Big J
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Everything posted by Big J
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I can second this. The cheap meters are OK for firewood, but without the settings for species and temperature, they can be wildly out for sawn boards, where accuracy is key. Jonathan
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Hope your neck gets better soon Jon! You have to be so careful with trips and falls and your back. My colleague tripped backwards whilst pruning in summer with nothing more than a pair of secateurs in his hands. Result - mangled and twisted L1-5 vertebrae and 3 months off work! Tread carefully folks! Jonathan
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Oh dear God that must have hurt! They should put that on prime time TV as a public safety awareness video. Might give folk an idea that arb professionals are there for a reason!
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Very sorry to hear that mate - all the best and strength to you and your family.
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Just google it and select the image option!
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I should imagine that the spear splitter is very time consuming compared to an axe? I haven't used one though, so can only speculate.
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Haha! Now I just need an 8ft stove and Hiab to feed it and I'll be away! Great piece of kit though - I can really see the potential for supplying processors.
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I had an MS250 when I first started thinning, and after about the first week it would not oil properly for love no money. I would strip it right down, clean it, and it would be OK for 1-2 days. Even had the dealer do the same. After a month I gave up, and they swapped me an MS260. That was 3 months ago, and no problems since!
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Free(ish) labour in Sheffield and surrounding area
Big J replied to Woody Wood Pecker's topic in General chat
No worries G. I think so long as you are converting the timber from the cordwood, it's a very economical form of heating. I would also say, don't turn your nose up at softwoods. If you can get some larch or scots pine, it does burn very hot, though for a shorter period. Might be a good bit cheaper too. If I were you, setting up for a log boiler, my wish list would be: * Stihl MS261/Husqvarna 346XP (depending on your allegiance). * All the associated PPE. * A good light splitting axe (like a Gransfors Brux) and a heavy maul. Aim for 3 1/2lbs and 8lbs respectively. * A vertical log splitter for those bits that just don't want to go with an axe! * A reasonable saw horse (build one yourself - stronger than many of the bought ones). Get as much split and stacked as early as possible - it's not possible for wood to be too dry! -
Too right! Funny thing is, I just can't understand folk that don't eat. In my old (non-arb) job, I used to work with guys who would skip both breakfast and lunch too - just eat in the evenings. If I've not eaten by 0900 I genuinly feel ill!
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Haha! I told yes, but apparently spend too much time eating! Being 6ft 8 and a whippet like 15 1/2 stone probably contributes to it too.
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Cunning! Now I just need to get myself an excavator with a grab and I shall be away! In truth, all my stuff is small diameter, but good thinking nevertheless.
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I find theft of timber pretty damn disgusting. I fortunately have not been at the receiving end of it yet, and thankfully my wood stores for home are tucked away deep in a country estate. What goes through peoples mind when they are nicking it? I mean, you will get completely average folk just helping themselves to it - do these same people just wander into Sainsbury's, fill their trolley and walk out? "I'm sorry, I didn't realise that you wanted it" wouldn't cut it there!
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I cannot thank my wife enough for the vast amounts of food she preps for me. I do cook quite a lot (used to be a chef in a former life), but it the sandwich box in the morning I'm most grateful for. For a working day I generally eat 14-16 slices of bread with fillings, then two dinners when I get home, as well as a small breakfast before going out to work. Hurrah for arb wives!
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First result on google for green weight of Oak came up with 1083kg a cubic meter. Jonathan
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Free(ish) labour in Sheffield and surrounding area
Big J replied to Woody Wood Pecker's topic in General chat
Hi Gordon, No apologies required - everyone starts off a novice! There are folk here on Arbtalk selling cordwood - it's finding someone close enough to you to deliver it. With the current surging demand for firewood, hardwood cord seems to be fetching around £50 a tonne delivered (sometimes more!). I would say you would need about 8 tonnes green a year. Cordwood tends to get delivered by articulated lorries carrying 25 tonnes or so. So one load would essentially serve you for three years and cost about £1250. Obviously all the processing would be up to you! You might be able to find someone with a smaller truck who might deliver, who knows! It's what I'll do once I've worked my way through the 25 tonnes I've stacked at home. Marginal timber is more work than it's worth sometimes. Jonathan -
I must admit that I don't do logs - I do however have a bit of an OCD for numbers!
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Free(ish) labour in Sheffield and surrounding area
Big J replied to Woody Wood Pecker's topic in General chat
Hi Gordon, I would say that it would perhaps be more economical for you to buy in cordwood (lengths of 3-4m, usually 4-12 inches in diameter) and process it you a saw and axe/splitter. If you are going to be running a wood boiler permanently, you will need to process your own at some point, so a chainsaw is a must. I harvest all my own timber for my heating, and often think that it might just be easier and cheaper to work the extra days, and pay to get the timber delivered instead. 20 tonnes of timber averaging 4 inches in diameter is a huge amount of trees and work! Jonathan -
I own an MS260 and have fairly extensively used a 346XP. I would always choose the MS260. I think it it easier to cut quicker with it as you have to be so careful with the Husqvarna to keep it in it's torque band. Plus the Husky feels like a toy that's liable to break at an time. It's not to say that it doesn't perform well, but I would always choose the Stihl. I'm very keep to try the MS261 and it is most likely that it will eventually replace my MS260. I would perhaps try to find a new 260 tucked away at a dealers somewhere. They have been making them for years and spares are cheap and plentiful, as well as there being plenty on Ebay for parts. I do love my 260
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I might well be out on my kilowatt figure - I used a source that I'm too tired to find at present. I'll try to dig up the link tomorrow.
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Regarding price of timber per kilowatt - did a few calculations: Taking the average weights of Birch, Beech, Oak and Ash, a solid cubic meter weighs 700kg. A loose load of a cube is about half that, so you can assume that there is about 350kg of timber there. Again, taking the average of the four timbers listed above, there is an approximate kw value of 9.35kw per kilo, resulting in an average total kilowatt value of 3272 a cubic meter. At £100 a cubic meter, and on a stove with 70% efficiency, the customer is paying 4.36 pence a kilowatt. Natural gas comes in at 3.9 pence, oil at 6.3 pence and electricity at 13 pence. 4.36 pence seemed damned cheap. Time to start charging more chaps.
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Same up here too - some are still half leafed. Also, in a bit of woodland I manage, a lot of the sycamore sprouting from stumps cut this summer are in full leaf. Jonathan
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any logs suppliers in edinburgh cramond glebe rd area
Big J replied to log supplier's topic in Firewood forum
The Dalmeny Estate (for whom I contract fell) sell good seasoned hardwood for £130.00 a tipping trailer load (approx 1.8 - 2 cubic meters). If you still need the firewood, please give the estate office a call on 0131 3311888. Jonathan -
Stihl MS181 - nice little saw with excellent anti vibration and barely sips the fuel. Be careful with some of the slightly bigger domestic Stihls as the vibes are terrible.
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Green sweet chestnut is around 850-875kg a cubic meter when green. Assuming a green payload of 27 tonnes, it gives you about 31 solid cubic meters. According to Jayvee's stats, a solid cubic meter will give you 1.54 cube stacked or 2.5 loose. So assuming you deliver loose logs, an artic load should give you 77.5 cubic meters.
