Dan Maynard

Yeah if you don't have a tipper as well I would also look into local guys who'll do chipper and tipper on a day rate as they can be good value - the next obvious question when you've got a 230 hired is what to do with all the chip.

I usually use Ben Burgess, their website lists £135+Vat plus fuel. The machines have been really good, low hours, sharp blades, clean and for me handy as only a few miles from home. Only other thing to factor in is hired in plant insurance, I have it added to my tools policy as cheapest way over the year but you need to ensure you're covered if it gets nicked or even someone runs into it on the road as it's an £18k machine.

It's been said before it's confusing how the old 150s command such a high price. Seeing as the design is over 20 years old you might think they have been improved on and well, they have. Newer chippers get through stuff faster. The only good thing I guess is if you come to sell it on in a couple of years then you should more or less get your money back (unless we're all in recession). Similar question in a way for me as not full time, I've gone for gravity fed chipper. Much cheaper to get a reliable machine, I just couldn't justify the money to buy and insure a big chipper and worried that if there's a repair bill on hydraulics, flywheel etc could be thousands. Realistically for 90% of what I do, smaller trees, hedges etc M500 is absolutely fine and if I get a bigger job on then I hire in a TW230 for a day. So I'd say no, don't buy a ragged old 150 but rather start with a CS100 or M500 if you can find one and then chop it in when you eventually go full time and the business warrants it. Maybe depends when that will be I guess.

I've friends up the road who took over the kennel/cattery, he used to be a head chef in a London restaurant so never saw his kids, running his own business with his wife was less stressful meant a lot more time seeing the family. They shut down for a month every January, not many people using it and then they get to have a break. I think the virus has buggered their business though, they were selling fruit and veg for a while and I don't like to say where it will all end.

I think the Stihl has a date on and specified to last 7 years, but I think that's just Germans being thorough - as Stubby said can't really imagine it going off. Unless you have bio-oil, then anything could happen.

I buy Stihl fully synthetic from L&S in 5l cans, they start off cheaper than Jones etc and when you buy 4 you get 17% off. That makes it about £45+vat which is quite a bit cheaper than a 20l can anywhere else, but factor in paying for delivery so wait till you need some other bits. I can confirm bars last a long time, can't tell you if it is longer than with cheaper oil as haven't run other oil for 5 years to compare.

Ash is a funny one, it's known for being easy to split and that is mostly true. Every now and then though you get one which really isn't - springy and tough and stringy to pull apart. Cut the rings shorter is another good idea, makes it much easier. You can even go to 4 inch and then not split down as far, make log shapes with the grain sideways if that makes sense. All burns.

Agreed, look a bit fresh to me as well. The split faces especially in B, and there's a bit of ivy on the log in C which hasn't dried out. I think the previous owners have left the green unsplit logs behind, which is nice but is low value stuff I wouldn't bother shifting either. Best to split everything and stack for next winter, it will all burn just fine. Buy in some dry wood for now, then at least you know where you are and you're not tarring up the chimney.

That does look great. "like" and "hawthorn" not two words I put together very much, you hedgelayers are a rare breed.

Last Sunday I subbed as climber to take 25% off the top of two pines and "bring the sides in a bit". Apparently while I was up the second one the customer had already asked for a price to fell the first, it looked so awful. I wouldn't mind but it would have been so much easier to dismantle the whole thing in the first place than untangle the top and fight it down over the rest of the tree. I don't think you can ever shape it in really as the corners go thin, so the only possibility is the flat top cut-in-half conifer look. Then snip in the longer laterals. I would price the reduction the same as the fell and let them decide.

If you hammer the back of an axe you will end up distorting the hole and the handle will loosen, it's not a great practice. Better to get a couple of wedges. The other tip is split everything as green as possible, for example beech is used for chopping boards once seasoned partly because it's hard as hell but splits quite easy green.

I think its certainly in later life phase, can it be restored to a perfect tree then no. On the other hand it is growing new callous tissue, could have 10 or 20 years of life left and provide habitat for invertebrates and fungi. Unless it's going to fall on the house I personally would keep it and just prune to stop it getting too big. It is quite possibly not fruiting because of poor pruning last year. But it's a personal thing, depends what kind of garden tree you want.

It may be, the problem with hydrogen has always been it's dangerous. I did see a thing about people making a petrol substitute using solar energy, that seems to me to have all the advantages including low CO2, good energy density, existing machines and cars can use it, provides a way to store and transport solar energy, no future lithium wars, no huge holes in the ground.

Yeah that's a very good point. I'm going to pick 25% as a thermal efficiency of a chainsaw engine, think it will be something around that. So we're down to 50 batteries for the day. I'd still rather carry the petrol.

Finally got to taking down the memorial cedar in the churchyard which dropped a limb in February. Second pic is what I reduced it to with one pair of batteries in 36v Makita, took up 201 for last bit in the rain before felling the pole. Third pic shows the slice from below the union which split in two all on its own, so a nice crack had been developing over the summer. Definitely think it would have dropped another lump this winter. All gravestones still standing and it stopped raining again at the end. Happy days.

250 seconds cutting time? Petrol has 34MJ per litre, the battery 1.6MJ. The 881 petrol tank at 1.3litres contains the energy of 27 of those batteries. Or if you go into forestry, or milling like RoughHewn and carry two 5 litre jerries for the day, that's the equivalent of 212 batteries. The motor is fine, power density of electric motors has probably always been better than internal combustion engines. The problem is the amount of energy in a battery, and the fact that if you don't change the saw chain then at the end of the day you need the same amount of energy to drive the same chain to do the same job. Seems far away to me.

The problem is your 20Ah 22.2v battery has about 1.6MJ on those ratings. The 881 power of 6.4kW would need to run 290 amps at 22.2v and the battery would last about 250 seconds. There is such a lot of energy in a tank of petrol, batteries are 10 times off the mark as against energy required by the bigger saws. Vehicle technology has adapted by allocating a lot more of the vehicle mass to energy storage, not really going to work on a portable tool. Consumer tech has adapted by electronics getting hundreds of times more efficient, phone batteries don't have any more energy in today than they did 10 years ago. I remain to be convinced that big saws will go battery. The chain is essentially the same as it was 40 years ago, only advance is narrower gauge on smaller bars.

Opinions as they say.... I would say £300 is a bargain, £500 is strong money as nearer to price of a new saw. Find a middle ground you're both happy with. Definitely a strong saw if it's in good nick.

365xtorq is a bit of a plodder compared to 372 though. If it was the same money I'd buy the MS400 for more power, less weight, and probably better fuel consumption, not necessarily the vibes.

Also, how dirty is the wood? Makes a big difference, you might need a quick sharpen every tank if it's bad. In that case buy some Oregon or Stihl (ie quality) semi-chisel chain, it's easier to sharpen and holds the edge longer at the penalty of cutting slightly slower (say 5 or 10%) compared to razor sharp full chisel. If you have no interest in sharpening then Rotatech semi is possible, but it's going to work out more expensive to swap chains which are dull rather than sharpen. You shouldn't be changing bars very often unless you are abusing the chain and forcing it in to the cut.

Still got a couple of years to buy one anyway. I found the announcement on Makita site but not on Dolmar, I'm wondering if they will effectively split the branding back up so Makita is battery and Dolmar petrol, otherwise they might sell off Dolmar again. Seems a bit odd to just scrap the existing products, then again the 6100 and 73/7910 saws are quite old design now so maybe they just don't feel it's justfied to develop a new generation.

My guess is that regardless of when manufactured, they would need to comply with emissions and safety regs at the time of registration. That means no chance, because the rules have all changed since 2012. If you had a base vehicle though with rotten bulkhead, chassis and knackered engine I don't see why you couldn't use a lot of the parts. Don't know how much they are selling for though, so whether that's good value or not.

Well, good to know the answer, thanks.

The Makita saws have little or nothing to do with construction products. Dolmar started making chainsaws in the 20s just before Stihl, unfortunately they didn't stay in family ownership, got sold to Sachs and then Makita. They are made in the Dolmar factory in Hamburg.

Yes, Panther bars from Rob are available with correct pitch, that's what I put in my Makita battery saw. A556-001710 Echo CS-2511 1/4" Drive Sprocket - Drive 1/4 .043 Chains WWW.CHAINSAWBARS.CO.UK 1/4 Drive Sprocket for the Echo CS-2511 TES and Echo CS-2511 WES. This allows you to run either the 8"/10"/12"/14" Panther Mini Bars