Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

Better_Days

Oh dear alfie hope you don't get too cold - you are probably getting all the bad karma from Mr BUHA out of your system with this house, so everything will be lovely at the new one ;);)

Well Davesnave I've just left negative feedback for a seller - Can't remember the last time I left a neg but I'm so fed up of misdescriptions resulting in items only fit for the bin. I emailed seller on 6th Feb, but no response at all. It's a real pain with lower value items as there really isn't any point paying the return postage to get a refund.:mad::mad:

Advice alert please :beer:
Mr BD has been offered a tree by someone in the village which has been cut down and chopped into large portions. As a result Mr BD is eyeing up chain saws. Any recommendations - electric, petrol, do they do battery ones? Any recommendations for brands - or models - either to buy or avoid???

Davesnave

Better_Days wrote: »

Mr BD has been offered a tree by someone in the village which has been cut down and chopped into large portions. As a result Mr BD is eyeing up chain saws. Any recommendations - electric, petrol, do they do battery ones? Any recommendations for brands - or models - either to buy or avoid???

It depends whether you will likely have a good supply of stuff to cut up and how 'large' those portions are.

An electric saw will only set you back between about £60 to £150 and it will handle logs up to around 10" thick....if they are within range of a power socket.

Something like my B&Q machine is adequate, but there won't be spares, except for the bar & chain, which are easily replaced. Two year guarantee. Something like the more expensive Makita saws will have spares available.

A petrol saw will set you back more. There are Stihl machines made in China at prices under £200, but I'd avoid those and spend about £275 - £325 on a mid range machine from Husqvarna or Stihl. There are other brands, like Echo, that are all right too, but most pros go for the two top brands. Pete only uses Huskies.....pro models at about £600 each.

A petrol saw is probably only worth it if you are regularly working on trees more than 30m or so from the electric supply. Various bar lengths are possible, but a 16" bar is very adequate - I only have a 15" and won't be tackling trees thicker than about 10" anyway...Pete can do those!

You shouldn't really operate a chain saw without the safety kit. At a minimum that should be boots and trousers made for the job and a helmet + face guard. The electric machines are very safe, however, and I don't worry so much about kickback when in a controlled environment, like cutting logs on a sawhorse. Out in the field it's very different.

That's the other thing .....something to put the logs on when cutting!
Then there's chain sharpening.....:eek:

By the time it's all added up, if you can get set up with a petrol chain saw, safety kit, saw horse etc for under £500, you've either done a really good deal, or cut a corner somewhere! Electric saw + kit could be well under £250 if you are prepared to compromise on, say, the footwear.

Battery chain saws?...:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Hubby bought a chain sharpener for one of lidl's offers... it is brilliant.. it clamps onto the table, well basically its like an electric grinder, its brilliant... cant remember how much he paid for it...


Flipping windy again last night.... really dreading the new storm that they said we are going to have at the end of the week???


when will it end??????

Davesnave

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

Hubby bought a chain sharpener for one of lidl's offers... it is brilliant.. it clamps onto the table, well basically its like an electric grinder, its brilliant... cant remember how much he paid for it...

£20....and I wish I'd had one. Rumour has it that they are made by a company that charges about £80 for the same thing....;)

Davesnave

Our electric is going off soon.....:(

.....but we have the woodburner + Aga, so just a bit of a dull day.

If the weather we're having is heading towards you, I can't recommend it, and there's worse tomorrow! :eek:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Davesnave, if they come up again GET ONE, well worth it, our friend told us about how good they were, so when they came up for sale again in one of their weekly offers, hubby went straight down to get one... I should imagine they might be back there again.... so def keep an eye out...


TBH with all this wet weather I am surprised the mountain in our village hasn't had another landslide...


Bit of a quiet day for you then Davesnave...

rhiwfield

Dave/BD, I cant understand why the sellers dont respond. For item not as described Ebay should refund you if seller refuses, you need to open an Ebay case.

Negs are bad for a seller, low detailed seller ratings are even worse. With all the big sticks that Ebay has available to beat up sellers, it just isnt worth it to give poor customer service. We've just spent the last two hours parcelling the items that sold last night so that we can get them posted/couriered without delay.

Re descriptions, and this isnt a dig BD, we often find that buyers dont read the item condition section or ignore measurements. Had one buyer like the item but stated that it was bigger on her screen than in real life and left me a neutral. Presumably if she had viewed it on her mobile she'd have complained that it was bigger! All this with accurate measurements in the title :mad:. Her neutral was removed straightaway by CS Dublin :j

Re chainsaws we're happy to buy our wood ready chopped

Better_Days

Davesnave wrote: »

It depends whether you will likely have a good supply of stuff to cut up and how 'large' those portions are.

An electric saw will only set you back between about £60 to £150 and it will handle logs up to around 10" thick....if they are within range of a power socket.

Something like my B&Q machine is adequate, but there won't be spares, except for the bar & chain, which are easily replaced. Two year guarantee. Something like the more expensive Makita saws will have spares available.

A petrol saw will set you back more. There are Stihl machines made in China at prices under £200, but I'd avoid those and spend about £275 - £325 on a mid range machine from Husqvarna or Stihl. There are other brands, like Echo, that are all right too, but most pros go for the two top brands. Pete only uses Huskies.....pro models at about £600 each.

A petrol saw is probably only worth it if you are regularly working on trees more than 30m or so from the electric supply. Various bar lengths are possible, but a 16" bar is very adequate - I only have a 15" and won't be tackling trees thicker than about 10" anyway...Pete can do those!

You shouldn't really operate a chain saw without the safety kit. At a minimum that should be boots and trousers made for the job and a helmet + face guard. The electric machines are very safe, however, and I don't worry so much about kickback when in a controlled environment, like cutting logs on a sawhorse. Out in the field it's very different.

That's the other thing .....something to put the logs on when cutting!
Then there's chain sharpening.....:eek:

By the time it's all added up, if you can get set up with a petrol chain saw, safety kit, saw horse etc for under £500, you've either done a really good deal, or cut a corner somewhere! Electric saw + kit could be well under £250 if you are prepared to compromise on, say, the footwear.

Battery chain saws?...:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Thank you so much for all this very useful info. It really does not seem worth spending a minimum of £250 to cut up a tree even if it is 'free'. I am not sure of the wisdom of letting Mr BD loose with a chain saw either. He has cut through the cable of the electric hedge trimmer more than once (and the TV ariel cable on the side of the house) - hence the battery hedge trimmer :eek:

The point re the safety wear is well taken too. He has only one tree to cut up, and given the costs above to do it safely and buy a chain saw - I think we should just buy our logs ready cut :D:D Thanks again.

rhiwfield I do know what you mean about buyers not reading descriptions. I once sold a fleece top - and as I always do I included the underarm to underarm measurements on the description as sizes between brands vary a lot. Buyer gave me a neg as it didn't fit her. :mad:

But as a buyer - I don't know if I have been unlucky but I seem to have had a run of frayed, worn items not so described. A fireside companion set came with tongs which were not part of the set and didn't even fit the holder. A foam dog bed was only half the thickness stated in the description. And when I have taken up disputes with ebay they want me to send the item back. It usually isn't worth the hassle and the cost of the return postage. As a result I use ebay a lot less than I used to.

I have found that the 'professional' sellers have improved though - usually dispatching very quickly with good descriptions - then it is just like buying from a shop.

phoebe1989seb

rhiwfield wrote: »

Dave/BD, I cant understand why the sellers dont respond. For item not as described Ebay should refund you if seller refuses, you need to open an Ebay case.

Negs are bad for a seller, low detailed seller ratings are even worse. With all the big sticks that Ebay has available to beat up sellers, it just isnt worth it to give poor customer service. We've just spent the last two hours parcelling the items that sold last night so that we can get them posted/couriered without delay.

Re descriptions, and this isnt a dig BD, we often find that buyers dont read the item condition section or ignore measurements. Had one buyer like the item but stated that it was bigger on her screen than in real life and left me a neutral. Presumably if she had viewed it on her mobile she'd have complained that it was bigger! All this with accurate measurements in the title :mad:. Her neutral was removed straightaway by CS Dublin :j

Same here - plus on our business account we seem to get quite a few buyers that leave bad feedback rather than contacting us first and we have it quite clearly stated on all our listings to contact us before leaving feedback as we will always sort out any genuine issues

Dave - hope everything is going ok and you'll have power restored very soon!

Better_Days

Dave are you back??? :hello:

Just been watching the Halfpipe final - very exciting stuff! Worth catching the highlights later if you missed it.

Took our old dog to the vets today as her NSAID's are not keeping her as comfortable as I would like. Plus she needed a blood test to check her liver function. Vet has recommended taking her off her meds for a week to see how she does - we will then look at a different NSAID. She is very nearly 14 and although the meds have side effects I think we are now at the stage of keeping her as comfortable as possible so she can enjoy her walks and is not miserable because she is uncomfortable or in pain. We may just try her on painkillers as her arthritis isn't too bad.

Got the papers for her insurance renewal yesterday - over £600 :eek: - now getting to the stage where it may not be worth insuring.