Danny Boy

yes, lock it away!

Thanks for your replies so far. What resources I have: 3 shipping containers (20 ft). 1 is free to use. NOT currently insulated. A wood burner & some flue. (we ARE in a smokeless zone) My little yard is on an industrial estate with a fairly good supply of pallets lying around for fuel. I'm a tree surgeon so I have Arb waste timber & chippings. No cage trolleys but I do have about 50 x 8 ft (2-3mm) of 2" square mesh fencing spare. NO electricity supply. A petrol genny not diesel (waste veg oil would have been perfect). So... I'd need to insulate the container, build some cages from the fencing or acquire some cage trolleys. Devise a method of airflow, which would have to involve a power source.so either my petrol genny or buy a diesel one & use waste veg oil. I'm trying to be objective about the whole exercise. The whole point is to have seasoned wood to sell this year having moved up & set up here last year. I pay around £145 a month for this yard in East Kilbride (about 1400 sq ft) & have the option to renew or move on at the start of mar '11. Is it worth me setting up the kiln where I am given I'd ideally like a bigger yard on a farm somewhere? (talk about detailing your own thread!)

Hi all, In trying to keep things simple i thought how about using a 20ft container & loading logs in it on trolleys (the 5-6 ft tall type shops get stock delivered off the back of trucks in). Then having a wood burner to provide heat. I haven't quite thought out the workings yet but wondered if anyone has tried this & what the practicalities of having a fire in the container are (ie feeding it wood etc) Would something oil fed be more practical to stop opening the doors to feed more wood etc, or have a chute to feed wood? Any guesses as to how long it would take to season as well? Cheers in advance.

nice idea with the load handler. i'm not so keen on the second one, it concentrates a hell of a lot of weight right on the end of the tailgate. you could only use light stuff or have to support the tailgate with something.

at the end of the day logs are going to be delivered in a range of vehicles & measures. so you're going to get difft size "loads". eventually with it being all the rage with wood burners & logs as fuel & the trend being on the rise weights & measurements & trading standards will catch up with it all & insist on some kind of standard which i personally welcome. after all, if you go into a pub & ask for a pint of beer & they give you a "glass" clearly less than a pint & say "well it's a glass of beer mate", would you be happy? I personally like working in metric & measure the back of my single cab hilux (1.2 cubic metre level load, 2 cubic metres with the sides up) & sell it as that loosly loaded. I make my price clear & also say a full load is the roughly equivalent of 3 bulk bags (0.85x0.85x0.85) so customers have a means of comparison. it annoys me to see loads of ads when people blatantly sell by the bulk bag (not the full cubic metre ones) and call it a cube. it's daylight robbery & undermines honest sellers. if someone wants to sell by a "van load" that's perfectly fine as long as they don't claim it to be something it isn't & rounding it up to 2 cubic metres for example. the customer always has a choice to take it or leave it. rant over.

you're probably right mate. there's just something about that axe i don't like... having said that if i ever actually used one i may eat my words!

sap & saw dust, wasn't that the old prequel to tar & feathering?

i had to rescue a cat too once... when i lived in london for barking & dagenham council. grabbed the flocker by the back of the neck & it DID NOT want to let go of the tree! any way it all ended well. As far as emergencies go i have climbed in the dark before when i used to do work for london underground doing some night work. when the trees are too close to the main lines there's no chance of work during tube running hours. torch on your head & a groundie or 2 shining other torches was the best you'd get. Nowadays i don't think i'd climb (or at least keep it to a min) in a night time call out. i may tie off a tree to keep it relatively stable till the morning if possiblethen tackle it.

i didn't think you could alter a listing or price once there were bids. I could be wrong though.

Well if you get REALLY stuck, I had my 620 blades sharpened for £30 cash at an engineering firm near me. We're just outside Glasgow...

Tyres are definitely the way to go if splitting manually. I stuff more wood in the tyre though, as much as I can fit. It helps keeps the wood upright. I don't like the look of that axe, (haven't used one though) I don't like how the head keeps twisting & rotating on a hit. Can't be good for the wrists? I use a splitting maul. Well I used to till I got fed up & bought a log splitter.

Good idea.

I've never done any out of hours work but I'd probably bill a min of 3 hours (even if it was a 10 min jpb) on any job outside normal hours (say between 6pm and 8am). £50 per person per hour. I would also only make the site safe enough that it's no longer an immediate hazard & return the next day to finish up (then charge more).

any leylandii (sorry softwood) you cut now or the next few months will have less sap & moisture anyway! woods wood at the end of the day. dry lleylandii will burn as well if not better than wet oak.

as long as it's seasoned then sell it as softwood not leylandii & it should be fine. i must say i've never burnt any personally but if you split it from day one it'll season a lot quicker.

fair enough mate, we've all done a favour for someone & done them a blinding deal from time to time. just make sure he appreciates that you ARE doing him a VERY good deal at £150 & hope he reciprocates when it comes to your next accounts. the main thing is whatever you do work safe & don't take any silly risks. treat it as a job worth a lot more & next time you have to quote for something you'll appreciate more what's involved.

£45 per cubic metre seems a very good price for customers. i suppose you have plenty of raw materials on arran...

slow roller speed & very sharp blades will give quite small size chips. you'll need to factor that you'll spend more on fuel chipping though...

i did that with a job once. had a large dead cherry over a green 10x8 house. i built 2 scaffold platforms at either end & put some 3.6m rails across & covered the green house with 3 or 4 sterling boards.

ebay final selling fees are a percentage of the selling price & not the postage. fair enough trying a way around it. but i think i'd still pickup in person & pay cash. wouldn't even pay a pound by paypal & give paypal details....

they tried the police magazine one with me with exclusive police, ambulance & fire brigade contracts..... i said sure i'd like to go ahead. which station are you based at, i'll pop right over & chat to you face to face. he hung up!

they tried the police magazine one with me with exclusive police, ambulance & fire brigade contracts..... i said sure i'd like to go ahead. which station are you based at, i'll pop right over & chat to you face to face. he hung up!

it does say pickup in person is free...... sod it i'll bid a fiver!

what's wrong with a hilux? with 6k to spend you'd get a mk5 onwards (2003 on) which have the d4d engine that gives 35-40 mpg, probably less when towing but that's going to be the case with any truck. have a look on hpoc.co.uk (hilux pickup owners club). you'll get a lot more general info in the forums.

£150 seems way too cheap mate. if you can't get a mewp to it then even if it was standing straight & healthy i'd still charge more with a shed under it. it's a skilled job to take it down in the state it's in & you're undervaluing it by a mile. if they're too tight to pay proper money & don't appreciate the work involved then walk away. good luck whatever you decide.