Dan Maynard

Thing is they don't make these any more, so I guess if you can find one a 661 would be the alternative to repair.

I'm not experienced with mewps but a couple of times I've done deadwooding in an avenue of fairly big limes, pretty awkward climb as near vertical branches and loads of epi stopping normal rope wrangling. I reckon a mewp would have easily doubled but even three or four times the work could have been done. Even just plonking a climber in the top of each tree would have been magic. I'm not sure how you can pick the jobs like that though, so many other days are apple trees or tight back gardens.

I reckon the 17m will if we get right below so going straight up. Anyway, I can always take some steps up with me if not quite high enough.

I hope so, thinking of hiring one as I have to fix the church clock back on. Seems Nifty can be had for about a third of the hire charge of a tracked machine.

Most people don't see trees until they are looking at buying or have a problem. There are many many bigger trees closer to houses than this which go unnoticed. There is a risk of the tree falling over and demolishing the house at some future point, but you've got to be proportionate about it. Far higher risks are things like falling over taking the wheelie bins out, car crash, DIY, ladders - and as for motorbikes, well don't get me started. Enjoy the tree and good luck with everything else in the house.

Are you checking their website? They often say out of stock for Makita stuff but can get parts in a few days. This happened with oil pump and brake handle for my 9010.

Also seem to have big surface roots, which lift patio slabs

I think Jameson are one of the well-known old brands, yes. Utility guys use fibreglass for insulation, we don't need that so aluminium tube is fine. I've used some Silky 7m poles, it was maybe easier than climbing but I'm not sure about that. Hellish difficult to control when at any kind of angle and quite a weight. You're moving the weight up and down each stroke of the saw so gets tiring. Get a 4m pole and an A frame ladder and you can reach quite far, obviously be careful what you cut off and have someone stand on the ladder for security.

Think mine was £300 on the nose 3 or 4 years ago, yes.

Cheapest reasonable quality but not bad 4m - Wolf garten Bahco Pradines good midrange, Silky top price and performance. I wouldn't go bonkers long, 4 or 5m is enough for most jobs. Longer gets heavier, harder to control, and more tiring.

Hmm, good point some air filters are oiled but OP said thick creamy oily paste - that sounds more like oil and water mix to me.

They have decided not to TPO the other 4 trees? They can only TPO or say nothing about a CA tree so if they gave you a decision or 6 weeks expired then crack on would be my view. They can make a separate decision to TPO the same trees after the 6 weeks, so there is some incentive on your part to get them done before that can happen.

£355, or better? That would be same as Radmore and Tucker.

Doesn't sound good. Being a 4 stroke I think the crankcase will be vented to the air intake somewhere so it's possible the oil has made its way up to the filter during transit. You'll know if it cuts out as soon as warms up and smokes like mad but I would have thought the supplier should send a new air filter really.

That'll be the brake tested then. Tick.

Just meant you can't put through with brash if you chipped it already, I don't like the noise of them banging around or the odd one that jumps back out. One of the things I did before painting was to weld up the bottom corners of the chute where the sides had split, so the other reason is after about 15 years it can damage the chute.

In the UK the dry spell has been about 3 years so far. Are you soaking the ground with many litres? If it's dry then it could be good to sink a pipe and run hosepipe slowly into it for half an hour.

I chuck those short bits in with another branch, keeps it straighter and carries it through. Can do this up to about 3" diameter on mine. Just need to make sure you don't leave all the lumps to the end like you might with a roller machine.

Can't see their financial wizards getting prompted after that deal....

I thought of starting a "pimp my chipper" thread, but thought maybe it would just be me. Made this bonnet for my M500 as a lockdown project, and finally got round to repainting the rest of it during the current lull in work. Bonnet makes the chipper far better, stops all the dust and chip going on the engine and being sucked in to the cooling ducts. Also keeps the rain out of the electrics.

That's 3.63 cubic metres for $700, which at $190 a cubic metre doesn't look as bad but still not cheap.

As a subbie I bring my own saws because then I know they're sharp and running well. The firm's saws tend to be like the old adage - everyone thinks someone should sharpen them, and anyone could have, but in the main nobody does it.

Found picture of me trying to get organized.

Yeah I get it, finding someone to actually buy the planks does seem to be the hardest bit, I see people on FB marketplace with loads of stuff up but I just don't have the energy or enthusiasm to do it. OP seems to have found someone to buy for £200, good luck to him. I've pretty much settled on the idea now that I only mill stuff when I want the planks myself. That way I am avoiding giving real money to someone else so there is a definite benefit to me in doing it. Otherwise it's too much time, I'm better off doing more trees than milling so ring up and firewood or get people to collect. I reckon if people can pick up the pieces of wood then it goes so worth cutting down. I chogged down a 25ft tall, 3ft dia beech stem earlier this year which was some decayed and some spalted, was next to a road but to mill I'd have had to hire in some kind of HIAB because of fences power lines etc. Anyway, I cut each ring into 8 chunks and told passers by it was free, people were loading it into their cars, one bloke had a couple on the passenger seat. But almost all the timber was out of the way by the time we left site, instead of 3 or 4 ton to get rid of just had a couple of rings for firewood myself on top of the trailer of sawdust, site done and dusted in one load, happy days. Could have sold it in theory, in practice happy to see it gone and on to the next job.

That's it, I was just thinking rather than a row of pegs along the top put a rail so you slide the anchor along. There's got to be a better way though.