Steven P

How much effort are you wanting to put into the free wood if you get any offers? The more processed it is the more valuable it is. So you are unlikely to get kiln dried spit and ready to burn logs for free, more likely to get fresh off the tree logs which are wet, will need to be sawn to length then split, and stored for a year to dry. Do you want the logs from a nice pile, drive in load the car, drive out again out are you willing to collect them from where they lie. Wil softwood be OK for you - many people turn their noses up at it, and OK you might need twice the quantity and refuel the stove twice as often (and it will die away quicker once you leave the house) but more likely to get free wood if it is less commercially viable. Have you looked on Gumtree - every now and then there are adverts for free wood, local facebook groups sometimes (and even put an advert on both saying you want logs for firewood (people will confuse old pallets as suitable for a wood burning stove) what about local community land owning groups - community woodlands might be able to help out but you might have to volunteer.. with a chainsaw and take what they clear. Lcoaltree surgeons and if you can take wood from site or dumped from the back of their van / trailer onto a drive makes it easier for them. However my view, wood is rarely free but it should be cheaper than electricity or gas.. if you can get a supply and can store it and acquire it in bulk then you should be able to get some and maybe a regular supplier. Me, I get some of mine from where the local council tips wood chip (they store it there and use in the parks and so on) the pieces that won't fit through the chipper are left on one side as waste, 24 beer a year for the employees and I get heating for a few months. I have to work for them, chainsaw to length and often splitting 18" to 24" knotted but I don't want to only take the good stuff, I'll take it all to help them reduce the number of skips to take it away each year.

Good idea Spud... I'm just outside Glasgow if that helps anyone (there is a handy enough Stihl dealer just near where I park for work) Thanks for the other suggestions - its due to come inside this week to be sharpened in front of the TV (-3 in the garage tonight, I'm not sitting inactive in there for half an hour!) - so will check the exhaust then

Good evening, taking the opportunity to chop some logs today reminded me to ask this. For a while now my MS181 has sounded tinny when it runs though I can't remember what it sounded like when new - is that a normal sound for this saw or would it indicate a problem I need to look at? (saw is 4 years old, gets light use for firewood and generally still runs well) Thanks

Tomn156 is right, very doable but get a qualified electrician to do the doing.

3 phase to single phase happens all the time (tricky to go the other way round) I would bet that their consumer unit / fuse box has single phase fuses / breakers in -just plug it into one of them. OK when I say 'just plug it in' - depends how you need to be connected, if it needs to be hard wired into the mains suppy get a professional electrician in to do it - might cost a couple of ££ but it will be done safely and will be valid for insurances etc. It mgiht be a circuit somewhere in the workshop with an industrial sockey. Would need something like a 40A / 45A breaker to cope with a 5/5kw motor (I think ) Should be OK to get an electrician in to put in what you need and shouldn't cost too much

If they want to get in then they will So once they are in make it uncomfortable - why have an alarm to alert your phone if you cannot do a thing about that, The last owners here had an alarm called 'blaster' on the fuse board - he took it with them when they moved. Just wondering what the loudest you can have an alarm for internal use. Preferably something that makes your ears bleed. They might grab and run but would they, for example want to spend time in there hooking up mobile plant or lifting a load of chainsaws (I'd keep the ear defenders out of sight though, but near enough just in case you need to get in when the alarm is going off)

Reminds me of a story a blacksmith told me years ago. He'd just done a couple of days work making a steel frame to cover the front of a set of office drawers (they contained the paper work for a court case - can't remember what at the moment, a celebrity, murder or something like that). looked good, very secure from the front and made to the design he was given until he pointed out that a domestic can opener would open the back up almost as quick as taking the 3 padlocks off the front. In a previous job we had a couple of warehouses to look after - great until one day we didn't have the keys so the spark showed us where the metal cladding had never been fastened down, could be pulled back and in you went (it was a grain warehouse so not a lot to steal in there unless you were a rat or flying rat) Point is that your only secure a the weakest point - Woodees containers lock and cover were too strong so they went to through the container walls itself. But how far do you have to go to secure your kit? not sure what you can do if they're determined

Not quite - I spotted a DVD once - was with the mrs so didn't check it out too closely. It used to be a right of passage.

Chances are you will be delivering int he winter... so not much luck there then!

I would use it no problem, just on the assumption that other thorns burn well - Hawthorn and blackthorn

Reading this, spark plug out amd the saw turns over mostly OK. Spark plug in and it won't turn over. So ignore things such as flywheels, brakes and clutches - they don't change with the spark plug. The exhaust is still off at the moment? So 2 stroke engine - I might be wrong... piston rises compressing the gas / fuel mix above it, spark happens and gas ignites pushing the piston down again which causes air / gas to move above the piston, piston rises and it all starts again/ The exhaust is an open port after ignition the exhaust gases simply escape through this open port.. To allow the piston to move then, air has to move - move out of the way as the piston moves into a space or move into where the piston was as it moves out of a space., or something could be causing extra friction on the piston. (just writing down my thoughts here) If the piston moves with no spark plug in but is hard otherwise... then there is a hole where the sprark plug was above the piston allwoing air freer movement to above the piston, close the hole and it doesn't move freely. I would be looking at how the air gets in / out of the engine. - There is no exhaust on? So I assume that air exiting is not hindered - Try putting in the spark plug and take off the carb / loosen it (it doesn't need to come al the way off, just a bit), see what that does - it is possible that the fuel pipes are blocked? then try the saw. - If you suspect the spark plug is catching then the piston - pulling the engine over will alternate hard and easy pulling as the cylinder moves past the sopark plug and then leaves it behind. Aldo the soark pug will show some shiny sports where the pisotn rubs it. Hipe that helps - but if it iosn't the spark plug then look at the carb. If it is free to move over with spark plug in but no carb on, pout some fresh fuel through into the lower part og the cylinder - pull it over and wioth luck it should start

Remembering this thread from earlier im the year and just before I move this into the garage for the winter... The boys loved pulling my normal wood pile over so I made them a play house, with 2 rooms and a window.... oh west facing and with the open door facing the prevailing wind it got most of the wood down to a decent level of dryness in 8 months. The Boys don't go near it now!

Cheers, I'll have a look more closely (its a job for the winter and when its fuel tank is empty... it not allowed in t he living rtoom otherwise)

can I sort of hijack this with a quick and related question? My 'spares or repair' - which runs moslty OK (HS65AV), has a clutch problem (and a couple of others too, but I got it cheap for the blades) - the blades are always engaged. So the question is how do you get at the clutch to have a look? I can take off the housing on the starter side (the left), there arw no obviious external bolts on the right side, are the seccuring bolts fastened from the inside? Simpe instructions would hekp. Appologies for hijacking with my quesiotn, I am hoping thr advice would be the same for mine and the OPs headge trimmers

HIding or freezing layers wouldn't leave the contours as boxes with tiny vertivle text. I am guessing the surveyor used AutoCAD + one of the add on softwares. Would the odd terminology be 'proxy graphics'? These are graphics created by the add on software that the main AutoCAD can't display - so it will ask if you want to display them or find the info to display them or something like that tell it 'no' then it will just show the graphics as a box (I don't like them) You could try one of the AutoCAD forums, CAdTutor.net is not too bad (http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/forum.php)

JUst seen this, My view would be that if the employee (with only one job) had been out at the weekend enjoying a hobby and had an injury or picked up an illness that would keep them off work for 12 weeks, would you be asking who should be paying sick leave? Ignoring the cause, as an employer I reckon you are going to have to pay SSP. I reckon their other employer should pay as well. Anything above that is up to you and how much you value them as an employee, however Ialso reckon that their other employer is going to sending them a cheque for compensation shortly too... so not to feel too bad if all you can give is SSP to a very valued employee.. As for gender equality... yes it should happen.

Good evening, I recently got a 'not working so spares or repair' Stihl HS65AV hedge trimmer, because it was a good price (2 hours later and it is a working HS65AV but thats another story). I've also got a HS61 (it is newer than the JS65AV). So a couple of questions: Asuming the HS6x series are basically the same engine, what does the AV mean? (the AV has a different carb and some other small differences, but I reckon that thats because it is an older model) Second question is, is there an archive website with manuals or parts lists for these older machines? Thanks

Standards are not applied backwards, so a change in standard after 2012 won't need to be applied to the existing structue. However the part that is being upgraded will need to comply with the latest standards.

For most people there is no difference between the 2 pieces of software. If you have a 2D plan and want to plot trees, fences or whatever else you want then LT will do you fine. I haven;t used LT for a while, and am not so sure about its 3D ability - however I'll assume the architect just does 2D plans so you'll be OK with that

Only from my personal experience. For awooden block I tenf to go a bit lower than the other answers here - so that the top of the log I am spliyying is jnee height - but moslty this is because that is the size of logs with a decent diameter that I can get. Wood - at the moment I think it is willow, but again depends what I can pick up. Willow os quite good since it worn't split easily and quite light to move about Axes... the free big axe we rescued after a burglary, no idea of brand though, I didn't get on with the maul. Since it is a splitting axer and not used for felling it doesn't need to be mega sharp (you will soon find out where to hit the wood to make it split the best) Hand aze, just a cheap one from b&Q, wooden handle, again since it is for splitting it doesn't need to be fantastic. Once day I am going to upgrade them both. Saw horse.. Pallets and an old fence. Pick up pallets fom many places for free (just ask them).. Wooden pallets will just get chopped up if you go to far with a saw and it won't get blunt. You don't need much for the basic kit

Defenitly thre blades, Tae the blades off and they are stiff

I'll have a check but wouldn't that let the blades move so far pretty freely and then jam up? These are stiff to move the whole wall. I feel I am going to have another one of those conversations this week "What are you doing" "Watching the film" "No what are you doing with that saw thing in the living room" "Oh, that, I'm watching the film and checking the hedge trimmer blades"

Hi, its a HS61

Thanks so far. I need a new nut anyway now, so will replace the full set and see if this helps. Thats what I thought that they should be tightened properly. I'll try the loctite thing too. Is checking for bent blades simple a case of taking them apart and lining each part up against something straight to see if there is a bend in it? I can see how tightening nuts on bent blades could cause it to be stiff to move, makes sense now you mention it. I guess they could be carefully persuaded to be straight if they are bent a bit Oil stands to reason of course and it has had a variety of oils while I have had it but non appear to make it easier to move, similarly it was well cleaned when I put the blades back together so the surfaces should be OK to move against each other So a couple of things for me to think about so far, thanks.

Yes, they're back in