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arboriculturist

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Everything posted by arboriculturist

  1. arboriculturist
    Well you do have a small pole barn (pb) already ! The beauty of a pole barn is the higher you go stacking, the better the airflow, comined with more meterage for the same footprint. We do every possible move we can to improve airflow to Accelerate Drying. Unless you want to keep your operation completely off the radar, surely it is worth explooring the possibility of a PB, even though you are in the national park ?
  2. arboriculturist
    Clear tarp will have virtually no effect apart from keeping the rain of - most likely reduce air movement. Any covering needs to be well away from the top of the timber i.e min 300mm. Pole barn, quick and easy with a tractor auger and Tele G poles.
  3. arboriculturist
    Our Posch deck has 3 chains so not huge gaps. The short lengths get grabbed and into a trailer or dumper that can be moved to front of the deck. Then one person can drop all the short lengths into the conveyor channel while another processes the lot at one go. That the most efficient way we could deal with shorts. When grading through the stacks we swing and stack all bad bends and oversize to one side, where it gets crosscut and machine loaded to be moved as above or to a verticle splitter. Never touch the timber by hand until moving from dumper or trailer to conveyor channel or splitter table. Works well for us.
  4. arboriculturist
    Jameson every time. The solid filled poles designed for utility as they don't form condensation internally are not worth the extra unless you do full on utility work. Get the largest capacity loppper head Jameson do, together with the double U shape hook as you can push and pull hung up branches with it. Also get the alloy blade connecting head, but don't buy the blade - it has a usefull hook as part of the head. Get the alloy head and get it adapted to take Silky blades - nothing compares with a Zubat silky blade fitted. This is our setup we have used forever and having used the rest I would never change. Go to the workWARE website and put your postcode in the Find a dealer field - Then shop around. http://www.workware.co.uk/brands.php?brand=Jameson Good luck
  5. arboriculturist
    Totally agree - however we keep an oil can with machine in a tub at all times and oil blades every 10 mins continual use and re-grease gearbox every 10 hours. Stihl gearboxes still fail. We will soon be in the Echo era - as nothing can touch the 2511 for a climbing saw.
  6. arboriculturist
    Thanks for the replies. The Stihls gearboxes are underengineered for the job, so it going to be the Echo HCA-265ES-LW If its anything like their saws, its going to be a top knotch machine.
  7. arboriculturist
    Having used Stihl pole hedgetrimmers for at least 15 years and replaced about 7 sets of cutting head gear sets despite regular greasing - its time for a change of make, as changing those gears is a tedious task. Having used Echo saws and also searched previous threads - the Echo HCA-265ES-LW Long Reach Hedge Cutter seems to come to the top of the pile. I would welcome others opinions for sure though.
  8. arboriculturist
    As has been said previously, to make a worthwhile return retailing Firewood requires investment. The minimum requirement being a processor and log deck, something to load the log deck and tip your containers, containers to store and dry the product in, a pole barn, a tipping delivery vehicle. If you unable to finance that sort of setup it's just not a viable business model for the amount of hours you would have to spend on mindless toil through inefficiency. Apologies if this appears blunt but this is business basics. Most of us started the hard way of course.
  9. arboriculturist
    £5 a tonne - you have to do something to address that ! Have you equated the additional cost of drying green wood versus that you stack on the other side of the hill? If the cost is negligable at least you could keep the drying barn supplied from an 8 wheeler. (If tight, I am sure you have good excavator skills). To avoid double handling we have everything delivered on an 8 wheeler so it gets unloaded perfectly orientated for us to load straight onto the log deck. I am constantly looking at time and motion and ways to increase efficiency.
  10. arboriculturist
    Looks like you managed to take 5 minutes off work to fly your drone. Must be a pain to move all that timber back to the Farm to process but you will have crunched the numbers before you built your drying shed. We live on a hill, but I do all I can not to double handle anything - not always easy. Enjoyed the video footage though, couldn't quite see my sister's house at the end of the main drive.
  11. arboriculturist
    Make sure if you buy IBC's with containers in, make sure they don't have brake fluid, caustic products or similar in, as you will find it hard to deal with them or move them on, Like I mentioned I will post some photos when I get round to it. Good luck.
  12. arboriculturist
    I keep meaning to put the time to getting some good photos, however our setup is very similar to Tree Station if you get chance to google them.
  13. arboriculturist
    Containerisation is a long term investment. The long term benefits far outweight the cost - no manual handling, massive reduction in labour costs, Firewood drys significantly faster in ventilated containers etc. 1000 containers dried = iro 90K. We sell a lot of timber and wouldn't consider bagging Firewood.
  14. arboriculturist
    Have you ever seen a potato grower manhandle potatoes? Knowone has ever made a decent living handling potatoes - well not in the UK.
  15. arboriculturist
    Having been registered for VAT for Firewood sales for a few years now, I am finally looking at the pros and cons of being registered. It's always good good to seek the wisdom of others but here are few of the pros and cons I have encountered. Con's If you have more than 1 business then one of the businesses has to be a partnership or Ltd. This means additional overheads e.g. Seperate accounts for each business, can't share equipment / vehicles between businesses, can't use staff common to both businesses etc. Pro's Vat can be reclaimed on purchases. Roundwood is purchased @20% vat and Firewood is sold @5% to consumers. I'll be interested in other's views.
  16. arboriculturist
    Farmi screen is a waste of time - far too short. Buy a decent inverter welded and make one based on the Posch bar screener but make it a foot longer - will be perfect for your needs. The gap between the round tube screen bars is critical if you wish to minimise blockages. I'll have a measure for you if I get a minute. Tromells are great if you can justify investment by producing 1000m3 +. Good luck.
  17. arboriculturist
    Any 'decent' engineer will modify your processor. Good luck.
  18. arboriculturist
    Nightmare ! These days you have to pay more for the size you want and make sure the actual Haulier is well looked after. We have loads like that and literally takes for ever to process, lucky to 1m3 / hr ! No easy answer - sorry
  19. arboriculturist
    I think most of us over a number of years have spent that 100k - just to chop logs today - if you are a larger scale operation. We pay a premium for our timber to get what we want, never perfect but worth the extra. We missed our on the RHI opportunity so when air drying just the stillage is 1000's. No turning back now though.
  20. arboriculturist
    Graded through 12 way can be great if consistent size and not oval with few removed primary limbs - generally our timber comes as delivered.
  21. arboriculturist
    It's interesting to see the range of scale producers you see posting. Some are processing just a few metres others 1000 + like yourself. Like many lines of business, if you are in it for the long term you need accept you will be relatively poor for several years, but think big. The rewards will be reaped in due course. Are you able to specify a top end size to suit your 350 or are you still forced to get the saws out?! As you see there are plenty of producers out there who seem to be for ever looking a larger capacity machines. My experience is the larger the timber , the lower quality product is produced. Larger primary limbs equals larger wood tissue changes and once you start to use a 12 way knife, the effects of oval roundwood is exagerated. Like yourself we only look to produce top qualility, consistent firewood.
  22. arboriculturist
    Yes approx 3.5m3 / hr 2 people. We used to think we could do more but when delivered roundwood is between 100mm and 350mm dia. this is also the max we can produce with the same setup as you - 360 - Forklift - loader. I did consider changing to a Tajfun 480 as they are a lower price than ours, but I am not sure if I could bear the bar and chain! Splitting 12 way need to be on top of size grading timber to keep quality up. We can easily get 600 m3 before sharpening with the TCT blade.
  23. arboriculturist
    Full stripdown most likely required - Like most of us you are keen to do it yourself as you think you will be saving money, but it wont be cost effective to touch it yourself, so get it to a decent garage and get yourself to work to pay for it. Good luck.
  24. arboriculturist
    Thanks for taking the time on such a comprehensive post. We are the same in looking only to produce a quality product, which is one reason we only specify max. timber diameter of 300mm even though 360mm is near the maximum. Also spend time grading before processing. Anything above 8 way would not give the results we need. 480 mm diameter would give wedges 240mm long - totally unacceptable.
  25. arboriculturist
    Nothing against a 480 except I would hate the chainsaw bar aspect - never say never though! Saying that, do you know the 480 new price at the moment? I recall you have had a couple and I am thinking they compare in price to our 360. In softwood our output is up to 6 m3 /hr, with loading deck and using forklift - just the 1 person. Margins will always be slim in Firewood as you say - that's a certainty!

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