Dan Maynard

Not very familiar with these saws but there clutch is a pretty simple assembly. Either the springs you are putting in are bad, wrongly installed, or there must be something wrong with one or more of the other components. Are you fitting genuine parts as a set? Otherwise go on L&S Engineers and buy a new clutch assembly, sprocket and bearing - they are all wear parts.

No mate, keep that under the bed now.

Thanks for the sympathy guys, been busy welding locks on the outside of the door. It was indeed the grinder I bought off Mark Bolam and it's been a handy machine to have. The feeling that they what else is there is what leaves me most disturbed, will be spending some more on security even though I know you can only keep em out so much.

Get a flatbed, pop the wheels off an old caravan, couple of ratchet straps, jobs a good'un.

It looks like a fairly dry site, I don't know what kind of summers you have had over the last few years but willows are thirsty trees. If it is just too dry for such a large tree then maybe not much you can do beyond mulching, unlikely you would be able to water a willow enough to keep it happy.

My turn on Thursday night, broken in steel security door and taken only the grinder. Left laptops etc in the office, moved the splitter out of the way so feels very targeted. It happened between 8.30 and 9.30 in the evening, on the village green which kind of beggars belief too.

Breatheflex pro are worth the extra money over Breatheflex based on how mine are lasting. Available in long leg option if you're tall which was the clincher for me.

Finally did it, dropped off with Spud for 372 conversion and porting. Picked up Sunday and luckily ash stem to ring up Monday morning. Thanks to Spud, totally transformed the saw - another happy customer!

Thanks guys, I think you are right the tree is one thing and the story behind it doesn't change the fact it's knackered. Good idea to mill it as well, the stem isn't that tall to the break but is about 2 foot diameter so may yield enough timber for a bench. Worth milling it to see how the boards come out anyway.

Now I'm trying to decide what to recommend for what's left. The way I see it there is now a huge wound in the stem so the medium to long term it will decay and fall apart. There are gravestones and a footpath so targets aplenty. In this picture you can see the crack on the left and I suspect the branch to the right could go as well. Seems like it might need to come down altogether - one problem is it was planted in memory of the local tree surgeon who fell out of a tree and died about 40 years ago, his daughter still lives in the village.

Must be a day for cedars. Branch shed off this one in our churchyard, the limb in the centre of this picture is now cracked at the base so I roped it this morning and will remove it tomorrow.

Yes, that's the kind of thing. Battery powered and then you just wrap the sense wire around one of the HT leads a few times and secure with a cable tie. Trickiest bit will be mounting it somewhere nicely.

Which September?

I found some Australian bloke with 18 and 36 on YouTube. The 36 looks like it has monster torque by comparison, the 18v wasn't that happy cutting 4" pine posts. I guess the main point of the 18v is being more compact and lighter, I'm thinking it could still be good for conifer hedge bashing.

If London didn't have lower particulates then the LEZ would be a waste of time I guess.

We have Ben Burgess near us that hire out road tow splitter for £95 a day so I guess that sets an upper limit.

Answered that on the other thread.

I used to have this but not as bad as you, now wear a Sawpod which means plastic Silky scabbard protecting the leg.

I had a Brian James trailer nicked, Trust paid out very promptly. No quibble but it was in a locked compound per the requirements so sent in photos of bust locks etc. Premium went up a lot the year after but I had also bought more kit to be fair.

If the weather man's right there'll be more windblown in there on Sunday!

I wouldn't mess about with a pole saw, fence out.

There are nearly no rules, in the RAMS I have seen in engineering as long as you put it in a nice table and follow some sort of logical structure it will be fine. When you know the job it's easy to get absorbed by the detail but they really need to know much more of an overview than that - climb or mewp, fell from the ground or section fell, handheld or rig or crane. I would put a section for tree risk assessment when you get there and then consider other possible hazards like powerlines nearby, traffic, footpaths, that kind of thing. Main equipment will be chainsaws and chipper I guess. I've never seen one really detail the tasks, for example when I go in to a factory to fix a machine I don't know what's wrong with it until I take bits off so the RAMS will just say working with hand tools to dismantle and repair. It's pointless trying to put too much detail, as you say. 95% of it is having a piece of paper for them to file to keep the clipboard holders happy.

Can't polish a turd? Don't know if that might make more sense in French?

I put the ninja on my right boot, HAAS loop around the left boot and elastic clipped to HC (HAAS appears to be a left hand CT). Not messed around with SRT yet, just used this way for longer ascents on doubled rope to save my arms. The HAAS may be a bit expensive but it has always just worked every time, I'm 6 foot 7 and no adjustments required beyond opening the foot loop to max. Also never used ascender with spikes, just always spiked up the stem.

Or maybe hedging? Agreed though, I'd have a 261 or 241 if you want lighter.