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Website layout looks OK but no pictures are showing at the moment so it definitly looks 'draft'. I would also not indent new paragraphs to the same extent and would justify blocks of text to tidy it up.

Home users, builders and landscapers may be a good market to get into: if you can help them with the little problems with their saws then they might give you the business when the job is too big.

We do metre long billets on arrival, leave them to season and cut them to size when ready for sale. We have tried vertical and horizontal but have settled on this 22 pto pump horizontal splitter from Riko:

Just a reminder that any Arbtalk user who does hire out processors can advertise for free on Firewood processing equipment for hire

Very good idea. Same principle but he doesn't seem to make as much mess as I do although it does look like it shares the same proximity to breaking when at max pressure! ...and it does not involve a tractor and dodgy home made hydraulics - so most of the fun has been stripped away. A good tip - if you use a newspaper only mix the resulting dry briquette is ideal for soaking up waste cooking oil / fat - just drop it in the pan and it quickly draws up the oil and can then be burnt in the wood boiler. No clogged up drains and a bit of free hot water.

It is packed into the tube by hand (I have an idea for a hopper feed when I master the pressure problems) and then a ram is pushed down the box section then partially withdrawn and the box section indexes backwards. The ram is then applied again and it ejects the briquette. Hope this is understandable; it would be much easier to watch a video but I haven't got one. The bulk of the water is squeezed out and it takes a further month in a greenhouse to bring the core of the briquette down to 20%. It makes no commercial sense whatsoever but has been good fun experimenting (and does get rid of sawdust!). They do burn really well.

Yes, pre soaked newspapers chucked in a cement mixer, add lots of water then the sawdust. 10 minutes later it is all a thick soup.

Not top secret but it is a little dangerous (so don't try this at home kids). The design is MKII - MKI exploded. MKII is not that much better and is still dependent on knowing just about how much pressure you dare apply (when the box section starts to go round it is time to let go) rather than anything posh. MKIII is underway using some thicker walled stuff that hopefully will stand the maximum pressure of the splitter and thus be a bit safer. The sawdust was from under the saw bench so was seasoned mixed hardwood. 10 newspapers added to the mix as a binder.

I agree. For us, the justification to invest the labour is more to do with a good way to get rid of waste that would otherwise be a problem rather than the end product. I did some sawdust briquettes over the weekend - it was quite relaxing in the afternoon sun listening the radio but it took 1.5 hours start to finish to make 50 6"x3"x3" blocks on an adapted hydraulic log splitter but did get rid of a dustbin full of sawdust.

Also a much cheaper version for using leaves and sawdust Pressing Matters - The quest to turn garden waste into fire Briquettes for a wood boiler

ECU's? If I remember correctly the foil from a 10 pack of Embassy number six folded in half was 8 thou - so you could set the points anyware

Dean, Whilst I don't know much about Police tactics in such situations I do share your frustration with the speed with which firearms legislation was put under the media spotlight. The biggest bout of my dismay was reserved for the BASC spokesman, who could have pointed out many factual points about legitimate gun ownership but chose to offer the Olympics Shooting Team as a primary reason for maintaining the present ownership laws. Whilst I know this is a subject close to your heart, you will also accept that if that is the very best reason for having firearms in the community then we have lost the argument. I can't understand why BASC had not got a fully prepared set of bullet points for such an arising (in emergency break glass) - it was a very very poor response to pertinent (and totally predictable) points being raised. The professor advocating we should store ammunition in centralised repositories was another classic that the media latched on to. Perhaps the fox will wait while I go on a 20 mile round trip to pick up a few bullets. Since the awful Cumbria incident I have noticed two news items - someone shot in Liverpool ("the victim was known to the police" so that's alright then?) and the CCTV footage of a lad shooting up a house - both well down the news and both passing without further comment. To my mind, the quanitity and availablity of illegal firerms are the real issue that the police and media should be focussing on.

Half a bulk bag of railway sleepers @£20 = £62 a cube. Even the chancers are putting a sensible value on their time and are doing 25% better than the professionals still slogging their guts out for £50 a cube.

For top quality properly seasoned mixed hardwood bought by the cube... £100 delivered.

Can anyone remember the the thread with a picture a a reindeer made from logs and twigs? If so I would be grateful for the link. Thanks

I went Tuesday this week. I couldn't afford to stop in the bar so did see Rick. Both were in top form. A great night out.

It's cheaper than the time lost looking for your fingers or worse, an employees!

Apologies if everyone else has seen this before but it was news to me and definitly impressive: [ame= ] [/ame]

Steres are a metric measurement of the volume of stacked firewood but as 1 stere = 1m³ you are much more likely to hear the term cubic meter (or Cube) used. 1 stere = 1 m³ = 0.276 cords. Source: Buying Firewood: A consumers guide to buying logs and firewood At least they are discussing it in real measurements rather than the 'ton bag' confusion that plagues the UK industry!

Tough Builders Mobile Phones - Waterproof and Dustproof phones from JCB, Samsung and Sonim

We have had at least one Landrover on the drive for at least 25 years. My Mrs is currently driving the vehicle we will ever buy from Landrover - a Freelander 2. Nothing wrong with the car but the dealership has been appalling. From the first day we went to order it they just were not interested to the point of being downright rude. We actually went to do a deal on a new Defender and a Freelander but, with a full complement of sales staff and no other customers in the showroom as no one would talk to us. After we had been waiting about 20 minutes a Burberry clad chav bounced in and went over to a black Range Rover Sport two of the sales staff jumped up and sprang into action. I walked out but the Mrs had her heart set on a new Freelander, gave them the benefit of the doubt and ordered one. Even she thinks they are scum now as she continued to be treated as something walked in on a shoe. She was even so annoyed that she listed all the issues with head office but nothing happened - and that banged the final nail in the coffin of our long relationship with LR. PS: my Landcruiser is fantastic!

We grow them commecially from cuttings rather than seed. Just takes time.

Dean, They seem to take 2 years to sprout roots and then they are off - they just sit there doing nothing at all for the first season so don't chuck them out! Only pest seems to be vine weavil which loves their roots and can quickly decimate 1,000's of plants especially if they are in pots. Good Luck!

See http://www.clark-engineering.com/media/uploads/cat-113/stretch-air-clothing-size-chart-800.jpg