Rob D

I find yoga good to release the stress from muscles and mind.... But hard to find the motivation for it. Used to do Thai boxing as well for 3 years and that is the hardest physical exercise I've ever done in my life! Not sure I could train like that now...I found a couple years back I was really suffering from painful elboes but got physio on the forearms which have cleared it up. The little muscles in the forearms get over used and then tense which puts pressure on the tendon attachments in the elboe - I couldn't lift anything unless I held it close to my body! I've started doing pull ups and dips which feel so easy when you have no equipment strapped to you.

Good stuff and it's great to see that wood go to use... Just think though Matty what you could do with an Alaskan of your very own! Great work mate!

I reckon firewood is a winner at the moment although I don't tend to buy wood in.... But I only deliver no further than 20 mins drive away (or ask for delivery cost). I know more people may start to jump on the bandwagon but I sold out in 6 weeks last year. I think you'll always sell what you dry in the same year. £80 a month for a yard doesn't sound too much a month when you must be selling around £15,000 of firewood a year (just guessing looking at tonnage your selling). Have you tried calling other tree surgeons in the area and offer them free disposal of logs and/or picking up their felled wood for free? I get most of my stuff from other tree surgeons who don't want to deal with it.... Mind you I mill a lot of the wood first and the off cuts go as the firewood.... It's the milling that keeps my interest. But if you're just fed up with the hassal of doing it maybe sell your processor and all the rest.... You'd free up a lot of time for other projects. There's not a lot of job satisfaction in just firewood.... well pretty much none at all in fact!

That seems a pretty complicated/expensive process for my limited resources! Is there a simpler way of maybe compressing the waste into blocks for people to burn? If you could make bricks out of the waste and then dry/season them like normal logs?

Give it a few years and you'll be loving going back to that 6" slab! Lovely bit of oak with the piece you have for the table top showing medullary rays and also a lovely touch of brown on the right! Bootiful

Thanks doc! So when you say now the cost of a pelleting 'machine' has come down what sort of money are we looking at? I assume the chip waste first needs to be dried. Then this dry chip waste needs to be futher processed into the correct particle size. Then this is the processed into pellets and presumably 1 tonne type bags which can then be stored and sold. So does your machine reprocess the wood to correct particle size then pellet?

From all the milling I do I got the the foam insert and outside pre filter around in order to keep all the fine dust out of the saw. I've used them for a year now. On the plus side it does keep all the fine dust getting into the carb. On the negative side it very quickly gets silted up on the outside pre filter. A bit of dust on this and the saw still runs but not as well as it should. The other day I was cleaning the pre filter (a job that needs regularly doing - very regular indeed!) and thought I'll try running the saw again without the extra filters.... in summary it ran a whole lot better. The extra filters must make it harder for the saw to pull air through. Also that foam inside part isn't tailor made for the filter and sort of gets scrunched up as you tighten the the outer casing on. All in all it's a pretty poor performance from the so called market leader....

Cheers. Sweet chestnut is pretty underated as it is a lovely timber and durable as well. This one even had some small burrs at the edges.

Cheers Plippy, It's [email protected]

Don't really surf much locally but my brother lives down in Cornwall and I used to live there for 3 years. Also get over to Hossegor a few times in the year and once a year to New Zealand (where the missus is from). Don't really feel like a 'proper' surfer though as I think you need to live near a decent break....

Burley's a great place to visit with the family (near brock). Small village with lots of old style shops (that are great to go in and look around and buy nothing!) with new forest ponies wandering around as well. Hope the weather better than today!

I would say the ISC aluminium snap is one of the best pieces of kit I have ever used/continue use on the end of your flip line. Effortless one handed operation. Superb stuff as is a lot of the rest of ISC gear.

Buzz can u ask Ed to join on this thread if you can as I'd like to find more out about these pellet making watsits!

Ditto on this one ! Not even going to start....

I reckon the next time you have 2 weeks off maybe spent a week working with a local tree surgery firm just to see if you like the work. I know everyone else is saying go for it but maybe a good hard week would help yu make the decision e.g I'm never going indoors again or I'm never going outdoors again It's a funny business that holds all of the usual ups and downs as well as the fact you tend to s@*t yourself now and again which is all part of the fun! One main point though is that you want to be financially secure going into it as you don't want the constant pressure of bills to worry about. Money wise I'd say it's the worst time to go into tree work. Good luck!

What's PA1 Dave ! As in what does it involve and what does it stand for?

Looks really good and I like the way you have the rings facing out not in the usual upright manner. Great job!

Neat job and the more so doing it in the rain which makes a hell of a difference!

Just from doing a bit of research after reading your thread I'm now thinking it could be the way forward (as part of your business anyway!!). Now the whole pellet thing is in it's infancy but in 3 to 5 years it could be much more widespread. It seems you can make fuel pellets from anything be it straw, waste grass and the like as long as you have the means to dry it. What I'm thinking is if you had the right pellet making machine for your general tree waste. Would take a bit of time and research but if you can make burnable pellets out of grass then you should be able to nake them out of chip mulch. I suppose you'd want to speak to people selling the boilers to see who has got them installed and what fuel they're using. It's not good having a mountain of pellet and no where for it all to go! Can you divulge where your mate got his grant from? I know DEFRA seem to want to get the whole pellet fuel going.

How about starting up a lawn mowing service come gardening round? I know you'll only have a few months now but someones trees need pruning every 3 years where as a lawn needs cutting every week. All you need is a lawn mower and strimmer and no big waste to take away. You won't have to travel and if you can sign on your truck/van you are also a qualified tree surgeon you'll pick up treework on your rounds. This is where I started from and built up. Put local ads in papers and do some cheap flyers to the tune 'Regular lawn mowing and garden maintenance, local person, honest, hard working and utterly reliable. No job to small. Good rates and friendly service is our trademark.' Or some such. You shoud be able to charge £12 to £15 an hour. As more work comes in increase your rates and charge for waste removal of grass cuttings etc. Mention the tree work later when you've got to know your customers and they'll spread the word for you. You can save for a chipper and then when you start to let your gardening folk down as the treework comes in you can start giving it up (awkward and late paying customers first). The less work you have = less people see you working = less work generated and it's a bit of a downward spiral so first off you need to get back out there where people can see you working. I pick up 30% to 40% off my work from people seeing me out and about. Don't listen or take to heart what one company has said to you... there's plenty t**sers out there knocking you down just don't let 'em! Treework has suddenly become a much more competitive business in many ways i.e. larger firms laying off and so loads more smaller ones have popped up. I've been going 7 years and can honestly say that there is no way I could start a dedicated arb business now and survive purely on that... there are just too many people working in this area. Good luck with how it goes but don't feel if you're cutting lawns and pulling weeds you're not a proper arborist - you have to do what you can to get by. You sound quite young so you'll have plenty of time in the future to climb about in trees!

I've had the 'Hello... yes it's Hampshire police here... singled you out from numerous other businesses.... yes you're secial because..... advertising... support the police service.... injured veterans....." Pretty low really ain't it... Why are they allowed to get away with it:thumbdown:

The only thing is logs pretty much sell for £160-00 a tonne (properly dry logs that is)... How much did it cost your mate to get a pellet making machine? It seems there are grants around towards these things. And I don't suppose you can pelletise your chip mulch (after drying)... This sort of thing could be the future but I suppose like anything else you really want to have the market there first before buying all the gear in.

Sorry to hear it mate... There's just so much scum out there... And I feel we're pretty powerless to do much about it. A database of stolen gear would be good so at least it would be harder to re sell. I've had various bits and pieces nicked over the years.... You've just go to work, get new gear and try and put it behind you. Easier said than done though...

I got one for milling when using my Peterson mill. It's called a Allistec SC250 and cost £150-00. Can detect metal up to 8" and more in wood and it works a boody treat! Super easy to use, has a waterproof head and has found some small and seious bits of metal in trees. I use it in this clip here on a sweet chestnut. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9i9sI3ZfMY]YouTube - Awkward sweet chestnut[/ame] I got mine with the mill but you can call loglogic and ask how much they are +44 (0) 1884 83 99 99 or they're selling them here ALLISTEC SC250 : Security Metal Detectors : Crawfords Metal Detectors - the most comprehensive range of high quality and value for money metal detectors and accessories on the web They're so handy I was even thinking about stocking them but haven't got round to it yet!