Dan Maynard

I had a customer with a willow covered in wasps and weird black things that I thought was fungus at first, turned out to be black aphids. Didn't know there were such a thing as these jet black aphids.

We used to sleeve smaller motor shafts quite a bit in automation, to get things matching up. I guess the problem here would be the drive is probably through a key, and a sleeve would only be 1/16 wall thickness. Is it a pulley drive? Might be possible to buy new pulley with same outer but correct hole.

Fair point I've never taken my M500 through a house, I'm working around the villages locally so just never comes up.

If you're set on second hand then 461 is a good choice, old school durable and repairable so good ones are still fairly strong money. The 462 is modern lighter design, quicker but probably not going to last as well (I guess time will tell). 046 or 460 are going to be pretty old by now.

Would certainly be interesting to try resistive load, ideal would be a small heater, iron, travel kettle, something like that. I was just pondering if there's a problem with the governor mechanism, as when you increase the load it should increase fuel to keep the revs up. Could be something sticking because the machine hasn't been used much? Otherwise it's something else, like you say elimination process. I hired a stump grinder once which would cut out randomly as I got deeper, first thought low oil as they have a switch. Turned out actually the wire from the oil switch rubbing on the engine block had gone through the insulation on a corner so when the machine leaned the wire moved slightly and shorted out.

Is it not worth a carb kit before scrapping it? You said the diaphragm felt too hard in an earlier post, could be the problem.

The balance point will shift forward too, ahead of the front handle so I think it would feel weird to use, always trying to nose dive.

Rings don't dry well, and in a way 6 months isn't a good measure - obviously 6 months of winter doesn't dry the wood as much as 6 months of summer. If it's all split now and has the summer sun I'd say will be ok next winter. Other thing, wildlife tends to find niches so any bugs enjoying dryish dead wood are unlikely to like fresh trees. I really wouldn't worry about things spreading around like that, the niche in the trees is already being exploited and fought over by other bugs.

This would be my guess too.

Top tip, the clutch is a left hand thread. Good that you're homing in on the problem. I think have the cylinder off next, check out the piston and cylinder as may have been FUBARd by the air leak, or may be ok. If it needs piston and cylinder then work out price and how keen you still are to carry on before doing anything else. On the other hand could be the cylinder cleans up and a new piston not too expensive so still viable. Cylinder off, imo.

I've got the metal frame rigid ones, they're a bit of a pain to carry around but much more stable and durable than the three leg floppy ones. When the trailers full I just lay them on top of the chip so size not been a big problem.

My son is 20 now, as soon he could he started working in pubs as a waiter to earn money to spend on bikes, but lockdown closed all the pubs. As a cycling nut I suggested he started cycle repairs, now been doing that 3 years as a sideline to university and earns far more in less time, and it's much more flexible. He just started with local Facebook page advert, and Network Neighborhood posts. Fairly soon word of mouth spread and he has enough work. He puts a post up just before the start of each holiday and half a dozen bikes appear from nowhere. Go for it, just be honest and straightforward with people and do a good job.

Hey, welcome to arbtalk! To be honest I think I partly meant bit strange to get a review out of nowhere, but it is interesting to see how the narrow chippers are evolving. It seems to me for a while after release the CS100, Haeksler, JoBeau ranges didn't change much, then the Chinese chippers have swept through, now the European ones are evolving so I also noticed Haeksler have brought out some different hp models and also an electric drive, Greenmech have brought out the CS80, JoBeau seem to have tweaked models but not changed much. I would say M500 is absolutely the same category - narrow access , 12cm chipping, same hp as the Foxwood. Like you I do my own jobs part time, I see all the advantages of a narrow access chipper, save a lot of dragging etc etc. Price wise I guess it's the most expensive of the bunch being European built and hydrostatic drive but to me the drive is almost essential, makes moving it around safer and effortless. Thursdays job was bits and pieces round a sloping churchyard, would have been a right ballache dragging everything back up the hill at the end. Also 50cm blades are expensive but it means that any Y you can bend and fit in the hopper is going to go straight down and chip, this saves a lot of snedding.

M500s are up to 25hp now as well, he said in the video the biggest hp he could find was 18. You're right though, bit of a strange story/review.

Tell him I'll do it for £600. We had a song and dance over money last week, reasonable size job but customer has range rover and Bentley on the drive. Difficult to figure sometimes.

Depending where you are in the country, I would guess the late frosts burned the buds. Cross fingers and leave it be, cherry seem to sometimes just die so could go either way. Taking off deadwood won't make any difference to the tree but may improve the appearance.

Could maybe take some cuttings?

That's a good idea. Thing I'm thinking is if doing all that work to the carb made no difference then the problem is elsewhere, seems next most likely to me either scored piston so no compression or it's fighting an air leak.

Can't see any reason you'd add red, at least use green Super.

The US version of Ultra is a different animal, even different JASO rating. I seem to see lots of Ultra bashing videos but personally don't see the problem, I've run plenty and it's fine as have all the people who've run gallons and gallons of Motomix. YMMV as they say.

Have you looked at the piston?

What's the history of the saw? Did you buy it new or secondhand? The other recent 261 thread was resolved because the wrong flywheel had been fitted by a previous owner. If it's not fuel system then it's got to be something else, pressure vac and compression tests like @pleasant said earlier. Piston scored? Seals? By the sound of it you don't know it's making power at WOT just that it runs.

Is the idea of hydraulic drive to be more reliable than belts etc? I don't think I've ever seen FSI for hire, they seem to prefer cheaper machines and then move them on before going wrong.

Have you spoken to QRMS or Rotatech? They make pattern carbide teeth so if there is really a demand they might start this type. Other option maybe getting new tips brazed on the arms by a carbide tooling specialist but probably not be cheap. Or, what shape are they? Close enough to another brand to improvise?

Like it on my 461 though