Alycidon

How do know its a cube they are selling ?. Builders bag is usually 800x800x800 which = .512 cu m, I would do a bit of research or maybe visit them posing as a customer. A

I sell stoves, started doing a bit of firewood year before last, did maybe 20 cube. Last winter I did about 60 cube, mainly soft at 80 + VAT, bit of hard at 100 + VAT. All in cu m bags. This cord is locally sourced but I have had 80 tonnes of hard from Nick last autumn to process for late next winter or 2013/4. Have about 30 cube of each left so that will go well into next winter. assuming the present monsoon ends sometime soon, I did 5 cu m this week. All the arb guys locally are selling product cheapish, one at least is selling fresh felled ash as ready to burn!!. Their supply is though being limited by their customers having a queue of friends who want the timber, I only know of one who is a new set up who has a processer, looks like a big Hakki Pilke. Selling the stove I have first crack usually at the wood supply if they have previously been using gas or oil. A A

Distance limit is 50 kms, over that is Tacho irrespective of what you are doing. A

One thing you need to think about with cranes on trailers is weight. Just doing deliveries you will require a tacho if you gross maximum train weight is allowed to be over 3.5 tonnes. the is the weight on the trailers ID plate + teh weight of the towing vechicle. The Defender is 2.4 from memory, or maybe thats Disco, either way you certainly cannot pull a trailer any bigger than a decent wheel barrow without a tacho if doing hire and reward which you would be. If the trailer only has a max permitted gross weight ( fully loaded including trailer itself) is 3.5 tonnes ( being a tri axle it probably is at least that) then you not only need tacho but also O licence, operating center, CPC etc etc. IFW will on the production line down plate a trailer to whatever you want within reason so I understand, this will of course restrict carry capacity. 6 bags of hard at 300kg = 1.8t + trailer, 700kg + crane ??Kg. I have recently been through this with a fine tooth comb having been pulled off the M6 recently. My Disco now has a nice new tacho !! A

Personally I prefer to roll them down a tail gate on pallets then straight into the customers garage. Fast and easy. Mine are full cu m bags and I can only ger two on at a time. Just considering a bigger trailer at present, had three bags to deliver last night. This looks like it would be fine: CT Tiltbed - New & Used Trailers - Horsebox, Livestock, Plant, Tippers, Car Transporters, Flatbed, Box Van, Spares Pump it up and roll the bags off, just a bit big to get in some places perhaps. A

There used to be a motor trade magazine ( fleet news?) that contained all vehicle running costs up to and including small vans. http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/costs/van-running-costs/48/60000/Ford/#search A

When I did quite a bit of research on making pellets a few years ago I visited a pellet plant near Grantham. They chipped willow coppice with a heavily modified John Deere Forage harvester, they stored it in heaps for 6/8 weeks when it was dry enough to grind put through an integral drier in the plant and pellet. From that I would guess that sawdust would be dry to 18% in a few weeks if kept as firewood, ie undercover with wind blowing through. A

Company in Birmingham will make whatever you want blade wise, pm me for details if you need them. A

Fitted two in bosses house a while ago, used a metal sheet cut to shape of bottom of chimney then cut a hole for first section of flue, must express that the chimney was inspected and was sound. Assuming you are not Hetas qualified to install and self certify your work if you did not get them signed off as safe to use if he ever has a fire is insurance company will refuse his claim. Suggest if this is the case you get a building inspector in PDQ, A

Ronnie was on fine form on my course, sadly his health has deteriorated since I understand. he taught a friend of mine an awful lot about stalking in the 1960s. That friend is now passing on that info and training novices. A

I did my L1 at Eskdale, Ronald Rose, you should be able to simply book onto the next course. Mine was a few years ago now, think they still offer courses. Make sure you get hold of a copy of the CD of the question papers, load it onto your box and have a play. There are 100 or so questions and you get 50 to answer on the day, pass is 44. After a month of two you will be up at 48-49. A A

WEIMA UK: Briquetters Can see it being viable for own use, looks a nice neat machine that can be filled and left to its own devices. Max MC is 18% though, cutting firewood your sawdust is likely to be at least 25% as it comes off the machine. There are a number of home made presses., search google. A

Esse 301 inset (5kw) is a convector stove, cold air is drawn in the bottom of teh stove, circulates between the firebox and the outer case through convection and then emerges from the top of the stove as warm air. Very efficient indeed, over 80%, (an open fire is usually between 10% and 20% efficient when working, when its not working it just pulls hot air from your central heating up the chimney giving it an overall efficiency rating of about zero !!). 301 is one of my most popular stoves, customers love them. Very easy to install as well and made in Barnoldswick which is in Lancs by hand. A

Specflue are ( or were!!) a trade only supplier. Liner from them is high quality, either 316 ( 10yr warr) or 904( 25 yr warr), their warranty deal is unequalled anywhere. Housecoal is NOT a fuel to be used in a stove, that why it says on the bags for use on an open appliance only or not for use in a stove. The reasons for this are twofold, A, it burns very dirtily and will clag up your glass, and B, if burning on a low oxygen setting such as overnight slumbering ( which is not recommended by any stove or flue manufacturer due to the amount of excess soot ( and tar with wood) deposited in the chimney and particulates sent into the atmosphere) then if you get up at say 2am and decide to put a bit more fuel in when you open the door you allow a massive amount of oxygen to enter the stove, an explosion could occur, called backdraft. Firemen here will be familiar with backdraft. In most multifuel stoves you can burn wood, smokeless man made fuel and Anthracite ( natural smokeless coal). Air control settings are different fopr wood and smokeless, your dealer should advise. Whoever is signing the job off as safe to use can be held legally liable if the liner fails and causes damage, death etc. For that reason most good quality installers will not work with customer supplied liner, I have seen web bought liner come unwound when being installed into a chimney before use. Like most things you get what you pay for I am afraid. If you go that route you would probably have to install it yourself ( to building regs) and get it signed off by a local building inspector. If you use 316 grade liner and regularly burn smokeless fuel almost all of this fuel is imported, it has a very high Sulpher content, when it burns it will deposit acidic residues in the flue especially at low temperatures, these will kill 316 liner pretty fast. For any fuel burnt regularly other than wood use 904 liner. 316 will handle wood and occasional use with smokeless only. A

Big lumps of timber, I assume they are being burnt in a heating boiler rather than a stove. When you get the skip of timber to the end user how do you unload it?, perhaps this is just an odd skip for your own use. A

Reversing a trailer takes a bit of learning, I learnt on a Fordson Dexta about 50 years ago with no cab. It was raining, not hard but hard enough, I was not allowed to come in untill I mastered it !!. That did not take long. Shove it into low range and follow the trailer, sounds stupid I know. You might find it easier to fix some poles to the rear corners of the trailer so that you can see where they are. Rear vis in a Defender is not great !!. A

Yes, put a hook about 4 inches from the end, it allows you to pull a burning log back towards you. Calfire and Manor Reproductions are the main suppliers to the trade, most are Chinese made. Have a look at their web sites. A

Nick Channor. A

Nick is the bloke for the job. Several here including me have had dealings with him, good bloke. A

These should be available for a quid or so each from your local stove shop. There are several problems here as you are aware, the major one is that he os getting smoke and carbon monoxide into the room. This clearly indicates either a poorly performing flue or a leaking stove and not your logs that are at fault. If his house has taller buildings or trees with 70 yards then he will be suffering from down drafts, winds blowing the smoke back down the chimney. This needs an anti down draft cowl fitting to the chimney pot to cure. You have sold him green logs, there are NOT yet ready for burning as I am sure you told him yet he is burning them. The water level in these logs will mean that the energy left within the log once the water has been evaporated will be insufficient to ignite the creosote that is given off in the gases during burning. This will condense in the chimney and line it with tar. Heat output at 40% moisture is only a third of that of the log is 16%. To show willing I would take a small bag or net of seasoned logs, 20% or less. They wont cure his problem. I would then suggest if it is a stove that he gets his local HETAS registered installer in for a look see. Details of these can be found on the Hetas website. A

I have now goy my main belts on but not yet tightened, the single belt coming back driving the conveyer drive is misaligned like yours. My next job is to see if I can turn the pto box slightly to align that belt. Ran out of light last week and not had the chance to get back to it yet. Are the gearbox rear bolt holes in the frame straightforward 10mm holes or are they oval to allow belt alignment ?. My thoughts are if the single belt is misaligned then so must the triple blade drive set. A a

Ring your competitors as a potential customer, even better go and see them and look at what they are selling and for how much, check on delivery costs etc. Good logs are of a consistant length and split, nothing much above 4 inch diameter and or course dry. I am selling 18%-19% hard at £100 a cube + VAT delivered in 1 cu m bags. You have just over .6 of a cu m so you may need to adjust accordingly. I would find it surprising if £150 a cube was the going rate. Bear in mind though that small bags means limited returns, you may be better getting into bigger bags. A 5kw stove will go through a cube in a month. A

I saw one at the Stove Trade how last summer, looks a well made bit of kit. Think that Bentley Fireshop over Colchester way are handling UK sales. The Central guy on the decent seemed a decent bloke to boot. Might be interested in having a look at it once you get it in and working hard. A

Having been pulled on the M6 a few weeks ago then I have done some reserch. I do not do arb work so maybe my findings do not apply, I do process and sell firewood though as a side line. I was driving a TD5 Disco with an IFW 10 x 5 box trailer, doing a supplier collection, ie hire and reward and more than 30 miles from base. Max gross weight of trailer is 2700kg, Disco is about 2400kg from memory, so my maximum allowed all up weight is just over 5 tonnes. Well in excess of the 3.5 tons allowed before a Tacho is needed, the fact that I only had about 400kg aboard in acedemic. However providing the trailer is plated at under 3500kg then I dont need an O lic, operating center or CPC. Luckily got let off with a warning, have now had tacho installed though, Another pull without would have meant trouble for sure. A