tcfengineering

I would buy a welder from Technical Arc (Tecarc). They are Made in Britain, friendly helpful company, they support their products for 20 years with parts backup. I have a Tecarc plasma cutter and when I need a new welder I will be going to them without doubt. Support our British economy and jobs and buy British where you can !

A long time ago, I bought a shipment of intercoolers direct from a factory in China. I asked the supplier how it was progressing, and to prove that he was on the case he sent me a picture of them being made. There was a Chinese woman sat on a bucket on the floor welding aluminium with no protection whatsoever, bare feet in flip flops, no fume extraction, etc... She was a very fine TIG welder, the finished product was great, but it didnt make me feel very good about the whole deal. Needless to say I didnt buy any more. I am not preaching to anyone, we all do as we wish, but bear in mind that there is sometimes another side to a cheap product from China. A little research into manufacturing in China will show you lots of worrying things which may or may not sit good with you. In this case, I am sure that the product will do the job just fine for occasional milling, but there are other options which are made in Europe and/or USA which sit a little better with me. As I get older, I find stuff like this more and more important and I try and avoid buying the chinese stuff as much as possible. It annoys me because some things are now only made in China. We buy a lot of wheels and tyres for our trailers and log arches and you can only get a lot of them from China. I dont imagine that a Chinese rubber/tyre factory is a great place to work at/live next to. Worth thinking about ?

A few things : I am pretty sure that if it goes over a certain unladen weight, then the trailer needs to be plated regardless of class - Think it might be 1200kg but I would have to look it up. Your wheels and also hubs have have the correct speed rating not just the tyres. They would need to be changed You may have to change the rear cross member area to comply with the lighting requirements You would need to have a compatibility report for the brakes/coupling which proves it is up to spec and also matched. I am not sure if you could get this without using all new components ? Anything is possible, so I am sure that you could modify an existing trailer and get it through an IVA. I am also sure that it would be expensive and time consuming and you would probably end up with compromises which may/may not be OK If you dont do it properly and put it through an IVA, then you are leaving yourself wide open if anything goes wrong. You can kid yourself and pretend that its a grey area, but its not grey, its all there in black and white. We have put a few trailers through IVA now.

Sorry for the late reply, I was away on a course for the weekend and only just got back to base last night. We probably wont have an off the shelf model with these trailers as so far every one we quote for is slightly different. They are a 3499kg gross weight trailer, and the weight is around 1000kgs, so payload is around 2500kg. You can specify pretty much everything you want, so its no problem to have the powerpack on board the vehicle, or an electric one, or use the vehicles own supply. Obviously the more stuff you put on the trailer, the lower the payload. Price wise it varies a lot depending on what you have and dont have, but as a rough guide, a very basic 2.5m loadbed trailer with crane but no powerpack is starting at £10,000 plus VAT. If you are interested, drop me a PM with your requirements and I can work out an exact price for you. Thanks for the interest, this is a really cool new project for us.

Here is a pic of our first road going forwarder trailer in action. We have put a lot of work into building this trailer and putting it through its IVA test. Its now working hard and earning its keep and the customer is very happy. We already have the order for the next one, and will start building it in the next few weeks. We can pretty much build these to the customers spec, so if you are interested in one, let us know. We will be building a web page in the next week or so with more information and pictures.

I have been to see the plant today. I have some more details : Main tank - 26 metres long, 1.5m inside diameter Transfer Tank - 63 cubic metres Blend tank - around 35 cubic metres Vacuum system with tanks, pumps and control gear Transfer pumps with 6" pipework, valves and control gear Pressure pumps Control station/desk Several wagons for loading material and also quantity of rails to build the track in an out of the tank There is also a small diesel locomotive which is available for extra cost Here are some pics, but it is quite hard to take good photos where it sits

OK, cool. I will go and take some photos tomorrow, take some measurements and get some specs off the owner. Will be in touch

This is a long shot, but I know where there is a tanalising plant which was built in the 90's and then mothballed. It has hardly been used and is in very good condition. The main tank is 25 metres long, so you can treat telegraph pole length stuff. Its for sale if anyones interested. I will try and get pictures in the next few days and put them up Let me know if you want more info I think the price is around 25k

The window is getting taken out and French windows putting in later in the week. My mums house is upside down, so the living room and kitchen is upstairs, you will walk straight out of the living room onto the balcony. The downstairs room isnt noticeably darker which is good. I cheated with the joints, there are 10mm metal plates holding everything together. I just cut a slit into the larch and marked and drilled the holes from either side. There are M16 bolts holding it all together. It worked really well and it is extremely sturdy. I will get some pics of the joints

Its especially pleasing when you consider that there was a plastic conservatory there until last week !

I had some Larch milled for me by Big J on the forum and had a week building a balcony for my mum. Well happy with the wood, everything cut perfectly for the job, even got a bit extra, so fully recommend Jonathan if you need any timber. I am more of a metal worker, so I was pretty glad when the wood frame was finished and I could build the railings ! Anyway Mother is well happy, so mission accomplished. Here are some pics if anyone is interested

Yes, the one we have has got the black subframe and hydrualic legs. It has standard 3 point linkage fittings on the tractor side. We can put either a jaw and pin or 50mm hitch on the back side of the subframe, then you can tow a timber trailer with it. You can just power the crane from the tractor hydraulics, they dont need much flow.

We sold one to a customer last year for exactly this purpose and he is very pleased with it. Its a 3.4m reach. I still have one in stock with this 3 point linkage setup.

I say have go, but be safe. I have built loads of things for my own use which wouldnt stack up as a commercial product if you factored in time. Start by finding out as much specification as possible from a commercial grinder and see if you can make this work with what you have got. Whatever you do, post up some pics for everyone to see, and if you need advise, just ask. Above all stay safe, if you are not 100% sure that it is OK, then redo it or go back to the drawing board

Good on you for having a go. As long as you are safe, what is there to lose ? There are always people who will tell you it cant be done without expensive tackle and years of experience, but I often find if you try hard enough and dont give up, it usually gets the job done. Show us some pics of your boards when you get time Drilling a bar is not too hard, start with a small hole, have your drill as slow as possible and use plenty of lube. Work up the hole size in small steps.

If I go ahead and build one for me, I will put a bit of a build thread up on here.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Obviously, the concensus is not too great ! I was interested to see if anyone has tried one as I just spent two hours watching someone use it on birch and pine, and I was well impressed with it. I wasnt really thinking of building them to sell as I dont want the hassle of the health and safety stuff that goes with it, was thinking of building one for myself. I will try and find a better video, because as I say it was pretty impressive in the flesh.

This bloke is making a bit of a meal of it, but you can get the idea [ame] [/ame]

Anyone ever tried this type of processor with UK timber ? They look appealing to me with very few wear parts, 1 man operation for cutting and splitting, and ultra reliable. Anyone got any feedback from real world use ?

Thanks for the replies everyone. Got something to go on now Thanks Tim

Given the lack of responses, I will spread the net a bit wider. Is there anyone within 100 miles of Hexham who can supply ? Let me know Thanks Tim

Hello, my mum lives up near Hexham and I am coming up to see her at the end of April to build her a balcony from green oak. Can anyone reasonably local supply some 8"x8" and 8"x4" green oak ? Think the longest length is 4 metres. I will try and write a cutting list this afternoon and put it up It can be within 50-60 miles of Hexham no problem. I can collect Let me know if you need more info Thanks Tim

With the warranty, they have agreed to do a parts only warranty, so if something goes wrong I will get the parts sent to me for free and I will fit them, I know it wouldnt suit everyone, but it is alright for me. I have thought about it a lot, and I think that the bendy steer will work for me. I am aware of their limits on slopes having had a dumper on its side before now !

I still havent ordered yet, but I am pretty sure that I am going to order the Pasquali bendy steer. I have two prices from Europe which are really fantastic, just working out transport, but I might just go and collect it myself and then I can pick up a few other bits on the way. I will post up some pics and some feedback when I have it here

I am fairly sure that these are Chinese. I have been offered them from a Chinese company. Maybe worth emailing them and asking them if they are manufactured in the UK or not.