MikeTM150

I may very well do that, I am just trying to do a bit of research into the job and starting off with a small one as I'm hoping to avoid planning. Its in the middle of nowhere and can't see the two people who could see it if they squinted hard through a telescope to complain anyway. Hoping to put turf roof on to help blend it in and keep it warm, now that seems to be a minefield of differing opinions on what you should do!!! Thanks for all you help, FC seem to be pretty useless really for the small quantities i want, if i wanted 2000tons then I'm sure they'd be much more willing which is understandable!!! :biggrin:

The rams about 15tons of pressure, the wedge is about 6" long so makes doing kindling very easy. Complete cyclee from start to finnish is about 5seconds and you can make it stop at 100mm intervals at any return point to save wasting travel time on shorter logs! But this is with about 150l/min from our big tractor, on the frod 7810 with only about 65l/min it takes around 10seconds tgo do a complete cycle!

Nick your a man who can source everything, will work on what i think i will need and get you to price it! Thanks!

My home made one, foot pedal operated so both hand free to move timber, auto cycles so no wasted time holding handles. Now has a log lift on the right hand side for big bits, but wish i'd put a crane/winch on it so i could have just dragged the timber to it instead of rolling it! But still can when i get the urge!! Keep you ram close to the beam to save leverage as said before, i've just got a mild steel wedge, and it ain't got blunt yet. Hope it helps!

Ha ha ha ha ha i thought someone might come out with that kinda comment and it was you!!! The local FC sounds a good start, was hoping to use larch as it'll last for ever and ever and ever and ever!! Right some looking and ringing around to add to the job list next week!! Thanks for the hints to a novice timber locator!!!

Right been planning on building a log cabin for a few years, Charlie's Cabin Porn thread has made me get and start organising it. But where the heck do i start to look to find long straight timber suitable for the job in the quantities needed?

Thanks, ordered myself a copy. Now just gotta find some timber!

if it was a 'mate' and not just a chap you know, i'd do it free, if its not a 'mate' but a regular user just say we'll sort it out next time its in and add £20 to the bill. Wouldn't touch a disco3 with a barge pole, i think they look hideous IMO. And there's plenty of miles left in me td5 disco commercial before she'll be allowed to retire to the metal yard in heaven!

i've got serious cabin envy, think the one in the mountains of new zealand looks good, though only 5 pages in so i may change my mind yet! Good find charlie!

I say this to everybody who evens mentions log splitters, 99% of the time its about speed of the cycle and not essentially the splitting force. Your better to split 90% of your wood fast and have to cross cut 10% with a saw, than split 100% of your wood at quarter pace.

Wow, used myn for the first time yesterday on our 346xp what a brilliant tool, really easy to use, perfectly sharp and cuts like a hot knife in melted butter.....well till i hit a fencing nail! Can't believe it took me so long to try it out for the first time, been sat in my tool box for a month or more!!! Will be chucking the oregon electric one over the hedge bleeding useless thing!

Hi I farm 1200acres of organic dairy and arable and do some contracting. Also just hoping to contract farm another 600acres, so were fairly medium sized by modern day standards. In my opinion, and i'm not trying to belittle what ur doing as I impressed your even considering it, but i don't think your going to support your family off of 60acres however you do it. You may find buying the land, and running a flock of sheep (there making good money at the moment, I hate sheep with a passion by the way!) and putting into an agri-enviroment scheme and with the SFP as well you may be able to earn enough to have some small farming lifestyle. But I personally think you'll have to still keep working to support your family, I suspect what your earning now is quite a nice income and you live quite a well balanced happy lifestyle. Just remember farming will never be easy, but its always pleasure. I wouldn't change it for the world, but when you look at the hours we all put in to run our operation and the return we get its not exactly a well paid job. Good luck if you do decide to do it, but my opinion is you'll never make enough to fully support you family from farming 60acres alone.

shotgun gun cartridges, rifle shells, castration rings, hyperdermic needles and a few 'spare' pen knives and of course plenty of farmer friend - string!

It'll start falling off when u take her out for the first date:lol: Didn't break anything, didn't loose anything and my wife got the thumbs up from the 26week midwife appointment!!!:thumbup:

cheers, i guessed it was what you were trying to as well.

Lost 60 acres of organic wheat last year to them, we rushed out with the plough and luckily managed to stop it spreading to the rest of the 230 acres........ fire chief walks up carrying this charred metal frame and says 'know what that is?' of which i hadn't a clue, chinese latern were his words shortly by some expletives and a threat to insert it somewhere the recipeient may prefer it didn't go. Can't believe they're allowed to sell such items, of all the health and safety about and they can sell them things!!!

was thinking the same, paid 70p on friday for 15000l. That should last the next fortnight out hopefully! that and about another 200l of adblue should see us through spring work hopefully!

I built my own splitter so can't comment on brands, but cycle time is the key, i use the oil flow from our big tractors so use a 75mm ram which provides about 15t of pressure and cycles the full 500mm travel in about 4second including the return trip. What this doesn't split which isn't much i put the saw through then split it. The few bits you won't split and have to saw is tiny in comparison to the time wasted waiting for a big unstoppable splitter to cycle up and down.

Scrap prices have gone up so thefts have gone up, obviously this is scrap metal of very high value considering whats inside of them. I know the NFU paid out my hauliers lorry and ranger when they took both one night, you think the one for a ranger is expensive try buying one off a lorry!!!! We welded some 12mm stainless steel weld mesh around them, and then welded that to the truck, wasn't ideal but seemed essential! Wasn't easy either bloody theiving blighters.

Trust me you'll never have enough of these, we've got some huge sheds but i still could find reason for more and more of them to fill with stuff!!! Somedays i feel like one big huge 10ha aircraft hanger style thing over the whole farm yard so we could work in the dry all day long and there wouldn't be all the mud about to.............. Which ever way you go, it'll be harder work than pressing the button and using oil to heat the house, but you have to balance it out, woodchip is the next easiest but won't be very cheap and i guess the price if you have to buy it will only go upwards. I reckoned it wouldn't exactly be cheap to produce 250kg of logs/day all winter excluding your labour! The old man used to have a big Farm 2000 boiler that run on straw as well as wood, but that was in the days when we burnt straw and didn't sell it for £60/ton......... So i think long and short is nothing will be easy other than oil, but it depends how you define 'cheap'!!!!

cracking

Well I'll put my pennys worth in, i've just looked at putting an 80kw eco angus log boiler in to heat a large 6bedroom farmhouse with a lot of drafts and to heat the hot water in our milking parlour. The calculation i came up with i reckoned i'd be humping nearly 250kg of logs into it everyday! So i looked at chip boilers and having an automated filling system, more expensive in outlay obviously and i'd have to buy a decent sized chipper to make me own chips. BUt its the way i'm going to go, cutting up and splitting wood and feeding a big log boiler was going to be very time consuming! Sorry i can't be more helpful, but as previous posters have said, you may become a slave to logs if your not careful!

As said before crack on, it'll take more than that to kill a willow off!

This is a great thread, my wife is expecting our first at the end of June (nice busy time of year for us farmers but there we go!) and she's got a list of names for both as were not finding out but I'm keen for something bit different from the normal Sam and Rosie type names....... so this is making good reading along with that website! Keep up the good work!!! Bring on the dirty nappies and screaming, can't wait to get to the fun parts and smiles and giggles now. Didn't ever think i'd have kids or want them but bring it on now!:thumbup:

I've gotta say that must take some doing cuz surely anything that size wouldn't fit into anywhere thats that dangerous?? Not that i know diddly squat about nuclear power stations!!! That'll take some winching out in my experience, she'll wanna good spring clean to get the crabs out the cab!!!