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I purchased my PTO drive Japa 700 new in 2009 for £6k + VAT with a log deck thrown in. I'd reckon as a good low volume machine it'd still be worth around the £4k - £4.5k range. They are flimsy though as in thin guage metal. So make sure it hasn't been bent out of shape which is easy to do on the splitting area with large wood being rammed off at angles. Or on the conveyor that splays easily when dropped. Or on the manual overide lever for the hydraulic if the operator has grabbed it in a panic instead of the drive stop. In other words, its a machine that benefits from a gentle touch.

If it is hardwood, processor size friendly and available in a couple of months time (as ground is to wet to bring artic loads onto it at the moment) then please contact me.

Vehicle in shot is on an 03 plate so doing my Sherlock deductions, the picture cannot originate from 2000.

St Albans 400m3 (looks less to me but their footprint measurments work out). Starting bid £1,750. Definately worth a look if you happen to be close to that area. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIREWOOD-LOGS-APROX-400-CUBIC-METRES-MIXED-CORDWOOD-/271170144511?pt=UK_BOI_FarmingEquipment_RL&hash=item3f230008ff

Shame no one bid. Probably because the seller doesn't have 100% feedback score.

You really can't do without a log deck particularly if you are processing alone. I got my manual one from Fuelwood and it does the loading for the ram processor and a stand for oversized logs that I chainsaw into rings to process later on a screw splitter. An earlier respondent said they can get 4 cubes of wood onto the rack. I find anymore than 3m3 and it's like playing kerplunk just waiting to see which will stay and which will follow gravity.

All the grapples I have seen for under £1,000 are lower thumb or jaw linked onto a welded bracket on the digger arm. So, if you can let me know where the proper grapple for £450 can be had I'd appreciate it.

I take it thats softwood? If its hardwood let me know how much and where.

I have a small 2.5T mini digger and could see a grapple could make pulling cord off the pile a lot easier than the way we do it at the moment, which is run forks of a telehandler into the pile. Has anyone used a 360deg grapple on such a small digger succesfully without ending up clouting the cab with 500kg of cord? Also, none of the sites for the manufacturers/retailers listed here have pricing, can anyone give a price guide on what a grapple fixed and 360deg would come in at?

Benbow Bros of Shropshire run timber trailers with HiaB crane. Steve Swain also of Shropshire runs timber trailers but no HiaB so need loading.

Lets hope for your sake that the ministry never monitor this forum!

A log deck is a must for getting a reasonable quantity of cord off the floor and up to processor height. As for a loading log deck I presume you mean a self loading deck. There are expensive and I cannot really see the point over a manual one. With a manual deck you can select the log next in line of attack and also ring up ones that are too large for the processor to handle with a chainsaw. I place majorly oversized logs on the telehandler forks and get to it with a two man band saw.

I have always found a leaflet drop into the local area that I do August bank holiday weekend always generates orders and they usually become regulars after that.

It depends a lot on what you are looking to do. Is it to make a living? Fill in a few months? A bit of beer money? Making firewood from cord wood is hard work and if you buy in the wood its not rich pickings. To make a living on bought in wood you need to look to sell well over 1,000m3 a year. Then you have the question of how you deliver it. Trailer, tipper or courier? If you have to buy a towing vehicle and trailer then add another 200m3 to cover the running of those. Do look up the old I'm a newbie threads for a lot of background.

I do local deliveries bagged on telehandler forks. Sometimes you can see all the logs take of as you travel over a bump and what was a full bag settles down to look distinctly underfilled. There has been a couple of times when I've knocked down the price to reflect the settling in transit. I always overfill my bags and take it nice and gently to minimise the bounce 'leakage'.

I was scratching my head where I've seen that bark structure before and I do believe you are correct. Willow is a hardwood so no comeback on the supplier even though its the worst kind of hardwood. The proof will be when it seasons, is it light weight like balsa or heavy.

It really should be PTO or tractor hydraulic driven splitters then you have something useful to do other things with, than cutting wood and it runs on diesel.

If its PTO driven processor then the NFU will insure it on your tractor insurance at no extra cost and they do public liability cover also.

We have a Fuelwood supplied rack that we purchased with the Japa and using the two rollers at the front plus the extension of the Japa feed arm we have managed to process 75 tons of of a lot we received in 10 foot lengths (just).

The Japa has thin metal on it. As an example, it you drop the conveyor from a few inches it'll buckle the resting plate and splay the sides. Because the metal is so thin its easy to reform but after a few times of bending in and out you wonder how much weaker the metal is becoming. The shield pins are weak and liable to break off. The plastic slats that the split wood feeds through catch in the splitter so get cut away. The rubber sheet at the start of the conveyor that feeds the logs into the conveyor tears at the fixing bar so needs replacing regularly. I've also experienced gease nipples that pull out of their sockets when attempting to disconnect the greaser. We had the conveyor belt overheat and break due to sawdust build up. Now we clear the the sawdust every 2m3 processed to prevent a reoccurance. The OE hydraulic oil on our PTO machine cooked. We are now replacing the oil charge every 50 hours due to the factory supplied oil discolouring and burning. We found our blade retaining nut impossible to remove so had to angle grind it off. This was apparently a never heard of before problem according to the supplier. So the Hugo who tightened it at the factory must have been a strong boy. I'm sure every machine has its little quirks but these are the things you should look out for/inspect with a Japa 700. I'd sum our Japa as being OK and just about OK for the price.

Ash is a great firewood but looks like it is in peril. Imports of ash have now been halted into the UK and Ireland following recent outbreaks. On the BBC news yesterday an 'expert' asked about the possibility of restricting the disease to East Anglia replied they are 'hopeful'. It's looking worrying for the Ash that the report said made up 30% of British woodlands which I thought was surprisingly high. I only hope if ash goes the same way Elm did that people won't start asking for oak.

I didn't know this was a tradesman finder forum now?

Here are some more bargains, bargain hunters. LARGE amount of dry kindling wood / firewood. COLLECTION ONLY. | eBay Including free nails! Oak Logs for Firewood or Carving??? | eBay Firewood Logs, Bags of Kindling, Wood Burner or Open Fire | eBay Firewood logs kindling wood branches | eBay TREE TRUNK (ASH) FIREWOOD LOGS / HARDWOOD TIMBER / FURNITURE WOOD | eBay

I'm going to state the obvious because you haven't actually mentioned it and it may not be obvious to everyone. You only apply VAT if you are a VAT registered business. Having got the formalities out of the way. The rate applying to fuel sales to the end user is 5%. If you charge for delivery then that has to be charged at 20%. Thats why it makes sense to include delivery within wood pricing rather than say, charge extra per mile or by incremental distance.