flatyre

can you weld? I built my shed in a quadrilateral to maximise the space I had, then welded up a work bench and shelving to suit using C shaped steel which allowed me to adjust the plywood shelves to suit.

ebay prices are a bit crazy sometimes, I regularly go on ebay with a list of parts for saws on my bench, I have a soft spot for 038av's and have seen non-runners sell for £200+ and the next day a complete running 038 go for £30, safe to say ebay is not a good reference point if you want to know the value of anything.

can you buy small scale kilns? I barbecue maybe twice a week during summer and the price of charcoal is so high these days I'd love to make use of an infinite supply of wood and make my own?

this thread has me "totally stumped":001_tt2:

gotta love stump grinding, its "down to earth":001_tt2:

have a go yourself, I always thought big lumps of good timber would be worth a fortune but having looked into it, you don't get much compared to processing it for firewood, not round here anyway. To be fair to people who buy it, they need to mill it which takes time and big money equipment, then they need to store it until its seasoned, where it can split, warp, etc which makes it useless, then they need to finish it, and finally find a buyer! If you don't get a good price then mill it yourself and make a nice bar for your man cave:thumbup:

thanks guys, BTS you'll have to post up a few pics of the house just to make me jealous!

Just left the van in this morning to get some graphics on it so no work today. I should be using the laptop to do some work related stuff but got sidetracked. I always wanted to build my own Scandinavian style home and hopefully if business takes off, in a few years time I'd like to be in a position to buy a bit of land, something big enough to build a mid sized house on as well as have enough ground for a small yard and shed for the business. The house will be a shalet type bungalow with a inset balcony at one end, three bedrooms, kitchen/lounge, living room, small office, couple of bathrooms. I spent years in the building and landscape industry and i'd like to use those skills to create a home for the family. I served my time as a brickie and have a bit of experience building in stone. I'm a fairly competent joiner as far as first fix goes, though would leave the second fix to qualified friends. I can also call in friends in the spark and plumbing trades. I'd be able to do all groundworks myself as I have driven diggers, dumpers etc. fairly regularly for years. The main problem is finance, as a self employed self builder I doubt the bank will give me much of a mortgage, and most of what I can borrow will buy a plot and leave very little for materials. Question is what would be cheaper for me, a timber framed house with a stone outer shell, or block inner with a stone skin? It may never happen but on wet windy days like today its nice to dream.

does anyone know what actually happened, did some monkey get the job of hiding the pretend bomb and then forget where he put it, or did the rest of the security team get bored looking and went home? just curious.

well haven't bought a saw off ebay (its a sort of hobby/addiction) for almost two months so went on for a nosey after work. Just won the bidding on an echo cs420es non runner for £26, owner just says he can't get it to start so might be a simple fix but always bid with a worst case scenario attitude as people often sell knackered saws under the "simple fix" when they need major surgery. Anyway just in case it does need key parts I have an echo dealer nearby but where is the best place to buy echo parts online? ECHO chain saw | eBay

apologies macca, hardly the biggest offence on this thread.

its not right to blame people like mecca for the state of the industry, he isn't just some handyman with a chainsaw moonlighting as a tree surgeon. If a customer can't afford to bring in a full tree surgery squad (or the job isn't big enough to need one) then someone must pick up the slack, i'd rather see the job go to mecca who's served his time and already paid his weekly tax contribution than some untrained chancer who's probably on benefits. i'm sure quite a few self employed members of the forum started up for themselves in exactly the same way. And for those members that are worried about Saturday work ruining the industry, you could always advertise to do smaller jobs for free, that will keep mecca, me, and every other small time, part time operater from encroaching on your monopoly?

mecca works five days a week for the tax man, he's contributed his bit for the benefits rich, if he wants to earn a few quid for himself at the weekend then fair play, and many of us don't have ludicrous contracts and are forced to take on jobs a rock bottom price where paying for help would eat up any profits, about time some of you got off your high horses and realised that the rest of us need to bend the rules from time to time to make a profit, you can quote all the rules you want be I'll bet you broke as many H&S rules as the rest of us. hypocrites!

take no notice, some members are too far up their own you know what. Like they never took on a job solo, and probably called their customers far more offensive names. I've had similar replies to threads I started, just ignore them, if they don't have any knowledge to offer they should just ignore the thread. we're here for advice, not abuse.

not helpful:thumbdown:

I have a 560xp which would be perfect except it doesn't like being shelved for more than a few weeks. if you want reliability over a long time period then i'd suggest a older stihl 028 or 038av, kind of saw you can sling into the back of the shed for a year, then fill it up and away you go!

had an ms250, not sure how old it was but it couldn't make it more than half a day without s**ting itself.

was a thread on a while ago about using hiking boots for climbing, I had a pair of Quasqui hiking boots from decathlon, £85 and they lasted about four years being worn as everyday shoes and on regular hiking weekends, wouldn't mind getting another set for gardening but they're not steel toe capped.

going to give it a mis, texted the guy and he said it's still for sale but asked for his address twice to have a look and he just keeps replying "yes saw still for sale" typical gumtree plonker.

well the good weather is finally here which is great but my feet just spent ten hours marinating in their own sweat! I wear chainsaw boot when doing tree work, steel toe capped boots when landscaping but what to wear when gardening? Any recommendations for professional looking footwear when gardening?

Someone has a 2015 555 for sale on the local gumtree for £100 as its down on compression, was thinking of taking a punt on it?

I live in an area that has quite a few small scale tree surgery firms in operation, almost all like myself don't have their own chippers or grinders. Quite often the local hire stores chippers are booked up but there doesn't seem to be many stump grinders for rent and those that are, aren't booked out, which makes me thing its not a very popular job amongst the competition. I do see a lot of gardens with ugly stumps left over and initial enquiries with possible customers would lead me to believe that offering a stump removal service may not make me rich but would contribute a noticeable amount of revenue to my yearly income. I wouldn't have the funds for a fancy grinder, maybe an old style machine somewhere between £1,500 and £2,00 at most, but my question is based on your own experiences how much business has owning a grinder generated for you?

haven't seen the programme yet but its an interesting topic, yes climbing trees is dangerous but at least they're outdoors using their natural environment to amuse themselves and getting a bit of exercise, still think its a better way of passing their time than spending all day in front of a games console. I hope my kids climb trees when they're old enough and though I hope they don't pick up any serious injuries, if they take a few knocks it'll harden them!

this particular job was paid by the hour so using the weed puller was more beneficial to me and the customer, I got an extra hours wages and the customer didn't need to spend days looking a dead yellow weeds all over her lawn, instant improvement!

that's the boyo there, great piece of kit.