Billhook

Just found this on youtube, great minds think alike!

Interesting you found the 181 to be gutless. Did the chain end up not rotating like mine or did it just cut slower? The 170 with the 16 inch bar was not nicked after all just"borrowed". and "I hope you don't mind" borrowed and put back where I did not find it for ages. However it did give me a clear comparison with the 181 which on paper should be better. I also had those lousy fuel and oil fillers on the 181 which are really fiddly and easy to cross thread and knacker. The oil filler one is in such a position that the handle of the saw is in the way of the flip up device. you can undo the old screw type fillers with the Stihl spanner/screwdriver with gloves on but these ones no way. I am blissfully happy with the performance of the 170s. They are light, easy to start, do the jobs I want to do and more. From leaf blowers to hedge trimmers to log grabs I have always been impressed with Stihl tools but the 181 seems to be a bit of a dud. I shall give it one more chance when it comes back and report here possibly with a video of the two together. When I was in the shop I bought a new chain for the 170 16 inch bar and we gave the saw a good clean and adjustment and it goes better than ever. There seems to be little difference between the cutting speed of the 16 inch 170 and the 12 inch 170.

Like a lot of things in arb work and indeed life itself, there is a world of difference between "should have" and "did" !

You obviously work much harder than I do billpierce!

The barsteward has returned my old 170 with the 16 inch bar. (just borrowed it for a small job hope you didn't mind!).I now have the two together and I see that the bars and chains are identical, both picco same size. 1.3mm Gauge 3/8" Pitch 55 Drive Links .The old 170 with sharp but worn teeth went straight through a fourteen inch ash log whereas the new 181 bogged down and would not even look at it. I cannot work out if it is the clutch or the engine or both. The chain stops turning as soon as the bar enters the wood fully and the engine bogs down. Took it back to the shop and they rang the supplier who told the shop to send it back so I will have to wait and see. However very pleased to see my old friend back. I did not think it would be man enough for the 16 inch bar when I ordered it but it has been fine. I keep the other 170 on a 12 inch bar just in case I trap the other saw. The 170 is really all I need for brashing and occasional logging and is so much easier to carry and start all day long when you are an old codger like me who feels these things a lot more than I used to! The 181 will go back if it does not perform slightly better than the 170.

Several years ago the local store was selling Stihl 170s for £124 at a time when they were around £170 elsewhere. I bought four. One went to a colleague and one was nicked. I found that having the two remaining small light saws was perfect for my requirements over the years cutting up mainly fallen trees up to about 24" diameter. I bought a 16 inch bar for one of them with a picco chain and was surprised how good this little saw coped with it and it became my saw of choice. Now some barsteward has nicked that saw and it seems that I cannot easily find a replacement so I was persuaded to buy a 181 with a 16 inch bar and slightly heavier chain for around £225. Now whether it is the heavier chain or the newness of the saw that has not been run in properly I am not sure but it seems to have far less cutting ability and bogs down easily., by which I mean the chain stops turning in the middle of a cut and the engine revs drop. Thoughts please

Grenadier is good but seems expensive. It lights kindling and branch logs without matches. Good for stirring up a fire that has been allowed to die down Key for element which is 1300watts turn off to leave fan only. The fan soon heats up a heap of branch logs and it would be well worth Sandspider's time to see if it cures the chimney problem. Looks like a hairdrier but I would not try it for that! We had a couple of Pifco models in the eighties which did not cost a lot £25 I think This one seems rather tired and expensive https://www.gumtree.com/p/heating-fireplaces/classic-pifco-electric-fire-lighter-electric-fire-starter/1155545789

Now I have just talked myself out of business as we have this cold air problem in the Pioneer in the office. I start it with a firelighter and then some ash branchloggings which are relatively smokeless and become hot very quickly, door shut but bottom vent fully open.

WE had a lot of smoke trouble with our new Danish Aduro when we first tried it. We have a Clearview Pioneer and an Aarrow and have many years experience of starting these stoves in the way most people do by newspaper and small kindling followed by larger stuff This method caused a mass of smoke with the Aduro and we have to use the paperless inverted method used in the following videos We have a Grenadier firelighter, not sure if that is the right thing at £120, but if the problem persists it may be better just to try one of those cheap electric 2kw fan heaters just to start the air moving (before you light the fire!) https://www.amazon.co.uk/RS-Components-Electric-Heater-Portable/dp/B01N22BTQJ/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1511645988&sr=8-5&keywords=electric+fan+heater

So no more battery development possible according to Vespasian 0-60 in 1.8 seconds and 500 mile range according to Elon Musk https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/883535/Tesla-Roadster-top-speed-rival-performance-0-60mph And of course to continue the debunking of Musk it would be impossible to make a reusable rocket that could actually link up with the ISS because all those scientists at NASA must be more brilliant, and Burt Rutan could never invent a space ship which could turn its engines to slow it down so it did not heat up on re-entry or create an aircraft that could fly around the world non stop.

I realise that there is room to build, but what I do resent is people telling me that we need immigrants to build these houses when the immigrant figures are the same as the houses needed. Same with the nurses, doctors and teachers, they say that we need more immigrants to help reduce the pressure on these systems............ brought about by immigration. It is purely a question of numbers rather than race

I see that he has put aside 40 billion for the need to build 300,000 more homes and yet the net immigration is still 250,000 in spite of the exodus due to Brexit. Keep going like this and we will not have much left in the way of woods or farmland! Still, what do expect when you put remainers in charge

Couple of moments with the 17.5 ton D7 Caterpillar. First one I was scraping out a lake and pushing soil up to form a bank. Running up the bank until the machine pivoted and the blade came down to the ground. The bank was quite steep and going up all I could see was sky, going down past the pivot point all I could see was the stream below. No worries just slam it into reverse (lever goes forward for reverse) and head back for another scrape. Been doing this all day on a hot sunny day and one time at the top became confused and put the gear lever back instead of forwards. I was now pointing down at about 45 degrees to the stream and I managed to shut the throttle and stalled the engine. I now had my right foot firmly on the brake but I could not reach over to the left to operate the decompression lever and donkey engine to restart it. Every time I leant over my pressure on the brake pedal slackened and the dozer inched forward towards the stream. I felt like Michael Caine in the last scene of the Italian Job with the bus perched on the cliff top. I managed to wedge a shovel from the seat to the brake lever. Started the engines and only just scrabbled back up the bank in reverse. Second one you would have thought that caution would have been the order of the day after the last incident but again I was scraping the lake but the water started coming up through an old land drain and because it was clay it did not take much to make the dozer stuck. Not badly stuck just stuck. No mobile phone, miles from anywhere all there was was the 15 ton JCB swing shovel. I put a chain on the swing shovel and stalled the track motors in reverse at moderately low revs. Then jumped off and back onto the dozer and it worked a treat, the JCB just pulling me out no problem. The real problem became apparent when I tried to stop as the clay was so slippery that the JCB still had enough traction to keep pulling even with the dozer blade down WE were both now heading back towards the main body of water in the lake. Luckily I the whole outfit was not moving very fast and I was able to reach the JCB just in time and stop the drive before we were really sunk!

I shall not eulogise on here anymore about my Urban SM70 branch logger as some barstewards came onto the farmyard some time over the weekend and stole it. I have put the details in the stolen equipment site here i think that they must have mistaken it for a chipper Andy at Welmac has only sold four SM70 in the whole U.K. And mine is the only one in Lincolnshire. So keep your eyes peeled and pm me if you hear anything

Lincolnshire. Spilsby Area Some time over the weekend, probably Sunday night they came into the farm yard past three houses with tenants who have dogs and heard nothing. Smashed padlocks and opened the main doors of three sheds. Took the Urban Branch logger, the one with its own engine and small castor wheels at one end. Bought new in March 2016. Took 200 amp battery charger and a really heavy old blacksmith's anvil. They struggled with that through doors and passages at the back of the workshop. I have not yet had time to check on tools and other items. Just spoken to Welmac and he has only sold four SM70s in the whole uk and this is the only one in Lincolnshire They may have mistaken it for a shredder This is a video of an early model with a different hopper . The later model has a safety cut out bar around the hopper and mine had a Briggs & Stratton electric start.

I was walking down our driveway and looked up at a medium size elder which had a few finger size branches reaching the domestic power line. I could not quite see if they were high enough to be touching the line so I gave the tree a shake. I still could not really tell if they were but turned away to go and collect the chainsaw to take it down as a precaution. The next thing I knew was a stinging burning sensation in my left shoulder and my immediate thought was that I had shaken a hornet out of the elder which had landed on my shoulder. However on looking at my shoulder my t shirt had a hole burnt into it by a small elder twig which was smouldering there. I had just about gathered my wits and brushed the twig away when there was a buzzing followed by a loud crack and both lines had melted and fallen live to the ground nearby. I was nearly really physically shocked but I was very mentally shocked as to how a very innocent shaking of a fairly light tree with twig like upper branches could do so much damage.

But how big or heavy were the bags? These net bags are certainly over 25 kg [I have not measured them on a scale, the only scale I have is that my wife cannot lift them and she can pack a mean punch!) The main thing is that they keep nagging me for more and that must say something How much do the bags of coal weigh? I remember on a thread on branch loggings there were people selling them for £7 a bag in the West Country but it was a lot colder that Winter

He was just like Gerard Hoffnung@s "The Bricklayer's Lament" as I have posted before. It is a bit slow I know but "Half way up I met the branch coming down and received a severe blow on the shoulder" The grand finale of the branch landing on his head was too much!

I have seen many of these before but I thought that this was a compilation of some of the worst incidences. Sort of compulsive viewing but with serious undertone.

Yes it is very satisfying to hear all the crackles and crunches but on reviewing some of these videos I think that I would find my way to an end result of usable firewood quicker with the Lucas Mill cutting into those 20 foot lengths of 8x8 and then putting through the Palax to cut and load into foot lengths. There is still quite a lot of work even after the trunk is split with the cone splitters

My initial idea was to put an auger on a teleporter bucket so I could easily go tree planting with the young trees in the bucket. I used an old digger track motor to drive it. This was very successful, particularly as you can see what is going on an adjust angles etc without having to crane your neck as on a tractor. I then thought I would buy a cone splitter, the one ~I bought was from Poland and about £150 Fitted it in place of the auger and was disappointed , I admit I have not really pursued the idea and it may be that the hydraulics are not strong enough, or the motor is half knackered or I tackled the log in the wrong way, but if it cannot split a log like the one in the video it is not much use to me as one that size will go through the processor. What I really want is a splitter to split a large tree trunk. I have a JCB 360 15 ton but at the moment it is easier to put the Lucas Mill around such a trunk and cut it into 8x8 20 foot lengths. I think that I was attempting to do this work below with a cone only designed for small firewood! If you do have success I would be interested to give it another go here.

Yes it is clever on straight bits of birch and it is interesting if you put it up on youtube that the comments seem to be equally divided between those "I want one" and " too slow, too expensive, no good on anything difficult" Personally for similar money I would go for a teleporter with log grab, a decent towable pto processor and a log deck. and probably have some change. You would need a tractor and flatbed to cart the 360 from place to place.

I have only just spotted this machine. Sorry if it has been posted before but I can keep watching it again and again! Great engineering but I feel the cost of the outfit would need quite a bit of firewood sold to pay for it!

Mainly ash and sycamore. For the main house boiler woodburner we have an Aarrow Stratford and the few times we have been a bit tardy about keeping it topped up at night, the loggings are very useful for firing it up quickly from just one or two hot cinders. They are great for starting it initially At the farm office there is a Clearview Pioneer and I half fill it with loggings and use a firelighter and the heat produced will last over a couple of hours which is about the time I need to do the office work. The local pub loves them and keeps nagging me for more. They have an open fire and use them to start it but also on quieter evenings they may have hardly anybody in and may have let the fire die down. Then last thing half a dozen people come in and the loggings are great for instant heat and welcome. I am asking £3 a bag which is not grumbled at and now several more customers from the pub are asking for them, but I am not doing deliveries, so they must come and collect But in your situation a good sharp bill hook or a slasher would work if you want peace and quiet. Personally I would sned with a Stihl 170.

So in that scenario I assume that the safety cut out bar at the mouth pf the hopper would not have time to work, or should it be able to stop the feed rollers in a split second.?