dgcunningham

T'was a great couple of days we had there. Shame about having to chip up the brash afterwards though

Cheers for the info guys, much appreciated. Good point about the Grivel daisy chain potentially snagging on every tree protrusive i pass. Even better point being able to larks foot my own daisy chain, then if its crap, at least i can use the slings.

Cheers. D

Hi guys,

anyone had a chance to use the Grivel Daisy Chain?

Accessories - Daisy chain

Been thinking of buying one of late to use as a versatile multisaver. Can think of a few applications - retrievable redirect (2 revolver and shackle), multisaver and a means of distancing harness from hitch for advancement. The new Grivel Daisy Chain has each link rated at 23kn, unlike previous daisy chains which are rated at 2 kn. At about £35 it seems like a cheaper alternative as i have yet to master the black art of splicing!

Any thoughts or ideas would be appreciated.

Dave.

Just finished a Christianity Explored course ran by my fiance's parents; they are devout Christian, she less so. Thought I would attend it to try to understand it a little more as it is something which is important to them and in so doing build some bridges between us. Also,I thought it was somewhat contradictory that they were eminent medical professionals (medical director of Christies) and held religious views. I found it really interesting and challenging.

I had a view of what Christianity was and now I have explored it a little that view has changed. If you guys are interested in knowing about it or want to further your understanding I suggest you could approach a church and ask a minister or the like. My opinion was that, like it or not, the bible has shaped our society. For me it seemed like a reasonable time to begin reading it.

I don't know much about the subject but thought I could share my recent experience.

David.

Or not, if he rocks up in his arseless leather chainsaw trousers again....

Doesn't bear thinking about.

PM sent, although it sounds like Mozza has it covered.

Pm on behalf of my partner sent.

Hi guys and thanks for the reply, sorry I haven't replied earlier but been a bit of a hectic week with little time to get on line. I'll give you a bell tomorrow night Adam if that's Ok with you. I'll try to get an up to date CV together and mailed across to you this week Will.

Thanks again guys.

David

Could be a slight change of plan, finding it near impossible to get a mooring spot in Nottingham so might be heading further east to Lincoln.

Anyone about in the Lincoln area?

D.

60% is a pretty good rule of thumb. 55% was what the actual test was rated at without a margin for error and only 3 tests were performed, hardly conclusive. For the weights of the load, I worked with cranes on the railway for a few years and their training 'unofficially' suggested (as we were never supposed to lift a load without knowing the weight) 'have your best guess at the weight and then add a third, don't be tempted to fudge the figures to fit the system'. Seemed to work pretty well, only ever seen one crane nearly roll and those SLIs were screaming most of the shift!!!

In the HSE Evaluation of Current Rigging and Dismantling Practices Used In Arboriculture: Prepared by Treevolution & Bruni et al 2008.

http://www.treevolution.co.uk/images/pdf/rr668.pdf

The Alpine Butterfly performed the worst in a series of 3 rigging tests resulting in a strength loss between 52-55% when compared to anchor hitch, buntline hitch, double fishermans and triple bowline. Table 7.7 pg. 173

Previously this reduction was considered to be in the region of 25- 39% (28-39% Lyon 2001) (25% Allaboutknots 2005)

Hi fellas,

Looking to do some voluntary work in the Nottingham area with any tree companies. Relocating to Nottingham as partner has secured a job at Nottingham Trent University as of the 19th September. The plan is that i continue with the company i work for in Manchester on a part-time basis but looking to make a few contacts in the area.

Don't know anyone in the Nottingham area and appreciate its a big ask to give work to an unknown climber. My Manchester work should cover my financial requirements but expect to have a couple of days in the week where i could work for some other guys without the pressure of finding a wage, maybe make a few buddies along the way.

Hope to ring around the companies when I am settled but any prior contact can't but be a good thing.

Cheers for reading and keep smiling.

David

Josy,

Thanks for the links there, good reading. Good luck to your son!

Yup

Fair comment about the patent pending design and not wanting to comment upon it. I appreciate you sharing what you have already, great food for thought on the potential for arb-sourced biomass and the future for biomass as an industry looks very exciting. Really pleased we are involved in our own little way.

1.2m is a LOT too far to stretch for our social enterprise but, great potential to become a supplier to a facility if one is installed nearby. All things considered, the feasibility study is looking promising and the scope to recycle the bi-product of our industry whilst generating a value added product could, hopefully, create greater appreciation and exposure for our industry as a whole.

Regards and thanks to everybody who contributed to the thread.

D.

Based just outside Bolton

 

Torrefied wood we can produce direct from arb arising once it is torrefied it becomes more friable and easier to pelletise than normal wood pellets with the added advantage that it is hydrophobic.

I dont know of any UK manufacturers only Dutch and Canadian

Your proximity to us is uncanny, not far at all. I'm pretty sure you may know or have had some dealings with Phil Benn of ECOS.

I'm just in the process of digesting some torrefaction literature, started with the papers produced by University of Aberdeen and the more comprehensive P.C.A. Bergman paper. You know any other good literature on the subject? The product 'turn around' and the capacity to burn off unwanted organic matter seems to address a couple of my major concerns with using recycled arb-wood chip as biomass.

I'm pretty interested in learning about the installations required for this and the energy consumption. Didn't you say you were hoping to produce yourself in the longterm? Are you hoping to start up your own facility?

D.

Thanks for the heads up on the toxic fruiting fungal spore potential and the advice on the solar kiln process. I'll pass the info on to the moisture content guy.

I appreciate the difficulties encountered with the haulage and handling logistics with wood chip as opposed to pellet transport. We've already fallen foul of a 'inappropriately' placed fence post but as yet people haven't been dismissive of using wood chip. Maybe something we should certainly keep in mind as a potential future problem.

Which area of the country are you based renewablejohn?

I must confess i'm unfamiliar with torrefied pellets.

The torrefied pellets, are they produced from saw dust sized material? Will you further process the arb sourced chip to achieve the grade? In fact, is this something you are currently doing to produce wood pellets?

Just briefly looking into the process it doesn't seem dissimilar to charcoal, amazing calorific value 21 MJ/Kg thats double wood chip and hydrophobic!

Are there many people producing these in the UK?

Thanks for the info renewablejohn!

David

Hi renewablejohn.

Thanks for the input.

Have you experience of converting arb arisings into wood chip fuel? If so, i would love to have a chat with you.

We're not going down the route of pellets or briguettes. Is that more applicable for domestic use and somewhat more difficult to convert? We are targeting medium sized civic clients, people like local authority authority buildings, multiple occupancy residencies, swimming pools, schools etc.

David

Hi Justme, thanks for the reply and the input.

We currently charge by the kWh going into the heating system. Its a good point you made about the efficiency of the system and it is a difficult problem. We see it as a short term sacrifice to establish a client base. Its a chicken and egg situation, people are reluctant to supply as there is not the demand and people are reluctant to install an efficient ( expensive) system as the suppliers are not out there.

One thing we can be sure of though is that the big utility providers are putting the price up. We have a huge natural resource within our green spaces, it is estimated London provides over 60,000 tonnes of arb arisings per annum and alot goes into land fill. As a nation we import over 50,000 tonnes of charcoal a year. Crazy!

The fundamental problem is that we are in effect competing with the large utility providers with an established infrastructure and those markets set the the kWh price. As a supplier we need to be providing fuel at around 3 pence per kWh (including delivery) so the clients will even begin to consider it. We are managing this but as yet still buying a lot of timber in.

Regarding the 'greeness' of the wood chip from arb arisings it is a valid point. We are researching ways to reduce the moisture content in wood chip piles through ventilation systems or combining recycled wood products (tests under way). We are lucky to have a Ba (hons) Arboriculture student dedicating his dissertation to the subject.

One step at a time though, my task is less concerned with moisture content (which is the big problem) but rather research the feasibility of utilising arb woodchip and try to identify other problems which might come to light and discuss ways of combating them. What we need to find is a way of producing a wood chip boiler grade product from an industry bi-product, then we can effectively compete with the utility providers.

Like I said in the original post, this is just a feasibility study and you guys are a great resource for that.

David.

Ps. please keep the input coming!

Hi guys. I'm pretty inexperienced at posting on this forum although I have been visiting here for some time now. I get the impression that you are a friendly bunch and don't mind sharing your knowledge with the less experienced of us out there. On that point, I have a question and think you guys could help shove me in the right direction.

I am currently involved in setting up a tree station in Manchester. Greater Manchester Tree Station (GMTS) is a social enterprise and hopes to operate as a hub of silvicultural ventures within the city, involving practicing coppice workers, social foresters, arborists and woodworking artisans of all denominations. In short, if you like wood you're in!

We are currently researching potential avenues for converting arboriculture arisings into a usable biomass fuel source. In particular, I am trying to compile a feasibility study on the conversion of arb industry wood chip into a fuel source for wood chip boilers.

It would be great to hear from anyone who has endeavored to accomplish this and learn from their findings. Better still, it would be great to hear from anyone who has accomplished it! Obviously they are numerous factors contributing to the difficulty of this conversion, moisture content, chip grade specifications and foliage content but, there may be less obvious ones. It would be really helpful for us to hear your opinions on this.

Any info would be greatly received and if anyone can link me to other forums of a similar nature that would be handy too.

Regards David.

Good find Tim and thanks for sharing the love. D.

Hi Scott, PM me, might be able to point you in the right direction.

PM sent.

D

Thanks for all the advice, links and info guys. Its the first time I have used this forum for an enquiry and I'm really impressed by the response. Plenty for me to follow up. Thanks again.

D.

Thanks for the advice on the search facility Nepia. Managed to get hold of the PDF and it's very informative, so far so good. It will give me plenty of food for thought. Think I need to see things done to really appreciate the subtleties of the process. Unfortunately can't afford to attend one of the charcoal production courses at the moment.

I'll keep plugging away, maybe it's not too late in the season to catch one.