Big J

I find oak to be the most disappointing of all timbers. It's rare to find a truly excellent log, and quite often a seemingly innocent butt will hide untold horrors! About £4 a cubic foot is all I make on softwood through sawing, but when you can easily bang out 120-180 cube on a day, it's OK money. A bit tedious sometimes, but worth always having a stock of logs in.

Out of curiousity Robin, where do European larch posts fit in in terms of durability compared to the best treated posts?

Lovely indeed, but I like to think I'd be able to ride it without the training wheels.

With your insulation you are clearly a lucky chap (or indeed a wise one, having spent the money on that!). We have a normally orientated (ie, stove and living room downstairs) 127 sq m 230 year old house, which is mainly single glazed sash and cash windows downstairs and no insulation anywhere except for the roof. I don't have any issues keeping it warm (and it's warmer than our old house) but we do use a fair bit of wood. Regarding half load versus full, I find that it won't sit at the desired temperature (550f) for anywhere near as long on a half load. If it's mild outside (as it is today at 8c), I'll perhaps put on a log or two less, but I generally prefer to burn hotter. I have an unlimited supply of wood though.

The way I operate my (20kw) stove (which is constantly lit, October to March) is as follows: * Assuming a dead start, light and get to 550-600 fahrenheit on fully open vents. This usually takes 7 minutes. Shut vents to the point where temperature is maintained in the short term. * Temperature will invariably creep up a touch, so one more vent adjustment is required. * Fire will burn at a steady temp for at least 2-3hrs, and then slowly decrease in temperature thereafter. This can be mitigated by refueling or increasing air flow (which is sometimes not a bad idea as it helps reduce the back up of embers). * Restoking is done as at least a 2/3 load, but I usually fill it. I believe that the fire burns most efficiently when fully stoked, and I vary the overall heat output with the frequency with which I stoke it. The fire is given full air until 550-600 fahrenheit is reached, and the process listed above is repeated. It's a straightforward process that is hard to get wrong. I think it's a very bad idea to restoke and not open vents to regain temperature (this is where a flue thermometer is vital). It will otherwise sit and smoulder for much longer than required. I burn about 30 cubic metres a year, heating the house at some point during every month of the year with the stove. 99% of the heat to the house is provided by the stove, with the heating set on a thermostat that almost never comes on.

I can supply all materials (European Larch) for £8.50 a cubic foot plus VAT, if it's of any use.

Looks like a great machine there Iain. I've looked at them in passing, but I think they're about £60k new? Probably the ideal compromise between load capacity and compactness.

Something American. Don't automatically go for a Woodmizer, and if you do, get one from the States. They are better built (I am told) and about half the price. Woodmizer UK have a somewhat questionable reputation. I have a Logmaster LM2 mobile (though not really in this country) band sawmill and it's truly excellent. I've had nearly a year and a half of trouble free operation out of it, cutting about 300 tonnes in that time. Easy, simple and had I kept my Woodmizer, I'd have paid out about £3500 in maintenance in that time (had it continued breaking parts at the rate it did). Many good American mills to choose from - what is your budget?

OK, that is very bloody cool. Shorter reach on the crane, but made up for by having it slew all the way around the cab. Will seriously look into it as an alternative. That is a very, very easy site compared to most of what we would work on.

An interesting suggestion certainly, and not one that I would have thought of. Still the haulage issues though - you might just get a 1.5t and forwarding trailer onto an Ifor trailer, but 1.5t excavators are horrible to operate. I'll look into it, though I think I'd be reasonably terrified to take it onto any kind of slope!

The extraction on the estate where we worked used to be done with a Carraro tractor and winch prior to the arrival of the Alstor - it was slow and more difficult to fell for. I understand the versatility of a tractor and trailer, but given that it does not need to fulfill any function beyond extracting small diameter timber out of potentially awkward sites, can anyone suggest an alternative that will fit on a 16ft Ifor trailer?

That's a very interesting point of view. Could you go into more detail as to why? I spent three years with an Alstor extracting what we cut and he always put a good tonnage roadside for minimal cost (in terms of running costs and maintenance). An alpine tractor and forwarding trailer won't fit on one trailer either. Just very interested - I appreciate that there are issues with such small machines, but I'm curious to know if anyone's operated something similar and what the like for like alternatives are. A forwarding trailer would have to be driven to be considered a legitimate alternative. We have a lot of hills and a lot of wet ground.

No, no and no. Very basic four wheel drive. Use it on road at risk to your propshafts and diffs!

Supply and demand I suppose. There aren't many people around here with very small machines (the Alstor and the Bison are both 4ft wide) and the terrain can sometimes be difficult. A Bruunett and Vimek would be too large and too heavy - the stands look terrible if you have to cut to allow access for such big machines. We used to cut hardwood firewood at roughly 15 lengths to the tonne. So that means 30 lengths to the bogey load. Cutter will stack the smaller lengths and bigger lengths will be one to the lift anyway. So maybe 10 grabs and you're done. Average extraction route length was about yards at most. I'm not saying I'd manage anywhere near that turnaround speed initially, but the chap we used to use was 20-30 minutes per load, reliably.

I think the Alstor weighed in at 1300kg if memory serves. As you say, they have their place. Good for low impact sites, first and second thinnings and small jobs. You only need an Ifor trailer to get them to site, removing all haulage costs.

We used to have an Alstor following us round on the hardwood. He'd regularly do 40 tonnes. 30 tonnes is only 15 loads (one every 34 minutes on an 8.5hr day).

Fully specced Bison 6000 (no processor price available that I can see) is £25k. 30t a day at £10 a tonne should see a reasonable return.

And a dedicated little processor:

Having stopped doing forestry a year and a half ago to focus on sawmilling, I must admit that I sometimes miss it, and I'm hoping to do a limited amount of it again on the basis of purchasing standing timber and managing the job, selling the timber etc. Part of that requires extraction, and I've always been taken with mini forwarders. The Kranman Bison always struck me as good value and I was wondering if anyone had any experience of them? I have a friend who I think I stand a sporting chance of persuading to buy one. Separately, them seem to have a prototype processor attachment, which I think would be great for the smaller diameter softwoods we have so much of up here. Here is a video of it in action: Thoughts?

I'm pretty sure that Sweden is regarded as the least religious place in the world. With lots of trees, Gransfors axes and the native blonde lady population perhaps I should emigrate!

If there was such a country of 'Anti religious Darwinism', I'd be filing my papers for emigration to this land of logic and common sense first thing tomorrow. The thread is being rapidly derailed. A new thread entitled Creationism versus Evolution could be started, but given this is mainly a UK forum, it could be quite one sided!

Well in an ideal world, everyone should do their job for the love of it, and not for the money I suppose. I don't see an issue with doing it for both!

I guess the difference with tree work is that there is always a cool toy/bit of machinery that eats the profit!

Never mind U bolts, I've sheared two of the main aluminium brackets double end chainsaw milling. The mill struggles with 17 and a half horse power running through it.

Sorry, I thought you said Popular Chopin!