Big J

The trees we'll be dealing with will be much too large. 2-3 cube some of them. I'd be switching between winching and grabbing constantly. I've 1200t to bring to a track 4m wide and 200m long, hence the need for efficient material handling.

Some interesting ideas certainly, but I do really need the ability to be able to grab the timber once it's winched up.

We ran a vacuum kiln for a few years. They can dry green timber but it's not without issues. What it was really good at was drying air dried oak. 20% to 8% in less than a week and excellent results.

True, but that £2k saving was on a job where the tractor managed OK. There are loads of jobs where it would be well out of it's depth but the excavator would handle would handle it without breaking a sweat. I can also pop a mulching head on the machine when required, as well as use it for site works, putting tracks in too.

Thanks for all the replies chaps. Obviously, my budget isn't going to stretch anywhere near 6 figures. My plan was to find a base machine around £20k and then I'd expect the modifications and grab to cost me another £20k. That would be the hope. I can see that there is a lot of demand for it down here. The one other chap that I know of (has worked for TCD a few times, and he speaks tremendously highly of him) with one in the West Country is booked years ahead. I'm not planning to specialise as a winching contractor, because I think you'd need your head looking at if that's what you actually wanted to do. However, I think it'd speed up a great many jobs and if I can get one of my guys to a high level of competency on it, it could be useful for my jobs, and lucrative if contracted out on other peoples jobs. What I particularly like about it (versus the tractor) is that on narrow rides (on steep ground) setting up takes seconds. There is no redirect off other trees required. Additionally, you cannot get a tractor 90 degrees to the ride for winching. The high pull on the excavator means the butt stays off the ground too. And if you find you need a slightly different angle, there is no tediousness in resetting the redirect. You just move and put the grab back down to ground. As I said, it would have cut a week off this job (at least) and saved me about £2k in wages. That's one fairly small job too. 12 jobs like that a year and you're the best part of £25k better off.

I think it looks OK, though I don't envy you John having to move the slabs. 5m x 1.2m x 80mm is just under half a tonne. I always hated big wide double-waney edged boards. That's why I ended up specialising in cedar production as there isn't too much weight in a 3.7m x 160mm x 23mm cladding board!

Beach - sandy thing, usually next to water Beech - tree-like thing, often confused with the aforementioned sandy thing Anyway, you can't force dry sawn timber like firewood. It's marketability and usefulness to the customer is dependent on it's quality. Rapid drying (excluding vacuum kilning, which operates on a different set of rules) results in defective timber. Beech air dries rapidly compared to most hardwoods. 3 inch, stacked in a well-aired barn, shielded from the rain will get close to 20% by autumn. At that point, you can consider kilning it. Do not put it into the kiln before that as it will twist heroically. Beech has a reputation for that. Even in an air drying stack, make sure it has a lot of weight on top of it. Tonnes, not kilos.

It is the norm, yes. Unless you know that the seller of the timber knows your specification intimately, don't buy blind. I've bought and sold blind myself, but only to people that trust me and from people I trust.

Inspect at roadside before they load it. You can't do it at your yard and expect them to take it away again.

Nice sticks, and worth their £150/t

The existence of forestry excavators with winches has recently come to my attention and had we had one on our present site, we'd have cut a week off the (4 week) job. I've another job in summer for which it would be tremendously handy, so considering setting one up. This short video illustrates the winching side of it: Coupled with the winch, I'd stick a (fixed) demolition grab on the end, giving me the ability to quickly handle whatever I've brought up to the track. The site we have in summer is fairly similar in terms of topography to the one in the video. Has anyone worked with a similar machine? What would you recommend in terms of size of machine? 10-14t is my thinking with minimal or zero tailswing. Any pointers would be much appreciated, including which base machine to consider. I've used plenty of smaller excavators, but nothing over 3t really.

Do you know, Saturday Live is pretty much the only R4 show that really gets on my nerves. It's too chaotic. I like Richard Coles, but I much prefer the weekday morning programming. Just me though - I do understand it's the appeal.

An estate where we lived 6 years ago dried all their hardwood in stacks and then processed straight into the tipping trailer for delivery. Not ideal, but the wood was always fairly dry. They gave it three years for mostly sub 12" hardwood.

Outstanding, and thanks for sharing the photos.

You have to keep a close eye on the air filter as the dust pickup by the chainsaw is must more rapid with milling. The powerhead is close to the floor, and the dust is far finer. Check and clean regularly. Ash isn't great with a chainsawmill. It's hard and will vibrate the machine more than most species. Also, finer dust. Keep in mind that it's worth sharpening after every third cut as the cutting performance will deteriorate quickly. I'm talking about a tiny rub with the file (even worth doing after each cut with a low powered saw) and you'll get it down to under 60 seconds once practiced. That's easily 60 seconds you'll save in cut, with the commensurate saving in fuel, vibrations and fumes.

12:1 fuel to oil mix. I don't fancy breathing in the fumes from that! It's remarkable how far saws have some, though it's amusing working with a bunch of cutters with 5 series Husqvarnas these last few weeks and there is always something not working properly on them. They've become too complicated for their own good!

Mine didn't stay shiny for long, what with being dragged around fields and down nutty little lanes.

I watched the series Sex Education (it's a comedy if you've not seen it) on Netflix a month or two ago and Gillian Anderson was still looking incredible, and she'd have been 49 when it was filmed. That being said, my better half is going to be 40 this year, as I like to constantly remind her.

Buy a new one Marcus and hire it out. I don't know what a day rate with a reasonable trailer is, but it'll surely pay for itself eventually and will be better than the clapped out old trailer you have now for when you need to use it yourself?

Not a song as such, but listening to a 2017 BBC Proms performance of Rachmaninov's 3rd Piano Concerto: I first became familiar with the piece with the film Shine quite a few years ago. One of my favourite piano concertos, along with Prokofiev's 2nd and Shostakovich's 2nd. I took my older daughter to see the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra last year performing Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto in Exeter. There weren't too many people there without grey hair. I find that very sad.

Buy a new one. I have a buy a new one every three years policy. Buy it new, work it hard for three years, sell for about 10-20% less than you paid for it and replace. I think it's the cheapest way to own a trailer, as no major bits are likely to fail and second-hand trailers hold their value in a way that defies logic.

I've often been described (usually by my wife) as a young grumpy old man. I'm content with that status though ?

In defence of my tractor, I already had a preexisting Radio 4 habit. In further support of my advancing years, I also wrote a grumbling email to their feedback address regarding Susan Rae continuously stumbling over the news reading. I'll fetch my pipe.....

Now I'm 34, so hopefully nowhere near middle-aged yet but I have to say that I felt close to it the other day whilst forwarding in the tractor. I have Radio 4 on all day (hate pop music, Classic FM is the same 10 pieces on repeat with adverts inbetween and Radio 3 can be a bit obscure sometimes) which is mostly brilliant. For many years I've habitually switched off the radio between 14:03 and 14:15, but earlier this week I thought nuts to it, I might as well listen to the Archers. I'm in the cab every day so I'm as well to give it a go. ? At what point did you lot realise you were heading towards middle age? Apart from the obvious purchase of a jet ski.

I'm no fan of unkempt woodland, but that's programmed into me with my job. I see unmanaged and want to manage it. You're just over an hour away from my Dad. I'll maybe pop over one day (with the rods for the catfish!) to see the woods