Couldyajust

You sure it no longer exists? Although this company does sell a lot of recycled tin cans aka Chinese aftermarket parts they say they have genuine Stihl parts for sale too including the conversion kit, part number matches at least although they don't have a picture of it to confirm it's the right thing. Mister-Solutions Ltd-4203 007 1030

Definitely worth a go I once had a job clearing a 60' crack willow that went over in a storm & got hung rather precariously on another tree. The only straightforward way I could see to get it down without it either hitting a nearby transformer or going through the roof of the customers bungalow was by using a heavy duty winch which I couldn't lay my hands on quickly enough. I called scottish power & they turned up within an hour with a tractor mounted winch, had it on the ground 10 minutes later & I cleared up. Unfortunately i couldn't persuade them to pull the other trunk of that tree which the customer wanted down as a precautionary measure as it didn't pose an imminent risk so I had to dismantle that but at least the hard bit of the job was done for me for no cost.

That doesn't go down well round here, it's a rural area where you need to get on with the competition as everyone knows each other & reputations can be trashed very quickly. I do more than just arb work I also do piecework in the woods handcutting, agricultural work & groundworks to ensure I have a good income all year round. If I get asked to quote for a job but don't have time to fit it in then I put it someone elses way the competition does the same for me. Everyone knows who has the skills to complete specific types of work & 9 times out of 10 the customer ends up with the most appropriate company completing the job even if they originally approached someone else. This leaves the customer happy which is all that counts at the end of the day. There was a job recently which I quoted on..... half acre garden full of well manicured shrubs in need of a light trim but the customer went for the cheaper option of allowing the bloke who cuts her grass to deal with them. She went to make him a cuppa & stopped him in his tracks the second she got back as he had lopped 3 foot off the top of 2 of those shrubs which were originally gently rounded conifers. I now have to give a revised quote to finish the job & sort out the mess he made of those two. He has already lost several contracts as a result & the customer has apologised numerous times for not going with my quote in the first place. I have had to recommend a new gardener for her too. Issues like this are very rare though purely because the majority of local contractors have good working relationships, they don't steal work from each other.

The conversion kit part number is: 4203 007 1030 Your local Stihl dealer should be able to order it for you.

I wear my chainsaw boots (Haix Alpins) when using the clearing saw although they are a class 3 boot I suspect they would only offer very limited protection with the clearing saw as it is not what they are designed to protect against then again I have never seen a pair of boots designed for use with a clearing saw. A quick release harness is the most important bit of safety kit when using one in my opinion.

Any chance of a photo, living in Wales my idea of steep ground is probably very different to yours. There is only one occasion I have uttered the words "that's too steep for me to clear" in that instance it was 150 acres of bracken on shale which was ultimately cleared in by hiring in a helicopter to spray it at a cost of £300 per hour plus the chemicals.

I assume you mean the silky Hayauchi given the length & price difference mentioned. I have the Stallion (may of come from FR Jones but don't quote me on that as I couldn't say without checking my records) although I have developed a very bad habit of referring to it as a silky as that is what everyone refers to it as when they ask me to bring it to a job despite me explaining the difference god knows how many thousands of times (there is only so many time you can explain it before you give in). I recently bought both a new Stallion and a Hayauchi blade from From FR Jones to compare them as they are interchangeable and to be honest the stallion blade does a better job even though it is about half the price so whichever you go for I would suggest using the stallion blades. Maintenance wise invest in a 5L bottle of wd40 as good lubrication keeps it extending smoothly & whatever you do don't drop it from the top of a massive eucalyptus while fully extended because it will bend the middle section & it will never be quite the same again no matter how many times you try straightening it. The only thing I don't like about the Stallion is the length of it when you are trying to get it into a vehicle & you don't have a trailer with you for one reason or another.

Yes it's fake a quick search for 070 or 105cc chainsaw on a wholesale site like alibaba or dhgate etc... will turn up numerous variations that cost about $100 each if you buy a couple of hundred. There is another variation of it on AmazonUK for about £400 listed as a 105cc chainsaw (that doesn't come with the Stihl stickers though).

Why waste money on expensive copper components.... This shiny new 070 (presumably just off the latest ship from China) is described as featuring a chain brake which I can only assume is made out of fresh air judging by the pictures. Stihl 070 chain saw machine 40 inches bar | eBay

This weekend I was in a Hymac moving some beech trunks up a bank to make them easier to process and spotted 2 men loading my gear into their van. They were interrupted & left in a hurry dropping my climbing saw & harness as they did so however they had already helped themselves to the rest of my climbing gear along with various other tools. As a result my climbing gear now consists of one Komet Butterfly 2 harness what should I get to go with it? I don't climb a lot as I prefer to get the monkey winch out for takedowns and use a silky if just pruning so cannot justify spending too much however there are situations where I do have to dismantle trees because it is not practical or possible to pull them over. I also do a fair bit of work on very steep banks/alongside sheer drops so need a safety line and the means to get to a tree in that situation. I will definitely have to replace my spikes which is going to be a strain on my budget as it is unless I can find some secondhand ones aside from that I am looking for suggestions on a low cost climbing setup.

No sweet chestnut available. There are only two big oaks on the list to come down one is dead & completely hollow so not much use for anything. The other I intend to dismantle due to location, 11k lines close by in the field & it is right on the edge of the river with a 15 foot drop about 6 inches from the trunk on one side with most soil washed out underneath it. There is a sheer rock face on the other side of the river so if it was dropped intact the only option would be to drop it into the river but it would be a nightmare to get out. Plenty of small diameter oaks around 14"-16" but relatively short straight sections not much I could get anything over about 7 foot as a straight piece of timber. They will do for slats but I wont get the primary beams out of them. The bridge will not be in direct contact with water it will be level with the field which is approximately 6 foot above the typical water level at the intended site for the bridge, the water never rises more than 4 foot even in extreme flooding so even then it will still have a couple of feet of clearance but a lot of debris washes down primarily trees & branches which have fallen in further upstream. The ends of the bridge will either sit on concrete pads or I may just skim off the clay so it sits directly on the rock which is only about a foot down in that location.

I was planning on buying an Alaskan Mill in the summer as I will be taking on around 40 acres of woodland (10 acres of douglas & sitka the rest assorted hardwood) which has been neglected for the best part of 50 years. Initially I will just clear the fallen & dangerous trees which the landowner will sell off as firewood then I will look at the best way to manage the site. Due to location & access being able to mill the timber in situ will make extraction easier & it's certainly preferable to paying someone else £28 per hour to bring his bandsaw up as I usually have to when I need milling done. Getting to the point I am carrying out some riverbank work for the same landowner. Usually there is barely 6" of water in most places along this stretch of river but recently it's been constantly in flood making crossing very difficult anywhere along the mile of river he owns & I am almost out of trees to prune or fell on the side I can access. Discussed the issue with the landowner & the solution we have agreed on is that I will build a footbridge so I have at least got one point I can cross safely on foot when it is not usually possible to do so either on foot or in a tractor due to flooding, he then gets the benefit of the bridge in the future. It will be a 20' span, the bank is approx 6' higher than standard water level approx 2'-3' higher when in flood. rather than bringing in timber it makes sense to bring forward my Alaskan Mill purchase & use what is already there. The trees which are long/straight/thick enough for the full span in the vicinity are Alder, Ash, Sycamore & Wych Elm. There is also about a dozen 80' Douglas firs around which ideally want to be left alone but can be used if required. Shorter thinner sections available are as above & crack willow, goat willow, hazel, hawthorn, oak, silver birch. I should probably mention I am looking at purchasing the 30" Alaskan & will initially be using my Echo CS-8002 with a 28" bar. May upgrade in the future. Part of me is tempted to use the douglas for convenience as it will give nice long straight lengths simplifying the job but as said ideally those will not be dropped at the present time. I can't extract timber from the woods yet either as I have yet to take a digger up there to make a track up the hill so i can access the woodland on something bigger than a quad I did consider taking the 4wd dumper up there but my sense of self preservation keeps kicking in preventing me from doing so. Any advice on which of these trees would be best suited to build this bridge would be appreciated.