Tom D

I saw one where the fish had grown little legs..... quality.

I saw this thread had received 7 posts already and started to worry, now I see they are all atheists... Not religious here... Each to their own though.

Just remember the power of your splitter is a function of the surface area of the piston in the ram and the pressure of your pump. The fatter the ram the more power, assuming pressure remains the same. Most of the home made splitters that I have seen working have made the mistake of having a ram that is too fat for the pump. A a ram with a 100mm i.d. tube will take 4 times as much oil to fill it as one with a 50mm i.d. tube. This makes a fat ram slow, sometimes painfully slow. You could try and find a high flow pump but the main thing is to keep everything in proportion. Having a 20 ton push that takes 10 seconds to complete an in out cycle will be far less productive than a 8 ton ram with a 4 second cycle. The vast majority of logs will split with relatively little force.... go for speed over power is my advice. I currently use a woodline 16 / 8 ton pto splitter, it splits most stuff at 8 ton and is nice and quick...... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlg9aarI1oM&feature=plcp&context=C3690d0aUDOEgsToPDskJZZOUIOCJtsdowzPFQg084]log splitting in edinburgh - YouTube[/ame]

Where a bouts are you Steve? Im based in the eastern borders, we have a firewood mountain and have just invested in a processor and big splitter, I am looking for a wholesale outlet for my logs. Would you be interested in buying bulk bags at a wholesale rate and selling them on. We struggle to find the time for deliveries and have customers already. PM me if you are interested.

If you can't beat them on price dave who can?

I am against this as a taxpayer, not a contractor. There is a very good case to be made for there to be no blue collar workers in the employ of the state at all. I disagree that councils shouldn't be allowed to charge for services, especially planning applications, after all not everyone makes planning apps so why should they pay for them? The only people employed by the LA should be white collar workers who's job is either in management or a position where impartiality is important such as a TO. other massive organisations manage to look after their grounds and infrastructure using outside contractors, there is no reason at all why LA's couldn't too. Look at every business park, retail park, supermarket, etc, they manage to cut the grass, maintain trees and shrubs, weed beds and borders, and fill potholes and spread salt in the winter. the same people who fulfil these contracts are ready and able to take over the running of municipal parks and roads etc. Some forward thinking LA's are already going down this route, and saving money as a result.... our money.

Took down two beeches today...

Almost definitely Mick, being self employed you were probably never eligible for protection anyway, thats mis-selling....

This thread has degenerated somewhat into a bit of an ugly slagging match. It is totally unfair to say that one lot is lazy or their standard of work is poor... I am against state funded organisations competing with the private sector on principle. We have to ask ourselves; what is the state for? it it there to provide a public service? or to create employment for all? The business plan of the LA tree team just doesn't add up... The question of state sponsored workers taking on private jobs is never going to be fair simply because it is impossible for an LA to quote for a private job and still take into account the true cost of running their organisation. The way that budgets are organised within LA's are so complicated that it is impossible to put a real cost on the overheads of an LA tree team. They have annual budgets, capital expenditure budgets, revenue expenditure budgets and they have a whole organisation behind them including, procurement, HR, Legal, Admin etc and to complicate things even further chances are the "tree team" will probably be part of another organisation like parks maintenance or cemeteries. Trying to separate out the costs for the tree team in this scenario would require a team of skilled auditors. The upshot of this is that when an LA quote for private work there is no way they can guarantee that no public money is subsidising the job. In urban areas they will have yards with good security in locations that the average tree firm could never afford to rent or buy. They may share this yard with another council department, ( my nearest council depot shares roads and parks) how can the costs of owning running and maintaining these spaces be divided between different departments within the council? are these reflected in their private rates? I doubt it. ANd the huge cost of the pensions that these guys get? That will come from centric council / government coffers and will never appear on the teams budget.... If any of you LA guys know otherwise please let us know... The only way this could be done fairly is if the Department in question was given no budget at all, and I mean none! They would pay rent on their yard at market rate have their own admin, HR, Legal etc and pay their own staff pension contributions. All council works however large or small would be put out to tender and everyone would have a chance of bidding for the work. Some councils already claim to do this, but in reality when you take into account the great yard space they get and the free dump sites all over town and the staff pensions, admin etc etc they are in fact still sponsored by the state. and for that reason I'M OUT....

If you have the time try and see if they are breaking any EU laws.... god knows how you do that....

It is cedar... WRC Thuja plicata... You have to admire the entrepreneurial spirit...

Further more on really massive contracts it is against european competition law for state backed organisations to bid for private work...... one rule for the big boys.....

I have seen this happen too, sadly its the kind of thing that can happen in LA LA land. If they have completed all their work on council trees and they have spare time instead of letting some staff and equipment go and saving the taxpayer a few quid they go out touting for private work. The really crazy thing is when they price a job they can put any price on it they like, all their overheads are paid already... Bonkers!

Sounds more like the bar needs dressing....

What is your company GC?

Go for it, negative attitudes will get you nowhere. I have £155k of LA work this year.....

Ring the council switch board and ask for procurement, they will point you in the right direction. Bear in mind though most councils will allow individual managers to appoint contractors to do works of less than a certain value.. the only way to get those jobs is to be pals with the managers.

Whatever you can get away with... it will be area dependant.

It's cryptomeria Dave. TD Tree & Land Services Ltd.

I want to grow my business slowly and steadily, possibly diversifying into other areas, while I would still like to be climbing in years to come I don't want too be doing it every day... One saying that is true is this: Its easy to make money when you have got money. This is true even on a very small scale. If you see an opportunity and you have the cash to capitalise on that opportunity then you can, and if you haven't got the cash then you can't. for the last 5 years or so I have always had a "float" of around 10k spare cash, now I have much more than that, I really like having the ability to grasp any passing nettle that I might like the look of, it could be a bargain machine that comes up of even a piece of property, I may even decide to start some completely different business... Like Stevie says being in a position to ride a wave of opportunity is a great way to be.

There's climbers and there's climbers. for over a ton a day you have to be good. the OP is still at college, IME it takes about 3 years regular climbing to become good.

Wouldn't mind seeing a 1928 demo's... will there be one there working?

Any road work?

Of course its illegal, just as its illegal to cross your hands on the steering wheel.... Well thats what my driving instructor said.....:001_rolleyes:

Some really nice stuff there Eddie, we want to make an oaken frame kitchen extension, would you be interested in making the frame? Not sure where you are so we could assemble it but if you fancy making it let me know. Tom