Alycidon

Have a look here: Energy Cost Comparison | Nottingham Energy Partnership This shows logs as a fuel as just cheaper than gas per kwh but with a fraction of the greenhouse emissions which keeps the lady of the house happy. Buying hard cord in at commercial rates then £85 a cube is not making money especially if that includes VAT. If you are selling timber from arb jobs that you have acquired free or for low cost then of course thats different. Demand for logs is only going to increase in the short/medium term, gas supplies are a bit iffy, we can only now store 7 days worth of gas, we import slightly over 50% of our gas needs usually from the Soviet block. Nuclear power stations coming off line means that my winter 2016 we will have a potential electricity shortfall, demand being more than we are able to supply unless we are able to buy from abroad. People wish to be independent from relying on these major foreign owned energy firms, hence the demand for stoves. My logs can stay in the shed at 100 + vat let alone 85 including. Cost of delivering say 10 miles away is £1.50 a mile each way, so £30, + your time + trailer maintenance costs. If you dont have at least £60 on top of your costs you are loosing money if you are delivering the products. A

Neat, A

.Just waiting for a brake in the rain or some decent frost. Thanks, mat. next winter then !!! A

I own Home Farm Stoves, taken 6 so far and sold 5. Product sells itself. A

IMHO yes, others would I am sure disagree. Premium product commands a premium price. A

Insist on proving your moisture level to a customer especially a new one BEFORE you tip, record that MC on the customers point of sale document. You also need ammo from stove manufacturers about maximum recommended moisture levels, usually this is 18% but some at the upper end of the market want 16%. I have 2 lengths in hard and one in soft, take it or leave it. If you are supplying good logs legally sourced then dont let it get to you. A

My Japa works in the same way, but if you have say a 250mm log then the log has to move 250mm + the gap between the blade and the blade side of the log, say 30mm approx. Moving one end of a log forward moves the other end in the opposite direction. Perhaps the design of my deck is not as good. Interested in how you got on with this Jim, not spoken to him myself but he sounds a decent bloke. A

Its the feeding of the lengths, if your rack is reasonably close the back end of the log for the first few cuts is still on the rack, therefore it wont move forward to the blade. 2 solutions, a, don't use a rack, B, site the rack another meter away or have a long infeed on the machine. A

One issue with the Combi design is that the cord needs moving to the blade. using it with a rack will mean a 3m log will need chainsawing in half. Its one reason why I am thinking of changing my JAPA 700 which works on the same basis. A

Welcome to the site. Thats a bit of an odd post for a first post, why do you want to know?. Certainly if I was supplying prices would be between me and the customer only, I would not hold you breath for any replies. A

In a word no. If perfectly flat with smooth concrete and no stones on it then moving one is ok but 2 will weigh around 900kg/1000kg, thats a but much for one man even a strong one. Having a bit of airspace between a wall and your log pile will help drying. Using a teleporter you should be able to get pretty close. Stanley Handling do a nice range of pump trucks if you need one, had mine 5 years, use it every day, no probs at all. A

Nick Channor is near High Wycombe, he could probably do it. A

I use a similar system, dutch barn, roof and one almost closed long side only. You will need strong pallets to take the weight, if necessary shove some logs under the slats to take the weight. Stack them in the barn and by next autumn you should have saleable logs all be it probably a bit black. They should be dry ( unless Oak) but they should not be mouldy. Personally I dont stack higher than 3 as the bags can move as the timber dries and shrinks. A

When I was looking into making pellets a few years ago one of the guys I spoke to was drying willow biomass in a few weeks in the open down to that sort of level. I would have thought that sawdust bagged into arb bags and kept in a barn with no rain access should pretty soon be down to that sort of level. A

03 plate Disco 2 auto, 276,000 miles. 03 plate Defender, 150,000 miles. A

You wil get any overpayments back pretty sharpish once HMRC get your return and work out whats due. A

Big kit does cut production costs. my little processor does 8 -10 cube a day single handed cutting at 240mm. Using say a Posch 360 then 25-30 cube should be do able. Transport out to customers + delivery time, going 20 miles is expensive and either charged separately or built into the price. Currently I build it in and insist on minimum volumes over a certain distance, however maybe I should have a lower price per bag and charge the carriage as a separate item. That way customers might even be encouraged to collect, had a bloke turn up this morning, wanted to put a cube bag into a biggish Astra van. It did go in after a struggle. A

I worked my cost of cord out at about £38 a cube, sell £115. By the time all the other costs are covered I am not making much. About 5% of my of my turnover is firewood, yet it accounts for probably 15% of my time. A

50 cube of hard wood in log form, green should be about 34-36 tonnes, but I cant see 36t on the trailer. 2 piles, lots of heavy stuff on the back, probably two axle trailer, I would think no more than about 26t, if thats the case though you wont get 50 cube of logs from it. A

East Mids is a pretty big area, might be an idea to say perhaps within 30 miles of somewhere. A

I think he makes a fair point. Cost of cord + cost of processing + cost of covered storage + cost of delivery + time spent delivering. add that lot up, add 33% to it as a minimum to generate a 25% gross profit and there you have a sell out price plus VAT. If you cant make money out of it there is no point doing it. A

What sort of quality are you looking for?. Do a search of the forum using the word splitter, use the search box on the right hand side about a quarter of the way down the page. Personally I would narrow the search down then ask the suppliers who has one local to you, then talk to them. Dealers doing demos usually pick perfect timber for the demo such as Ash and Silver Birch. When I bought a processor I found Fuelwood only to happy to set one up and demo it for me, fair way for you to travel though. A

The MC will probably have been 30%-35%, as you know wood at that MC will burn reasonably especially if you add some primary air under the fire. Its one of the reasons Ash is so popular. But and its a big but, get the MC down to 16% and below you will get over double the heat from the same log. For the guys own use then its up to him what he does in his own home which from memory the original post was about. If selling it, a lot of people would sell at 35%. I came across some wet softwood yesterday, sold as seasoned, around 40%, taking the guy some 12% or so tomorrow. That will be the last crap that guy sells to that customer. A

My brothers bought a 2 cube bulk grain bucket of theirs for through the local JD dealer. Front lip was bowed upwards in the middle so it was impossible to sweep rape off a floor. In the end it went back and they bought a different brand. Cherry advised that heat in welding causes the bow !!!. A

I think there are in Wales ( wood fuel wales may be able to advise) but when I had a look a year or so ago in the Midlands where I am there was not. In a nutshell if you have a boni fide buisness, operate from a site with proper planning permission to process and sell firewood and can offer new employment opportunities then if there is money available you might stand a chance. A