sidekickdmr

A new fence I laid about 6-12 months ago in our woods and the surrounding holly trees seems to be increasingly covered in these little shiny bugs. Any ideas what they are?

I'll upload some pics, but they are some mega trees, dead straight and the base must be a good 1.5-2m wide on some of the big boys

Yes I’ve come in for some probably well deserved slack here, but purposefully made it sound worse than it is. i reckon there is a good 20-30 ton of wood here, by my math that’s a good £1,500 of good straight wood value winching wise, again I was being worse case, all the trees are within 10m from the track and downhill to the track, a forwarder could probably just grab them and load

Good Afternoon Guys and Gals, Own a 13 acre woodland in North Devon, I stay on top of most of the upkeep and maintenance, but I have a gaggle of about 15 large trees I would like felled and removed. Some are blocking all the light to our cottage, some are on the way out and our arborist said they dont have long left and best to extract. I have no need for the timber, nor anywhere to store the logs, so im hoping to find someone that can fell and remove the timer as payment. They are mostly Douglas fir and scots pine, with I think 1 beach and 1 ash in there too. There is a lane to next to the trees, but not for a lorry, tractor and trailer probably fine, plus due to the steepness of the site, some winching will be needed. Whats my chances of the above happening? Thanks Kieran

Radmore think this is the issue, I followed the hand book and pressed in the decomp valve to start. They say the book is wrong and I shouldn't have done that and will have flooded the engine. Will de-flood and try again and report back before I give up

?Well that didn't go well Saw arrived on Friday, fired it up on arrival and gave it a good rev for circa 20 seconds, all good, if a little lumpy compared to my husky, then shut it down and left it till Sunday, when luck would have it, a branch came down over a path, and a good chance for my new toy. For love nor money, I couldn't start it, Id read the manual on Friday, knew exactly what i should do, it just wouldn't even cough, had to go back and use the husky. Tried again today, dead as a dodo, emailed radmore and awaiting a response, I'm half tempted to chop it for a husky 365 now, thoughts?

To bring this thread to a long overdue conclusion, I waited for more stock, and ensured the recall was sorted before, but ended up buying a 7900 from Radmore and Tucker, will report back when its arrived and I have used it. Thanks for the help and advice all, I wouldn't have considered a Makita if it wasn't for this forum.

You still looking Neil? I know a guy that is always offering chip for free

Was damn tempted with that ebay Makita 7900, so started to do some research and the first thing I found was this Recall on that model, meaning that before I should use it, I would have to contact Makita, get replacement parts sent out etc, thats even if they would deal with me, on a used saw with no proof of purchase http://www.makitauk.com/chainsaw-recall.html

Thanks guys, seems a 462 with a 20” bar is a great bet and gets some good votes. Anything else similar/almost as powerful but more in the £500-600 range? Thanks again for all your help ?

I tried some Rotatech chains on my husky but experienced a problem I haven't had with any other chains, the guide bar groove and end wheel would be absolutely full of crud and seized after no more than 20 mins work, requiring a stripdown and clean out, tried both chains and had the same issue, returned to by husky chain and it was fine again.

I've done my groundworking chainsaw course, got certificate etc, learnt how to sharpen and maintain from the pros and as I said above, wont be doing any felling, esp nothing remotely large. I do get the pros in a lot for the stuff I cant do (had a team of 4 here for 2 days just last week) but thats part of the issue, they come in and fell a tree, or make a fallen tree safe, then leave me with a mountain of wood to process, most of which big stuff my saw cant manage. It's not a case of considering a bigger saw, my 435 is just underpowered, I need a bigger saw for processing larger logs.

Biggest I will be cutting, I guess that ash trunk at about 2m, however I'm happy to get a 20" bar and leave the occasional bigger stuff to the pros, if that means a more suitable saw for 90% of the jobs. I would say, on average, this saw will be attacking 20-80cm trunks/branches, smaller I would use the 235, bigger happy to leave or get the pros. In regards to my sharpening, I do take my time and do it as well as I can, but that day, with the long cutting times for the hard beech, it was a brand new official husky chain that very morning.

I am a forest owner, managing my 13 acres of dense ancient woodland, rather than a professional as such. However it is needing a LOT of work and upkeep, so I'm out there most days, so pretty demanding on my equipment. I currently only have a Husqvarna 435, which is a small 15" hobby saw, and struggling with the amount of work I'm throwing at it, and knackering me in the process (takes about 2-3 mins sawing to get through one 20cm beech trunk the other day.) Therefore I'm after a bigger saw, to handle the bigger cuts, we are not talking much felling, mostly dealing with the stuff that has, or will fall, and some general clearance. Oak, ash, beech and fir mostly, but some monsters, trunk of an ash that came down a month or two back must be 1.5-2M wide. Im looking at the Stihl MS441c-m 70.7CC 25" at the moment, seems to tick most boxes, apart from the £900 cost, or perhaps the MS391 20" or Husky 365 20" if i want to save a couple of hundred £££ Thoughts on the best saw for my situation? Thanks Kieran