Paddy1000111

I don't think 4 weeks is an intensive course anyway if that's cs30/31/38/39 or the NTPC equivalent? Usually a week for cs30/31, a week for 38 and 3 days for cs39?

I know it won't. I'm not asking it to pull a 25" bar. I just want it to cut up to 12" limbs when limbing a tree on the ground without me having to bend over for hours. Just want the ergonomics, not the size ?

I would say that it has something to do with German engineering and having the perfect feel but I think it's more to do with frightening consumers into using service centres. The extra £0.20p of wire used to make all the links probably brings them in a good few thousand in man-hours on repairs!

It's more of a case of I don't want to spend over 2 grand on two new saws, one middle size one and a big one too ? If I was going to get into milling then I 100% would get an 881! I've had a member on here in my area offer to do it now anyway so it looks to be sorted pending the approval of the person paying. I was originally hoping to get a cheap mill (~£130) and just take the time and use my 261 but it's not going to be practical. I was hoping to get a 24" bar for the 261 and use that as I fancy one anyway so I don't have to bend over when bucking but It won't be long enough obviously! By the time I buy a cheap mill, long bar, lo-pro chain etc it's already going to cost more than getting someone else to do it for me and it saves me having to store a massively underpowered mill and equipment that may get used once in a blue moon. Seeing as I want to get a 661 anyway I would rather buy a mill that's sized for it and spend some money on something decent like a panther if I find a nice tree that I could make something nice with as I do enjoy my woodwork. I think I will get someone to do it for me. If I fancy getting into it in the future then get a panther...

I find my 261 pretty capable for most jobs. I don't do forestry work so the only use I would have for the 661 is making a big felling cut a lot easier because having to do "advanced" felling cuts every time the tree is over 16" is getting a little tiring now. Chunking a tree down on spikes isn't too bad with a 261 and isn't really a common job either. I was looking at a 500i but having had a gander at one before I just don't see it's place. It can only handle a 25" bar and you only save 1.2kg which isn't really a massive saving unless you're doing forestry and you're swinging it day in day out. A 661 is more powerful and you can either run a small bar or stick a 42" sugi on it and do lighter cuts or stick a skip chain on it if you need the length. I only want one new saw at the moment and I feel like If I get a 461 or a 500i then I would have to get an 880 eventually as they don't offer a massive step up from a 261. The 661 seems like the best of both worlds for now, I'm young and fit, I can cope with a little extra weight for now!

I've had mine apart so many times I can strip back to the crank and re-assemble in an evening now ?. I do have to take a photo of the throttle linkages every time though!

Out of interest when it's bogging, is it bogging after idling a little (over say 3-5 seconds or so) or does it bog straight between cuts? I.e. you let off the throttle, it goes back to idle, you hit wot and it bogs straight away?

I went through similar issues with mine before I changed the carb and it was due to the H jet leaking back. Sometimes it would be fine, other times it would idle fine then bog on full throttle unless I eased it into it. The H jet on these carbs has a diaphragm non-return valve on them. Due to these saws not having any form of reed valve you get blowback through the carb and it can push air into the H jet if you have a faulty one. These guys know more than me, but this was my experience. Fitted a new carb and it runs a dream. You can buy a new jet from LS Engineers for a few quid though if it's what you think it is

Well, the tree was planted by her father in the 70's and I guess they want to do something with it for his sake (he's still around btw). There's enough sentimental value to do something with it, even if it's a coffee table. Sadly it's a pretty boring tree with no real character. If the bark was interesting it would have made a nice river table or something!

Horse I believe but I don't really remember (I should have noted) I just turned up and had to take the thing down with a building one quarter, a greenhouse another quarter and powerlines on another quarter... The things you do for family eigh!

This is the thing, I won't be doing a lot of milling moving forward, if any. I need the 661 as a chunking saw for attaching to a harness when doing big takedowns. The 661 is almost half the weight of the 8 series!

As above, this is the issue. I want to use my 261 as it's not going to cost me. I am going to get a 661 soon but I wasn't planning on doing it this month! The timings are never right! ?

Well this is the issue that I am going through... I only have a 261 at the moment. I need to get a 661 anyway but now is not the time. I realised I don't have anything big enough whilst looking through ecomill. I was hoping to get a 25" .325 skip chain and just go slow as it's a one off but like you say I'm going to be losing the length with the clamps... So now for the setup I'll be looking at £1200 with the saw then. I guess I'll go back to the backup. Anyone fancy some milling ?. One section is about 12ft long and 24" across. The other is about 10ft long and about 14" across?

Hi Everyone, I'm sure this question has been asked before but I am either too dumb to find it on here or google or I'm not looking in the right place. I recently cut down a 50 year old chestnut for some family and they wanted to have it milled so they can do something with it in the future instead of feeding it into the fire. I don't own a chainsaw mill so I am looking for the cheapest option possible as whilst I love woodwork I won't be using it often. I don't however want to by something that's so rubbish it's a pain to use. I may use it in the future or get into chainsaw milling but for now I need something that will mill 23-25" timber? Failing this, is there anyone in the Dorset/Bridport area that fancies doing some cash in hand milling? Should be a pretty quick job!

I agree with everyone else. Get rid of it. Plus if you did try to prune it back as the customer asked and it looks crap then you will have your name to that for all to see. "I remember the guy who came and trimmed that tree across the road. Now it's an eyesore every day!"

Whilst the tech is cool we won't see anything to replace the chainsaw unless some new tech comes in. All the plasmas or lasers etc involve heat which when we live in a world where a saw can't emit a spark we won't see any of that in this industry. Closest is water jet but we would have to carry tankers full of water ?

If you want to get into gardening then the royal horticultural society book on pruning and training is well worth buying. It's sub £15 and has pictures for pretty much all the UK tree, shrub and flower types showing how to prune them, what time of year, how to fix bad pruning etc etc. Its worth every penny!

As above I would take it out, grind the stump out and then plant a new healthy tree there instead. Once trees are that Ill they will just slowly die off over the years ahead anyway

Imagine the health and safety on that! Go to fell a tree and circumcise a guy on the other hill ?

Bare in mind that battery was just an example of a random lipo battery. There's loads of different battery chemistry's and sizes to chose from. Also that motor isn't the ideal one. It was only around 7000 rpm max and bla bla bla. It was just an example of what's available. You can't compare the power in fuel to power in batteries. The battery power is rated on usable power and the motors are very, very efficient. If you have a 100ah battery and a motor that pulls 100A it will run for an hour... Petrol motors are massively inefficient turning petrol into heat into longitudinal force into rotary force and then back to longitudinal force in the chain... You would have to work out how much fuel an 881 burns and how much work that saw did which would only be possible by hooking up a Dyno to the saw and giving it a constant load. The point I was making is not "how hard is it" but more of a point that the technology is there, they have the opportunity. It's just overpriced and not well executed for the money you put into it

Oh yea, I know it's not right yet. I'm just saying we aren't far away. The spec sheet for the motor was 56V@190A maximum draw.

Standard lay up should be vac bagged/compressed too. Also removes some excess resin in the process. There's really no big difference between processes pre-preg/not pre-preg, at least in the AC world. Pre preg tends to be easier to lay, removes operator error, has more working time and hence be more uniform in finish to remove stress raisers, the weights are also more exact hence why it's used for rotor blade manufacture etc. Non pre-preg is usually messier, more chance of FOD in the lay, large space for operator error in mixing ratios and material to epoxy ratio, if the mixing ratio is wrong and/or it's in a hot area it can go thermonuclear and overheat, more chance for some areas to be thicker than others, hard to do large parts as stuff dries before others, if you mix hardener and accelerator instead of resin/hardener then accelerator you blow stuff up, lots to go wrong. The basic process is all the same though, get the right material, check it's in date, ensure everything is degreased and sterile, cut the stuff to the right size, lay it up, vac bag it, wait for it to dry, get it NDT'd... Anyway, we're getting off topic here. ?

Sort of yes, sort of no. Only difference between lay up and pre preg is the mat on pre preg is pre-impregnated with epoxy and his heat cured as opposed to lay up which is obviously time cured. Pre-preg is only really stronger as the ratio of material to epoxy is dead on where regular lay up is more of a skill. It's all damaged in the same way. overstress and impact damage.

I suppose so, Carbon fibre bicycles are also prone to cracking and delamination though. Aluminium frames rarely fail and tend to bend rather than break. My old man was a paramedic. He had a guy on a road bike going down a hill and hit a pothole. The carbon forks were either already damaged or the shock damaged them. They split and the guy went face first onto the tarmac and ground away the whole bottom side of his face. That put me off carbon forks. My previous job to this was commercial aircraft repair. Fiberglass/carbon components delaminated and cracked all the time. Aluminium components only really failed from corrosion and that was caused most of the time by improper grounding or no surface protection. The floor panels on aircraft were composite with a honeycomb layer. Any little dent or hit caused delamination and anything over the size of a golfball was a new panel which were well into the thousands in some cases. They also didn't really use plastic for anything on aircraft minus windows and nylon bushes which says a lot about its capabilities. even the interior trim was fiberglass. I don't hate plastic, I just feel that when I am paying £600 for a saw I want something more than a hollow sounding thin plastic toy that feels like it came from the lidl special weekly deals isle

It all depends on what you google... "Glock frame crack" brings up tonnes of results, look at images. ms200t crankcase crack brings up pretty much zero. Not many pro saws have a lot of plastic. That's the difference between the pro and prosumer tools of the same engine size and why there's a price difference. Stihl bin off the plastic sprocket covers etc and fit aluminium ones because they are stronger and last longer. Personally I've not broken any saws under normal loads but I have a built in mechanical sympathy that not everyone has. I did the other day strip the thread out of my ms200t fuel tank even though I baby the thread in so it's aligned and then torque it with a torque wrench because I know that threads into plastic are 90% of the time complete garbage. What I mean though is when I have seen saws or bought spares/repairs ones the bits that are broken are plastic. I've never had a spares or repairs chainsaw that has had a broken crankcase made from ally. Also the pro saws are modular in the sense that you can remove a small bit to access something, and if you drop a saw or it gets hit by a falling log or run over or something stupid then it's usually a small bit that breaks and can be replaced for a few quid. When I rebuilt my 200t I binned a load of the plastic parts due to cracks and damage and the aluminium got re-powdercoated. The electric chainsaws that are coming out at the moment are monocoque in construction which means that repairing it is more like pulling apart a laptop than a chainsaw with everything held together with course screws, clips and mastic.