Witterings

It wasn't disbelief .. it was just the 1st time I'd seen a comment along those lines and you often get people in forums who don't really know what they're talking about making a comment for the sake of it so thought I'd check it out. Now this is where I have egg on my face ... I missed your sign off of 22 years+ Garden Machinery Main Dealer ... So I look like the numpty now 😄 Seriously though, a BIG thank you for mentioning, could save me from an expensive mistake and really appreciated 👍

I was sceptical as to why this would happen and just spoke to a dealership who do extensive servicing as well and they confirmed it. Guess it comes down to a trade off of how much work there is to do and if it's worth the saving in fuel as chances are it'll need a service / replacement parts if I then revert to Aspen which'd cost about £60. There's also the hassle / time element of taking it there / picking up it up which equates to lost income as not working. The alternative of running it just on normal fuel and then leaving it for long periods unused is likely to cause more extensive problems with a much bigger repair bill. Think I'm going to take the view I got a sh1t load of Oak for next to nothing and paying a bit more for Aspen vs what the wood will save me in gas bills is absolutely huge. Cheers to everyone for their help though and will use the Esso fuel for lawn mower and any other garden tools in the future.

That's what I was thinking, run it till it's dry, put a small amout of Aspen in and run it a bit more when I know there's then going to be a gap in between uses. Does anybody know what teh difference is then between Aspen and Ethanol free and does the latter last / safe to leave in a machine any longer than normal fuel?

Cheers to all for the responses ... didn't mean to pick out one reply (and sorry for the ignorance I'm about to display) but when you say Esso fuel .... I'm guessing it means from an Esso garage and they're the only ones that sell it???? Sods law we have every other garage apart from Esso near here .... any idea if it's just the same as some of the higher RON ones at other garages?

I normally use Aspen 2 as there's often breaks in between me using the saw but I've got a shed load to do in a short space of time and and have been going through loads of Aspen and still got lots to do. I was going to just mix normal fuel as it's cheaper, is 97/98 RON "better" for the saw or should I just use the now standard E10. It's a Stihl MS 261. Anyody know if one's better than the other for lawn mowers as well?

I thought wood was generally easier to spilt when fresh, I was doing some over the weekend with a mate and he said he thought it was easier dry and just before we do loads more thought I'd check in case we were making hard work for ourselves. Cheers for the help 👍

Is Oak easier to split when it's fresh cut or been left to dry out a bit for a few months and how long does it take to season ... obviously less time if it's split but is a year long enough or not really?

Must admit I wondered if that may be the problem from the size of chip, I'm using one of the Stihl 2 in 1's to sharpen. I've used them on other saws / chains before and they've been great, I checked what size I needed when I bought this saw. Sure I've got a gauge somewhere so can dig it out and check 👍

Cheers for everyone's input, it's freshly cut Oak and isn't dirty ... The bits I was cutting were much larger than normal and extremely knotty I'm wondering if I'm just not used to cutting bits like that. That said it didn't seem to want to start the cut and there was a smell I've not experienced before ... unless there was something embedded in the trunk I didn't see. I went back to doing some much thinner branches and it was a lot better but also paid attention to if it was chips or dust and it was a half way house. GIven it a quick sharpen and it was back to how it was, I'll just see how it goes but maybe I've never cut anything that hard knotted before. Thank again!

How often do you sharpen your chain and does it vary in whether you're cutting softwood or say Oak? Asking as I noticed quite a difference after 1/2 a tank cutting all Oak but to do it it that regularly you'de hardly get anything done.

I bought a Forest Master 7 ton electric splitter and tried it for the 1st time today. Initial impressions it seems pretty good apart from the spot welding on the guide rails and it's already broken / pushed away on each side, surely would have been much better to have welded the whole length so nothing could get between the deck and guide rail. I've taken some pics, may ask them to send me a replacement deck and get it welded properly before using it. My wrists are feeling a lot better tonight than the last time I split a load of logs so overall happy 🙂

I was having a look at the Kinetics again and watched a video of the one you had, whar about it aggravated your wrists do you think, certainly that model they seem to "slam" the levers back / forward reasonable hard do you think it was that? There are others that don't seem to requite the "slamming" action which I would have thought would be easier on teh wrists if so?

Wish I knew that before I went ass over tit on the ice covered pathway at the weekend 😆

Where do you dump your stove ash? I've seen quite a few comments about spreading it in your flowerbeds as it's good for the plants but we don't have any flowerbeds to speak of. I've been piling it in one corner in the garden and it just keeps growing and is a pile of horrible mush when it rains. I was thinking the easiest is chuck it in the green - garden waste bin as it's not being filled with grass in the winter .... unless anybody knows of any reasons I shouldn't?

Cheers for that, it's exactly what I'm trying to avoid 👍