drinksloe

Alright folks I have a clarke raider 15/1000 air compressor, not done an awful lot and in good nick. Trying to blow a tyre up on sat and i had moved it to a different shed than usual and after a short space of time u heard air blowing out from it. Its coming from the box where the on/off switch is and coming out the hole that the electrical power cable comes out. I must admit i was stretching the cable a wee touch to get to the plug but not too bad. Just wondering why air is leaking out there? Prob only 2 bar of pressure when it started leaking out. I can't imagine the elecrical cables are connected to the air circuit ? Any ideas

Aye i found it by accident at lunch time, no idea i had it. Bloody hell it is mental, i wonder how the western presenters can keep a straight face when thy have to read the news, sorry stories, when they actually know they are a croc of sh@@e

U may well be correct about arming civilians but to be fair to Zelensky he has refused to leave kiev and is still there with the big target on his back. Not many other presidents would do that when the offer was there. Seemingly over 100 mp's from the ukraine government have also signed up for their local TA groups. Can u imagine any of our lying, cheating, schemeing politicains/scumbags doing that? They would be loading up as much money they had swindled from us and fleeing and pulling the mp's perks card at the border to avoid fighting. I see both the kilitscho? brothers have signed up to fight, i imagine they would have enough contacts and money to have fled if they wanted too. Fair play to them Its often said about war that the people who give the orders never have to face the front line, in this instance they are and i take my hats off to them, i thought there used to be a hats off face thing?

I know u said its too narrow to fell, but i'm guessing ur talking about towards the boy in the black hat/fence to left of photo or women in back ground. Could u fell it it towards where the camera is standing?? U most likely would near a pull/winch line at 30-45 degrees ish to line of fall ( far side from fence) if not 2, to protect fence from any side pressure. And leave a big hinge on that side too and fell with a holding cut so ur in a safe position as much as possible We had a big oak with a broken top on it hung up a while back, had an 8T skidder winch on it and really surprised the top never even moved and tractor was shaking. Granted the line of pull was not ideal but best we could get staying safe had a far better hold than expected, we thought it would fly out. Ended up using the cherry picker which would be a good suggestion for u. Or possibly can u climb the gum tree the top is stuck in safely and cut top in a way to get it on the deck, keeping urself safe? Might be a bit of a big stem for a pikey stick If i was going to try and pull the broken part down i think i would be pulling it away from the stem not down towards the base. I could see pulling it to the base too much chance off it just going tight sitting on an ugly step or spiky bit and i would be wanting the rope as close to main stem as possible,. If ur anchor point is further away on the broken top ands ur anchor is at the base ur actually pulling the top into the stem as well as down, Looking at photo not the way i would do it but then again always dangerous judging purely of a photo If ur not confident and have plenty other work on u can always walk away. If it would not fell towards the camera i would be looking at a mwep if that prices me out the job fair enough

Like i said i'm well out of touch with modern lighting on railways and the modern railway rules. Hell when i was on them u could just wear ur normal cutting gear all u needed was a hi viz vest on top. Probably shouldn't say here but I used to sew my vests up, soon got sick of them constantly tearing apart dragging thorn or the odd 1 going throu the chipper. My thought was i'm never anywhre near the tracks with trains running so makes no odds having it sown up, definately far less hassle I have heard now with head torches for railways u need a red light on the rear too? Dunno if that is true or not.just in case ur boys buy normal head torches Must admit i always struggled with a head torch and my visor for night time cutting and usually took it off for night shifts

Just thinking u do get some quite good rechargeable LED lights nowadays. Doubt be good enough as ur main lights but a few LED battery 1's might be quite handy to scatter about the site or if a blind spot up/down a banking. The Dail 1's from screwfix are pretty good, the erbuarer 1 is sh@te and so is the big green 1 i bought from either there or tool stn

Would it depend on ur access? Been 20 year since i done any night shift railway work but any job i've ever been on back then was just a case of a genny on a trolley and u pushed it down the track to the worksite. Usually just had a couple of big halogen spots, nowadays with LED work lights should be able to get a lot more or a smaller genny Dunno if a lighting tower would fit on a track trolley or even 2 ( thats how we moved the tracked chippers, i never really thought it was safe) wieght wise? and u'd probably need something to lift it on off the track trolleys if they could handle it Even the bigger jobs we done always had crap access so i doubt a lighting tower would of worked for the sites we done

I take it u've emptied the ash pan/grate? Or chimney needing swept? Just thinking if not the logs possibly not getting air? For all u say same batch of logs do they all look and feel similar, ie not 2 batches mixed in ur bag or some dry 1's on top of some wet? Or rain hasn't got to ur timber pile?

He didn't say it couldn't be felled just building on 3 sides and a back lean. All i'm saying is an extra point of view from a non/poor climber I'm a forestry cutter and rubbish/retired climber so i'm always looking if possible to straight fell a tree a bit/lot of back lean wouldn't automatically mean u couldn't straight fell, depending on tree species. I would never suggest it if he mentioned almost any other hard tree species, but birch are dependable hinges if u do ur bit right. I've seen climbers climb a lot of trees i would never have bothered as that often is their 1st thought with a problem tree, not right or wrong just a different mindset as thats the way u think If ur putting a winch on it u could put the back cut in as standard as no chance of nipping ur saw. Only doing back cut 1st as otherwise it would nip ur saw and no room for a wedge, and in a but as small no a lot of room for a split level either. If ur confident and know ur cuts and where u want each cut to end makes no odds putting back cut in 1st, althou it does take a bit off experience to get ur gub just right. I'll fell a lot of trees that way if i need to, ie small under 2ft butts and slight back lean, otherwise u get no production. Felling crappy wee willow solo over a burn its a godsend with a pulling stick if u want to stay dry and not drop them in burn.

Plenty of good advice already. 1 thing that has not been mentioned is the simple straight fell, assuming u have 40ft of garden to the 1 side not surrounded by buildings, if the birch is healthy at the butt the hinge will hold well. At 40ft tall not a massive tree dunno how heavy the branches are on the leaning side, but if not too heavy i'd put a pull rope as high up as i could with a throw line, give the tree a pull/shake just by hand to see if i thought i could just pull it over by hand without a winch ( usually work solo so no one else to pull rope as i cut) if it didn't move set up some sort of hand winch. If i thought i could boss the tree myself ( and assuming ur confident with ur felling cuts), i'd put my back cut in 1st, knock a small wedge ( depending how small the tree most likely parralell to where hinge line just incase u need to wedge it a bit before u pull it over, as i u drive in the normal way will hit the back of the hinge) then stick my gub cut in. Depending on the targets i might leave the hinge a bit thick but when u have cut a tree this way to thin the hinge u cut a slither of the diagonal face of the gub. Since building nearby i'd prob set my little winch up anyway even if i could pull it over just for peace of mind Most likely push over with ur shoulder, was felling a load of birch yest, some had a hellish back lean on them, not big timber only really getting 6m odd of firewood of most, some a good bit more, but amazing how far u can push them doing the back cut 1st, u'd never do it otherwise with normal cuts with timber so small. Another trick i made up which is handy for willow or trees heavily leaning over burns is to cut a long hooked stick with a branch u can use as a hook ( a V fork but stem upside down) stick ur pulling stick up in the tree, back cut 1st and just use ur pulling stick to pull tree over. Seen me doing small willow growing at 45 degrees over burns on my own with out getting feet/hands wet, nipping saw or buggering about with ropes, a good quick and easy way on small timber. Once u get the hang of it works well and can get a lot done in a day

Alright Just wondering with all this wind coupled with the wet ground wot can u actually do to windproof trees? Is there some best practiice advice rather than just common sense? I know it will be somewot situation and species dependent. I imagine the obvious things like taking ivy of the braches or even stem if heavily ivy'd. I knew some lads that spent months topping of softwoods on the edge of woodlands as the owner used them as pheasant drives. But is there anything a bit less sevre/more natural looking than just hacking the tops off?? In paticular i have a cracking big doug fir, must be well over 100ft and right nice shape, but with a north wind it could just reach my newly renovated house, probably far enough away not to do too much damage,but a tree of the size is coming down with a fair old clatter. And a good chance it would squash my LPG tank. The doug is a nice shape so ideally i don't want to betaking too much of the top or too many branches of it to spoil the shape There is actually 2 quite nice leyandi trees just north of the nice Doug which do most of the blowing about so do shelter it a lot from the worst of the north winds. I thought about topping the furtherest north tree hardest and possibly cut every either 2,3 or 4th branch of to reduce the 'sail' but try to kep the shape, bit less on the next 1 and just a slight bit of the Doug? Also if i do top or even fell some trees elsewhere on my own ground are u liable at all if that then opens some of ur neighbours trees up to the wind and they then blow over?? Got a quite steep bank with some decent sized Sycamores on it, in my opinoon their getting too big for the banking and soil conditions and just a matter of time before they start to blow. But worried as there is a strange boundry and right at a point a neighbours ground comes in with 3 big sycamore/beech which if they blew from a north wind could easy hit a 3rd neighbours house. I'd ideally like to replant it with more scrubby types trees, hazel, thorns, rowans etc Cheers

I'm i not right in saying it's ur neighbours house insurance that they claim of not ur's?? Just had a quick look into this for myself and wot i read suggested ur insurance covers ur house and the neighbours insurance would cover their own house. So if all damage timber on ur neighbours ground should they're insurance not pay for it and give u the timber back if u want it

On wet days i do use a normal type glove but with a rubber back instead of the usual material/wool, do ok for manual work. Was cleaning out clay drainage tiles a while back with them forearms were bloody freezing but hands ok. Althou bad to pull off if been on for a while as ur hands sweat I take it there is no way u could adapt or make a windscreen or some sort of weather proofing for the log bullet?? Don't use perspex bloody rubbish just scratches and murder when driving into the sun. When we 1st got quads about 15yrs ago, great things but bloody cold, before quads we were never cold as had to walk everywhere. So cold we almost got rid of them until we found a thing called a quad pod, a sort of windscreen and plastic roof u bolted on the front rack, look fairly rubbish but are an absolute godsend if ur doing 50km most days on a quad in all weathers usually without gloves as in those days gloves were shite I dropped mine once and smashed the glass and tried to fix with perspex, thought it was a decent job but was a disaster. I'm sure u could devise something and get some toughened or strengthened glass u could even bolt on temp for winter months?

If those where dairy cows with calfs at foot i'll eat my hat. It simply doesn't happen, if u knew anything about dairying u would know that u don't run dairy cows with calfs at hoof. Try watching the panaroma program u might learn a bit about dairying, must admit not my favourite aspect of modern farming, infact a few dairies i know would get farming stopped the methods/systems they use. Cows are treated very well just more like luxory battery hens than the dairy i grew up with with proper freisians instead of these freisan-holstiens as they now call the breed. I imagine how they treat young calfs may well be an issue too How it work financially is a mystery too with the haulage costs many dairies big farms have nowadays. But thats a different argument Don't get me wrong its well known that bulls from the dairy breeds tend to be the worst of the lot, so bad many are not taken to auctions. But its always been that way and most farmers are responsible enough to realise that and keep dairy bulls well out of the way. Not that dairy bulls will be that common nowadays on most farms, most of the high yielders will be AI'd while the poorer cows put to a decent beef breed, often limmy or charlois There s no doubt cattle are less used to humans now than in the past mainly as rarely handled the way they were, coupled with the trend for contential breeds which are even more skittish and larger than our native breeds and throw in a bunch of folk who have no idea how to behave around them, just a recipe for disaster. Amazing more people aren't hurt really and will only get worse on this overcrowded island

It may have touched on herd aggression but i seriously doubt any of the herds were dairy cows. In fact the fact they were cows with calfs at foot actually proves they weren't dairy cows hence wondering why it was relevent in any way. Sort of proves ur point about folk not understanding agriculture very well thou I have no idea wot the programme will highlight but 1 of the main problems i have with modern dairying in is just the oppisate of this thread, many dairy cows will never set foot on grass. Hell some might go there entire life and never set foot on grass depending how they are raised as calfs/heifers

And how is that in any way relevant to the thread?? I often can't be arsed with farmers too, but u still have to respect their livestock or any other animals that live in the countryside. if anything it would make it easier for numpties to let there dogs run free in the fields as dairy cows never get to see any grass nowadays. Do u really think dairy farmers have chosen to go the way it has went or commercial beef farmers being driven by supermarket penny pinchers who only see the bottom line of profit. It would be go that way or out of business, simple as really as many of the smaller family run dairies/farms have went to the wall

That is the problem the sheer gulf between country folk and the majority of numtpies that now live in the country and think it is nothing more than a playground. Althou i think it is the other way round, many folk that live in the country have no idea how it works or the damage free running dogs cause. Even in a wood, u don't see many ground nesting birds anywhere near a public footpath. U wouldn't dream of leting ur dogs run lose or walking throu an active building site ye they treat fields like a playground, the same gooes for forestry sites how often do folk ignore all signs even when heavy machines are actually working and ther eis a clear danger I think the lad on the thread is just full of it, i seriously doubt he has done wot he claims and is just bigging himself up. He certainly doesnae know much about sheep I honestly don't know how english farms cope with the silly RoW system which is completely out dated. I bet some farms on the edge of 2 small villages say with a rural kirk and a big estate house the other direction would hardly have any fields without a RoW in them. The whole system was set up when everyone who lived in the country actually worked in the countryside and understood it and needed to walk to local shop, school, kirk etc. That is not the case nowadays plus add in the massive population increases or folk travelling in to use footpaths elsewhere.

Aye just not the staff on farms nowadays for the stock to be looked/handled the way it used to be, plus most farmers are running far more stock than they ever have done in the past. Many farms it is get them feed as quick as possible, quick drive up aisle with feed wagon and on to the next shed or even a 2nd job, agri contracting, fencing, shed building hgv driver etc. Compared to the old days when farmers would know almost every cow by sight and could feed them out of their hand or walk them field to field with a bucket of cattle cake My grampa was tossed by a jersey bull years ago and it broke his neck. They reckon he was the only 1 that could handle it, but he had just got out of a longish spell in hospital after a riding/hunting accident and still had his good clothes on and went to see the bull as noone had been near it and it tossed him as it didn't recognise him

No 'being at large or not under close control' is the phrase. And that is a defence it is not a right. U simply cannot shoot a dog for looking at sheep in a field, that is a fact. Look at any written advice on it from wot ever source u want NFU etc, no one will advise that. Even if u find a dog covered in blood and wool but all the sheep that were in the field are dead strictly speaking u cannot shoot it ( althou i don't think anyone would complain if u did) as it no longer is in the act of worrying. It may very well have killed all the sheep but thats not the point U can catch and report it and claim for damages of the owner, but strictly speaking legally u can't shoot it. Also u cannot catch a dog that was worrying tie it up or put in the pick up/quad trailer while u go and get ur gun to shoot it as it has stopped the act If u shooting dogs the way u claim ur very lucky not to have got in trouble for it, we've all heard of farmers shooting a dog and stuffing some wool in its mouth but if u are caught out it is u in the wrong. And with all these camera phones nowadays its only a matter of time till u are caught out By law u have to inform the police within 24hrs of shooting a dog. U shoot a dog in those circumstances that belongs to a lawyer or someone a bit more clued up and see how u get on. Or if u get some different police officers I'm no saying u can't but just not the way u claim to be doing it. Wot are u shooting all these dogs with??? I've had some bollockings in the past for not shooting the landowners and his sisters dogs when running wild but only killing pheasants so not legal to do so. Was never going to end well if i did shoot them, even if it was the old SSS method The neighbouring farmer ended up shooting them a few months later for stock worrying, i think he has had 6 dogs shot now for stock worrying over the last 30 yrs and thats a land owner

Just thinking about this. But if u vertically bore down a 'typical' winblow ( ie under cut 1st followed by a top cut, expecting tension to be on the top of stem) would ur bar not get nipped as it gets nearer the bottom and starts cutting the comprssion timber after it has cut the top tension timber?? Even leaving ur 'triggers' each side i would imaginge tree would be starting to drop after boring in throu the very top timber. I now when u sometimes just single cut fresh stuff if bottom of butt covered in soil and u want a low stump, it doesn't take much of the top to get the tree falling and root plate rising to go down If it works for u great but the standard step/J cut and open gub have been used since chainsaws were invented and work well if u read the tree correctly

Its not often i will say wot a load of bollocks but i'm afraid some of ur posts on this topic are. Sheep don't just abort by looking at a dog, bloody hell wot do they do when they see a fox or badger prowling about??? If they ever do release wolves sheep farmers are truely knackered, never mind wolves eating the lambs be no lambs about as sheep will have aborted after just seeing a wolf in the distance I've seen some of the local farmers sheep dogs and most are pretty poor, not unusual to see and few grabing sheep by the neck but some herds like a dog to do that on comand. Some hill shepherds will move sheep for miles upon mles with out sheep falling over having heart attacks. Even when sheep are pregnantt still moved about and brought into pens for scanning etc all fairly stressful operations, but essential and shouldn't abort because of that I would go away and read the law on sheep worrying and the advice given by NFU, farmers guardian etc. Ur leaving ur self wide open to being done for shooting a dog. U cannot threaten to shot someones dog, evena dog running wild and worrying sheep, the minute they have control u have missed ur opportunity to shoot it, it must be in the act. Also a lot easier legally with a shotgun ( not S1) than a rifle, gets complicated with conditions etc Even any warning signs u put up u can't threaten to shoot dogs, legally, u can warn the to be on leads and under control thou or sheep in the field or advise them of country code. But i do realise many will ignore them anyway, just last week we lost track of the ammount of walkers that walked throu warning tape and signs to 'see wot we were doing with the chainsaws' in a nature reserve, lucky small trees so no real danger but the stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me. Farmers DO NOT have the right to shoot a dog no matter wot it is doing but they do have a defence for shooting it if it is in the act of worrying. If u have followed the law/advice u will be ok legally, ( sometimes dog owners will take alternative actions thou, fences cut, gates left open ) but just shooting a dog in a field for looking, its just a matter of time before ur guns are taken off u. Really not on Really folk have to have some responsibility for their own actions But cows are getting far worse nowadays to walk throu, a previous job i walked miles every day throu farmers fields/livestock, never really a problem althou towards the end stock getting wilder and more jumpy, about 15 years ago bought a quad bike and the difference was unbelevable, could drive irght throu the middle of a herd all lying down chewing and they wouldn't even lift there heads. The change to european cattle breeds hasn't helped as all a bit skittish and large but the biggest problem is cattle are never used to seeing someone walking now, the farmer almost always looks them in a pick up, tractor or quad and never walks like the old days. They just don't spend the time with them they would off in the past, often feed with a feed wagon now so not even grapeing silage to them now I know 1 farmer stopped using his quad for the cattle to make them easier to work with in the pens

I can see how in an ideal world a lot of tools would come in handy. But in reality clearing windblow in commercial forestry sites all ur really going to have is wedges and saw ( iseally with a 2nd bar and chain in ur piece bag, just incase ) not that they do an awful lot of good in the situation. Most other thing are jus too heavy to carry in very far U just have to figure out the safest way u can and hope a machine can come in to help u or do the lot. To be honest i never know where i stand cutting blow anyway now, that many rumours and told not to cut it on different sites/management companies but then the harvester ops need some cut, so u cut it anyway Just before the big storm we were told not to touch any blow on 1 site, which actually made the job more dangerous for us as we had to crawl about under and over them and drop other trees over them , so we ignored it and cut them,, yet the trees that were left were all O/S which was why they were left standing so too big for the harvester. But now they're o the deck with different tension/compression the harvester will miraculously process them?? Do the bosses think the trees shrink in size when there windblown??

Must admit the pole saw is handy for clearing footpaths and BT lines where u can hack off the tops of hung up/partially blown trees until safe to sever them. Like others i do struggle to see how u could use them practically in the forest the way u describe, usually if dealing with more than 2 or 3 stems u only have safe access to 1 side of the stem anyway. Can see it being a real pig to handle in a lot of spaces and more stuff to carry up the hill with u, also be a bit too slow at cutting for my liking and i doubt u could 'feel' just the same while ur using it the way u can with a normal saw incase u have misread the tree But definately a time for longer bars and plenty of grunt in ur saw. Also watch the smaller trees i often find them worse than big heavy stuff, 1 they look easy as they're small so u get complacent and make a schoolboy mistake that u really should know better 2 less room for putting the cuts in, get nipped easily 3 i think they move more/quickier as the timber is lighter, if u've got a big 3-4ft butt the bottom 4.9m log could be a few T, takes a lot of effort to move that at speed any distance whereas a smaller 18"-2ft butt with similar side tension will travel further and flex more. As with all cutting ur escape route is important but esp with multiple windblow, if it moves can u get trapped squashed by anything, will severing the tree ur on react with another tree either already severed or not. I know more so when felling diseased larch to waste over a ridge line i will nip along the ridge cutting all the stems sticking up in the air so when a tree lands on top it doesn't create a see saw effect and shower u in debris If ur in the pick up sticks u really ned to be thinking 3 or 4 trees ahead or better still leave it to the harvester, not so bad if ur moving each tree out as u sever it but can be dodgy if u can't move trees out to create some clear space

Its all very well doing single windblown trees to get ur experience and confindence, and most times they will be relatively straighnt forward and simple. But always check and double check for any side tension even with single trees ( if it has weaved inbetween 2 standing trees) or if u think the root plate will come down towards u? Side tension and the root plate going the wrong way are wot will really hurt u. Normal straight tension/compression can be a pig for getting saws pinched or going with a sudden bang but as long as no side movement u should be out the way of any danger

i think there a 4mm round file for that 3/8s pico/low profile chain. U should be able to look it up on an oregon/other chain makers web site and it should tell u the right dia. Don't try to save money by buy cheap chain (unless ur timber is really dirty or full of nails) as a hobby user u'll never notice the difference in price as use so few chains With sharpening a chain look after ur files and throw away when dull, it doesn't take much pressure with a new file. I bought a cheap a;ldi sharpener years ago and have never ever used it just prefer doing it by hand and ur probably quickier doing it by hand by the time u take the chain of saw and set it up.. For a hobby user i'd recommend either a stihl 2 in 1 holder as it does ur rakers too and keeps them at the right height or buy a guage for keeping ur rakers at the right height. For the OP Does ur saw have a chain brake??? If so use it every time u go to take a hand off the saw. Is ur chain tight?? Even with a big cc saw the chain should stop pretty quick when u take finger off the throttle, if chain at right tension and saw revving correctly U really should not be grazing urself with a moving chain from a saw, that is a massive red flag u really need to look at how u can work safer, ur very very lucky still to have all ur fingers.