neiln

At the other end of the user scale here.... I have an ickle ms180 for processing my own fire wood which is a mix of wood and mainly soft wood, with the odd bit of maple, birch or oak. My brother is the same but he gets more hard wood (lucky devil). It will be a while before I run the saw and can comment on the performance of the chains but I can say price and swift delivery are good. I ordered 3 for 14" bars for a few pence over £14 on the eBay store(it's cheaper there) sunday, they arrived today (Tuesday). I'll give one to bro and post back with views. My thinking is with a little saw that is only used for short periods a little bit of grabby/vibration behaviour isn't such an issue, I just want them to stay sharp OK. I find stihl chains stay sharp well.

Any tar removal product will shift sap also. If you really want a shiny truck, follow with ironX, a going over with a clay mitt and then a sealant or wax. The sealant or wax will protect the paint stopping dirt, including sap, from sticking as much in future as well as giving a nice shine.

As I said above, south London, near crystal palace.

Found this after some hunting, it largely backs up what is said above. SwRI Lighter Side

Great thanks for the advice and ideas.

I'm based in south london, near crystal palace. I was kind of hoping to do a large cuboid, biggest possible, from the heart wood. offering up a tape measure i thought something about 15"x15", or 14"x16" might be possible. I saw something similar at a house/design show being used as a bench and thought it looked striking. Also thinking of somthing smaller from one of the pieces, 8"x10" maybe, as a mantle piece. A mantle over the wood burner, milled from an oak from the garden....a talking piece in an otherwise unremarkable south london semi? Hmm, hadn't thought about using an axe. Fiancee morelikely to go for that purchase....she did get me a new splitting axe for christmas (fiskars x27....yay!) Bet oak is harder than that pine though. Oh and if it matters, it was a Turkey Oak, not an English.

happy to go slow, do it in stints...its easy to walk across the lawn and go at it for a few minutes then buck a bit of firewood of an evening. Thinking a 16" bar (max for the ms180) and a loop of full chisel might help a little? If i cut a kerf on the end then drove in wedges what is the chance of splitting it? I guess at 3'6" I'd need to drive wedges in along its length as the split started to run? hmm...i'll need more than the couple of wedges i have....guess I cold make some from some of the oak from the rest of the tree. what control of the split would i have? very little I presume? would a deep kerf cut down the length help to direct the split?

i had a 20/22" DBH oak felled in my back garden 18 months go and got the bottom 10' of trunk bucked into 3x 3'6" pieces while the rest has been processed for firewood. I kept the trunk as I had a vague idea of 'wouldn't it be nice to make some really chunky beams or possibly some big cubes to use as seats'. Well, the wood has sat there and I've got no further with attempting anything. I'm trying to workout, is there a way I can attempt this with the basic tools i have or is it a daft idea....and I should just buck, split, season and burn the trunk? I've only got a little saw, a ms180 with a 14" bar, so any 'proper' milling is out. Have I got any hope of roughly milling a chinky beam free hand? I thought if i could get close with the saw, then move it to the shed to season further, then build a frame and finish the sides smooth with a router, and a lot of patience. Is it worth trying? Or any suggestions to make it more doable? (not including buy a big saw, that isn't gong to happen...fiancee would not approve!)

think you may be right. i suspect vpower nitro may have a little less ethanol as its marketed so much at high performance cars, but not much.

I've just googled and no, i can't find any specification to show its got less ethanol....maybe it hasn't after all. I have looked before and thought i found something but it may have just been statements on car forums or wikipedia and not shell themselves. This search gave a piston heads result with someone quoting a response from asking shell, who said 'upto 5%' for both vpower and regular re safe to use, I asked at fr jones when i bought the saw, any regular unleaded or high octane unleaded is ok.

Looking on American forums, where I think the fuel has had more ethanol for longer, they clearly agree ethanol is a problem, damaging fuel lines and carb diaphragms/wrecking carbs on cheap saws. The answer is to run the saw dry if it will be left unused for a while. As a homeowner cutting firewood I cut for a time and stop when the saw runs dry for this reason. I will in future start using shell vpower nitro though as it's got less ethanol then standard 95 RON, which is getting more. I also use stihl red one shot, but once used up I'll swap to stihl green. I was told when buying my saw in FRJones, that the green has stuff to combat the effects of ethanol. For the small increase in cost of fuel/mix, it it saves frustration getting a saw started it seems worthwhile, if it saves a carb from damage it is fab.

Can't say on that, sorry, I only have a stihl ms180. No leaks from that though.... I knew there was a reason Stihl are mightier than Husqavarna Rawplugs maybe old hat, agreed. They are cheap and work for this purpose however.

2 screws in the wall about 100mm apart, a piece of string tied to one screw with a loop on the other end, pass the string through the handle of the saw place loop over 2nd screw. The saw then hangs vertically down the wall from the string through the handle. Neat storage and only needs 2 screws ( and rawplugs) and a bit of string

F r Jones are local to me in south London and gave excellent service when I bought a little ms180, I'd recommend them to anyone local.

I'm trying to build supplies for a wood burner. I'm currently collecting wood from a surgeon in Beckenham but getting a car load at a time the driving takes as long as the cutting and splitting almost so I'm keen to get some delivered. I have a small chainsaw (ms180), maul sledge and wedges so can process anything from cord wood to rounds up to about 2 foot diameter. Beggars can't be choosers so I'm happy to take soft wood but will pay a little more for hard wood. House has easy to access driveway where wood can be dropped off and I'm happy to pay a few quid for decent delivery. Space for about 5 or 6 cord for a start, and space for a couple of cord per drop. I'm located in Upper Norwood (between crystal palace, Thornton heath and streatham common), it's southern edge of SE19. So if you are working nearby ( SE19, SE25, Cr0 CR7, SW16, SE25 are all nearby) and want to drop your waste let me know. You can pm me, or text/ call, zero treble seven, three, nine, eight, nine, double one, two. Thanks Neil