firewood

so it's not just me that gets enquiries like that:lol: Last year I quoted £600 lump sum to cut, split and stack up a good half artic load of larch on the basis that i could use it as a "hospital job". Customer then informed me that "old Tom" could do it for £150. I said use "old Tom"! One year later the wood is still sitting there uncut. More generally, the problem is that against processed firewood, stuff split on site appears expensive to the householder even though they own the wood. The exception being when there is at least one or two artic loads to process and you can take your processor and loader to site. Then it can work for both parties. Scale is the thing that can make a mobile service into a real business proposition.

whatever they are, leave the logs outside til the first frost. That will do for them.

any pics? single or 3 phase?

I wondered why cheryl didn't call me anymore:lol:

I have friends in Denmark who burn pellets. they tell me that pellets cost not too much more than split logs over there. If that is the case, I'm not surprised that pellet stoves are more popular in the rest of europe. as to the usa i couldn't comment. Can the torrefied pellets / briquettes be burnt just like coal i.e. on an open fire with the same efficiency as coal? or do they need a specialised burner? For those of you like me who had never heard of torrefication before here is an explanatory link: Pellets from Torrefied Wood.pdf

How many m3 of split logs did you have at the end of the 4 1/2 days? (a day being 8 hours?)

so that works out at 4 man hours per load. the same as me. would it take you longer than 4 hours if you were working alone? I'm trying to work out if I can produce more per man hour if i have someone working with me. That is, can I more than double production by adding an extra pair of hands?

Ok. it took me 8 hours to cut into 6" to 8" rings, split and hand load into truck 5m3 . this seems to be the consensus time based on replies thus far.

educated guess!

it's called buyers remorse. the customer has obviously got another quote from another supplier who appears to be cheaper hence the call to you to chivvy the price down. as to "too dry"... that easy to rectify... just run the hose pipe over it:lol:

Direct line will not insure tippers Norwich Union will not insure anything that carries fuel including firewood. In the end i went via brokers Adrian Flux : 0800 369 8590 they seem to handle the risks that no one else wants

ok how long for two of you? I never work alone either!

and shaking the pellets off the end chute by hand I presume the guy in the clip is making animal feedstuff. and whereas hay and straw may dry quickly to a suitable %mc woodchip and sawmill waste takes longer and therefore may need to be "cooked" prior to processing. This is the killer and must gobble up a fair bit of the £160 per ton. from what i can see pellets may have fantastic possibilities for power stations and large scale uses but for smaller domestic purposes i cannot see them beating wood or coal or peat if the retail price is fairly close to coal and the househoulder needs to spend several thousand pounds installing a suitable burner and feed system. I do not think that will change until the pellet cost is akin to that of ordinary logs but to achieve that you would need a pellitiser or briquette maker that could take green chip or timber waste and process it without the need for drying the feedstock. With a machine that could do that for sub £20k (or the price of a mid range firewood processor ) then competition would open up the market, bring a lot more demand and supply, and bring end prices down toward firewood levels.

Here is a question for you all: how many man hours would it take to cut and split 5m3 of hardwood (beech, ash & sycamore) and manually load into truck (2 x 2.5m3 loads) you have the chainsaw of your choice and a petrol driven splitter the lengths to be split vary in diameter from 8" to 36". there is a good mix of all sizes between these diameters. the lengths are stacked up on top of each other (not laid out on the ground 1 deep) to a max height of 12 feet no mechanical handling allowed. you are working single handed.

Can you not sell it as is to your customers? Up here in the soon to be frozen north (aberdeenshire) the sawmills sell this stuff (green and very wet) ex works (not delivered) for £30 / ton just bring your own trailer. there is no shortage of punters!

deviation from the topic but what does building the pellet plant involve construction and cost wise? what % mc does the feedstock have to be.

saw this on ebay bit pricey given the work still to do but interesting all the same AEC MATADOR DIESEL 4X4 CLASSIC FORESTRY CRANE LORRY on eBay (end time 20-Oct-10 13:13:09 BST)

If you have an iphone there are apps that lets you take card payments. Not sure on the costs but more details here: Accept credit card payments on your iPhone: Square app hits the App Store ? Cell Phones & Mobile Device Technology News & Updates | Geek.com and here: App turns iPhone into a credit card terminal - Springwise

And when the customer can't burn it because it is too wet they will come to you and me for something they can burn. you may sell wet wood to a customer once and pass it off as seasoned but you will not get a second chance to do it.

I would go for the above with the diesel engine option (run it on red)

Forgot to mention wheel nuts working loose.

Whatever you buy stay away from £800 - £1200 chinese towable splitters that you see on ebay. they are made with steel that is only marginally stronger than a bar of chocolate, they take too long to cycle, every conceivable nut / bolt / fastening will quickly work loose, hydraulic couplings leak no matter how tight they are and worst of all they are unstable when towed above 10 mph even when billed as road towable. (mine went over whilst cornering at 5mph, hitch had failed by cup deforming and coming off ball) Stick with something european.

Sadly, my experience has been that all the high street banks behave in this way as do pension and insurance companies. The only way that will change is if people take their business elsewhere and not just to another bank. I think future lies with peer to peer lending (see here for an example: Low rate loans - fair borrowing - from Zopa.com ) worth thinking about the next time you need finance for kit or have cash to deposit/lend. The best part is that it cuts out the banks altogether

According to Ray Bradbury paper will ignite at 451 degrees F.