Big J
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Everything posted by Big J
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The difficulty is that the UK needs a pellet processing plant, but not at the expense of other timber producers. The UK is a good way behind the remainder of Europe in terms of full utilisation of timber for a building's primary heat source. My uncle in Germany has a fully automated pellet fired central heating system in his house near Trier, and has done for the past 8 years. It's a fantastic system - the hopper is refilled once a year, piped in from the truck parked in the street. There is little maintenance and the efficiency is much higher than that of any other form of timber combustion. Additionally, transport costs are reduced, as are handling costs and so on. As a country, we just have a marvellous ability to screw the integration of almost anything new or novel, even if it's been successfully demonstrated to work elsewhere! Jonathan
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You might be surprised what is attainable. I'm now 202 miles into this tank, with quite a bit of light towing yesterday, and have 35.0 mpg showing. My colleague has a Hilux HL2 and got 36.7 mpg on a recent trip up to the Highlands.
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Cruising at 60mph on motorways/dual carriageways and 50mph on single carriageway roads. Never, ever using the brake, and coasting in gear as much as possible. I think 38mpg is my theoretical best with my tyres. For any more I'd have to go to road tyres, and invest in a tirfor for when I get stuck every 5 minutes on forestry tracks!
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I have one great woodturning customer (a member here) who takes timber by the pallet load. But my previous experience had been mostly negative. You might struggle to move that elm on account of it being not especially interesting and quite small. Worth £20-40 to someone though. Jonathan
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That would be about 700 tonne of wood and 300 tonne of spikes - great for burning, but horrific to handle!
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I've got a D40 Steve - about 3800 miles on the clock now. Had to nip out to the workshop and back to check on something - now up to 36mpg showing (160 miles into the tank). I know as soon as I have to do anything on motorways/in town/with a trailer, it's going to drop though
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135 miles into a non-towing tank and taking it pretty easy. 35.5mpg showing, with BF Goodrich ATs on. Think 37mpg should be doable on exclusively A and B roads without a trailer. Jonathan
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This is true. Also, efficiency of timber burning is improving all the time as more people invest in stoves and boilers as opposed to open fires. I'm quite keen on the idea of domestic scale wood fuel usage for the production of heat but not so keen on the wider biomass electricity production. For me, that scale of energy generation needs to be more renewable (wind, waves and hydro - PV solar doesn't work in this country).
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Also, from a forestry point of view, not all of the timber is extracted. A good proportion of the branch wood, leaves and lower diameter stems is stacked as brash piles. Additionally, much of the first thinning won't be extracted at all, all of which contributes to the soil in the woodland (allowing of course for a degree of methane offgassing during decomposition). Either way, firewood from properly managed forestry and tree surgery is fully sustainable.
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Now that is very exciting indeed. I've been swinging towards the MS261 for a new thinning saw, but I think the MS201 will do superbly (with perhaps the purchase of a MS361/362 as well). Thanks for that! Jonathan
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I've done hundreds of hours of milling with an 088. It's a very good saw and does the job well, though like with any chainsaw milling, the vibrations limit it to being an occasional activity. I haven't tried the 3120, but I don't know anyone who mills with them. Jonathan
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Can't understand this dislike of the no spill spout. It is so so much easier than fannying around with normal spouts. You can fill your saw with one hand and have a cuppa in the other!
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Does anyone else bother with Poplar for Firewood?
Big J replied to farmer_ben's topic in Firewood forum
This is true, but the costs for production/conversion aren't much different for Oak or for willow. I think if I were paying £70 a cubic meter and I ended up with poplar, I might be a little miffed. As I never pay for my wood, I'm happy to take whatever (bar most softwoods, which are a pain to split as well as being resinous). That said, there seems to be a hugely emerging market for firewood of all varieties, so who am I to be picky!? -
Does anyone else bother with Poplar for Firewood?
Big J replied to farmer_ben's topic in Firewood forum
I felled a couple of medium poplars last autumn that are now sat on my stacks. They didn't feel at all heavy with water though (definitely poplar too!). They will sit there until next spring, at which point they will be cut and split ready for the following winter. 2 years seasoning should do it! On a similar vein, on the estate where I do a fair bit of forestry, there are at least 15 tonnes of 'offcuts' from our forestry production. Stuff that doesn't fit the specification (3.5m lengths, not willow or lime, nothing under 3 inch). It's going to take no time to collect, is free and can sit for a couple of years to season. I think if you pay for firewood, then insist on the premium woods. If it's free and it's dry, if fine too! -
Stihl can, with auto fill spouts on both ends. It's what I use and it's superb. I don't know why folk are having issues with the auto fill oil spout - it's great and saves loads of time. Bit slow if you use mineral oil in winter so I don't. Mineral in summer, bio in winter. Jonathan
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Lovely! It's a bit like a really wildly figured Elm butt I milled last year.
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Heavy is good. It's much more stable and less likely to jump about causing scoring of the timber. Looks solidly constructed, if a little basic.
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Use it mainly for tying down loads on trailers or as a loop for pulling over trees. Absolute cow to undo if heavily loaded though, and when heavy loading is expected, I use a midline bowline.
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Lots and lots of damage here. We've had no power since 1530 yesterday, both bridges were closed (virtually unheard of), loads of predominantly oak with snapped tops and limbs. The estate golf course looks like it has been shelled! Pictures to follow later when we get power back again!
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I have some left over saw logs from my last kiln fill and could do with shifting them. The Elm isn't at my yard yet, but will be shortly, but I have: * One excellent beech stem 9ft x 19 inch diameter. Perfect sawlog. Approx 15 hoppus foot. * Two Oak. One perfectly clean, the other has a very small kink, and weird black flaming. Both 9ft length, 16-20 inch diameter. Around 30 hoppus foot. * Around 80 cubic foot of Elm, not yet cut to length, and diameters of up to 22 inches. * One larger character grade oak log. 12ft length overall, up to 30 inches diameter at base, with a reasonable amount of branching, though straight. Around 30 hoppus foot. The trees aren't milled yet, and can be done to order. Per cubic foot, I'm looking for £15 for the beech, £14 for the character Oak and £18 for the better Oak and Elm. Delivery by pallet at £63 a pallet. Jonathan
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I don't think that such names are necessarily a good idea. As Janey says, it may give the customer a laugh, but then they will choose someone else. I know that's what I'd do.
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Not a great deal really. I charge about £30 a cubic foot for yew, £37 for oak and about £40 for good burr elm. Those prices are for kiln dried.
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Hadn't thought of that, though I did think that the pulleys were a little small looking at the pictures. Had a good look at a 3 phase Tom Sawyer the other day and was quite impressed by it. Serious money to install properly though. Jonathan
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I saw the thread title and for some reason immediately thought of this quote from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: "Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space" - Douglas Adams. Apologies that I have nothing constructive to add to the thread!
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Certainly very interested indeed. Will most likely try to make it down on the Saturday with a gaggle of woodsfolk! Jonathan
