Squaredy

Yeah that might struggle!

I will kick this off with £650 as you have said you pay well for logs and that is a fair size burr. What is the prize for the closest answer? Pick of the slabs?

I run it with my old Nuffield which is meant to be 65hp I believe, but as it is 60 years old it is more likely to be 45 or 50. Whether you could run it with less I do not know to be honest. Once you fold the conveyor up it lifts fine. I don't think a mini tractor would run it but any normal size one should be fine. I know you are near to me Mr Sandspider so feel free to come and have a look.

Here are a couple of pics. I will clean it before sale, but this is it as is.

I will be selling my PTO powered firewood processor soon, wondered what the going rate would be. I will put some pictures on tomorrow, but let's just say it is not the prettiest but it is fully working and can be seen working by the buyer. I was thinking it would be worth around £2500 (no VAT), am I close?

One more factor to remember. Man made climate change is caused by burning fossil fuels not wood. The most important factor is whether the wood fuel is sustainably sourced. If it is then what is the problem? More of a concern is if we are burning wood from unknown sources and possibly causing deforestation. In the UK this is unlikely but if the wood comes from overseas much more difficult to track.

I agree with you in principal Jonathon, but the biggest difference that kiln drying makes from a business perspective is time and space, which of course equals money. If you are selling £50.000 worth of firewood per year and do not kiln dry you will have to have space to store around 1000 full IBC cages in a well ventilated building, with good access all round so you can get to the oldest ones first. Plus of course you will need to tie up a lot of capital in logs and processing time, hoping that you will be able to make a profit in two years and more. In principal though I agree it is a shame to force dry when nature will do it for you. What would solve the problem is if kilns could be made more efficient, and recover their heat. Most large kilns simply vent their hot air to the atmosphere - just like a tumble drier - such a waste, but we haven't yet invented a practical alternative. I am aware of heat recovery systems, but they are not really effective as far as I know on the scale we are talking about.

I don't think it matters how firewood is dried as long as it is dry. I would say however they would not be dried the same. The kiln dried log would be much drier than 20% on the outside, but depending on how long it was kilned for could be higher than 20% inside! In reality most kiln dried wood is drier than most air dried wood, but there are exceptions of course.

I had exactly this experience about a year ago in a holiday cottage. Massive inferno followed by just embers. I think the problem was the wood. I was using really dry small stuff which I burn all the time at home but in a modern fire it was hopeless. I didn’t get the chance to try it but I am convinced large dense logs would have solved the problem. What wood are you using?

I think time is the critical part. I have looked into this over the years, there is a company in California called All Power Labs who produce exactly what you speak of = a turnkey palletised gasifier and generator set all ready to go. I downloaded the manual for it a few years ago, and after the first four or five pages of startup procedure I realised it was not suitable for people like me. It seems to sell mainly to remote areas where they have lots of time, free fuel and no other option! My needs sadly have to be met by a diesel genny for the forseeable future.

Stephen Cull. You should find his website easily if you search his name and Blademaster, Top guy. As Andy says, he might struggle to mill 4 inch logs though.

Congratulations Steve, nice job!

Slight correction needed - calorific value of dry softwood is HIGHER per kilo than hardwood - not lower (except Spruce). Look it up....file:///C:/Users/cashgen/Downloads/FR_BEC_Wood_as_Fuel_Technical_Supplement_2010.pdf The confusion arises because a lot of hardwoods are heavier for the same volume, so per cubic foot or cubic metre hardwoods may be higher calorific value - but not all. Alder, UK Birch, Sycamore are all lighter than many softwoods.

I am not disputing what you say Andy but this is all culture, and local convenience etc. The reality is how effective a firewood is has nothing to do with whether it is softwood or hardwood, Well actually that is not quite true - softwood gives slightly more heat per kilo once dry. But this is all irrelevant compared to the one thing that matters - how dry it is. And this is why people think Ash is so good - because it dries so easily. In fact it has half the water in that most woods do when freshly felled. But as we can't all have Ash what it really comes down to is moisture, and this is where the softwoods score - they dry really fast. So from a commercial point of view I would rather sell softwood as it is much easier to process and dry. I would happily argue with customers and tell them they would be daft to stick with hardwood. I am currently converting my customers to briquettes as I have stopped firewood altogether. There is a lot of resistance initially, but most people now are coming back for seconds and thirds.

That isn't an attractive split nicely filled is it? Remember that if it was ordered without seeing you have the right to return it for a refund (you may possibly have to pay return postage). And what is the faded bit on the right? Can you get a better photo uploaded of a few different boards?

No different to other species really. Like Oak you will get plenty of movement as it dries. Elm will make very beautiful flooring.

I remember reading a little while back that electricity generation efficiency from fossil fuels is typically around 66% and that distribution losses are similar, hence total efficiency only around 33%. Which is the main reason electricity is so much more expensive than gas or oil. Is this not the case?

Another thing to consider. Softwood dries really quickly. Easy to get under 20% in a summer. Genuinely dry softwood is much better firewood than semi dry hardwood.

Oh joy, another level of bureaucratic rules that everyone will need to understand. That is going to go well.... I am currently trying to understand the rules on sewage discharge and how to apply for a permit. It is all well meaning but ends up largely as unintelligible nonsense sadly! Believe it or not when I had completed the forms to send off to NRW I noticed there was nowhere to sign it. I pointed this out to the NRW officer and she had never noticed before, and asked me (and the other three householders who need to sign the form) to sign it wherever I could find the space!

Not sure mattresses can solve much unless your current one is really poor. Have you tried a good osteopath or chiropractor?

Hey Bill, you should have no trouble getting good clean Ash, it tends to grow straight and clean. Don't worry about being quarter sawn though - it will make no difference once it is cut into 50mm square blanks! Might make it easier to find what you need.

And measure it then you can work out volume and therefore value.

I went to the FC hardwood auction in November and can tell you that non Oak hardwood went from around £60 to £90 per cubic metre. Oak went from about £80 to £315 per cube. I would say Oak has gone up a lot in recent years (well top quality Oak anyway) but other hardwoods not really.

This is what the Forestry Commission (well, Natural Resources Wales) and Woodland Trust do near me - enormous stacks, a few signs (usually) and full public access.

I was invited to bid for a large beech that had been felled on an estate near me a couple of years back. Similar size but actually measured six feet diameter at six feet high, and there was a ring of sound wood maybe eight inches round the outside, all the rest was rotten. The estate offered to chop it into eight foot sections in case it was only the base. They did this and it was rotten all the way up the main stem, It would have almost been an entire timber lorry load of rotten log if I had bought it. Needless to say I left it there.