flatyre

much appreciated folks. thanks

cylinder hasn't been removed yet so will have the whole saw spotless with the airline before removing it, I'll keep an eye out for either an oem piston and barrel or a meteor one. much appreciated.

Hey folks was at the local garden mechanics on Friday afternoon ordering up some lawnmower cables, having a nosey through the scrap pile and found a 365 special with a knackered piston and barrel, Also missing the exhaust, petrol cap, and a couple of av mounts. However the saw looked like it had seen very little use, not a scratch on the plastics, good clutch, sprocket, chainbrake and starter. Gave the guy £20 for it as thought it would make a good repair project and I need a backup mid range saw for the 560. Was thinking of just sourcing an original 365 piston and barrel but now I've discovered this thread its got me thinking of going for a 372 top end and modded muffler. Is it a straight swop or more to it?

Those chancers at photobucket now want $299 to host photos linked to third party sites which means any photos I have on here can't be viewed. What do you folk use to store and link photos to arbtalk?

Loved books about explorers since I was a kid, not the hyped up drama queens of today, don't have much time to read during the summer so have "The Life and Explorations of Fridtjof Nansen" printed over a hundred years ago, on the shelf waiting for winter and warm toes in front of the wood stove:thumbup1: nothing like the smell of a hundred year old book!

phone every company you can find, let them know your phoning around. get the best price you can, each five minute phone call could save you £50. If the owner agrees to go with your best offer throw in a little extra like a couple of free cuts, something which won't cost you much but save the customer a lot, if they're happy then you retain their custom, if not, you don't want their custom. Win win situation:thumbup:

Good input Spruce Pirate, I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I could be found guilty for felling trees on my own land. If i'm reading this thread correctly then I may be found guilty of something because by removing trees from my property I risk the trees on a neighbouring property? Say I had a big Conifer on the edge of my property which was robbing my neighbours garden of sunlight, so they ordered me to have it removed. But they had a prize Acer growing in the shadow of it. Once removed the acer will be exposed to damp ground conditions and high winds, and we know what happens to delicate acer leaves in high winds. How are you supposed to win?

proper fake grass is about three inches thick, its bonded to a solid surface like concrete or tarmac, then lorry loads of sand are brought in and brushed over it to fill up between the fibres so only about half an inch of "grass" is left. It was never designed for gardens. I sometimes get asked to quote for artificial grass, I just say no.

By law I think the offender (that's you) are allowed to get your own quotes for the repair. Modern artificial grass is nothing more than green plastic carpet. I know this because I used to install the real stuff. Not quite the same scenario but recently my dad damaged a garden wall because he forgot to put the handbrake on, car rolled down the hill and hit the wall, owner got it fixed by a "mate" who was a painter and decorator (not a bricklayer), who the charged £1,400 for a repair which my dad was quoted £300 for. By law the offender must agree to the repair price before commencement of the said repair otherwise they are exonerated of the costs. Its designed to stop people exploiting such situations for financial gain.

I have no input that could possible answer the questions as quite frankly I have no idea what any of the abbreviations mean, so from that point of view I am in agreement with Mr Prentice here, due to government cutbacks (no pun intended) would this not fall so far down the councils/relevant authority's list of priorities that any wind damage to the neighbours trees be written off as an act of God. Surely there are more pressing issues in this country than some guy removing trees from his own property? I'd like to think that's how the relevant authorities would see it, as Mr P said every tree we remove/reduce produces more risk to neighbouring trees, if so we're guilty of aiding criminal damage every other day. How is this sort of thing measured and weighed? Say you had a big old tree bordering your neighbours property, its getting on and will come down some day damaging their property, you may be guilty of negligence if you don't address the situation, so you get it cut down. Now you leave the neighbours property at risk because you just removed a tree that was shielding their property! Surely anything on their property should be able to withstand nature without relying on a neighbour to defend them, especially something like trees which have a limited lifespan? As stated I know nothing about these matters but this has my attention as if this is the case then every tree I'm responsible for removing could land me in court:confused1:

irony: discussing killing trees on a tree surgery forum:thumbup: But seriously we deal with unwelcome trees every day:confused1: just food for thought.

love it!

Thanks Rob, meant to ask for a price for a 16" .325 suki bar and suitable chain for an Echo 501, pm me if you get a chance. many thanks.

This! i'll take physical stress over mental stress any day. When I think i'm pushing myself too far I simply offload a few jobs to someone else, a lot easier than offloading a head full of stress.

i'm a sole trader running a small one man band, mainly heavy gardening work, not a qualified tree surgeon. I do get offered quite a bit of tree work though. Luckily a friend of mine is a co-owner of a local tree firm, fully qualified and insured. So I pass on any tree work to them and in return I get an equal share of the profits for dragging brash. I also arrange the tip site, power line shutdowns etc. In return they bring me in as a brash dragger as and when they need a spare set of hands, again just for brash dragging and the like. Its a simple setup and works well, key is getting in with a good firm and proving your worth.

will have to give him a tutorial on chain sharpening and letting the saw do the work! much appreciated:thumbup:

I would say it wasn't the sharpest chain when I tried it, but it was sharp enough to produce chip rather than dust. He's asked me to source a new bar and chain so I'm thinking Rob D is the man for that, but I think it might be his cutting technique as much as his chain sharpening that needs looking into otherwise the same thing might happen again. Could it be too much lateral movement creating stress on the bar and chain because he isn't using the dogs to keep everything nicely in line?

will try to get some photos when I see him again, its a four month old echo 501 but my mate isn't a tree surgeon, he only bought it for processing up firewood for himself. Did watch him the other day as he was demonstrating the saws behaviour and he doesn't use the dogs but rather brute force (he's a big guy). If he had sharpened the saw poorly so it cut in a curve then used his might to pressure the saw into cutting straight, would that cause the drive links to eat into one side of the groove?

thanks for the advice folks, I think both sides of the bar groove are the same height, but the top right and bottom left walls of the chain groove are thinner at the base, flipping the bar did nothing to help and when I ran the saw the chain seemed to be speed wobbling from side to side as it ran along the bar. Think its a case of new bar and chain but would be good to know what caused it.

hey folks a mate asked me to look at his chainsaw as it was cutting in a curve. Its also burning one side of the bar groove, but not the other, poorly sharpened or something else? also is the bar and chain salvageable or best to dump them?

About £20 each saw each way.

solitaire xey oseys, I always loose:confused1:

long or short reach? I threw my short reach cutters into the shed years ago and haven't used them since, long reach all the way and a strimmer harness for those all day jobs:thumbup1:

it makes Chinese copies look good. This is another interesting ebay special... Stihl ms461 chainsaw Not sure why you'd need a camouflaged chainsaw. Maybe it has a silent exhaust too.

my missus doesn't get it, the more crap I trail through the house the harder I worked, and the more money she has to spend on shoes:confused1: