An Idiot's guide to Ancient Woodland management

[Stere]

Commercial Biomass CHP and biochar system.

 

SyngaSmart - Containerized biomass CHP

WWW.SYNGASMART.COM

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What is SYNGASMART® syngaSmart® is a range of containerized micro-CHP systems, engineered and...

 

 

[the village idiot]

17 minutes ago, Stere said:

Commercial Biomass CHP and biochar system.

 

SyngaSmart - Containerized biomass CHP

WWW.SYNGASMART.COM

---

What is SYNGASMART® syngaSmart® is a range of containerized micro-CHP systems, engineered and...

 

 

It would be cool if one day there were plants based on this technology in every town, that tree surgeons could take their woodchip to.

[Stere]

Yeah wonder if there any around working already?

 

 

[openspaceman]

2 hours ago, The avantgardener said:

This all sounds very efficient but not much use to a village in a developing country with no power supply to access.

Of course that is a non sequitur and I don't want to derail VI's thread; it was aimed at charcoal making in this country were at the time we were importing over 80% of our barbecue needs. Twenty years ago a couple of australian soaps had triggered an upsurge in barbecue use in UK and a wannabe  politician had lighted upon making charcoal from neglected broadleaved woodlands as a viable product but the higglers that were recruited to the system were ill equipped to make a go of it. So I became interested as I had a philanthropic interest in small scale biomass  cooking in the third world. What we developed was for this country and the scheme got hijacked  as there was grant funding available for producing electricity from biomass, so a simple concept became unduly expensive.

 

An off shoot of promoting cleaner burning methods in cook stoves was that a couple of americans developed a burner that had very low particulate emissions, it also left a residue of about 25% of the initial dry mass as char.

 

One of the pair and a later comer to the fray, a retired american geography professor, began promoting these types of burner to reduce indoor pollution and attract  carbon offset credits  to the third world by incorporating the char in  soil.

 

The interest to me is that though CO2 release from fossil fuels is concentrated on industrialised countries removing it by sequestering carbon in soil can be distributed in any populated area, if the credit for this could be passed to the farmers in the third world it would provide an alternative to cash crops which are currently exporting fertility.

 

 

[the village idiot]

THRILLING MILLING.

 

Much more through luck than any hint of sensible planning we have been fortunate enough to have had experience of three of the main types of mobile milling machines at the Wood. These were the Alaskan Chainsaw Mill, The Lucas type mill and a bandsaw mill. 

 

I'll give an overview of each type, but in most cases in order to mill a big tree stem you first need to transport it to a suitable milling area where there is enough space all around for a sawyer to do their thing. Quite often in Woodland a suitable stem will have fallen into a crowded environment not suitable for setting up kit.

 

Traditionally, sizeable stems would have been extracted from the Woodland using organic horse power, these days for better or worse, (an opinion generally dependant on whether you wear a flat cap or not) we have turned to mechanical horse power ie. tractors. Even a fairly big tractor might struggle to drag a 2 ton Oak log across a stumpy forest floor, you would soon be ploughing instead of extracting. It is a big help to employ a lifting device and an extra set of wheels. This is where the log arch comes in.

 

 

My log arch was designed and built by Tim at TCF Engineering, the same chap responsible for my little timber trailer from earlier posts. It is a fair bit larger than his standard model. My Arch needed to be strong enough to cope with Oak logs weighing several tons but narrow enough to fit over the slim bridge joining the two main regions of the Wood.

 

The arch is fitted with an 8ton 12volt winch and a pulley. To use the arch you simply have to back it over the butt end of your log, feed the winch cable underneath and back onto itself, activate the winch to lift up the front end of the log and secure it in position using strops or ratchet straps. You are then good to go. This particular arch can lift a 5 mtr long log completely off the ground. Any longer than this and the log has to be skidded. The winch is powered from the tractor battery.

 

With a log suspended in this fashion, the friction is so low that you could probably extract the timber with a grippy ride on lawnmower. Probably best not to try though.

 

We have extracted many large Oak and Ash logs using the Arch. It is a great piece of kit:

 

 

 

 

 

By far the best bit about having this extraction method available is that you can play Log Arch Rodeo with your woodland co-worker. This involves one person driving the tractor as fast as they dare whist the other sits atop the log clinging on for dear life as it fishtailes around all the tight corners.

 

I have some entertaining video footage of this but unfortunately I'm too stupid to work out how to upload it. I will leave it up to your fun loving imaginations.

 

Next up more detail on the variety of timber milling techniques.

 

 

[trigger_andy]

9 minutes ago, the village idiot said:

THRILLING MILLING.

 

Much more through luck than any hint of sensible planning we have been fortunate enough to have had experience of three of the main types of mobile milling machines at the Wood. These were the Alaskan Chainsaw Mill, The Lucas type mill and a bandsaw mill. 

 

I'll give an overview of each type, but in most cases in order to mill a big tree stem you first need to transport it to a suitable milling area where there is enough space all around for a sawyer to do their thing. Quite often in Woodland a suitable stem will have fallen into a crowded environment not suitable for setting up kit.

 

Traditionally, sizeable stems would have been extracted from the Woodland using organic horse power, these days for better or worse, (an opinion generally dependant on whether you wear a flat cap or not) we have turned to mechanical horse power ie. tractors. Even a fairly big tractor might struggle to drag a 2 ton Oak log across a stumpy forest floor, you would soon be ploughing instead of extracting. It is a big help to employ a lifting device and an extra set of wheels. This is where the log arch comes in.

 

 

My log arch was designed and built by Tim at TCF Engineering, the same chap responsible for my little timber trailer from earlier posts. It is a fair bit larger than his standard model. My Arch needed to be strong enough to cope with Oak logs weighing several tons but narrow enough to fit over the slim bridge joining the two main regions of the Wood.

 

The arch is fitted with an 8ton 12volt winch and a pulley. To use the arch you simply have to back it over the butt end of your log, feed the winch cable underneath and back onto itself, activate the winch to lift up the front end of the log and secure it in position using strops or ratchet straps. You are then good to go. This particular arch can lift a 5 mtr long log completely off the ground. Any longer than this and the log has to be skidded. The winch is powered from the tractor battery.

 

With a log suspended in this fashion, the friction is so low that you could probably extract the timber with a grippy ride on lawnmower. Probably best not to try though.

 

We have extracted many large Oak and Ash logs using the Arch. It is a great piece of kit:

 

 

 

 

 

By far the best bit about having this extraction method available is that you can play Log Arch Rodeo with your woodland co-worker. This involves one person driving the tractor as fast as they dare whist the other sits atop the log clinging on for dear life as it fishtailes around all the tight corners.

 

I have some entertaining video footage of this but unfortunately I'm too stupid to work out how to upload it. I will leave it up to your fun loving imaginations.

 

Next up more detail on the variety of timber milling techniques.

 

 

Ooooh! I do love that Log Arch as well! Im thinking of getting one of them before I get the Log Trailer as I think I'll use this more. I see their large Log Arch is does up to 750kg, but as I'll be moving Oak Logs of around 1 ton I guess I should email him and ask if he can build me one to this spec? 

 

Did you mount the 12v Winch yourself?

 

Looking forward to the Milling updates.   Thats something I have a lot of interest in.  

[the village idiot]

4 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Ooooh! I do love that Log Arch as well! Im thinking of getting one of them before I get the Log Trailer as I think I'll use this more. I see their large Log Arch is does up to 750kg, but as I'll be moving Oak Logs of around 1 ton I guess I should email him and ask if he can build me one to this spec? 

 

Did you mount the 12v Winch yourself?

 

Looking forward to the Milling updates.   Thats something I have a lot of interest in.  

I'm sure Tim could build you a 1ton arch. He mounted the winch for me. An alternative to electric is a hand cranked ratchet type winch.

[trigger_andy]

Just now, the village idiot said:

I'm sure Tim could build you a 1ton arch. He mounted the winch for me. An alternative to electric is a hand cranked ratchet type winch.

Yes, I expect he could. Would want to keep the cost down as I just need it for hobby use. Thats why I was keen to go for the generic 750kg one. His website does seem to indicate the large 750kg log arch will skid a bigger log, Im not sure if that just means longer in length or heavier? By the time I add better tyres, a swivel hitch, delivery and avt I'll be over a grand. ?

 

''The large arch is rated at 750kg and will fully suspend a 10 foot 28" log. You can move larger logs than this by lifting the butt end and skidding the tip. Using this method you can move some really huge bits of timber with ease.''

[the village idiot]

10 minutes ago, trigger_andy said:

Yes, I expect he could. Would want to keep the cost down as I just need it for hobby use. Thats why I was keen to go for the generic 750kg one. His website does seem to indicate the large 750kg log arch will skid a bigger log, Im not sure if that just means longer in length or heavier? By the time I add better tyres, a swivel hitch, delivery and avt I'll be over a grand. ?

 

''The large arch is rated at 750kg and will fully suspend a 10 foot 28" log. You can move larger logs than this by lifting the butt end and skidding the tip. Using this method you can move some really huge bits of timber with ease.''

Best give him a bell I reckon. He's in a much better position to advise on the capabilities of his generic arch.

[Woodsman1967]

12 hours ago, the village idiot said:

THRILLING MILLING.

 

Much more through luck than any hint of sensible planning we have been fortunate enough to have had experience of three of the main types of mobile milling machines at the Wood. These were the Alaskan Chainsaw Mill, The Lucas type mill and a bandsaw mill. 

 

I'll give an overview of each type, but in most cases in order to mill a big tree stem you first need to transport it to a suitable milling area where there is enough space all around for a sawyer to do their thing. Quite often in Woodland a suitable stem will have fallen into a crowded environment not suitable for setting up kit.

 

Traditionally, sizeable stems would have been extracted from the Woodland using organic horse power, these days for better or worse, (an opinion generally dependant on whether you wear a flat cap or not) we have turned to mechanical horse power ie. tractors. Even a fairly big tractor might struggle to drag a 2 ton Oak log across a stumpy forest floor, you would soon be ploughing instead of extracting. It is a big help to employ a lifting device and an extra set of wheels. This is where the log arch comes in.

 

 

My log arch was designed and built by Tim at TCF Engineering, the same chap responsible for my little timber trailer from earlier posts. It is a fair bit larger than his standard model. My Arch needed to be strong enough to cope with Oak logs weighing several tons but narrow enough to fit over the slim bridge joining the two main regions of the Wood.

 

The arch is fitted with an 8ton 12volt winch and a pulley. To use the arch you simply have to back it over the butt end of your log, feed the winch cable underneath and back onto itself, activate the winch to lift up the front end of the log and secure it in position using strops or ratchet straps. You are then good to go. This particular arch can lift a 5 mtr long log completely off the ground. Any longer than this and the log has to be skidded. The winch is powered from the tractor battery.

 

With a log suspended in this fashion, the friction is so low that you could probably extract the timber with a grippy ride on lawnmower. Probably best not to try though.

 

We have extracted many large Oak and Ash logs using the Arch. It is a great piece of kit:

 

 

 

 

 

By far the best bit about having this extraction method available is that you can play Log Arch Rodeo with your woodland co-worker. This involves one person driving the tractor as fast as they dare whist the other sits atop the log clinging on for dear life as it fishtailes around all the tight corners.

 

I have some entertaining video footage of this but unfortunately I'm too stupid to work out how to upload it. I will leave it up to your fun loving imaginations.

 

Next up more detail on the variety of timber milling techniques.

 

 

That's a sturdy looking piece of kit ,  been thinking about getting one for a while now , can the winch be used to drag a stem into reach of the log arch or is it only for lifting ?