Peter 1955

I don't know about the 500 ( although I suspect it could be awesome ) but the 400 and the 261 are both an absolute pleasure to use.

Our first saw was a massive Jonsereds, with no chain brake and a 20 or 22" bar. The compression on it was insane, starting procedure was to throw it away from you, and then pull the rope! H&S wasn't our main priority in those days, we were young and foolish. We asked the dealer for a saw that would cut anything we came across, and he was happy to sell us one! To attempt to answer the question, I'd say you need two saws minimum for any serious work. When I used the Stihl 038, it wasn't the first one I picked up, it was the 251 with a 13" bar. Now I have a 400, although it's so much lighter, I still pick up the 261 with a 14" bar first, unless of course the job dictates it.

Whereabouts are you? I know it's not a Husky, but I have a Stihl 251 surplus to requirements. I'm in God's County.

Sorry folks, can't post a piccy, as I drank it last night. A can of this, interesting stuff.

Answering the original question, Ash. Splits easily, dries fast, and burns well. Oak is so slow to dry, and Elm is such a pain to split. The sawbench was your friend when dealing with elm. Most of my wood nowadays is clearings from hedge trees, so they can get bigger machines round. Everyone round here is lopping branches off with circular saw blades, only problem is it's rarely straight.

When I had to deal with lots of high powered multiple belt drive gear on the farm, getting matched belts was of paramount importance. You knew disaster was on the horizon for the drying fan when most of the belts were correctly tensioned, one was slack, and one was flapping about!

Logic suggests ridges would be better, however when you look at the seal Neoprene Tek screws achieve, it's a moot point. You can deform ridges if you're over enthusiastic with the impact driver.

Good idea. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Not familiar with that system, but one client's lawnmower has been known to actually stop in very hot weather, and is an absolute swine to restart if you've foolishly stopped it hot on a hot day.

But only if you have a disposal site which will take them uncut. Sounds like the council tip won't, and they probably wouldn't let the van in either, mine is very sniffy about it. You need papers to go in with a van.

If the picture of the Ebay one is correct, it's not unknown for the solenoid to fail on all such starters. Often they pull into place, but the contacts are worn by arcing, and the starter doesn't turn. In the old Lucas days, we'd regularly swap one, but now it's all exchange or new unit.

Well here's the weapon, in all its glory. Hawksmoor 2.2kW 40cm Electric Chainsaw 230V | Toolstation WWW.TOOLSTATION.COM • 40cm Oregon bar and chain • Automatic chain lubrication • Hand guard and soft grip • Low kickback • 5m cable length • Oil tank capacity: 150ml • Kickback protection with mechanical... Not a silly purchase, I'd expect it to do its job well enough. I guess the bar is one way only due to the side tensioner ( SDS? I'm familiar with that on drills, but not seen on chainsaws before. Google says it's Slotted Drive System, so could easily apply here ). As others have said, the easiest, and possibly cheapest way is to pay someone to remove them, often someone with a wood burning stove may be happy to have them. If you're going to cut them yourself, there are two things. 1) As others have said, try to clean the crap off first, even a garden hose will help. 2) Files are cheap. Cheaper than chains. As I think someone else tried to convey, it's quicker to sharpen a chain than change it. Have a look at a few Youtube videos. One important word of warning though, when sharpening an electric chainsaw, unplug it. To move the chain on my Makita, you have to pull the trigger, and it's most disconcerting when it sets off because it's still plugged in! I know, I was that soldier. If I've understood your figures correctly, each cut is costing you £2. 8 cuts from a chain at over £16. That's eye watering, especially if you've got 1200 to make!

Re 4 strokes and speed, I have Stihl Kombi 4mix units, and when I got the first one, I too told the dealer it was slower when running line cutters. He said that above a certain speed, the line was effectively almost rigid, so it didn't matter. Perhaps I have got used to the 4mix now, it doesn't seem to be an issue any more to me. They do seem to be very economical on fuel to me.

Me too. Couldn't agree more about those spurious cheapo Chinese ones, I've had them disintegrate in no time flat. If you're regularly encountering saplings, I love the EIA blades, they will fly through 2" stems. If it's mainly scrub/briars/grass, I rate the the One-For-All three legged ones. Those two blades do 90% of my work with a blade.

I'm flabbergasted, and also thanking my lucky stars. The cutting deck on my old Husqvarna rider finally became impossible to patch up any further, so about four months ago I decided it was long overdue for replacement. A complete 94 deck from most folk seemed to be around £850-900, and FR Jones had one for £700. As was stated earlier, I checked with my normal dealer, who said they couldn't buy it for that! I try to be loyal to suppliers, but as I would get free next day delivery, and three monthly interest free payments through Paypal, I ordered it from FR Jones. It arrived bang on time, and only needed very minor surgery to fit to my R16. The only issue was having to either create a mix of old and new bits to use my own belt cover, or spend £50 on a new one. Still way ahead of the game. I could so easily have been up that famous creek, by the looks of things, phew!

I always regarded Glyphosate as one of, if not the safest chemical. Cymag per se ( or the gas it produces ) is dangerous, but not persistent, not like the only one I haven't used, Strychnine. The ones which worry me most would be the Organophosphates, basically nerve agents.

As an ex farm worker, I've used more chemicals than I can remember. A couple you didn't mention were Simazine and Atrazine, they were fierce! I think I've got something in the shed along similar lines! My brother's neighbour once said the he must know a lot about chemicals, because he'd noticed that anything my brother sprayed soon died, and stayed dead. My brother had the immortal response- " I know nothing about chemicals, but I know a man who does ". 😂 My honest opinion is that they're somewhere between a necessary evil, and an awesome tool, and quite possibly still being a sword of Damocles.

Since some of us have already entered Whimsical territory, I have a solution that offers lightness, balance, small bar and long reach. The more astute among you will already know where I'm going, and if I'm honest it's not 100% serious. I've done it myself on occasion, and while it satisfies all criteria exactly, it's not the answer. Kombi machine with chainsaw attachment. 😂

I would agree entirely with that view, especially with the light bars.

Going simply by numbers, you ask for something between a 261 and a 661. The 400 ( which I know and love already ) is a gnat's under the average. The 462 is two gnat's above. I have no experience of the 462, but the 400 pulls a 20" light bar as if it were 13". I expect the 462 to eclipse that. Even the 362 is rated to a 20" bar by Stihl, and although I dropped mine to the 14" for the electric one, it has a tad more power than my old 038 which ran 20" without complaint for many years. I'd say that ideally you want a 462, but bear in mind that it's a kilo heavier than 400/362. Those two are an absolute delight to handle, especially when you compare them to an 038!

Once upon a time we fitted the 4-108 from a Commer van into a petrol CF van. Needed a bit of ingenuity in places. Then in a spirit of reciprocity, we fitted a 4-154 from a CF into a Vauxhall Victor estate. Well, if the slant petrol and the diesel both went into the CF, how hard could it be to fit the diesel into a car with that engine? Finding suitable front springs was trial and error, and even when we'd fitted an overdrive gearbox, fuel economy was awful. And the pile of crap they replaced it with only had one aim in life, which was to have the water pump fail, and destroy the head gasket, and warp the head. One van at work had this twice, mine once, followed by a terminal episode.

We aren't the only folk who are seeing prospective customers driven only by the bottom line price, rather than quality or value. It appears to be fairly widespread.

Years ago we had a supplier of timber who often sent us elm. Twisted grain, horrible stuff. We found the only way to deal with it was to cut it into 9" rings, split about 3" off the outer, and then put the rest across the sawbench. ( We had a cast iron bench, driven by a Perkins combine engine. about 12" of blade above the bench. Not much that couldn't cope with).

I reckon that's why the log splitter handbook tells you to split green wood. It can hang a bit more, but I reckon it's definitely easier. Dry wood can sometimes " explode" when splitting on the machine. The bonus is that the more inner wood you expose to the air, the faster it dries. Oak is very slow to season, as stated, ideally more than one year.

As others have said, adaptor plates may easily be most of what you need. I once fitted a Perkins 4-154 out of a CF van into a Vauxhall estate. Not the greatest success ever, but good fun. Is it possible to go belt driven? Combines are great donors for this, as suggested above.