R Mac

Saves doing the rakers if you leave it like that

Run it backwards, great for opening beer bottles if you're in a hurry

I think a well sharpened chain that is near the end of its life actually cuts faster than a new out of the box chain . Cutters are narrower so not removing so much wood in the curf . If its a carbide chain he is on about then it wont cut as well as a standard chain and when it does get damaged or dull ( as it will ) you can only sharpen it with a " green grit " wheel .

A used chain, sharpened by someone who knows how to sharpen will be faster than a new chain.

Thsats 2 of us then ( see obove ) .

3 now! :-)

I get the feeling from the replies that you all think I said sharpening a chain back to as sharp as a new chain wasn't possible? For the record I didn't say or even imply that it wasn't possible.

I personally wouldn't claim to be able to do it, not that I've actually tried any back to back tests, and as I said I suspect there are plenty of people who would make it worse.

Having said that I wouldn't disagree that a person who is good at sharpening can get a chain as sharp or sharper than a new one but I suspect there may be a few tweaks involved that people have learned from experience, tweaks that are outside of the basic procedure.

Morning all,

 

So background - I broke a cheap metal vice last night tightening it up on a piece of unrelated metal bar. Originally, it had only been purchased to hold my chainsaw bar still whilst I sharpened the chain. Anyway, I was bemoaning this on another social media channel and my uncle pops up and says:

 

"Chris don't sharpen your chains. None of the tree surgeons I know do! You never get anything like the original. ( I'd did for twenty years) You can get a toughened version of Stihl chains on e bay tor 6 quid not 18. They last 3 x as long."

 

 

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I don't doubt that it's possible (for some people) to 'sharpen' a chain and end up with it being worse than it was before sharpening let alone not as sharp as it was when new. I hand sharpen and get get a dull chain back to cutting nicely but I'd hesitate to claim I can get it back to cutting like a brand new chain.

As for the hardened chains at £6, looks like he's seen the Rotatech chains and read the description.

So nothing at all surprising in what he said, just happens that while it isn't exactly untrue it isn't entirely true either.

I soak the felt ones in petrol and blow out with an airline, the rest, (Pleated paper/fine mesh) just get blown out with an airline, always blow from the inside to push the dirt out.

Regarding not using an airline, my Lantra workbook says to clean according to the manufacturers instructions, an additional warning note simply says to wear eye protection if the manufacturers instructions recommend using an airline.

FWIW on my 4 saws, the recommendations are to brush lightly/clean with a non flammable solvent on 2 of them and brush lightly/clean with airline on the other 2.

What's wrong with using a bog standard 2 stroke oil, as used in motor cycles or outbound engines?

 

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Absolutely everything

Why is that? I assumed if the oil met or exceeded the JASO rating recommended by the saw manufacturer it would be fine, is that not so?

FWIW I use Oregon 2 stroke in all my saws (Echo) and pruner, trimmer & leaf blower (Timberpro) all running 50:1 although Timberpro say to use 40:1.

Thanks to all who have sent PMs about the saw, cos there is quite a bit of interest I will put it on Arbtrader with pictures/price etc tomorrow, if still interested then we can go from there. Thanks

Dead on, will look out for it.

Sent you a PM.

Been looking at the Ochsenkopf plastic wedges. Labrador Alaska and Yukon (stupid fecking names) for general purpose use. Are these any use?

 

 

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Aye they're probably fine, lets face it wedges in general aren't exactly high tech, just get a couple (Oregon, K&H, Oschenkopf, Stihl, whatever) around 5" and a couple around 8" and a hi lift.

We've got Sky, Apple TV, BT Sport subscription and a Firestick.

I have no idea why as we only watch a few things and the BTSport is only for MotoGP etc.

All a waste of money IMO unless you watch tons of telly.

Maybe you know this already but you can buy a year pass direct from the MotoGP website, think it's about €100, gets you all the classes, all practice sessions plus races, watch anytime (No Spoiler) and also the off season tests. I've had it for the past 2 seasons and just signed up again.

It's really the only sport that interests me so was easily the cheapest option, as for general TV, well I've got Freeview but tend to just watch a few channels on Youtube.

28" is the largest bar recommended for the 395 on 3/8 they are straight swap but you could change to an 8 tooth on 20" the 576 goes very well with this set up.

 

36" and your into 404 territory and really a 3120 is best placed

Not according the Husqvarna website, Max is listed as 36", Min 18"

Husqvarna Chainsaws 395 XP®

Just looking for a general opinion. What really is the best felling wedge to use, and what is the best 2 sizes? Any help/opinions?

 

 

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Depends in whether you're only using them to wedge a tree over, if that's the case then a high lift is the one. On the other hand if you're using wedges for other reasons then I'd carry a mix, my preference is for 2 x 5 1/2" Oregon and 2 X 8" Oregon on my belt and a high lift to hand.

You can stack a couple of 8" wedges but they can slip, especially if you're driving them in with an axe and not being accurate with your strikes, you can also drive a high lift further in due to the length. I prefer the wooden insert but definitely double up on the rings.

Just my view

No need, if its supplied with (or as a replacement part for) the harness its covered under the harness CE so its not a modification

And how would a LOLER inspector know if the cord/shockcord he was looking at was supplied by the manufacturer or simply 3 party? he wouldn't.

Again, no need, a biner or similar would have its own CE

It's a modification though regardless of whether the biner is CE or not, CE isn't a rating, it's a statement of conformity and not subject to testing, in addition most arb suppliers sell accessory biners that aren't rated, in fact I have some Stein ones.

Your argument has more holes than a colander and I'm done with it.

You are missing the point, you said they don't need to be to be "rated" and the simple fact is they do need to be rated, the attachment points on the harness need to be "rated" to their load same as anything that suspends a load at height.

I think you're missing the point, regardless of what or where you attach gear loops it'll come down to what part is the weakest link, you also said/implied that a harness wouldn't pass LOLER is it was modified and I asked if adding a carabiner would be considered a modification. In addition how would a LOLER inspector establish what load I or anyone else was going to put on an accessory attachment point, it could be anything from a webbing sling to a chainsaw.

On the 2 harness I referred to the gear loops are configured by the user using either 7mm accessory cord, cord that's listed on the Stein website with no indication of what if any standard it meets, or shockcord in the case of the Treemotion that again doesn't appear to be rated to any standard.

Quite frankly if a LOLER inspector failed my harness on the basis that he couldn't establish whether the gear loops meet a standard I'd be taking it elsewhere although I suspect he'd be applying common sense.

The point is you said

 

 

But under LOLER they do need to be rated and the harness needs to be free from modifications.

So the 7mm accessory cord supplied for use with a Stein Vega and the shockcord supplied with a Treemotion is rated? Both appear to be supplied as a length which is cut as required by the user so there's no marking.

How would a LOLER inspector establish whether the accessory cord on a Stein Vega or shockcord on a Treemotion was rated or not?

Would adding a carabiner to your harness be classed as a modification? for example what if you add a Caritool to your harness, is your harness then going to fail LOLER due to being modified?

They need to pass a LOLER inspection though

You could remove them but say for the sake of argument you left them on, on what basis would they fail, the gear loops on a Stein Vega are to all intents and purposes double braid

[ame=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99FTxPAZ2iI]See Here[/ame]

and in the case of the Treemotion simply shockcord See Here

Nope,the biner should always snap back to the locked position whether its being manipulated or not.

I think you were right on the money when you commented on page 1

One of the reasons I suggested the small Dynema slings is because they come with a certified load rating - saves any potential issues with gear inspections etc. Not sure that would apply to a webbing key fob?

Fair point although I figure as they're only gear loops and not life support they don't need to be rated, I wouldn't hang my chainsaw on one though. Looking at the ones on the Tree Hog page they aren't even bartacked, simply sewn in a box/x pattern.

I winch my MDL up on to my trailer . I use two steel ramps and a shorter piece of 6"x1" in-between them. Works fine.

Cheers Maria, need to get something sorted over the holidays

I placed a small order and it arrived promptly but one of the items was wrong. No big deal as I'll use it in the future.

Then I realised I'd forgotten a couple of things so I called Rob D.

Whilst chatting I mentioned I've had a few Sugi bars that broke early, IMO.

Anyway, i received some good advice and I paid for the order. The package arrived today and was stuffed with expensive 'freebies'!

This was an act of customer service that puts others to shame!

I buy 75% of my bars and chains etc from Chainsawbars but now it will be 100% and SO SHOULD YOU!

I've had nothing but 1st class service from Rob D, I buy all my bars (Sugihara) and rim sprockets from him, also a decent bloke when I phoned for advice.

Would recommend to anyone.

hi Mark I actually chose it is first opted for a camp tree access but wasn't comfortable so then tried on a petz let ac various but the leg loops would not fit my legs as I mentioned the tree hog was comfortable and it fitted but with trying on about 8 different harness form to the butterflies to the petzl i didn't notice the gear loops

I have the same harness but branded as Treeup, I have the same problem as there's only really 2 gear loops if you use the rear one for the saw. Mine's a size small and the gear loops are, IMO too far forward. I simply placed carabiners behind the webbing waist belt but the webbing loops look better. Check ebay for webbing key fob and you'll get something similar.

Evening all, every interesting post and a lot of things to consider while we all carry out our daily tree work, if you don't mind i would like to add my two pennies worth of both advice and experience, i spend 23 years in the Royal Marines and have been on all of the recent battlefields since the late 80's to 2012. It's good to see that we're all carrying a good comprehensive first aid kits, weather it's a small personnel one on a climbing harness to a large decent one in the landy or mog, it's ok having blood stopping granules, first aid dressings etc, but the primary and most important thing is that you know how to deal with the situation, it's important to have good training in how to use the first aid equipment and carry the right kit in relation to work being carried out, but the most important thing of all is the CASAVAC PLAN, you could be in a remote forestry block to a town centre next to an A&E, if you don't have a plan then your basically ******. If you work on something called the golden hour then you would have tried your best to keep yourself but probably your work mate alive, the first ten minutes is spent giving life saving first aid, this is where the good training comes into play, ABC, stop the bleeding etc, the next 50 minutes is getting the casualties to some sort of primary health care, i.e paramedics or A&E air ambulance etc, throughout the time constantly assessing the casualty, your extraction to safety may be on foot using a stretcher or by vehicle to a road point, ora simple marking of a helicopter landing site, but if it's not planned and if the team is not briefed it wouldn't work, all you will get is a lot of panic and confessed people and may be a very bad outcome, so next time you fill out the site or daily risk assessment take a couple of minutes to make a plan and brief people up, you never know it may save your life, i hope i haven't taught people to suck eggs, thanks and kind regards John.

:thumbup1:

10 out of 10 for the hinge and extra points for doing it all with an axe, and only using the saw as a felling lever.

:biggrin:

10/10 for accuracy of bore and back cut, deducting a point for boring when it didn't need it. So 9/10

Text Book execution :thumbup1:

I use the older Brown still for mowing and saw bench .Bullet proof and easy to repair.

 

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Ste

My favourite tractor, right model and right colours, pre Case I think

More 'find the hinge' than rate it!

10/10, cutting blind effectively, you couldn't go lower or higher to find holding wood. Nice one, I guess you were happy to see it on the ground

I don't see how - you can cut the hinge finer as you do not have to compensate for the longer fibres if you think it might be a problem.

On the subject of fibre pull, does the distance of the hinge from the jacking point affect the risk of fibre pull? I imagine the closer the hinge and jacking point are the more chance there is of forcing the tree up rather than forward?