Billhook

Dammit! YouTube have taken down the links!

Thanks for the like Johnpl315 Things are looking up as I have had two comments on Youtube already inviting me to have sex with some young Russian girls! Must be something to do with the size of my log and erecting it!

Well they arrived today and I have to say I am very impressed. There were two large lumps of Sycamore, the first was awkward having many cut off branches and the second was very heavy, making all of the red overload lights come on in the Teleporter which is rated at 2,7 tons with the boom in but the boom was about halfway out so it may well have been near the 1500kg capacity of the tongs. It was about on the 1300mm limit of the jaws also With the previous set of Stihl tongs I often had to go and hammer the spikes into the log but I could just drop these ones over and it gripped first time every time. No trouble to knock off sideways either and an additional feature was the 360 degree swivel which makes manoeuvring the log easy when lowering to position it for the Lucas Mill. It came to £128 plus VAT which was less than I thought and about the same price as the Stihl ones.

Yes, Stage 1 V8 used by Southern Electric I believe with a cherry picker. Local man fitted Ifor Williams tipping trailer body and blacksmith built crane (surprisingly good) The propshaft goes out to the central axle and goes straight through it to the rear axle so it always has the rear four wheels engaged although there are no difflocks across the axles so in the right conditions it can be down to three wheel drive Just remembered this video I made to prove the point!

Sandringham 6 built by Hotspur cars, 3500 V8. Six wheel drive 16 speed gearbox with centre difflock, electro-hydraulic tipping body that will carry 2 tons and crane that will lift 30 cwt. Hell of a tool just a shame that I cannot afford the petrol so it remains in my shed for old classics!

Hardly recognised Joanna Lumley in the trailer!

Article in two papers today saying that they believe the vaccine will only work for a couple of months. From the same team that proposed lockdowns until a vaccine was ready. So back to square one, this time try the Swedish model.

Some snowdrops in flower here

Thank you for those links which seem to be a thorough debunking of her more extreme claims. I am not anti vaccinations in general since I have reaped the benefit of polio, smallpox, malaria, tetanus vaccinations and maybe others. I do have a bit of caution around the Covid one in spite of my 67 years. It seems to be very rushed for a start but also all the corona type viruses are not quite the same as the immunity you gain from smallpox/polio as there are so many of them and they are forever mutating. I work outdoors and hopefully have plenty of sunshine and fresh air to keep my vitamin d levels up, eat an oily fish diet with fresh fruit and vegetables, do not smoke, do not drink excessively, take plenty of exercise Live in a reasonably isolated place and do not socialise much in public. I will take the risk and see how far my natural defences work for me.

Trying to put Humpty Dumpty together again. Does anyone perchance have a diagram of the drive assembly for a 1980s JCB 806C. The whole lot fell out so I was not able to see the sequence of parts. I have the outer bearing shells with numbers, but the guy at Anglia bearing said I need to extract the inner race for its number also. This looks difficult as a very long puller is needed with no central point to push on.

They look identical to the Stihl ones I lost, apart from the colour, but since the ebay ones are twice as wide in jaw spacing, I think that they may be better

Elder, I know, the witches will be after me!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ebyNXJy-SU

They are German as well which hopefully means better quality. I have ordered them and will report on their performance

I have often wondered if we need to have a total rethink on public transport. Keep the rail network for heavy goods and rethink the transportation of humans, especially in respect of social distancing. 150 years ago my Gt Gt Grandfather could catch a train two miles from here, the main line from Grimsby to London, the fish train, and be there quicker than I can today. Main line long gone. My option today is a ten mile journey by car ( bus is unthinkable) to Skeggy to catch a crappy little two carriage train to Grantham and carry my sometimes heavy luggage over a footbridge and hang around on the windy platform, usually in the rain, until the crowded express arrives which I have to book. Not surprising that I prefer breathing my own air and listening to my own music in a car in comfort. Of course everyone else thinks the same hence the maximum speed of about 50 mph everywhere and yet we are still encouraged to buy cars that do well over 100 mph and many one and a half times that speed. Nearly 2000 deaths, 25000 serious injuries and 150,000 injuries on uk roads each year. I suggest making totally safe generic electric 4 seater plus luggage 30 mph max cars built for comfort and safety, all airbags no aerodynamics. There would be a network of pylons supporting a lightweight linear electric system. You would mostly live a short distance from a terminal, join the system a bit like a skilift bubble and punch in a postcode and be whisked along at 150 mph until you are released at your postcode terminal to finish your journey at 30mph. Arriving refreshed never having had to carry your luggage after leaving your front door. The pylons could use the current road network without causing too much environmental impact, keep travellers away from the effects of rain,, snow, leaves and ice whilst giving them a wonderful view of the landscape. You need to sit back and have a dream every now and then... Dream on Billhook, I hear you cry as you go to your 140 mph GTI, that has brakes, suspension and tyres better suited to a race track and sit behind a queue of 20 cars doing 42 mph.

I suppose everything is illegal now in the woods without certificates!

I had a pair of Stihl ones very similar, but have mislaid them in my carelessness in the woods somewhere. The ~Stihl ones looked never strong enough for the job but they were fantastic for occasional use and very high quality steel. I can only see hand held Stihl ones on the web at the moment The German ones in the picture look as though the log may be easier to pick up and keep horizontal. I have a hydraulic grapple on a roof crane County but is too much faff to start and run for occasional jobs

Has anybody had any experience with these? They look about the size and capacity that I am after to go beneath the teleporter About 130 cm jaws and 1500kg lifting capacity Perhaps you know of similar superior? A lot depends on the steel quality Log Grapple 1500kg Load Capacity Ø 131cm Wood Lifting Tongs Forestry Tongs WWW.EBAY.CO.UK Made of sturdy steel the log grapple is capable of securely lifting loads of up to 1500 kg. Lightning Turbo Parts Sirens &...

Just posted this on the "is 35 too old to start" thread but it seems more apposite here!

You Gotta realise this before your body explodes! I realised this when I fell out of a tree when I was a kid, so I bought a 17 metre cherry picker with a telescopic boom when I started to work on trees to try and not end up like Steve. You have much the same view without the hassle!

One line in the Pink Floyd song haunts me "And then one day you find ten years have got behind you" Don't miss the starting gun!!