muldonach

10 big hairy spruce trees tipped into soft spot in road after cleaning drains and installling pipes, snedded to leave the brash there and the timber snaked away with a digger up the banking, cross cut to 3.7m logs and stacked. Last calf of the year arrived fit and well - mum and son doing fine thanks:thumbup: Long term Forest Plan sent off to printers to get hard copies for signing:thumbup: load of firewood delivered to round off the day Sat with laptop and a glass of wine:thumbup: Downside - missus had third course of chemotherapy today and not feeling too bright on it:thumbdown:

Brace him in front of his workforce and preferably a client

Agreed - not a good idea to hammer on the head of a maul, If we get a stuck head we tend to throw the whole thing into the air i.e. lift the log off the ground with the maul, invert it at the top of the throw and bring the top of the maul head down onto the splitting block - the log will either split or fly off. If the log is too big then pick up another log and throw it onto the end of the maul shaft cheers mac

If you know it will produce 30cu mt of firewood :- What can you sell that for? or alternatively how much would you have to pay for it delivered to your door? How long will it take you to convert the fallen tree into processed firewood? Put an hourly rate on that time and deduct from above What other costs will you have? Fuel, oil, trasport etc - quantify them and deduct from above The figure you have arrived at is the maximum you can pay and make a decent return - the proportion of that that you initially offer is up to you Cheers mac

It's a perfectly reasonable price for processor sized cord delivered.

If you don't want to spray and the area is too small to justify a bracken breaker then use a scythe or brushcutter - however you need to cut twice in a season and you will need to cut for several years before you make much impression and even then you are simply pushing it back a bit - if you stop the maintenance then the bracken will recolonise.

Bit of a broad brushstroke that - if you are splitting straight grained timber it is not difficult for an axe to beat a splitter although there are a number of variables either way. A good axe is a must, a tyre helps considerably and most important is having the sense to throw the tough stuff into a separate pile. We regularly chose an axe or maul over a tractor driven splitter, I've never used a domestic type splitter but have seen them used and they are not quick. Cheers mac

Council firms who are in part paid by businesses operating in the area should not be competing with those businesses.....it is as simple as that. cheers mac

Careful now Marcus - next thing you will be stopping up the ditches to re-wet the moss!! Seriously however there are few things more rewarding long term than watching and helping a wood to regenerate. cheers mac

::Teufelberger:Fiber Ropes I had a look on the website at the sirius bullrope you mentioned - its stretch characteristics are not stated that I can see but as I understand it for aerial use you guys normally use nylon based ropes with a lot of stretch? These are not ideally suited for winching etc as I originally indicated and as others have amplified. I do not in any way disagree with thier comments but to be frank in my field (marine) we rarely use anything but polyprop. When a 76mm polyprop does go it can be spectacular and life threatening but they do give a bit of warning before they go. I personally would ideally use dyneema cordage in this application but:- 1. It is not cheap 2. It very poorly resists abrasion so you MUST look after the outer sheath If you do find yourself using a rope with significant stretch then provide some line of fire protection such as an offset snatch block to direct a whiplash away from you. The main thing really is to use a properly sized bit of cordage which is unlikely to part in the first place, to look after it in use and retire it in good time. and don't surge it ubnder tension! Cheers mac

You can use any rope at all with a capstan although the lower the stretch characteristic the better. The only way to generate heat in the system is to surge the line under tension, and if you do that then the heat is generated irrespective of the rope construction. Cheers mac

Used it for several years before local sawmill started feeding it straight into the chipper - excellent firewood and easy to stack and store. We used to cut it down to 500mm in the bundles so it was easy and quick to process. I personally would take the slabwood over the roundwood at the same price. Cheers mac

Expose the conductors and bare a section of each by removing the insulation, follow the colour coding and twist the ends together, wrap in insulating tape - preferably self amalgamating. Disguise as best possible and prepare an alibi!:thumbup:

Ok thanks - my trailer has its own pump and reservoir and it is not connected to the tractor hydraulics. The present pump is tired and is not so far as i can see marked with pressure and flow ratings cheers mac

Wilsons website used to list the flow and pressure requirements for thier loaders but no longer appears to do so - can any of you gents give me the flow and pressure requirements for a Botes 5060 please? Cheers mac

If you have a livestock market near you have a word with them - they are regular users of sawdust and as someone else mentioned livestock hauliers.

Never mpre than seven days a week!

If anyone is looking for spares my old beast is for sale and hopefully this post will not break any forum rules //www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191528901594 Cheers mac

Anyone looking to take on a mortgage would be well advised to keep a fair chunk of immediately available cash - probably a months worth of expeses on zero notice and the rest (at least a coulple of months) can be on short notice. I would not advise bricks and mortar or any other illiquid investment in this case nor are equities suitable since you may put yourself in a "distressed sale" position - having to sell when you need to and not when you choose to. I personally went through the Unit trust / Investment Trust / OIEC phase before settling on individual high yield shares, most groupled investments charge a lot for very little but you can discount most of the charges via online brokers. Individual shares are for money you can afford to lose not money you may well need. Never forget the first rule of financial planning - Trust no one in a suit or tie! Cheers mac

Compression is fine cheers mac

Well fitted a new flywheel and top end power is absolutely fine but now the saw will not idle for more than 10 seconds or so and if allowed to die back to idle dies as soon as the throttle is touched. I have had it in heavy timber and run it on load continuously as recommended without any change - do we get it reset to factory conditions or have we upset something in the carb when we stripped the carb down to check it? Cheers mac

No problems at this end over the last 25 years of the same setup:biggrin: Cheers mac

I am giving her a choice between Phuket and Bali cheers mac

We found the ignition module loose and replaced it which we think has solved the running issue, unfortunately when the saw was started up it ticked over ok but when revved broke the flywheel key. I am pretty sure that the flywheel was properly on and well tightened down (need a spanner to remove the nut after the key broke) - has anyone else had this or is there any trick to refitting the flywheel not mentioned in the manual. Any help appreciated Cheers mac

Wire it up conventionally with 220V lamps, keep the power requirements as low as you can and use several switches so that you can decide exactly how much light you need in the building at any one time - i.e light it in sections rather than as a whole. Run the demand side back to an isolation / changeover switch and arrange two supplies:- 1. A bank of deep cycle caravan batteries wired in parallel with any form of wind/solar chargers arranged to trickle charge. Size the battery bank according to the power required for your 3 hour full load demand and allow a bit of slack. These will need to be wired through a 12V-220V inverter Batteries from tanya.co.uk or similar 2. A plug in source for an external 220V generator, this will allow you to run the lighting at any time you need and remove the possibility of battery run down leaviing you in the dark so to speak. Make sure there is a good earth on the system. Cheers mac