ArborOdyssey

Am loving your thinking!! Would you please share what causes it? I'm gonna go on a limb and share my thoughts... I think most are simply over-doing the muffler mod and losing power, and smooth functionality, in doing so. Just over-doing it a bit shouldn't cause functionality issues but I see the holes people drill they're like 5X the OEM, both Blair & Jennings books make explicit points that for final exhaust-exit the idea would be to err towards too-small, than too-large....power drops-off radically once you go too large, and being too-small doesn't hurt power that bad (within reason, OEM-type I mean, obviously you could artificially choke it, but when working the 2511 just remember the size of exhaust portage it was built-around) Re mufflers I'd love hearing your thoughts on the 2511's, I actually made a youtube on it after seeing so many awful mods but some things/notes I'd wanna share: - Exhaust enters on the right side, and exits there....a baffle wall forces the gas to run to the far side, where there's that expansion bubble("chamber", lol), that's where there's (3) holes in baffle-wall for gas to get into front portion, where travels across front portion to right-side OEM exit... That's making the gas travel, lengthwise, twice. With "an expansion chamber" in the mix. That is *awesome* design. But it's EPA compliant and can be opened-up, but if you go and just bore a hole through the baffle behind the OEM exit you've short-circuited the entire muffler, yes it "breathes easier" now and will piss-rev higher but that's not where power is made, mufflers make power and while we can't benefit from acoustics we certainly can&do rely on backpressure to prevent excessive charge "spill-out"....which is seen when you bore a big hole into the baffle behind the OEM slot! - the muffler//exhaust-flange area is garbage, obviously, with that sharp 90deg bend...but it's also full of sharp edges and actually is a choke point by a few percentiles believe it or not, so if you carefully go port the flange, gasket, heat shield & muffler-intake you can get about 20% more flow into the muffler (and it's far smoother now) - The 3 baffle holes can benefit from being opened, in fact I made my enlarged exit on the front-left so I could access those holes & enlarge them, in hindsight they aren't really that small you could probably "get away" leaving them, but if you do want "true optimum" within the OEM muffler you'd need to: + Fix interfacing at the entrance (exhaust flange/gaskets area) + Open-up some/all of the (3) baffle-wall holes to about 200% of their OEM area as to eliminate most rear-to-front muffler passage; + Open-up the OEM exit (not that wall behind it!) as your only exit, as it's the longest path for the gas to take (yes, this necessitates opening-up the right side so you can get those baffle-holes, and then sealing-up that hole....or splitting the muffler.....I'm going the former path, easier for me) Would love to see how much more HP% a "full" muffler job added, just basic ones seem to be near 20%.... Looks like a proper 2511, unported, should be around 2HP and ported I'm not too familiar w/ the jug but have seen dyno's of 2.5HP, what a machine that's higher HP/LBS than any climbsaw available (impressive as that ratio climbs with displacement, so the 2511 beating 355t or 200t on power/weight when it's just 25cc/5lbs is very impressive!)

Yeah I wouldn't want to try tuning a modified muffler if you have the cat in there, can imagine it'd be a nightmare!! Not just what you mention but just heat-soak from the muff to the cylinder, will admit I'm disappointed in Echo's heat-shielding here it's one of the few "misses" on the unit IMO... Thankfully not all of them have cats (mine didn't) and from what I hear it's easy to remove them. Anyone know if the cat mufflers are otherwise identical? IE a baffle-wall running length-wise, with (3) holes at the far side / left side for the gas to pass from rear chamber to front chamber (and then back across the front portion of muffler to OEM exit portage)

[Note-- I'm a 'merican not in England!!] TL;DR-- If my branch clipped a gutter, and gutter repair was $325 based off a text/SMS quote which was based on the pictures my client sent to "his roofer guy", if I paid my client $325 for it, and on my letterhead he signed-off to my written (verbatim) "Tree work & gutter both 100% settled", can he come back later and say "Oh it turned-out to be $525, you owe me $200 more"?? Thanks!! Ok so I'm very aware it's a bad-look to have this kind of complaint/issue, if it's your damage you should shut up & pay, but there are INCREDIBLY extenuating circumstances here so far as I can see, and furthermore I did pay my only fear here is that, by refusing to work at below-cost rates for him doing another Oak tree, I fear very high likelihood he's going to go "oh well that repair was just quoted at $325, it actually cost $1200, so you can bring that difference by whenever", and I won't/can't work for him anymore because I still cannot tell all of "his tricks", he is a shady guy so far: #1 -- the text that his guy quoted $325 on? That gutter was PULLED DOWN, I - thank god - have the time-stamped before & after pictures, but yeah I walk in the back day 2 and did a double-take, he turned a bumped/bent gutter and pulled it from the ground exposing a bunch of underlayment (which, to me, would say that the quoted-prices damages are partly HIS damages but whatever) #2 -- The rest of house has gotten new roof/gutters, just not this area, it's being done last after trees aren't right over it, and while he DID listen to me and put wood on the concrete patio-pad nearby to protect that, he wouldn't put up a tarp & told me don't worry & explained how that is just being torn-off & replaced once the Oaks are out of the way #3 -- FOUGHT me when I tried paying him, he didn't want to "be square" he wanted me to work it off, I literally had to say "This is money you *have* to take it if I owe you money you cannot refuse it" (not even joking, literally mentioned words "legal tender"!!!) #4 -- He still has a letterhead/billing-form of mine, and had asked me if he could lie and WAY up-mark what he paid, I said No but until I've reclaimed my letterhead he can just mark what he wants, big lesson learned there (IF I am holding that form, this afternoon at his house, because the #'s on it are no longer valid, and it's been superceded by a new contract, IF I have it in my hands I can write VOID on it, right? That's my goal when I go to quote the other Oak today, to reclaim that letterhead...will not say Yes to doing his work, am quoting w/o real intent of doing anything else for him) I won't make an item/# out of him taking my 2511t from the table by the tree and put it in his garage w/o telling me, I leave the site thinking I have everything because I've done my 3rd visual-sweep and only when un-loading do I realize its absence, I speed-back and go to where it was last IE on the table where my fuel/screnches/etc are, a table you have to pass entering&leaving the backyard, anyways it's not there so I figure it's a snowball's chance in hell but figure text him and, sure enough, he tells me he has it in his garage...I was elated at first so it didn't cross my mind that he's also a contractor and, maybe I'm overthinking this, but if I were "trying to help" (ugh) a contractor who was doing work at my place, and he'd showed / explained a badass piece of hardware he had, then he left and supposedly "missed it" and I took it and put it with my tools, I guess that in my mind it would look/be borderline thievery to not let them know that, indeed, I now have their gear in a spot they don't know how to access & have no idea how it got there... Sorry for length the TL;DR should suffice I think, haven't had a problem like this in longer than I can remember, just wanna split from him but he still needs another Oak down so is NOT gonna be happy with me not offering services anymore, am technically going to quote the other one's removal this afternoon, but NOT planning to take the job, not that I expect he'll say Yes to the way higher # I'll quote him, but - even if he does say Yes to it - I've got no doubt that he'd only say Yes if he had a plan to dump that price down (IE why I'm making this thread, as I expect that - at minimum - to goad me into working more for him he'll likely do something like "Oh actually the real price was $600 for that repair, not as nice as the $325 quote I'd gotten at 1st" so it's important to me to learn whether he does/does not still have hold/control/leverage on me!! Thanks a ton for any understandings Re "altering terms after contract is signed"!! Hope everyone's weekend has been going well!!

BTW I love how high-up you got that 1st lock-stitch!! Re tightness, I have to imagine you mean 'wouldn't rotate when-new' right? IE that, from usage, it must rotate freely by now? I was using pre-used TEC so think I would've been a bit afraid of genuinely making it "tight", I mean I made it as tight as I could by hand but so far as using tension on the line first .....man my curiosity is piqued, can't help wonder if I'd have made it tighter or not.....I think I've seen tight eyes as less-than-optimal because you've already removed some of the cord's flex(ie shock-absorption), thankfully these (cordage & hardware) are all so bomb-proof that lil strength losses are pretty meaningless! But I imagine that, with tension on the line, I could've set my 1st brummel about 2 crowns lower, and - in the sling's relaxed position - the TEC around the Safebloc would be tight/under-load at all times, I know that that is (of course) tighter on the eye but makes me wonder about strength / cycles-til-failure if a rope is kept taut....but yeah I doubt that matters as much as further-securing the hardware, will definitely be putting the line under load as you instructed the next time I make a sling!

Beautiful!! What are you using to do that label&heat-shrink? Could you explain a lil more how you did the 'butt' on that? I can see the bury looks to be ~6" (and tapered, if my eyes don't deceive? Looks like it thins starting midway on the left-sticker), am guessing it was basically "Bury, then bunch-up & lock the remainder"? That's basically how I did mine, maybe a 6" splice if that and, with the lil extra few inches, I had to fight it to do a 180 to "backsplice", didn't truly bring it "through" the rope it was too short (by design) but just long enough for me to flip it back into the 'butt' and lock-stitch it in place. I'm gonna have to google because I don't even understand why you'd need a real splice at the end, if the brummel-pocketing is suitable then, after the last brummel, it shouldn't be an issue of strengthening things it should simply be "wrapping up the loose ends" (IE part of me wanted to just do 4 brummels at the end and only leave enough tail for me to lock-stitch into a lil 'ball' directly after the 4th brummel, will definitely be doing so the next time I make an Ultra!) What rope do you run through that? I wish the #2's were just a hair bigger because you cannot get spliced 5/8 through them, and 5/8 responds (friction-wise) very very well to the Lrg rings (actually you can fight the splice through but I mean *fight* it, will take you well over 10sec to work it through, not something you'd wanna mess with while climbing & actually using the thing!) So my Ultra (having just the Lrg's) is only useful for my 1/2 bullrope, until I remove/destroy the splice on my 5/8 at least!

Thanks!! Yeah Poplar's are easy to follow (makes sense, he did create that configuration in the 1st place....LOL if Buckingham can say "The Treesqueeze is patent-pending, nobody else can make these" then Poplar/Boomslang should be able to say the same for Ultra's!) Re eye tightness could you elaborate on the part about pushing a spike through the joint? Do you mean the first brummel-passing? I was following you as you hung one end of the sling w/ a bucket so it was under-load (awesome idea btw) but wanna be sure I get you, I do see that doing that could've made it easier to set my 1st brummel, but setting it by hand wasn't particularly hard at least that's what I thought, if I had help with line tension I don't *think* I would've made that first brummel at a different point but who knows maybe it'd have been a crown tighter (I dislike setting splices with rock-hard eyes around hardware, has always seemed bad for the rope to me, the "creep" of double-braid buries drove me nuts when it'd lock-down onto the 1/2" steel rope-thimbles I use, til I learned how to leave slack to account for it!) I did lock-stitch, I don't do as many passes as recommended but do at least 3 passes perpendicular to the eye (so that the locking is, for sure, going through both cords - the 90deg offset row of lockstitching is, of course, going to be less useful than the line that's going dead-center through both ropes!) I do find locking to be pretty useless though TBH and think I do it more because "I should" than anything, my last batch of friction hitches (Ice Tail) I left one w/o locking (and did this on my prior batch of them) as I'm curious to see if I ever get one to slip, obviously I never use one of these w/o inspection but I've always been that way with my hitches anyway ;D Re the Bloc....no they actually tell you "Use just 2 holes for less friction" which, naturally, would have both legs pulling that Bloc from the same side.....so let's say you've done that, *and* then you went ahead and put a redirect in the canopy at the same height as the Bloc so you could fairlead the bullrope directly into the Safebloc in a purely horizontal plane, would be interesting to see how it'd perform that way, I imagine you'd pop the Bloc before rupturing the 3/4TEC in that type of configuration but I take great comfort in the fact that I can't find a single anecdote of hardware(rings or Bloc's) escaping from slings, and when considering lateral pressures just consider that 3-ringed x-sling, if you've seen it in-use the rings 'squish' on each other, lifting the center ring & arching-outwards the two outer rings, this type of lateral pressure on the outside "Large" x-ring, that's seated in oversized 3/4TEC (oversized for the groove of a Lrg ring, IMO), and that sling is still being sold....very reassuring!!

Re Treestuff saying "T-Rex is unsuitable for Safebloc eyes, it elongates too much and could lead to failure".... Aside from the mountain of Q's I have on their statement there, I should note I was able to remove my Safebloc from the eye I'd made, sadly I had to fight it out/spend 30sec massaging the eye to do it but I was able to.... here's the throat of the first deadeye's eye-splice: I was also (far, FAR more easily) able to remove the two Lrg, and one XL, x-rings from my pre-made 3-ringed sling (they were scary loose, and no the sling was not beaten on!) SOOoooo, this time I made damn sure to spend the time on ensuring the rope was "pre-tensioned" a little bit when setting the brummelling, w/o doing that there will always be slack (also I figured since things settle, and rope's stretch a lil over time, that it was better to just go as tight, basically, as the strength of my hands allowed!) super tight, allows some 'rotational' sliding of Bloc in eye but not much, probably as tight as you can/should put a 12S around a ring: sooo tight closer-up: edited-to-add: I've gotta say it was only pretty recent I learned this, "daisy chaining" a long rope by just repeatedly slipknotting it (and I make a bite at the end, pass tail through & pull, to 'lock' the top until I'm ready to pull&un-do the whole chain), makes dealing w/ long slings (and long fliplines!) so much simpler!!

LOVED the comparison to aviation and general notion of "we remove human error wherever possible"!!! Couldn't find the teufelberger Ultra instructions anywhere when I went and made an Ultra-Bloc sling from the ~17.5' of 3/4TEC I had it slung in already (as dead-eye, but this was because I'd pulled the tail through from a Whoopie config, and the instructions for whoopies have your actual hardware's-eye's bury being a really shortened, and abruptly-ending, bury....this was driving me nuts so I was going to re-do the deadeye splice anyway which is why I'd thought "Hey make an Ultra, the one you made last week is awesome but only medium-duty!" But....I woulda needed at least 25' probably closer to 30' to do it the way I'd want IE: - 8' long (with ~2/3' long "butt"/useless-tail included so 7.33' "use-able" length; Most of that 2/3' butt would be the bury, only last few inches for backsplice as I just nail it in place w/ lock-stitching to shorten that part of the 'butt' ? ) - crazy-tight pockets, I mean like just-big-enough for my Bloc to fit through....as I got to my 3rd pocket I realized just how much rope I was losing to the triple-brummel "soft shackle" pocketing I was making. It did get comparable "max diameter of practical usage" as same cordage as-deadeye did (both require 2 legs of rope around the stem, the ultra's losses are to buries & brummels and the deadeye's are to the knotting/hitching used to affix it), but that's going through those long pockets which means I'd have too much slop/slack in my system in certain instances (the Bloc's inversion already requires a 1' allowance in-between the height of the sling's position and the half-hitch on the piece you're cutting, my pockets would've added nearly 1' extra if the stem were just the right(wrong!) width) The pockets had to be too large though, needed more pockets and more length, but after seeing it....wasteful & a bit embarrassing but changed my mind, don't want to give-up the tightness that my deadeyes allow so instead of ordering longer/appropriate cordage to make a proper Ultra I did the original plan and simply re-did the deadeye only with a good&proper bury this time, not a "whoopie bury"! Never had to remove my teufelberger-inspired "pointed tail" ending on the rope so that is nice [best/smoothest bury I've ever done on TEC, wish I altered/smoothed the first tapering in addition to the final tail-taper but this did the job, looks far better than it did when it was like 18" of bury w/ an abrupt ending, from the Whoopie build That was really a once-off, first&only time I've gotten (or seen!) trex, got 17 or 18' of 5/8" and used a spare pair of Lrg rings to make a double-header Ultrasling, have yet to use it (my default bullrope is 5/8 with a splice and that doesn't pass-through the "Large" x-rings...though I will say those 'large' rings do give the 5/8 great friction if you do use them w/ an unspliced 5/8 bullrope!) [edit-to-add: The pic with the measuring tape: I'd laid the deadeye on the floor and made a cow hitch to see my max-diameter of real use-ability and it was within a couple inches, low 20"'s]

err OK so it's more like a 21" diameter capacity, now that I've laid it out as a cow hitch w/ better half (leaving the shortest tail coming out, not something I'd be too happy w/ IRL) The sling is 16 maybe 16.5' deadeye now, am guessing (hoping!) I'll get a 7' out of it and, based on that last pocket, can see how the max-diameters match up (with the loss to the 'butt' of the ultra, I bet it'll get <21" and the more&closer I brummel it, as I'd like to so I have more precision, the shorter it'll be....if it's <6' I basically have to call it and probably resplice as regular deadeye, only w/ a regular, not a whoopie's, bury on the Bloc's eye this time ;D )

ANYONE ever see (or hear-of!!) an Ultrasling anchor sliding/moving/etc on a stem? Or other "unpredictability" issues?(Eg., while I've never had a need for/owned one, I've heard of multiple issues w/ Loopies....seems they are user-fault, but also that seasoned/veteran users are sometimes falling for it, if I'm understanding correctly - enough to make me uninterested) Well, you sold me on it!! It's like 16.5' long dead-eye right now, I like that but it was previously a Whoopie which means once I pulled the tail to make it Deadeye, the actual bury for the Safebloc has an incredibly abrupt ending (and isn't buried nearly as deep as you'd want for a single eye -- surprised the bury-length changes/shrinks for making whoopies, somehow...at least Samson's change, as that's all I use for almost all my splicing) so was gonna resplice it and it got me thinking "Why not make another Ultrasling with it? " (I just made a double-head T-Rex Ultra with Lrg rings that I had on-hand w/o any use, hopefully will finally use them a bit they do bite 5/8 bullrope really well!!) SO....comparing what I've got // what I'll have: A) Safebloc on 16' deadeye, allows maybe 2.5' thick trunk max if tied w/ timber hitch? Weak point in the sling is where buried tail terminates, and strength rating would be less-than the cordage's strength (3/4" TEC so 24k IIRC) B) SB on ~7' ultrasling, still allows a ~2.5' thick trunk (well, minus the length of its tail) As a sling, it is stronger than regular 3/4" TEC ABS (since it's essentially a double/basket configuration, with losses to the brummelling) Tightness/"slop" in the rigging shouldn't be much issue if the pockets are made tightly enough (any reco's for pocket configurations would be appreciated, wish this cord was like 8' longer as I'd like to make more, smaller pockets but don't want it coming in with shorter usability than I'd have gotten using it deadeye + timber hitching!) Think it's the smart move now, will probably splice it this afternoon actually, if anyone's got tips on how to "cheat the ending" to reduce that giant tail I'd be appreciative (for instance in Poplar Mechanic's youtube instructional he shows a modified 'butt' for Ultra's, since the end-part of the butt is really just an "aesthetic backsplicing", honestly I've been thinking "Just do 5 brummels to finish the last pocket, then some modified 'end for end' with the two tails" so there's as small a 'butt' to the sling as possible! [PS I will measure the circumference I can get w/ the same cordage, from deadeye to ultra configuration! Just gotta lay this sucker in a perfect circle to 'timber hitch' to my floor ]

So I was about to make an Ultrasling for my Safebloc, when it hit me.....due to the "slop"/slack that's inherent to an Ultra (IE, you can't choke it off/cinch it tight, your hardware resides wherever the sling's pocket fits it), I started picturing setting-up a typical spar-dismantle and pictured trying to invert my Safebloc as it comes out of the pocket of an ultrasling and couldn't help thinking "This thing is only gonna hold the sling's position when the hardware is pulling-down into the sling, if I invert the Safebloc while removing slack from my system before making a back-cut then, during the tip & fall of the log - bringing the Safebloc back to its normal orientation - there's a period where there's ZERO tension on the body of the ultrasling, so what's to stop it from moving around during that moment?" Would love to hear people's thoughts, especially if you actually use a Safebloc-on-Ultrasling and have negative-rigged with it, how reliable is the sling's position on the spar during that period of the Safebloc going from inverted to normal?

Re taper- I don't know how big a deal 'pattern' is, so much as how gradual a taper it is (TBH, on some earlier splices I aimed to make less smooth tapers IE to kinda 'show' where the bury ended, liked that 'look' on them, then learned that in fact if pushed to fail the weak-point on such splices[all splices?] is right at the point in the main rope where the bury ends, so if you have a really abruptly-ending tail, the 'outer' rope / main body of rope has to make that much steeper of a change in overall diameter over a shorter distance, so I think time would be better spent on making longer tapers than 'patterns' per se although clearly some kind of varied pattern would be best, I imagine you could 'optimize' more but I'm now just doing longer buries and making sure the tapers are super smooth, by making them longer but with same tapering it effectively 'smooths' the taper-transition for the outer/main rope ) I'm gonna include some snaps I took because, seeing your stuff, I suspect I think like you in many ways of building these, and would be interested what you thought of mine. Seeing yours, a few things pop out: - I'm suspecting you're using block as primary rigging point?(tried rings yet?) - What do you lockstitch DB splices with? I fought a lockstitch into one polydyne(3/4) sling, would never do it again and have 'mentally degraded' that sling's strength at least 10% because of fighting that lock-stitch into place (I milk/check/tighten my splices before use anyway so don't worry much on lock-stitching DB stuff) - Do you know if anyone's checked how well friction hitches perform under dynamic shock loading? I'd LOVE to incorporate them into my rigging (beyond the 1 spider-legging sling I have to add to my 5/8 p.dyne rope as-needed, has yet to occur lol) but suspect, and can't find info to the contrary, that their strength #'s wouldn't be nearly as high a % of static-ABS as, say, normal 'shock loading'....would really like to learn because I'd love using prussiks way more in my rigging it'd be so useful! Following are many of my splices, you can see I hold Polydyne in same esteem you seem to Though I included it as a pic (made it 1st pic), I since moved my Safebloc to a 3/4TEC whoopie (the 15' 3/4 polydyne was so unwieldy I didn't use it as much) I should note that I'm no longer going to use double braid for rigging-slings, instead choosing 12S, after some talk on Buzz re popping hardware out of the cordage, while it's unlikely the reality is that double braid splices are better off with a smoother angle at the eye//throat intersection, which is the opposite of what we want on rigging hardware IE super tight groove grip, so the brummel splice with 12S cordage is the best 'type' of rope the way I see it now since brummels are very much able to take hits (see Ultraslings) so I can make tight brummels like I did on my pair of Lrg rings or the Safebloc (will also say I only used the 3/4 TEC on lrg rings because I dissembled a flawed, premade x-sling, and had the stuff on-hand, I disagree with using 3/4 in the Lrg rings I don't think their groove is wide enough or tall enough for that matter, though I have used it w/o issue and will til I order more cordage! BTW I can't speak highly enough about the "snake anchor"(as I've been calling it ) which is the two-XL's sling, it's 3/4 polydyne obviously but it's 9.5' long, so with 1 sling I'm often able to use it as-if it were two separate slings by 'spreading' the rings in a canopy (and, in basket formation, you're getting the strength/ABS of two legs of that 26k, highly dynamic Polydyne, talk about a bombproof sling!!) I used the xl ring from the 3-ring for one ring, and ordered an Elevation Canada for the other which was <$50, shipped, and is same height but 10% wider than the XL x-ring If I had any need for more slings (have more than I need already rofl) all the hardware would be through them, excepting multi-hole hardware which, to my surprise and dismay, is still limited to 2 products by 1 company the Safebloc & the THT.. (BTW yes I did bother splicing Mercury, did 4 of them....LOVE the cordage - disclosure, I did get some free from Samson but that was after being clear I was gonna purchase it regardless so it was a nicety, not a 'try this' - used SPLife's Drenaline instructions, modified for strand#'s of course, and it worked a charm but jeebus splicing kernmantle at least that way of doing it isn't worth it and, w/ Mercury being 8.5k ABS, I'm fine w/ knots anyway as it's still stronger than my spliced Blue Moon, which I still use since I use 2 ropes and the different colors help, will certainly be buying blue Mercury once my Blue Moon is finished though!!) [2 rope SRT, using 2 "squeezers"/treesqueeze-type lanyards, lets you limbwalk places you never could've because you can spread those squeezer anchors wide and wrap around multiple unions that, individually, may not've been sufficient Similar enough concept to the 'snake anchor' idea, just spreading force in the canopy, letting you do more, further 2 color setup like this made for nearly zero mix-ups when I started the 2-rope thing]

Do you splice yourself? IF so, am curious if you splice rigging rope differently? I know it's off-topic but kinda mangled a polydyne splice (well the whole end of the rope,. used it to girth-hitch a trunk we were pulling-over and it got crushed by tree//pavement) anyway the whole splicing-rigging-ropes thing has me 2nd-guessing it as concept....I've been known to beat the "static versus dynamic strength" horse to death, but with splice-testing (or friction hitches, too) i've never seen consideration for shock-loading, when I splice double braid bullrope it's done differently than my climblines (insofar as I make the buries much longer, don't cut off as much for the tapers, etc) but still in a position of wishing I had the $$ to allow the time&material to make batches to send to Mumford for break-testing! [and re splicing used rope...even w/ it being used, I never noticed the difference, feel oblivious because I've done blue moon and polydyne both new and used and, if anything, I'd have said used ropes were easier I never let any rope get "heavily used" though so maybe that's the distinction]

As you say, to each their own... I do genuinely apologize for anywhere I may've come across combative or adversarial as that wasn't my intention, nor was it to insinuate "you should swap", in fact people who are long-term set in their ways are probably going to benefit(net) less than people figuring out what works for them and in fact it's in that context I expect people would most-find them superior (with you being as extremely opposite that as possible!) Re moving&lifting, no disagreement there in fact I keep a 4" pulley on a swivel just for this (never drop wood into it) and also use my stiffer (1.4% 1/2") bullrope with that, as I want smooth/tense responsiveness from my rope there, the opposite of course being dropping-wood where I love my 5/8 nylon-cored Polydyne (3.5%) through enough rings&anchors to substantially lower its "perceived weight"(or, technically, it's peak-forces as experienced by tree & people on other end of the bullrope) Really wish someone would quantify this, for instance using friction at your end-rig-point (a safebloc final anchor, for instance) is considered as "reduces forces to the tree" but I've never seen it quantified....can say that a 3-ringed anchor gives about 2-holes (safebloc holes) of friction

LOL that's my go-to (ISC oval screwgates) they are great I even keep one on my saddle(on a backup prussik) as my 'paranoia biner' as I get more peace-of-mind from the steel, manual lock in some situations (I use a standard rock-O triple-lock aluminum as my primary so am not ignorant to the lighter aluminum alternatives it's just sometimes when you're uncomfortable and go to put a backup prussik or flipline out, that is when my Ice Cord w/ the ISC gets used, otherwise just great rigging biners Love ISC as a company, wish they'd get on w/ friction hardware though. Made my speedline loops using extra Mercury, 11mm kernmantle but 8.5k lbs ABS and 3.5% elongation from its nylon kern it's a stronger bullrope than plenty of the 1/2"'s offered so figured it'd be fine making loops and made pairs in lengths ~2.5' to 4', haven't been zipping often lately actually although am going to LA next week to work on storm-damage so expect plenty of use of them (and everything lol) then Rings are 'midline leave-able', though that doesn't do it for some people and I see what you mean Re a knot...I'd argue that basing your anchorage (blocks v friction-rings) on the tail-end of bullrope is completely backwards...splice that end so it slides through Lrg rings or otherwise overcome that issue, rather than base your anchorage around it, is how I see it (obviously whatever works for you works for you, of course) Will say I'm very happy w/ my setup after making it all conform to "knotless rigging", I pass spliced 1/2 and 5/8 polydyne through rings, safebloc etc and love it and am real pleased w/ how long the splices are lasting on the abused ends, can definitely see use-cases where these would be shredded weekly and tied-ends are a fact of life although knotting ends doesn't negate usefulness of ring-based only your "line w/ knot in end", uncertain what kind of knot you've got on there that'd need un-/re-doing but imagine there's an easy enough way around it, seeing the way guys like Reg Coates, Lawrence Schultz, Dave Driver etc make use of friction-anchoring almost exclusively makes as strong a case for their superiority - in general - as any form of convincing I can think of...midline-leavable, having to put a lil more time into thinking-out the rigging setup instead of knowing you can freely move pulleys all-around, is a small price to pay IMO (and, obviously, in the opinion of the youtubers I just mentioned ) Having a log coming down, that you've gotta control, if there's a system/option (ringed/friction riggings) that automatically/inherently lowers the peak-forces that a given log is capable of generating as it comes down, that is game-changing over pulleys/blocks for control of negative-angle riggings.

...because 95% of the time you're doing positive-angle rigging IE your anchor is above your log, you're able to pre-tension, etc? Or are you saying you prefer negative rigging / standard 'dismantles' with a frictionless block over a friction-device?

So I'd returned a stihl 194t (thankfully stihl stepped-in to save my day, Ace wouldn't take back an un-touched unit hours later thought I was 'stuck' w/ it) and got my 'dream' saw (next to a 540xp I guess) an echo 355t. Guy told me "ready for use, no need for break-in's, just be a lil gentler on 1st tank and expect it'll take 2-3 tankfuls to reach full-power" when buying my 355t. But, when speaking to the Stihl rep over the phone and he asks "So you haven't actually cut anything, you're still 'breaking-in' by running it idle w/ Motomix?", he was OK w/ authorizing Ace to take the return but he mentions to me "just having it idle-through tanks isn't a good break-in it's actually bad for the saw".... I didn't wanna get-into that and risk losing my chance to swap my $350 194t for a $350 355t (just a *lil* difference there, right ? ) so didn't question him BUT the Stihl guide is clearr about no out-of-wood wide-open-throttle(WOT) for 1st three tanks.... Since I wasn't putting it in-wood (was trying to sell as-new on craigslist for $300, take the $50 loss and go get the 355t), I'd just let it idle and anytime I walked-by I'd throttle it a bit (never past ~75%WOT, hell I know WOT - anytime - is bad if not in-wood) Blew my mind to hear that could be 'bad', would've thought it the gentlest way to bed-/break-in everything! Now that I have this pristine 355t next to me (still hasn't cut!), I wanna ensure I've broken-in properly, so ANY advice is appreciated very very much! Also, specifically, I'm curious about: - should I add some (synth)oil to my canned-fuel, to richen fuel to like 35:1 or 40:1, for those 1st tankfuls? Had read of someone who does that.. - **Carb-settings** - my understanding is Echo tends to ship units kinda lean (odd considering my 194t had both H&L jets fully turned-out to the limiter-caps - lol these 2 saws are only 2 I own that came w/ limiter-caps ) Should I pull-out those limiter caps and tune-by-ear (or by ear+tach) or should I assume it's ideal as--is? Heck I just rrealized I could probably find "OEM spec" carb-settings, and simply copy those and maybe open/close in 1/10th turn increments as-needed! Although I guess that's just temporary, as there's no way that catyl/spark-screen/full-body-of-muffler will be there in a couple days and will need to richen both jets to compensate increased 'throughput'(I mod air-intakes too for more&cleaner air-availability once I'm opening mufflers/exhaust ports) Thanks a TON for any advice (asides "just go cut"!), it's not my 1st new-to-me climb saw but I'd only had a 25cc/12" and a 33cc/16" (but it's a 1.6HP, 10lbs Tanaka pig, only used when I need the 16"), so this 355t is going to trade setups and get the new(almost-new) 16" oregon setup from the Tanaka so will have "3 classes" of climb saw which was the initial ideal (I'm a small guy, so like defaulting to my 25cc when-possible (it's a $140 clone/'chinese saw' that I've had >1yr and no complaints!), then will use 14" echo bar&chain on Tanaka's 33cc, then'll use Echo w/ the 16" as-needed. This is awesome am feeling SO lucky right now

I mean if you were going to set a climb anchor on a telephone pole.. You could use a treesqueeze and ascend/descend such a system safely - I'm asking what other configurations/anchor-types can be used so you could, say, use a telephone-pole as your personal "gym" for ascending/descending practice (w/o ever worrying about your anchor-integrity) [^not what I'm planning to do but knowing ^that is all I need/am looking for ] You say: "I generally use a cambium saver" On a spar? Are you meaning an adjustable-cambium-saver? Adjusted so it's ~75% the diameter of the spar, one end tossed-around the spar, and then your climb-line's pressure on the rings chokes the c.saver to the spar? (Honestly this seems about the same as a Squeeze setup, it's only that this could roll much easier... also I'd swear I've seen "for crotches only" on such anchors, I know my eye&eye rigging-sling is "for crotches only" although it 'works' choked and probably got more use that way[sling is no longer with us]) " I have never felt the need to buy anything specific. " Well this'll be "a steal" insofar as that goes as it's just a tiny bit of cordage to make a sling, already have the 2 'large' rig-rings (had to remove from rig kit as they don't allow spliced 5/8 rope to pass only XL rings/Safebloc do) and was already ordering TEC anyways so will literally just be purchasing a lil extra cordage and that'll be my "purchasing" for what'll create something I'm sure would be $75 or $100+ (but that's just arb-retail, I make my own stuff my "Squeezer" has a higher ABS than a $200 "TreeSqueeze" ;D ) Plus I enjoy splicing, it's not "factor-in your time-value for the splice" it's "neat I get to splice some TEC while watching a flick tonight!"

So far as I know, a TreeSqueeze is the only product sold for cinching a spar so you can set a climbing anchor on a spar, in fact I've seen adverts for choking rigging slings that explicitly mention 'not for climbing' for instance I've never seen someone using a TEC whoopie as a climb anchor.... What do you guys do when you need vertical anchoring on a spar? ~~~ My goal here is two-fold, 1- Knowing what is/is not an OK form of anchoring climb lines on spars, and 2- Make such an anchor (already have a 'Treesqueeze-type' lanyard for this however I've got some xtra "Lrg x ring"s (#2's) collecting dust and love splicing TEC, was thinking to use 1 (making a boomer/double-head would be pointlessly redundant on a climb line, 1 lrg-x-ring, ~30mm, is far wider than a couple o-rings, ~24mm) to make a diesel 'spar-anchor' but didn't know what's safest, what's "officially approved") ~~~ Thanks a lot for any insight on this, I've heard of sling-slippage but have never seen/experienced it but I'm presuming that's the logic behind not using a whoopie as a climb anchor, but when setting anchorage on a slick spar I'd think a whoopie would be far more secure/stable than a TreeSqueeze (the whoopie would be inclined to stay in-place when not under-load, a TreeSqueeze is depending upon load on the line to hold its form..)

Brocky (I'm eye.heart.trees from Buzz if it's not obvious ) I use soft-sole almost exclusively... I think I solved it (Samson's advert certainly seems to be advertising it as a 1-piece, 2-foot lanyard and that's what I'm set on!), it's not 'a hard problem' just a question of how simple/sleek a configuration is needed to solve it.. Anyways I'd very very much appreciate yours & others' thoughts on my solution before I go and make it: 1 - 3/4TEC whoopie as main lanyard-body. Adjustable-eye set to choke whoopie on the stem with a ~10" 'eye protrusion' of the whoopie's spliced-eye dropping-through the adjustable-eye. This is 1 foot stirrup. 2 - a 1/2TEC prussik loop is on the body of this ^lanyard, the loop is long enough that, after 3 wraps on the 3/4 body, it's ~10" long.... You slide this on the main 3/4TEC body to where you want your 2nd foot-stirrup. ^That should do it so far as I can see: 1-piece, simple/quick setup, secure/cinching/choking type setup....something tells me @Samson's perfect version is a funky whoopie splice wherein the adjustable-eye's "extra rope" is fed back-into the sling, can't imagine it's got 2 means of adjustment would be too risky/would be safer/simpler to just have a whoopie's fixed-eye be the fixed-stirrup, with adjustments made to length & 2nd-stirrup-placement. Pretty psyched if that solves it, can't really fault the idea but only came up with it while reading/working-off-of your post so may be missing something....seems bulletproof & simple, will be nice if it's really this easy

Re Safebloc - what about other situations, can you tell me what types of scenarios you'd be doing a routine dismantle and a frictionless block would be superior? ("regular rigging", not arguing that rings are better for lifts or mechanical advantage so we can leave that aside I hope) The situation you describe in England sounds, to me, simply as "we don't get to free-fall very often", I mean the reality is almost anyone doing suburban work is working over targets more often than not, this is precisely why friction-hardware is superior - If you & I were somehow doing identical jobs, using our favored setups, and we each were finishing the back-cut on a 400lbs log.....when that log did its descent, it would generate less peak- and average-forces by pulling the rope against the friction-hardware as compared to block-based. That's not even subjective/opinion you could put a load-cell in-between the groundie and their hand-position on the bull-line and you'd see a lower peak-force from my 400lbs log that'd gone though rings compared to yours. Generating all of the friction at the bollard, while obviously quite effective, means there's maximal elongation of all that rope in the system in-between the load and the 'brakes'(bollard) which is why ring-based gives a subjective feeling of more control/consistency/precision. Put another way-- we're each about to cut that 400lbs log, our groundies are each holding the rope's tail as it exits the bollard and we're about to toss a sling on the stem before our cut: When looking at a Fioiri's Ring sling next to an Impact Block sling, why on earth migrate towards the one that *only* suspends the line, why not use the one that'll suspend it *and* assist w/ load-control? Kudos on mentioning how old they are BTW, blows my mind it took Dave Driver's proselytizing in ~2013 to get them mass-adoption (actually I feel like there was some drama over that in the context of this forum, maybe it was that someone here was already using the antal rings and splicing at-home and that's why people were upset w/ Dave's branding/sales? I'm usually against salesmanship in general but if it's superior(more-efficient, safer etc) and it's not the norm then whatever it takes to get them out there )

Re natural crotch, it seems the optimal rope-types for hardware-based, and natty-based, systems are not one-in-the-same. My largest hank is actually a 3-strand 3/4" poly-nylon blend, solid rope but never used it on a job because I've never had situation where it wasn't worth grabbing a sling or two and my double-braid (if you don't have much experience you'll likely be surprised when trying them, for a ton of work our most-common setup was the 3-ring x-sling with 5/8 polydyne and nothing else no 2nd anchor or bollard just a 2nd set of hands on the line if afraid 1 person wasn't enough, but even just that 3-ring sling gives notable friction) Re midline attachment complaints, two things. #1, for Safebloc specifically, it's best used as a terminal anchor in which case its position is inherently @end-of-line so "having to" thread it isn't really a drawback when it's not a device you use "mid-line" but rather end-of-line. But, #2 for all Bend Right / Fiori's Ring / etc, no they're not mid-line attachable....that's a mighty small price to pay for a superior product IMO but even on that point I love Reg Coates & Lawrence Schlutz's sentiments on this IE that they're mid-line-leavable and this actually is important because when setting a system of this manner I may say "Ok for this section of the job I'm going to want Safebloc, another double-ring sling in-canopy, and that'll be enough so that, post-bollard, my groundie *feels* like I'm taking 250lbs pieces when I'm really taking 400lbs pieces", your worry/concern here would be that I realize subsequently "oh I should've added another ringed-sling" doesn't really hold because he'd simply add more friction via the bollard. BUT, if you really wanted to 'keep it real', you just set 1, 2 or 3 long-tail ring-slings onto the line, right above the bollard, when rigging-up. Then if/when you want to add friction or move the line you simply grab a tail and tie it off wherever's needed But yeah when you can setup systems so that heavy weights are descending smooth as butter and you can use 1 groundie where a block would've required 2, that's worth a LOT of caveats and "mid-line-leavability", not attachability, isn't a biggie I mean it's not going to be often you're thinking I wish I could add an anchor in the middle of a session and, if/when you do, just deal w/ re-threading or use a pre-threaded loose sling as mentioned! Re: Pulleys certainly have uses, no doubt. Blocks are a different story though, a pulley meant explicitly to handle smashing dynamic loads....with ample friction-anchors to choose from instead, choosing a block is basically saying "I'd prefer this anchor does nothing to slow the load" when there's anchors that do slow the load... Pulleys are awesome, have a 4" sheave on a swivel and nearly-12mm, 1.4% rope for using it...but see it as something for use in static scenarios (lift, pull, mech.advantage), when I'm leaving that and need a sling to hold a rope that'll be used for controlling the violent free-fall of a just-cut log I will prefer an anchor that slows the load a lil *and* reduces the peak-forces experienced by the system and the tree...."Mid-line-attach" is the SOLE valid reason I've found to use a block over a friction-anchor (rings, porty's, safeblocs etc) and that's a "convenience" reason which is pretty weak for the down-grade in system quality ie trading your "built-in brakes" for mid-line-attach, poor trade IMO (nevermind that as said Safebloc is end-of-line so that argument is null for why Safebloc slings > block-slings for terminal position, once you're bumping on the upper limits of a Safebloc[or regular block] it will be your sling that you worry about not the hardware so whether Safebloc or block you may need a 2nd, but in both cases you're inherently "stacking the deck" with "built in brakes" in the system...*such* an advantage!!)

I just finished setting up my kit late last year (well ordering everything and getting a feel for it, finally just went knotless this week) Safebloc is worth the splurge for sure, am planning to get a 2nd one myself. Rigging rings are also great -- friction-rigging is state-of-the-art rigging, and blocks are obsolete it's just not everybody knows it... when doing routine rigging you never say "It'd be cool if this piece came down w/ more force/speed" lol, yet using a friction-anchor instead of a block isn't seen as "duh"-level obvious to everybody yet, blows my mind I like thinking of friction-hardware as "brakes", solid-state brakes that're added to your system, you'd be amazed at the weights I could put onto my rope if it's going though the Bloc and two ringed-anchors, groundies can use 1 hand on things they'd normally have to wrestle it really is a huge difference. Also consider pricing... unless your $$ allows you to go all-in right away, you'll have a skimpy block-based kit. Ring based though? Unsure if I even broke $500 on my system which is very heavy-duy & versatile... Elevation Canada sells XL rings for $75 a pair (free s&h) on ebay now, TEC is $1/ft on 5/8 which is great for log-slings if going knotless and $1.50/ft for 3/4 for your slings (and samson's instructionals are epic I've never missed a splice of any type using their guides, made my 9' Safebloc whoopie w/ their whoopie instructional it's so easy I'd urge someone considering it to *not* buy extra TEC "in case" because you *will* succeed on any TEC splices on 1st attempt w/ tools from your house / no specialty products) Buying a block is just silly though I mean if you look at rings and think "too lil bend-radius", remember the large Impact Block is just 3.15" wide sheave, my double-XL ringed-sling has a wider bend radius, a single Fiori's Ring does too, any double-headed ("boomer") ringed-slings, your bend-radius is often far better and having multiple slings allows simple multi-anchor-rigging (ie 1, or 4, ring-sling-redirects on trunk, in canopy etc) that are all "adding brakes" as well as spreading load! And rope...would recommend atlas/polydyne first, then nystron, 5/8 for any of them. Ideally you'd splice its end, get loose 5/8 TEC to make Ultraslings/eye-slings/etc for holding logs (that you clip your splice to) and you'd be able to use full strength of line ie in my system my weak-link is(as proper) my bull-rope at 19k for 5/8 polydyne, I had to downgrade to 2/3rd strength when using my line to knot, now that it's spliced and I can use full strength I'm going from 2/3 to 3/3 ie a *50%* gain, with that capacity being easily spread-out through the tree, w/ my rope-end kept off the rough bark of the logs I cut (oh and, of course, w/ the Safebloc on every load as terminal anchor, this'll let you rig a piece on a sketchy trunk and give that trunk less wiggle/bounce since the friction in the Bloc is subtracted from total peak force, it's inherently lower w/ a Safebloc which is better for every bit of gear in the system, easier on the groundie and safer for the climber/sawyer Good luck!! Can't advise enough to splice your own TEC, and to embrace modern friction-rigging / not buy a block!

50V...hrrm w/ Echo still not releasing a lith climb-saw I'd been hoping they'd come in w/ a lith replacement for a 16" climb saw (something akin to the 355, not the 2511) Am betting they(all companies) will end up using a 70 or 80V platform for their heavy-duty top handles (ie 16" setups), can't wait to see the 1st company release one I mean it's awesome seeing lith beat 25cc's but it's been doing that for over a year now, so surprising someone hasn't made a 16" I mean lith cells would make it so damn easy to power an 18" (have heard 50V, max, needed to beat a 50cc) so it's just a q of who makes the damn thing first, hell this new awesome-looking Lith-Echo unit is 3lbs?! I mean, I'm a small guy and hate when I gotta use my 32cc because my 12"/25cc wasn't long-enough for something and even I'm looking at this ^ new offering thinking "Instead of a 3lbs, 50V unit to replace the 2511, gimme a 5lbs, 70V unit to replace a 355T!" People still argue-about/seek power in top-handles, lithium will make that obsolete / allow manufacturers to create uncomfortably-overpowered saws very soon/now, was reallllly hoping echo's late entrance was to be for a something bigger than a 25cc-replacement (like stihl&husq have already released, hell I prefer echo but would still prefer a year-old design from stihl/husq over a just-released design from echo..)

Hoping to get real people's anecdotes on Echo's 355t, *especially* from those who use(d) them, and especially Re: - Power (relative to things would be nice, 201t's and 540xp's specifically!) - longevity and, close-enough, "work-on-ability" (my understanding is husqvarna's 540xp isn't really for tinkering/DIY repair, 201t seems "half-half" in that regard...uncertain where Echo gear stands) I'm strong enough but I'm a small guy so I default to my 25cc/12" for most-everything, only using my 32cc/16" when 12" isn't long enough and I HATE using my 32cc, thankfully the "big 3's" biggest/strongest saws are all lighter than my 32cc despite being more powerful, would appreciate being corrected if wrong but I see it as a choice between: - husq 540xp, - stihl 201t, or - echo 355t if you want to get a new / warrantied unit and at those prices I wouldn't risk buying used, so I'm kinda stuck because if my 25cc dies I'd just get another unit (hell I'm getting a 2nd one soon enough just to try more aggressive mods[porting/timing] on, at ~$100 it's worth it IMO, wanna get the lil generic screamer as close to a 2511t as possible ;D ) But when my 32cc dies I see it as breaking the bank (for me) and bite the bullet on stihl 201 or husq 540 BUT it almost looks as-if the 355t is "on-par" with them despite being like 50% of the price at only $350MSRP, am I missing something? Am honestly expecting that these 3 top-offerings from husq/echo/stihl are all totally on-par with each other but if that were the case you'd think the 355t, at just $350, would be WAY more popular than it is....what am I missing? I've used enough Echo gear to form a favorable opinion in fact I think I like them better than Stihl, gonna search for 355t V 201t content but hoping for anecdotes/real-life reports from people familiar with the 355t, does it have faults I'm missing, is it under-powered given what you'd expect from reading its specs, etc would be hugely appreciated, thanks!!! [edited-in: For "longevity / 'work-ability' ", the two are nearly equal in my book as I don't ever want to need a mechanic I want to continue improving myself as a chainsaw mech so, at bare minimum, I wouldn't want a unit that was intentionally restrictive so far as, say, removing the muffler or carb. Would ideally want a unit I knew was friendlier to opening-up the block for porting although I can't even be certain I'll reach the level of talent/confidence in this stuff to ever port it, am barely comfortable attempting it on a $135 saw while having a back-up of that saw in case I mess up ]