Acerforestry

I have looked into the above but can't find any definite way of resolving. I recently bought a second hand, clean and low hours 562xp. First few occasions use it started fine, and now I will find that tomorrow am it might start, it may not - or it might start first thing, and then not again later in the day. Completely random, will not even pop on choke, let alone tick over. Any ideas please, trying to establish if this is a common fault

I've got a pair of Arbpro about 3 months in, a colleague has a pair that at two years old are still going strong. Mine cost 190 I think in a sale so even with the discount are still more than the Fitwells, looking at them i reckon the quality is going to be comparable

Flat out...hand cutting, logs, some arb...too much with a very achy back

Used 562XP, canicross running gear (but too knackered to use it this week)

If you intend to start in forestry / hand cutting, bare minimum for most sites is CS30 / 31 (chainsaw maintenance, cross cutting and small felling, I think they now use different numbers in relation to tickets), plus first aid for forestry. That will get you statrted, shop around a little for prices as they vary a fair deal. Good luck

Christ the thing is spares repairs on fleabay then! It's only worth 200 in running order

Thanks spud, probably should have mentioned I can handle most of the strip down and a mate is an ag engineer, he would reassemble. That said, apparently the parts are steep anyway according to the Husky dealer

I use a couple of Mk1 Husky 545's for small felling, this am. one stopped dead in the woods and on stripping it down the clutch just fell on the floor when the brake cover came off. The crankshaft sheared just above the height of the needle bearing; is this really a viable or worthwhile repair considering the saw has a fair few hundred hours on it, I rang a local dealer for a price on a crank, but not heard back yet.

As said in several posts early on, I used a Mk2 for the first time on Monday and power-wise it felt more like a 560 - I'll be buying one and the cheapest i can see so far is around 520 quid from garden machinery limited, though with a 13 bar. The chain speed must be off the scale with something that small, it ran bloody well with an 18

Ok some interesting points - I did note that biochar appears to be quite a buzzword, I was told by the bloke who ran the hedge laying course I was on the other week that there is a charcoal festival in Sussex in the summer, but damned if I could find any info.

I agree. I cut mainly sweet chestnut poles (sned off branches, leave stem in entirety down to about 2 inch top diameter) for fence manufacturing - although there is less cuts than for product, dragging and sliding entire trees around isn't great for your back, hips or knees. Hand cutting generally is hard, if you can make 180 a day in East Anglia that's a higher rate than in most of the country

I'm using the term incorrectly, if we are to be pedantic (don't take that the wrong way!) - I mean a few cubic metre bags of processed hardwood. split (that has just come in, as cordwood). I disagree that smaller quantities can't be beneficially lowered in moisture a a damn sight quicker than any other way other than a proper log kiln will do - my storage space is limited and arb arisings / the odd birch from coppicing come up frequently through the winter, and we don't all have huge yards. If you want said wood to be gone this season, how else are you going to do it? I don't have any covered storage other than one end of a polytunnel, so i will give this a shot. And I reckon it will work

Since I'm now over the half century and still in the woods hand cutting at least some of the time, my attention getting drawn (for very necessary reasons) to other ways of supplementing my income in addition to shoving chestnut trees over all day. Have many other on here had much financial success in commercial production of either or both, charcoal and bio char. I have access to considerable amounts of waste wood that is suitable for both applications, and I like the general ethos. Also have somewhere to site a decent sized kiln. Is this something of a road to nowhere or worth a shot, thoughts on this please

Ok, so I don't have the space to site a steel container to convert to a log kiln, in fact as I only only shift a limited amount of firewood I wouldn't really have the need for one I guess. But I'm curious, would an old domestic heating oil tank convert into a mini log drier (I'm going to avoid the word kiln now as it may not be properly applicable). I'm only really proposing that if at least it stripped at least some of the moisture out of green-ish cord it might be a worthwhile idea as there is an abandoned tank at my yard; take an angle grinder to one of the side walls to form a hinged door, weld a mesh floor in a few inches high. Drill some ventialtion holes and do a makeshift chimney. Finally put a small log stove in one end that can run on dried waste. There wouldn't be room for fans but is there any reason why that couldn't work at least to a degree? If i'm at the yard on and off for hours some days anyway it wouldn't be a hardship to keep feeding the stove.

Andrew Cervino's, comfy, light and last well