Dan Maynard
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Everything posted by Dan Maynard
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That does look great. "like" and "hawthorn" not two words I put together very much, you hedgelayers are a rare breed.
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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.
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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.
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Hollow section and woodworm
Dan Maynard replied to waitingforsam's question in Homeowners Tree Advice Forum
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Well, good to know the answer, thanks.
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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.
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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
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The Arbotec Pro trousers are a whole lot tougher than the standard ones, which tend to tear if you stare at them too hard. Pros also improved with stretch panels under the crotch so you can move your legs, so much better for climbing.
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Airport? Hmmm. I remember Eastleigh Airport, now called Southampton International Airport.
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I am confused by the idea of flying to the Isle of Wight. Grew up within sight of the Needles (on the mainland) and back then it was ferry or ferry. Or sail yourself in a dinghy, which we did a few times as an adventure.
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Do you want to buy new or secondhand? £2k is about the secondhand rate for machines like Predator 360, Carlton Rayco etc. I would say they are all ok on smaller stumps, I like the turntable on the predator as it's easier to swing than moving wheel through the chip. These machines are £4k ish new. The £1k new Chinese machines do apparently work, just going to need more fixing and maybe not last as long.
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I bought mine just before the 462 came out and initially wondered if that was a good move, but it's a different saw. The 462 is short stroke fast rev (in a way more similar to the 441 spec) whereas the 461 has quite long stroke and hence high torque, pulls 25" very happily. Now it's had a good amount of work and loosened up I think it's a great saw.
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All's well that ends well. Maybe a dab of grease or vaseline on the pin to discourage it from rusting again?
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Well they can slow you down by putting a TPO on the tree. You would then be into those realms discussed on a recent thread as to whether the loss of light constitutes a nuisance and therefore exemption. Is it about the phrase cut back to boundary? That implies flat side on the tree which will look ugly, you could properly reduce to just about the fence line and have some shape to the tree?
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Maybe, maybe not. I wouldn't rush with an oak tree, even dead branches might take decades to fall off.
