Haironyourchest

Yeah, I wish to amend my position - just do it, daytime, chainsaw, tape&sign etc. In Eire we remove fallen trees on main roads every winter, forget waiting for the council, locals just get out and do it. And we take the wood as well. Self reliance keeps civilisation going, we are manly men not dependent children.

Just be discreet about it, handsawing instead of chainsaw, wait for darkness.

All the time for pottering about, but not for tree work. Only once in an emergency had to resort to a headlamp. That said there are some seriously powerful "floody" headlamps around now, miles ahead of last year's offerings.

Bought one yesterday, just started splitting with it this afternoon. Generic Chinese 9 ton vertical, 3kw with a 16 amp plug. So far it's been excellent, for the price of €580 with bolt on cross head and wide head. I had to remove one of the arms and Jerry rig it so it can be operated one handed as the idiot proof two handed operation is not sustainable. (This can be done non destructively) I plan on changing the fluid after a couple days use for quality stuff. My machine ran off a 13amp fused plug adapter and seemed fine, but I hear long term this can slightly undervolt the motor and cause damage, so I bypassed the fuse in the adapter plug and the heavy duty 30m extension cord, not proper I know but been monitoring the plug and not getting warm. I'm splitting laylandii rings, about 12 - 16" diameter and 8" thick, no issues. Nice and quiet, 110 kg so not too heavy to move around. I will have to put pneumatic wheels on it though, to raise the hight a bit, as the activation handle is a tad too low for me to be perfect (I'm 5'11").

Smarter not harder - yes indeed, I'll buy into that. Makes me scratch my head when older people than me hard-charge the task at hand. The worst culprits are people who don't usually work physically. These days I'll get the sack troll to move stuff that formerly I would have simply picked up. Something else that somes in very handy is a cheap cable winch - you know the pot metal €£$20-something jobs - was trying to park my trailer yesterday behind a bush, the ground was rough and I just couldn't drag it in there. In my twenties, I would have struggled with it "I wont be beaten by theis!!!" but dont have patience for that kind of carry on now. The wee winch would have made the whole thing easy and painless, but didnt have it on me....

Think it comes down to inboard or outboard clutch really. If you get the Stihl bar stuck in big wood, at least you can take the head off if you have to do something risky with a winch, or leave the job for another day. Can't do that with the 395. (I stand to be corrected if this is wrong?)

Do you have the smallest 25cc echo, compatible to the 150? If so, how do you rate it for vibration?

Old news now, but there was a comparable event some time back where they fished a fish out of a guy's throat. He'd been arsing about with the live fish for a photo and it got lodged in his throat - he nearly died. Ah jeez, just had to Google it...this carry on happens regularly in China, it's a folk remedy for constipation.

Jon, how do you manage your work position stability-wise? Seems the pivot point of the debate is one handing gives you a third point of contact - ie. your free hand, which increases safety. As I understand it, it's the cut&hold that's the problem, rather than one hand full reach perpendicular cut. Would you concur? I've done a straight stem takedown on spikes with my rear handle, no problem - would rather work with a rear handle in that situation. But still considering a battery top handle, so far have done everything else with the silky, but it's getting me down. I just can't see myself being happy with only my feet/shins for contact and stability. Maybe next time I'll try using the silky two handed for all cuts and see...

Could make a collar out of old chainsaw jacket sleeve or chap leg with a breakaway cotton seam to prevent strangling if cought. I suppose. Would be ok in cold weather. Thing I wonder is in these kickback to the neck events, has the chain stopped or not? It should, if the inertial break is working, and if so, is the penetration caused by the mass and speed of the stopped chain and bar alone? I wouldn't be surprised, the human neck is a pretty fragile thing. If that's the case then a long weave polyester or Kevlar pad probably wouldn't help much as the blunt trauma alone would be terrible. Maybe a slightly better chance, but probably not worth the trade off in heat and annoyance. What might help is nose guards for the saw, making the saw incapable of kickback, but at the cost of utility. For small diameter branches it might be acceptable though. Maybe use 2 saws, one ultralight protected for pruning, and another for bigger branches?

The legendary flying groundie - yet to be beaten!

It will split into two camps, one economically and culturally tied with the UK, USA and traditional western culture, the other more like a watered down Soviet Union. Germany has already more or less fallen - government confiscating private property to house illegal migrants in Hamburg, censorship of social media punishing citizens with massive fines for wrongthink etc. Sweden was lost years ago. Spain not looking so hot. Central Europe is standing it's ground, Austria, Hungary, Poland, Czech Rep, Slovakia. Italy will come round I hope. So there will be a "Free New Europe" accord and also whoever is left in the old EU, which by that time will be a miserable mess. But I could be wrong...

So, UK, Ireland, Denmark and Malta have voted to NOT join the EU army. Good.

Fatal accidents happen every day in the news, but we're quite distanced from it most of the time. When it happens to someone who does EXACTLY the same thing we do on a daily basis...then it hits hard. This news sent me on a dark little meander through the internet, reading up about other chipper tragedies, youtube etc. Stumbled across this clip - a demo of just how quickly a drum chipper can suck a rope in. I was genuinely astonished. I will be much more respectful of these machines in future....

I have the fiskars it's lighter but better, longer handle, good tool. There's a Finnish made one, the x3 brush axe, and a Chinese fiskars which has a more traditional rounded nose. The real brush axe is a kind of weird shape, but that's the one to go for if you buy fiskars.

I had an account for 3 months...got into a feud with someone and ended up with ZuckerFace deleting my account for using a false name. I'm pretty sure my nemesis shopped me to the admin people out of spite. I feel it brings out the worst in (some) folk. Good riddance, glad I'm gone.

The problem is that the British armed forces may become part of the EU army, regardless of Brexit, if the vote goes the wrong way - that's my understanding of the issue anyway. If that happens the British military will be subject to EU control and may be forced to participate in wars initiated by EU leadership. Would you be ok with that state of affairs?

Nigel was talking about an upcoming UK vote on the EU military union, on Monday. I forget the details, it's all on LBC the NF show from last night or the night before. Media blackout around the issue, but it's critical.

What are the citation levels like on the 150? The spec sheet says 5/5 which is a lot. How does it compare to the 200/201T in this respect?

"I wonder if he hit the garage...he's alive.." Yup, priorities .

Why do some models do this - prematurely wear out the crankshaft - and other dont? It puzzles me, can anyone give a technical reason for this?

Pulled a windblown tree out of a marsh with my little tirfors recently, guy wanted it crosscut and stacked and this is what I came up with. We bought three 8x4 panels for €75 total, and made an open box, 8' wide and 4' tall. This was going to be far too big, so we cut the panels down to make two smaller boxes. I put several wire stays in as I filled them, to stop the bulging. On reflection, I might have been better to bend the panels onto a circle, more volume per panel. Handy things, never rust, light to move around, stores flat, zip-tied together they easily modified.

I am going the deep end cowboy route as well, from necessity rather than inclination. Climbed and worked on 8 - 9 trees now, still trying to arrange training courses to get qualified. In the works but distance and other unforseen events causing delays. The trees that need to be climbed are not the kind of trees you would want to climb for fun, that's for sure. Get nixers, do jobs for friends. If you have tickets then there's nothing stopping you (except H&S req. Second climber on site) just take your time and be careful. I find I learn perfectly well working on my own in my own time, without having someone at my shoulder interfering. Make embarrassing mistakes, recover, figure out the right way forward. But with this job there is no room for error...as Reg Coats said, especially if you are alone. Learn to visualise forces and predict outcomes. Best of luck.