County4x4

Thanks Chris - much appreciated! Andy

Hi all, Just read this on another forum from a guy in Bedfordshire: If there are any suppliers of good quality firewood in the area I'll be happy to put you in touch with him. Cheers, Andy

Here you go mate: http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/roadsafety/speedmanagement/speedknowyourlimits.pdf Andy

Been looking at doing a course myself as it happens and it's not a five minute job by any means. The National Association of Chimney Sweeps run several courses including the NVQ Level 2 in chimney engineering which takes around nine months to complete. The Guild of master sweeps do similar stuff and reckon on a minimum of eight days training - with classroom and on the job training - you're looking at over £1100 to train and join up with them. I guess it's similar to tree work in many ways - looks fairly simple on the face of it, but if you think about it from the point of view that if you get it wrong you could be gassing the poor family, then that puts it in a different light. Proper sweeps will have a wide range of tools and equipment to cover all eventualities - some of which are a looong way from your set of £20 B&Q brushes, and will give proper certification of the job they've done which has legal standing. If the guy turns up in his car with some rods in an old golf bag - you've probably got the wrong guy in.... Recommended sweeping frequency for woodburners is quarterly when the stove is in use (and yearly for most other types of appliance) - I wonder how many people actually have the sweep round that often? Andy

If you're considering a re-map for the Transit, you won't go wrong with Van Tuner - Transit Van Tuning The guy is a member on the Ford Transit forum and comes highly recommended by many of the members on there for the good job he does. Andy

There are two or three importers in the UK - Your First Choice for Russian Trucks and Military Vehicles - UK Russian Trucks is the one I remember without looking for it. I've seen Zils for sale now and again at very reasonable money - like less than £4k. Most of them will run on cross fuel but not sure of the situation regarding getting hold of it. The site mentions garages having to pay to get rid of it, but I'm not so sure that the garages are the ones storing it myself. More likely to be outfits like the AA who come out and drain the car tank onsite and then take the cross fuel away. I would doubt the garage have a responsibility to provide storage for when you muck things up at the pumps myself. We process thousands of litres of the stuff at work - it gets blended into fuel for cement kilns which seems a real waste considering that the majority of it is mostly petrol. Ours comes from a licenced waste disposal company called Safety Kleen, and many of the drums they drop are marked as being from the AA. Cheers, Andy

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTaUy4RWO7E]YouTube - ?????????? ?????????,Karachay loggers[/ame] [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1gNPEVpmo4]YouTube - ?????????? ?????????, Karachays do the work[/ame] Proper trucks! Andy

Why do you say that out of interest mate? This stuff is burning very clean - isn't even blackening the glass with the air shut right down. Andy

Also I think there may be problems for him claiming to be self employed if the majority of his work is for one customer - ie you. I think the tax people may well see that as being an employee. Had this trouble once upon a time when driving a wagon for a parcels company - they wanted us to be s/e but as all our driving was for them we weren't according to the tax office. Hope you sort it one way or another! Andy

I've burned plenty of softwood of various species over the years and have no problem with it at all. To be honest I don't know why I had the idea in my head that this Leylandii would be next to useless - but it was there from somewhere. It's been a pleasant surprise though! Andy

Hi all, I cut down a leylandii hedge for my sister in law early last year, and rather than tip the bigger bits I thought I may as well hang on to it just to sort of pad out the firewood over winter. I cut and split a few barrow loads yesterday and burned it on it's own last night. What a surprise - it made a cracking fire and seemed to last a long time as well!! Burned well and then a stove full of red hot coals for ages after the flames had died down. Very little smoke and the stove glass stayed clean - and it really chucked some heat out. I chucked a single knotty lump on the embers when we went to bed and turned the air right down and it was still going this morning - ten minutes with some more on and the door open and it's away again. Must say I was surprised - I only kept it because I don't like chucking decent sized wood away - but I wasn't expecting much from it at all. A mate had asked about the pile of it next to the workshop and I told him it was just some rubbish I was hanging onto for the sake of it - think I've had a change of heart now! Cheers, Andy

Was that kiln dried or in a heated building or something mate? Only asking because 9% sounds drier than the average moisture content of the air in the UK. I'm sure I've read that even kiln dried logs if stored outside under cover will gradually re-absorb moisture up to around 15 -20% to match the atmosphere. Cheers, Andy

I used to sell a similar type of briquette a few years back and ended up having to tell customers not to pile them up like logs after one guy had a couple of them "escape" from his open fire!! The ones I'm doing now don't expand at all so much more relaxed! Andy

An awful lot of pressure mate - over 80 tons/square inch! Ours are pushed out of a screw extruder and get so hot they quite often char to some extent down the middle. The manufacturer had a fair bit of African hardwood waste from a furniture company once and that used to catch fire quite frequently until they learned to blend it with less fancy stuff. At the high pressures and temperatures involved, the lignins and resins in the wood soften and then act as a natural glue to hold them together when they cool - nothing more to it than that. Moisture level of the feedstock is critical though as if it's too wet you get steam flash forming inside the briquette and it blows them to bits. Too dry and they just don't stick together. Finished product moisture level is about 6.5% - though they do have to be kept dry - storing them outside in the log store probably won't be a recipe for success! Cheers, Andy

The Blazers are okay - but the ones I sell are better:001_tongue: Blazers are about 1.5 hours per kg burning time. Ours are about 2 hours per kg. So ¼ more efficient on burn time. Plus ours keep their heat value up for most of the time they are on the stove. Blazers tend to slip away after about an hour. So a fair bit more efficient on heat output. Ours keep their shape when burning so can be used very easily on small stoves, and broken into smaller pieces more easily than Blazers. So better on convenience and use too. Many of the briquettes produced in a piston briquetter tend to expand quite a bit once alight - if you poke them they turn back into a pile of hot sawdust. Ours don't move at all, and will still be recognisable after several hours. The good thing about briquettes over logs is that they have a much lower moisture content and therefore more available energy to give off as heat. Tests on the ones I sell came out with one tonne of briquettes having a similar energy content to just over four tonnes of seasoned mixed hardwood. And unlike chipboard of course, there are no glues, binders, additives, preservatives or anything else for that matter - just pure wood. Cheers, Andy

I've no idea if it's true - but wouldn't it be a bit odd for parquet flooring to be made of softwood?? It might be completely normal - I have no idea - but you'd think they'd use something pretty tough wouldn't you? I remember reading on the website of some outfit who sold sun dried African firewood to rich folks, that you would probably need twice the usual amount of kindling to get it started as it was iron hard. Once it was going though it was supposed to be hotter than hell and lasted for hours. I'll try some when I'm rich and let you know.... Andy

What sort of waste are you talking about mate? I ran a commercial recycling plant for a while, and whilst some of our stuff was exported, it certainly wasn't going to be burned - just going to countries that had a much better idea of how to recycle materials into useful products instead of chucking it in a hole in the ground and looking the other way. We often found that there simply weren't the businesses based in the UK who could take the stuff and do something with it, with a few exceptions like paper and metals, which were processed no more than five miles from where we produced them. Modern industrial incinerators can do a good job of producing energy from non-recyclable waste and emissions are low thanks to exhaust scrubbers and so on, but no-one here wants one in their neighbourhood do they? I'm not about to hold my hand up and say I've never done anything that's had a negative impact on the environment - I don't think any of us could do that. But I don't think the "other people do it so why shouldn't I?" argument holds much water either. I try to be a good neighbour, and I wouldn't want to be burning mdf or plywood on my fire for the smoke to be blowing round their houses and their kids. I'm well aware that my little contribution is not going to make a great deal of difference on it's own, but if none of us burned the stuff, surely it would help. The statement that "the planet is screwed so why bother about it" says a lot about modern attitudes I reckon. Homer Simpson would be proud..... Andy

Nick - how hard do you have to squeeze an emu to get the oil out of it:confused1: Or does she boil them up in a great big pan......? My YTS boy many many years ago had Ian Gillan style long curly hair. We were cutting back a boundary line in the back of nowhere and he was in front clearing the way, then I was 20 yards behind him with a chainsaw, and then my mate was behind me tidying up. Said YTS boy goes and treads right in a wasps nest, and it being back end of the year they were grumpy and set about him with some vigour! First thing my mate saw was this poor lad tearing towards him in a proper screaming panic with me and the saw chasing close behind him yelling at him not to come near us!! He thought I'd finally lost the plot big time:laugh1: Young Ian ended up with loads of the blighters stuck in his hair and about twenty stings - he was never quite the same after that. He was the same guy who blew himself up in quite a spectacular fashion some months later lighting a big brash bonfire - we had to take him to hospital for that one too once we'd stopped rolling about on the floor wetting ourselves. happy days. Andy

Not really that different for the neighbours and the rest of the planet breathing it in though is it? We have a guy down the street who burns plastic milk bottles because he can't be bothered to put them in the recycling bin - he's a grand old lad apart from that and his garden is an absolute showpiece. Him and his wife are out there from dawn until dusk most days - you'd sort of think he'd care a bit more. It's kind of a bug bear with me - I used to get narked when I was deivering to salad growers out on the marshes near Southport. They all flogged their stuff as healthy, natural, organic and what have you, and then they'd be burning great piles of old shrinkwrap and polystyrene to save on disposal costs. You could see the columns of black smoke rising for miles across the flatlands. I've noticed a few times that business sellers on ebay are offering crap like mdf and plywood offcuts as firewood - personally I reckon they should be stopped - and it's probably against all sorts of business waste regulations to sell it anyway. People will buy it though and that's half the problem. Cheers, Andy

The old CCA treated stuff should not be burned except in industrial incinerators - there are nasties concentrated in the ash which are only broken down at industrial temperatures. The new Tanalith E treatment contains different ingredients and is safer, but the manufacturers say: Personally I don't like burning any treated wood - I think we should take a bit of responsibility about what we're sending out of our chimneys for everyone else to breathe in. Cheers, Andy

Funnily enough - the ebay member "frankstrading2010" is "no longer a registered user" according to ebay.

I asked him if it would be okay for "a tree surgeon friend of mine who lives in Colchester to go and have a look at them" - and also how he was going to send 100 saws by second class post. Just got a reply: i would have them drived to u we order as we bye thay the same as are in shops as we supplier speedy hire any more q plz ask Yeah okay.... Andy Maybe someone in the know on trade prices for Stihl saws could ask him how he can sell them at £120 and make a profit?

Not doubting your method works mate, but I think you'll find it's the secondary air coming in from the top that goes down the glass to keep it clean rather than air coming up from below. I'm guessing you're using decent wood as well! Andy

:laugh1: Quality. Nice one mate - if you can get some details to me I'll pass them on to her. Cheers, Andy

Hi all, If anyone can put me onto a helpful supplier near Bradford on Avon I'd be grateful. A contact from another forum is new to living on a narrowboat at the marina there and is having trouble burning wood on her Morso Squirrel. Sounds like it's down to rubbish wood from B&Q/Homebase - unless she feeds it with coal as well it just goes out. With the fire going hard enough to keep the wood alight it's too hot and she's sitting round in a t-shirt and Spongebob knickers! Yeah - I thought that would get the suppliers beating a path to her door! I've given her a few tips about leaving a bed of ash and using the secondary air for the main supply etc - but she'll still be struggling without some decent seasoned wood and kindling. If anyone is in the area and could deliver a few bags to the marina that would be great. If they know a bit about using wood in a stove and could give her some hands on advice, even better. As she lives on board she would probably be a regular customer and recommend you to other boaters there if you can supply some decent wood for her. Cheers all, Andy