Billhook

Yes County brakes! four wheel braking but only powered by two rather feeble Ford 5000 brakes. My 1124 runs and functions but is tired. It has lost one fork of a gear selector which makes finding second gear a delicate matter and to replace it means a gearbox out. But for my work in the woods, the old Matbro is much more stable, has far more lift and reach and can push or pull itself out of trouble also has many attachments. The County is retired as a classic I think. The Matbro brakes are formidable!

I never wore a helmet skiing for about thirty years and in about 2005 I had a series of people telling me of their near misses just before i was due to go. So I met up with my usual group expecting a load of flak about my new helmet but found that they had all started wearing them and indeed half the people on the slopes were wearing them. Nowadays nearly everyone is wearing one. The helmet is black and fairly cool looking and as it was so expensive I now wear it on my morning bike ride. Keeps me warmer in winter and has vents for summer. Certainly no lycra for me though!

We need some pictures! I have been busy doing other necessary jobs around the house and garden so the poor old County has been a bit neglected at the moment. Just trying to finish my Lockdown Splitter in the workshop and making a frame to adapt the Lucas slabbing bar into a processor saw.. Looking promising at the moment. Need to do a heavily edited video for the Tube!

It must be fairly painful to have to spray your sensitive parts with hydrogen peroxide or other disinfectant before consummation on your wedding night!

Drone Fly. Makes a lot of buzzing noise but does not bite (or sting)

Now here is a bit of real blues from someone who has seen a lot of action, he plays left handed with the strings set up for right hand.

Ok , there’s a lot of it about One of our own Sophie Lloyd lovely smile and playing her greatest hits. But do concentrate on the guitar work! And from Latvia Laura who can shred and also do some mean bass But I take your point Mark, these girls are so young and have seen so little of life relative to someone like BB King, so how can they put that into their music. Bit like being shit hot on a video war game without ever seeing any real action

This topic on the Forestry Forum is worth a read. It seems that more power or more chain speed is not necessarily the answer, it is more about letting the guide bar find its own speed to give it time to clear the swarf. A super skip chain may allow more speed but I only know about the system I have. Advice sought - dedicated slabber chain speed in Sawmills and Milling FORESTRYFORUM.COM I'm about to start assembling a dedicated slabber, that will be operated by a 40HP electric motor. As I'm figuring out how to...

What is the difference between a Lucas dedicated slabber and the Lucas slabbing attachment.? In these clips the Lucas at 4 minutes in seems to be going about the same speed as the Peterson in the other video With my slabbing attachment on the Lucas, I admit that the log is not very big but the electric winch seems to operate at much the same speed on a four foot wide log and it will take a five foot log though I have not had one of those yet!

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