replanting and paying someone to organise there won't be a huge amount in it. I've dealt with HW forestry before when buying standing timber but they're probably too far. Welcome to HW Forestry Ltd - Offering Forestry Consultancy across Wales WWW.HWFORESTRY.CO.UK An independent company based in Carmarthen offering comprehensive forestry and ecological consultancy...

I think your best bet is teaming up with a firewood seller so you've got a guaranteed sale at the end then going around farms and offering them a standing price for the timber. Average extraction price to roadside is £35 a ton so you could work back from that. Your could go out on a day rate but selling directly at £65-70 a ton roadside could be more profitable.

I think you've got a bit mixed up. I meant that's why they went up in the first place, international markets do affect timber. They've come down because a lot of the bigger mills stopped buying now that sales have slowed so the price has dropped to try and get them shifted. It will be interesting to see what happens.I know people who have thousands of tons of sawlogs stacked roadside and they've only just selling them again. Standing larch hit £100 a ton last year in places so there could be some big loses for some.

A lot of firewood is imported from that area so that's pushed domestic prices up and made it more viable to cut sawlogs. It's just a chain reaction.

It seems random. I can get a new pull cord next day but it's a 6 month wait for bars and chains are out of stock. New machinery is the worst. Most stuff is 6-18 months from order.

We've slowed down the last 2 weeks but only after a record winter so it's been a relief. There's people offering £90 a cube wholesale so I expect you can sell as much as you want. It only takes one cold week for things to go mad again.