Billhook

More if you want

Guthrie Govan eat your heart out!

Not quite sure what your distractions are!

No, I realise that the skip chain is no good for cross cutting and I was always going to have a new chain made up to 190 links with semi chisel cutters , but really in this scrap heap challenge, the chain was going to be my only real expense as all the other bits are kicking around the yard.......somewhere!

That is what I wanted to hear, some common sense! However when have I ever used common sense? Why change the habit of a lifetime! I have some videos of it working well with the box wedge on some fairly large logs, but I need a few minor alterations before I put together a complete video. I need to try and do some severe editing because everybody has such a short attention span these days! Yesterday, because my larger Stihl was not working I thought that I would tackle a three foot diameter lump of sycamore with the Stihl 181 and sixteen inch bar just to see how the splitter would cope. But the saw was not up to the job and it would have been painful to watch! I gave up in the end. But even an old 100 cc saw and bar in working order is going to cost a bit to fettle is it not? I see that it has the number 27 on all the drive teeth on the Lucas skip chain on the bar. What does this number mean?

I have just posted this also on the chainsaw forum To keep myself occupied during lockdown I have built a box wedge splitter out of parts kicking around the yard, which works well. I need to cut into rounds some 36 inch plus diameter logs and I intend to mount a chainsaw in the machine, driven by perhaps a 3 phase motor and geared up for the 10,000 rpm (??) . advice needed here please (all work is done in the yard with the logs being brought in. I have the Lucas slabber with a six foot blade sitting idle at the moment as I am "slabbed out" More slabs than I know what to do with! The Lucas Blade has no writing on it but I am told it uses 404 chain pitch and has a gauge of 1.6mm and is 190 links. but all this needs confirming I thought it would be a good idea to keep the same frame layout but just extend it so it can cut 18 inch lengths of round, perfect for our stove. At the moment the slabber can cut up to a nine inch slab. This way I can keep the oilers at either end and it give the blade more support. I intend to use a manual arm to lower it into the log so I can feel what is happening Does this sound feasible using perhaps a new chain with semi chisel cutters? Is the bar up to the job? I should add that this will not be used on an everyday basis, just to deal with the logs too big for the Palax I will post this in the milling section as well as I know some folk there use Lucas slabbers

To keep myself occupied during lockdown I have built a box wedge splitter out of parts kicking around the yard, which works well. I need to cut into rounds some 36 inch plus diameter logs and I intend to mount a chainsaw in the machine, driven by perhaps a 3 phase motor and geared up for the 10,000 rpm (??) . advice needed here please (all work is done in the yard with the logs being brought in. I have the Lucas slabber with a six foot blade sitting idle at the moment as I am "slabbed out" More slabs than I know what to do with! The Lucas Blade has no writing on it but I am told it uses 404 chain pitch and has a gauge of 1.6mm and is 190 links. but all this needs confirming I thought it would be a good idea to keep the same frame layout but just extend it so it can cut 18 inch lengths of round, perfect for our stove. At the moment the slabber can cut up to a nine inch slab. This way I can keep the oilers at either end and it give the blade more support. I intend to use a manual arm to lower it into the log so I can feel what is happening Does this sound feasible using perhaps a new chain with semi chisel cutters? Is the bar up to the job? I should add that this will not be used on an everyday basis, just to deal with the logs too big for the Palax I will post this in the milling section as well as I know some folk there use Lucas slabbers

You are in danger of having your testicles removed by any woman reading this, especially my wife!

Apart from the fact that we really need a gentle rain for the gardens and crops, I agree that it has been a wonderful time if you can manage to be outdoors in the sunshine. However I remember the weather at both my parent's funerals, they each died on May 18th, one in 2007 and one in 2016 and on each occasion it was horrendous rain and wind and the whole month had been pretty miserable. I just wonder how people's attitude to lockdown would have changed faced with a month of that kind of weather.

What about her music?!!

Now this woman is a true professional

Good live version here

Here in Lincolnshire we seem to be spaghetti junction for a lot of the main air routes from the continent to America and the skies are full of contrails normally. But now together with the silence and the birdsong coming on strong, it is amazing how clean the air is and how far we can see now. We were very surprised how quickly all that happened. Yes there is the benefit of not having to pick up Macdonalds crap on the side of the road, but it seems to have been replaced by rubber gloves that people chuck out. I do not like picking them up as you do not know where they have been!

There were an estimated 58,100 excess winter deaths in England and Wales in 2017/18 - the highest recorded since winter 1975/76, figures from the Office for National Statistics show. The number of excess winter deaths observed in 2017/18 was higher than all years since the 1975/76 winter period, when there were 58,100 extra deaths. The last peak was in 2014/15, when there were 43,850 excess deaths - which was the worst figure since the millennium. I do not remember any hysteria or even anything in the press about this. 58,100 deaths in 2017 seems a lot more than the 35,000 thousand we have from Covid. In uk we have about 650,000 deaths a year from all causes. It will be interesting to see how much this figure changes by the end of the year. Was the virus just hastening the demise of people who were near the end. I suspect herd immunity is the hard answer. There must be a reason why some people catch it and hardly know they have it. Perhaps a contaminated door handle which is very dangerous for a short time can act like a vaccine after many hours as the virus dies and gives a light dose of the virus which can allow the immune system to cope with it

Could be funny if I could understand it. A quick google came up with Red Dwarf followed by this. Explain please! When you get to 99 change hands..........(nt) In reply to CleverTrousers • Apr 28, 2005 -- hide signature -- Lionheart Dragons slain, trolls hung, drawn & quartered, (this is a completely free public service), witches burnt at the stake, serfs freed, maidens rescued, crusades fought, moats dug, sieges mounted, armour de-rusted, swords sharpened, boils lanced, teeth pulled, night soil collected, scolds bridled, outlaws hunted, virgins deflowered - call for free estimate

You would think that you would take your right glove off and leave it somewhere so that you can flip the fiddly start switch on your chainsaw, or operate the safety lock on most power tools or push the buttons on your phone. I do not buy the "scrabbling around with my left hand" because you are mostly steadying the bit of wood with your left hand so why would you need to take your glove off?

No, I am not willing to have an arrangement with anyone's socks!

Damn! I thought we might have come to a convenient arrangement!

So I am totally left handed. I admit my lifetime weakness of putting things down and then spending half a day looking for them. I am beyond redemption in that respect. So I end up buying things like gloves and little screwdrivers and hammers in tens from Amazon You would think that there would be just one left hand glove kicking around Somewhere there must be a mountain of gloves, screwdrivers, hammers, Stanley knives.............

I also did not think it appropriate to Chuck the guitar into the audience, apart from the fact it might have hurt someone badly who might not be paying attention it was a rather negative symbolic act it would have been a proper tribute if he had gone up to Dhani afterwards and given him the guitar.

I thought Marc Mann played a beautiful tribute to George Harrison's song and whilst Prince indeed played a virtuoso solo it was not the time and place for an individual guitar wank, it was supposed to be about George and not about Prince.