Aluk

This implies the wood is small, and/or there is yet another specialised piece of machinery for you to spend money on, though that does conflict with the claim that the system is to encourage the startup of firewood businesses in small woodlands. At a user price of £150/ton, you would need to shift 3 tons per operator per week, minimum. So realistically this would have to be 2 tons per day for woodland working in order to have time to build stocks and to have time for loading and delivery. 2 tons a day cut and dried (at 10 hours a batch for which you also need to provide fuel) and extracted without a tractor is going to be hard. Please tell me if my figures are wrong. Their website is full of marketing speak, short on engineering detail. The picture of the coppice stove is a drawing, not a picture. The quoted price for electricity is 15p/kWh. I use electric, and it costs around 1/3 of that, (night rate) and I have no handling time, no storage requirements, and no annual maintenance charges. Short rotation coppice has been around for 30 years, and yet it is still not a significant wood fuel source AFAIK. One of the reasons is that those who started in the early days bought machines which couldn't cope, wrecked the machines, and that was the end. The machines that could cope were too expensive to afford.

I was told about this yesterday, so I read the article in September/October 2011 Living Woods Magazine. There are several points: I think "Par-Char" just happens to be a catchy name. The article says the wood is dried without burning, to 10%mc. This takes fuel in another stove called a Greig's Rocket, more investment. As it burns fuel, the efficiency is reduced over what is claimed, since I can't find anywhere that the drying fuel is accounted for. If the wood is dried to 10%, it will be much easier to light. I don't like that. Getting burnt is unpleasant, and increasing the risk of a fire is not something I do deliberately, particularly with a fuel that is usually assumed to be no hazard. I would dry wood in the normal way by stacking and leaving it for a year i the case of ash, and two years i the case of anything else. If I wanted to accelerate the drying, I'd have a polytunnel. Somewhere light and dry to store it and to work in, and not very expensive for a diy version. When TSHTF, if someone can't be bothered to put some effort into getting fuel supplies, all well and good, that may mean I could have some. If they want to throw a switch for instant heat, tough. You need a fire going under the Grieg's rocket for 10 hours, that's going to be a fair amount of fuel to dry some firewood, when buying it in March and stacking it to use in October could have used no fuel. Ok , oak would be a bad choice, but ash is fine. People with modern small plots, would have a problem, they had better get together with neighbours and share a house as well as a bath. There may well be tough choices to make, so they had better be prepared. More clothes too. This exercise is similar to the charcoal attempts in the 1990s. That failed as there was a recession at the time because of spending cuts at the end of the cold war, and we were competing against cheap foreign imports. At the time you didn't need a licence for a chainsaw, just a certificate would do. Now the safety overheads are too great, and firewood is a more efficient product, so someone has found a £6000 overhead in the form of a dryer which isn't needed. I'll have another glass of snake oil if there's any left.........

Which camera did you get?

You'll be competing against Mick Giddings round your area.

To cure the overloading problem, I have bought some beam scales (used for pallet weighing), which can take 1.5t each. The control box allows you to add the weights of each axle if you are mathematically challenged. I used the beam scales as they are much cheaper than the alternative which are two load pads, same as the authorities use. It cost just less than £500, but compared with the possible fines, and attendant grief, I think it is worth it. Load pads which are low profile and with on/off ramps and control box are around £1500.

It's your insurance company who will have the most interest in the inspections. I have known them to accept people doing their own inspections provided the inspections are recorded. That way they have someone to point the finger at. If your insurance co is happy, that's probably all that's needed.

This looks like a rather shallow birdsmouth too. Would you expect the risk of a barberschair to be as great if the cut was lower down in the "toffee" area?

As charlieh says, paint the ends. Any old cheap paint will be better than nothing. As you have the outdoors, cover the stack, and keep it in the shade. A kiln is the best thing, but they're not an insignificant exercise. You have to control the humidity carefully. http://www.ablett.jp/workshop/csm.htm how's this? Look about 3/4 down the page, see where he's milling

Parish councils are insurance driven nowadays, and as councillors can be held personally liable, they are sh1t scared, and trees as you know can inflict heavy damage. Find out where the driver for this decision came from, then respond appropriately. If for instance some plonk of a tree inspector from the local district council gave it to them you may have an uphill struggle, unless you go and talk to the plonk. It may be some misery has complained about the leaves falling off every year and creating such a terrible mess, and they get blown indoors every time we open the back door and I have to clear it all up and this happens every year, and I'm not getting any younger, and I have enough to do, what with having to bandage me ulcers, and my sister's got the same problem and she.............well you get the idea.

Hmmm, what happens if it is a real rope then, which for the sake of the user in the case of a safety rope, you would hope doesn't stop them instantaneously, if they should happen to be subject to an acceleration of around 9.81m/s just prior to the rope tightening? NOTHING is instantaneous.

You stated "vegetable oil is rapeseed/canola". I accept "vegetable oil" is an inaccurate umbrella term, but there are various oils which are referred to using this term, and they have various characteristics, and only one will be the best lubricant. So sunflower, soya, olive, peanut, are all contenders, but the rapeseed generally is a higher price than others, unless I have missed something. For chains and bars I need effective lubrication.

Your point is?

I don't think the coop is a likely place, as all I see in supermarkets in the way of rapeseed oil is around £3 a litre for noggins who think it is full of omega-3 fatty acid, and then they use it for frying, which wrecks the molecules. I have a friend who does a lot of chainsaw carving and uses cheapest motor oil at £5.99 for 5 litres, so 70p a litre is still worth getting (if it exists). Just as an aside (read: hijack) anyone who thinks of using rapeseed oil in biofuels to "save the planet" had better think again, it might be veggie, but it produces more nitrogen oxides than mineral oil fuels, and NOs are 296 times worse than CO2 in their effect on the atmosphere, now, must back to my log burner.

Where do you get it at 70p a litre?

why can't tight wad UK do the same? http://direct.bl.uk/bld/PlaceOrder.do?UIN=121081398&ETOC=RN&from=searchengine

Since you can buy the up to date CD from Stihl for around £20, is it really worth the time and effort posting them on a forum and probably getting Stihl upset?