Bob The Dog

Hi spoons. Did a bit of digging with GM a while ago re the blades. The guy I spoke to reckoned you could grind them all the way back until the bolt heads became exposed, so loads of life left in them by that reckoning! The anvil has a lot of adjustment, so should be ok. I sent mine off to Saturn knives again recently, as my original GM blades weren't ground correctly. I specified 27 degrees on the front, and 10 degrees on the back angle over 4mm. They're in the machine and chipping well, with a clearance of 0.5mm between the anvil. I also had a set of new rotatech blades from Saturn, same angles, and they're awesome, but not cheap at nearly £200 a pair! Some companies will just grind the back angle, which leaves the front angle too short, and the edge of the blade doesn't come into contact with the wood first, hence the knocking of wood around and lack of self feed. Some grinders data states 15 degrees for back angle, but it's 10 according to GM.

My boys primary school doesn't have a mini bus. So they just hire one from a local company, as and when it's needed. The bus size varies according to how many little darlings are going out on the trip, so all bases covered for far less money. No servicing, insurances etc, and professional PCV drivers to look after the kids, not someone driving a large vehicle who isn't very good at it! I'm sure the school could find a much better use for a few hundred quid if you wanted to raise some money for them Jon.

You're probably right cdo! I just worry that there'll be a poor set up and zero, and whatever is being aimed at will be missed, or worse, badly injured and has a slow death. Destruction of animals needs to be quick and clean, and that'll never happen if the set up and variables aren't all properly considered.

Rock machinery venom 22t was £1500 as a self build, or £1600 built with fluids. Worth the £100 in my book.

Commando - yeah, the adjustments are made on the scope to bring the cross hairs to the point where the bullets are hitting the target, and then settings can be obtained for distances greater or lesser than the zero range. Bullets do fly in an arc horizontally when fired from a weapon with a rifled barrel. It's called spin drift. The bullet rotates and causes it to bend it's course, a bit like a curved football shot. Granted, it probably won't affect things hugely, but over distance, it can make the difference. Again, I would never trust a laser sight for accuracy of shot. There really is only one way to guarantee consistent shot placement, and unfortunately that will cost you a few quid! Cleaning regimes will also affect shot placement, as pressure within the barrel will be affected. Wet days, dry days, air pressure - it all has a bearing.

Ok, 5 rounds is a bit of a luxury, But it is better and more accurate than 3. Generally, as long as the rounds are tightly grouped, the mpi should be your zero point. Ideally, all 5 rounds would be touching each other, or very close, but that's really difficult on an outdoor shoot. The laser, as I said before, no matter how expensive or good it is, it cannot be trusted for proper zero, and the longer the range, the more inaccurate it becomes. The laser is dead straight - bullets aren't. They fly on an arc, both horizontally and veritaclly. They have a culminating point, which can change given the elevation of the muzzle. Any videos of tracer fire on YouTube will demo this. 3 round groups is a cheaper option. And the .223 round isn't the biggest, and can be affected by wind in all directions. So many variables. I presume the weapon is for hunting, so in order to effect a clean kill, and prevent suffering, it's gotta be zero'd accurately. Oh - always use the same ammo for hunting as you have for the zero. This can also make a big difference.

Laser bore sights are only any good as a rough guide for initial set up. To zero a weapon properly, you need to be firing in groups of 5 rounds and taking the mean point of impact as zero. You can disregard the odd flyer. The conditions need to be still, as zeroing in wind is impossible. You can then account for windage afterwards. The range over which you are firing should also be level. If you are using a metric scope, zero at 100m. If an imperial scope, then zero at 100 yards. And if you have mildots, you can then use those for your point of aim without having to adjust the drums. Depending how accurate you want to be will determine how much effort you put into setting up. The laser bore sight only has to be slightly out of line in the chamber to be several cm's out at the point of aim end.

It's a great machine, and excellent build quality. Had mine just over a year now and very pleased with it. Done all sorts, from Knotty softwoods to very large ash rounds which have been sitting for a year, and nothing can stop it. Very helpful staff on the end of the phone, and the £100 build up fee is worth it. The only issue is the 4 way splitter. If you let it go all the way back, it can cause damage to the machine (bending a couple of bits of metal), so you have to stop the ram short on its return. But otherwise, it's bloody brilliant. I haven't done any road towing as it goes in the trailer.

I've had loads of success with the Spring / scissor type traps which crush the little buggers to death. Make sure you don't handle the traps with bare hands, as moles have a terrific sense of smell, and won't go anywhere near them. I always use an old pair of muddy gloves and it seems to work for me. Once the trap is in, cover the hole with some soil, to prevent ingress of light. Always nice to catch the little buggers, but there'll soon be another one to take over!

I use marlow gecko on a prussik and I find it fine. I'm not climbing every day, but for what I do it seems ok. It's a little cheaper than some of the others, so for me, that was part of the attraction, and I did my cs 38/39 on it. It happily supports my 14 stone swinging around!!

Forgot about the fakes out there! Plenty of cheapo LifeProof lookalikes, but they leak according to the reviews. £60 for a case seems expensive, but it's saved my iPhone on countless occasions. Just gotta find one for my mate now that's chipper proof....!!

LifeProof cases are great. Waterproof and shock resistant. Muffles the speaker a little, but no major problem. Touch screen works well and they do a version for the fingerprint recognition too. Had a griffin survivor before. Great if you dropped the phone, but bulky, and as I found out after going waist deep in a river - not waterproof!

They're great machines, especially if like me you're on a budget and can't stretch to one of the bigger chippers. Mine's been on the go all day, doing a leilandi hedge reduction. Takes branches up to 4 inches very well, as long as you're good as a manual stress control. Maintenance is straightforward. Keep the blades sharp, and use a good helping of copper grease on the torx bolts when changing the blades. Anything bigger than 4 inches goes for firewood, so it ticks all of my boxes.

Not quite as hard on the blades, but my mates iPhone fell out of his chest pocket this afternoon, and straight down the infeed shoot of my cs100! Managed to retrieve a sticker and nothing more!!

Should've said arb truck!

Indeed it was a bodge, no denying that! But given the kit available, and as said before, the lack of a tree surgeon / feller, they they did the best they could. Try turning up to a road accident in your arv truck and cutting casualties from a mangled wreckage with the kit you have! Now that'd be a bodge

I haven't looked at the exact height specs between the two, but it doesn't look much different to the 22T. I'm 6'2" and find it fine to workmen for several hours at a time.

The emergency services these days wear so many hats, it's impossible for them to be trained so as to be able to deal with every given situation, and so they improvise and do the best that they can. Police, fire or ambo - they all seem to get it in the neck these days for not being up to scratch, but how can they possibly be proficient in absolutely everything. People are quick to take the piss, but what's the first number they call when they can't sort something out themselves!

It's the one I was going to go for, but they didn't have any in stock, so much to my wife's annoyance, I splashed out and bought the 22T version instead - and glad I did. If the build quality on the 12T is the same as the 22T, it'll be a great machine. B&S vanguard engine, which is reliable and very good on fuel. And 12T should be enough to sort most logs. Just keep your eye on the hydraulic oil reservoir filler screw, and the hoses, and both came loose and I lost a bit of oil. My fault - should have checked them.

Had a similar issue with mine a while ago. There was a recall on them, and it was to do with a breather of some sort. All done at husky expense, so worth popping it back into the dealer and having it sorted. Perhaps a plug in to the computer will identify the issue and then be fixable.

Have a look at Rock Machinery, and their venom range of splitters. I have the 22 ton version which is brilliant. That one's over your budget, but I believe the 12 ton version is around £750 - £800. The beauty of the 22 ton splitter is that it can be changed between vertical and horizontal splitting, depending on log sizes etc.

I use one simply called 'tree I'd - British tree identification' app on the iPhone. It allows you to search on size, bark type, leaf type, and all manner of variables, then gives you the results with a percentage chance of it being the actual tree you're looking at. It's really helped to improve my knowledge and I'd-ability of trees. Even has hornbeam on there!

I had the same issue a while ago after climbing on a damp day. Put the ropes in the washing machine with tech was on a gentle cycle at 30 degrees. Came out nice and clean. Soap flakes are also favoured for cleaning ropes.

I have the 2014 model which I presume has the same fastening system? Mine has been fine. Done a fair bit of climbing and had no problems whatsoever. You do have to make sure that both of the yellow plastic clips have opened into position once put on though. A couple of times I've had to jiggle them a bit to lock them in place. I also find that when taking it off, the buckle has to be lined up exactly straight, else the clips won't undo. I wonder whether you just have a faulty one, as I really can't see how it would come undone by accident. I love the harness and find it very comfortable. Must be pretty worrying to have it come undone up a tree.

My 550xp was a pig to start yesterday. Put it down to being left in the sun for a while whilst I was up in the tree. Not sure why it would affect it. It's usually a good starter, hot or cold. Another problem I had yesterday was the tickover after using it. A few times, after trimming fallen bits, the saw wouldn't return to idle and revved a lot higher than it should. A few blips generally cleared it. Wondered if some crap had got into the trigger mech somehow.