Big J
-
Posts
9,232 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
46
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Classifieds
Tip Site Directory
Blogs
Articles
News
Arborist Reviews
Arbtalk Knot Guide
Gallery
Store
Calendar
Freelancers directory
Everything posted by Big J
-
The Oak is certainly of interest - leave it with me whilst I figure out what to use it for!
-
Not a problem Rob! It's always a learning curve, and each time I do a decent amount of milling, I always take something from it that I do differently the next time. Quick question - can anyone recommend a good hygrometer that won't break in the heat and humidity of the kiln? Needs to be remotely viewable and happily operate at 35-40 celsius and up to 85% RH. Jonathan
-
Quick little update. Almost all timber from the first two kilns has sold (have perhaps 10-15% of it left) and the third kiln will open 3 weeks tomorrow. I decided to use a woodmizer for this kiln, and in many respects it was ok, but it did require the shaving down of quite a lot of logs and due to some metal work, some of the boards in the sycamore were wavy. Anyway, lots of lessons learned, and the fourth kiln fill (scheduled for the start of May) will be better still. All logs going into that kiln will be of ideal size for the woodmizer and I've now got my own little forklift to speed things up. This kiln contains roughly a third elm, third oak and third sycamore. Jonathan
-
Still looking folks! All anyone seems to have at the moment is beech and sycamore!
-
Thanks for the feedback folks. Decided to go ahead with the felling of the timber next Wednesday. Some really nice trees to take down - 2-3 product lengths of 9ft from each one. I am doing to felling and extraction to roadside myself, so that I can demonstrate the Alstor 8x8 forwarder to the estate forester. Getting the sawlogs at a flat rate of £4 a hoppus foot delivered to my yard ready to fill kiln number 4. I will take photos over the course of the day.
-
For good clean Oak, £3 a hoppus foot is much too cheap. For me, I would be happy to pay £6-7 a foot delivered to my yard, so perhaps £5-6 at road side.
-
Just a quick one, but if anyone is looking for spalted beech planks, there is a chance that I could mill some top order on a very large log, where to the best of my knowledge, the spalting goes right through without compromising the quality of the timber. PM if interested. Jonathan
-
Beautiful piece that!
-
Just got some Oregon Fjordlands and I'm very impressed with them!
-
That is just grim when you think about it. All the best for her recovery in hospital and for hoping that this suspension of human behaviour by a member of her community doesn't cause her to give up.
-
£75 for the Ipad (16GB), £20 a month for 15GB on a 24 month contract with Three.
-
Ipad 2 is due out in two days apparently, so they've dropped all the Ipad 1 prices. I had a play on one today and was very impressed, so ordered one. If it turns out that the prices drop further, I can return it on the 14 day returns policy and buy it again. I think it will be a great piece of kit to have - mobile office, regardless of where you are.
-
If you don't bring an 090AV, I going to personally turn you away at the border! Always have bits and bobs of work going on, and the occasional bit of milling or kiln filling at the weekends. Good luck with everything!
-
As the title suggests, looking for Elm in the Edinburgh area. Happy to mill in situ, or arrange collection or pay for delivery. I've contacts with a reasonable number of tree surgeony types in the vicinity, but more is always better! PM if you have anything of interest, Jonathan
-
This is very true. Air around the wood will naturally pick up the moisture from the timber, becoming saturated. If wind doesn't take this away, no more moisture can be stripped from the timber. The effect of sun is that it increases the air temperature, increasing the maximum possible absolute humidity of the air, increasing the moisture removal capacity. So sun + wind = dry timber!
-
Temperature and species have a massive effect on the reading - expensive moisture meters have settings to adjust for both variables. It does render the cheap ebay option a bit useless to be honest with you.
-
Cutters - how much m3 do you cut a day?!
Big J replied to TimberCutterDartmoor's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
Correct -
jcb,hiab,digger,forklift,crane on eBay (end time 20-Mar-11 18:09:13 GMT) Fascinating piece of kit, would have loved to buy it myself, but can't quite afford it. It's right up in the north west Highlands, but a stunning place to drive to to pick it up! Could be a really bargain for someone, especially a firewood producer (think of loading those tonne bags to your truck etc). Jonathan
-
Species/Length/Use of logs.
Big J replied to Sam Thompson's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
In hardwood thinnings we cut to 3.5m as it's about the easiest length for the Alstor that we use for extraction: In soft woods, 4m is OK. We generally cut only for firewood though. -
Cutters - how much m3 do you cut a day?!
Big J replied to TimberCutterDartmoor's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
Thanks mate! I should stress that those numbers were in very easy sycamore (only a total of 6 hangups over 2 days, and some big trees too). I try to avoid difficult woodland where possible as I can't get into a rhythm and find it tremendously frustrating. This is especially the case with very brashy trees, as I find the chaotic disorder flummoxing! I am open to the suggestion that I am quite likely to be on the Autistic Spectrum! -
I would not expect timber cut in Autumn to have significantly seasoned at all. The air has so little capacity to carry moisture at a lower temperature, and when it does, it's often laden with water vapour carried in by the weather over winter. I reckon all firewood needs a full summer split, ideally speaking.
-
Well washing you hair just isn't an excuse for you or Iain, now is it? Or, it's a bit far to drive when you think about it, it's been raining quite a lot lately and the ground is quite muddy (used that one the other day! ) or it's rather a long walk to site, don't you think? Sorry for the derail Iain!
-
Cutters - how much m3 do you cut a day?!
Big J replied to TimberCutterDartmoor's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
Only do hardwoods these days. On a 10inch DBH 55ft (17m) tree you would generally get 4x3.5m products. Rough calculations on volume are: 1st length, average 9 inch so 0.15 cubic meter. 2nd length average 6 inch so 0.07 cubic meter. 3rd length average 4 inch so 0.03 CM 4th length average 3 inch so 0.017CM Plus 0.07 guesstimate for additional branchwood product and secondary stems. Total 0.337CM per tree. In a reasonable stand with perhaps one in 10 trees creating more than a momentary hangup, I would do around 50 trees per 8 hour day, or 16.85 cubic metres. Last week I had a couple of days in easy 60-70ft, 12-14 inch DBH sycamore. Did 6.5hr days (excluding breaks) and felled around 22-25 cubic metres each day, cut to length and stacked where possible. -
I see no mention in that contract of extenuating circumstances that might prevent a subcontractor (such as my good self) from working. For example, a lot of wind, not enough wind, too cold, too hot, trees too brashy, trees getting hung a bit more than is acceptable, trees too small, trees too big, too rainy, too sunny etc. All those blinking stipulations, and I still think I'm going to be felling on Friday!!
