firewood

I use the vented bags to stack and season wood (with each bag on a pallet) for the reasons you state above. most of my bags are on the 4th or 5th go round so they are durable. most damage occurs when you accidently stick the pallet forks into a loaded bag! make sure you buy the ones with tipping loops on the bottom. that way you can tip them off the forks into your truck then fork thru the bottom loop(s) to fully tip ou.t job's a goodun! see my pm for supplier details. BTW some people use the builders bulk bags and cut their own slits in for ventilation. however these lack the vital tipping loops. hope this helps

My experience with briquettes..... I recently bought a "load" to burn at home to see if they were worth the candle. There is a firm in my neck of the woods (aberdeenshire) that is currently advertising heavily to sell them. for £289 you get 576 (<2kg) briquettes all neatly stacked and wrapped on a(1 ton) pallet. they look a lot neater than a load of tipped logs but from my own unscientific trial I now know that they burn equivalent to a £200 load (5m3) of my seasoned softwood in my boiler (franco belge). Also in comparison to a ton of coal( £269 i.e. less money) you will burn them a lot lot quicker. so from a commercial perspective i dont think they can compete with good quality logs or even with coal. what you are paying for is packaging and guaranteed uniformity of product i.e shape, size , MC etc) i did notice that the product is made in Grangemouth some 160 miles from me so transport costs must make up a fair percentage of the overall price. if made locally they would be cheaper. my 2p worth.

Happy days!!! I remember buying 5000 litres of heating oil to fill my new tank in 1998 for 7.75p per litre back in the late 80's I was buying 20,000 litre loads of derv for under 18p per litre and red for less than 6p per litre. Haulage income per truck (tippers) was higher then, over 20 years ago, than it is now. That is in nominal not real terms.

Also Jeremiah Johnson, Parallax View and Seven Days of the Condor

top 3 in no particular order: Get Carter Two Lane Blacktop Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia TV series.... The Sweeney and The Wire

If the capital required to make pellets is that high, how could you ever hope to make a profit? I think pellets( and briquettes) production only makes sense if you are supplying big users like a power station or big heating scheme like a hospital or factory complex.

see here...Complete Wood Pellet Manufacturing Factory on eBay (end time 14-Apr-11 22:49:10 BST) seems pricey to me

welcome barry. are you anywhere near figges marsh?

getting back to tommers original post.... who thinks there will be another full on protest over fuel prices? remember the last protest erupted when the price of petrol hit 80p / litre. Today i went past a petrol station selling at 140p / litre. how high does it have to go before people start full on protesting with go slows on the motorway etc etc.

smokers already "pay" for their treatment via the extortionate amounts of tax placed on fags. if you want them to pay for their own treatment remove the tax from every packet of 20. I agree smoking is a luxury in this day and age and it is preferable to tax fags rather than fuel which is an essential.

they should last a year or two unless like me you like to ram oversize pieces in til the fire is full from grate to baffle plate with ends and edges of the logs scraping the sides all under pressure from the stove door which wont quite close:001_smile:

done!

came across this site and this page inparticular: Solar Wood Drying might help reduce a few electricity bills:thumbup1:

i thought that sycamore was meant to be slightly antiseptic / anti bacterial and therefore ideal for this sort of use. I may be wrong though.

may be of interested to some one: forestry tractor with timber crane on eBay (end time 05-Mar-11 18:07:14 GMT)

"It doesn't seem that much work to be honest............buy softwood and hardwood in at £35 - £55 a ton. A ton of wood should do at least 2 cubic metres........sells at £120 per cube.........thats £240"" you have just answered your own question. You may have the driest firewood in town but at £120 per cube many customers will carry on buying cheaper wet wood. be careful about whether you can sell softwoods in your area. from reading this forum i would suggest that softwood is only popular in parts of Wales and Scotland (others may shed more light on this). Softwood prices to the customer will be around half that of hardwood. Also, 1 ton of green hardwood will just about make 1.5m3 of split logs not 2m3. i.e. 25% less than you are estimating. making and selling firewood is very hard work. do not underestimate the effort and hassle involved. you have to be a cutter, labourer, mechanic, driver, salesman and entrepreneur all rolled into one. IMO unless you are shifting 500 tons plus p.a. you will not be able to employ anyone and still make a profit so you will be doing all the work at least to start with. Your biggest asset is your marketing database. If i were you, I would put out a call here on arbtalk and find two or three members from your area who can supply to you or your customers direct and take a commission off each sale. profit guaranteed! my 2p worth.

lastr year i set up an honesty box at the end of my track for bags of logs and kindling. Iwas taking about £90 a day and collecting the cash twice a day and restocking the bags. one saturday was out all day. got back late, all logs gone all cash stolen. this happened the following day as well. I no longer operate the honesty box all due to one scumbag. with regards to thefts from the forest...I think these will only increase as the costs of coal and oil increase. One possible solution is to set up a nice pile of easy to handle birch and rig up a sensor that rings your mobile when tripped (a la Dean Lofthouse). Then hightail it up to the stack to catch them redhanded. If they are taking artic loads at a time they are professional thieves and will be responsible for many other thefts. also tell everyone you know about how you have "cameras and sensors everywhere". It may deter some thieves even if you have nothing installed. Finally, if you do catch thieves and they are convicted name and shame them so we all know who they are.

new filter installed. problem solved. thanks everyone for all the help.

finally got the new filter delivered. the old filter was seized on solid so had to remove complete filter housing and work it off with the bench vice and a big set of stilsons. the old filter was choc full of muck, fragments of grit, baling twine and bits of old clutch plate. filter looked very distorted and partially ripped. also found a large loose metal fragment (from old clutch plate?) next to the non return valve. arms had been creeping down recently so hopefully that has cured the problem all cleaned up and ready to reinstall tomorrow with new pipes as well.

how old is the stove? overtime the rope will loose its shape and become flattened and fail to make a seal. if the stove or door is not warped then simply install a new fire rope. don't forget the special glue to hold it in place.

I've had cold starting problems when temp is -10 or below. I find a bucket of hot water tipped slowly over the injector pipes works wonders

nice link. unfortunately doesn't show my model but handy for other kit nonetheless.

ihave an original bobcat manual and it specs universal oil (10w30).this is what i have used. does anyone know what the effect of using ordinary hydraulic oil would be? would it damage the pump? so is mine. still waiting for the filter to turn up the old oil was quite milky

slight derail but has anyone found anything unusual in the wood while milling e.g gold sovereigns, bullets, musket balls?