windfall

Do you employ them on a casual, cash in hand basis?

I would advise working out what you can afford and start from there. For example if you can afford £10k then you would need to pro rata this down to how many days or hours per week at a given wage. Sounds like a driving licence, CS30, ability to work unsupervised and common sense is what your after... Just be prepared to kiss a few frogs but output is pretty easy to measure in our game!

Sorry Im not feeling well today and poor spelling and grammar does my head in. Perhaps you should start a poll with set questions to choose from, you might get a more consistent and useful set of results is all i am thinking? Welcome to the forum BTW.

My plan is to try to empty the bag on the persons driveway, or for £10 they can keep hold of the bag. Most vented log bags have a tipping hoop underneath.

You have just started a post that will be a slagging match between brand loyalists! lol Personally i think you would just have to look at your budget and see what turns up locally that matches that budget. All the pickups you listed are good, personally i have a Hilux 2.4d, its a great truck off road but its really underpowered and makes it embarrassing when towing a small digger etc. But my Hilux is all i could find for £1500.

Yes Tyre weld works well, it will get you home or to a tyre shop. Its a cock to get off the wheel though! My wifes new civic does not have a spare, just tyre weld.

Couldnt agree more, I feel 25% is just acceptable to be burning yet it being Kiln dried is effectively classing it as a premium product. When buying in bulk volumes it equates to an increase of around £30 per cube over freshly cut.

Rather than buying a 'good' saw you could buy a disposable chop saw for £29.98 from B&Q, make sure you keep the receipt cause they have a years warranty! When the blade goes dull (New blades are £27!) take it back and say its broken, they never check and just hand over a replacement or upgrade if the one your bringing back isnt in stock! Apologies if this offends some people. 210mm Compound Mitre Saw, UBCMS210

If your Limited company is registered in the Isle of Man then the public is not able to see prior year accounts, only basic company ownership info. Which is nice. Anyone want the number of a local company formations guy? lol

The swamp man rules!

I have been smoking around in my 'new' 2001 LT35 cab/chassis for a week its got a petrol/lpg conversion by Tickford. I am having a drop side fabricated for it in a week but giving it some use to see how it goes and if it needs anything. There is no noticable drop in power when i run on LPG, but the tickover/idle is a bit lumpy. There may be a drop in power when loaded only time will tell but so far i have been very impressed with it running on LPG. It cost me £30 to fill the LPG tank, there are 2 places here on the IOM that sell it but one of those is central. It cost me £0.93 a Litre which i feel is worth the hassle of driving an additional 5 mins to get! £0.93p verses £1.48 it is this that caused me to choose this LT35 as the basis for my Log Delivery Vehicle.

My mate has a timber trailer he also uses for jobs carrying large ground pipes..

I have gone for a LT35 cab/chassis for the same reasons, but going for a drop side pick up body with a 1ton hiab. I will get 3 1m3 bags on the back no worries and still have space for kindling sacks etc. Only think i would question is why 1.2m3 bays and not just a cubic meter?

You can buy a 10t one like mine from ebay for £450, its powered by tractor hydraulics or a hydraulic powerpack. Quite a few of us on this forum have the same unit. The diesel JCB Beaver pack mines running from now uses a Litre of red an hour but cost me £1000... gulp. I looked into making my own power pack as there are pumps on ebay with 60l/min for £100, then you would need a small engine and the gears/pulleys to drive the pump and the correct speed, the spool lever (£50) and pipe work. So depending on how cheap you can get the motor to drive it, it could work out quite cheap. Plus a 60lm dual speed pump is going to be very powerful!

I dont think anything that spec exists for that price, you are in the second hand 3point linkage splitter that runs from a tractors hydraulics territory. Plus really you will need 10tons min if you are thinking of earning a bit of money with it.

I have a MS390, think its about 3 years old, cant see it being much different? Stihl claim the 390 is aimed at farmers. I really rate mine, is got good power and is not that heavy.

I painted my Suzuki Supercarry with exterior gloss paint from b&q and a gloss roller. That was 6 months ago now and its still looking good. Took a while to dry properly though lol Cost me £50 in materials and £25 for a gas bottle to heat my garage.

I know you are messing around. We are all just jealous of the machine gun rack in the back of your Arb Truck.

What jobs that then?

Maximum mosture level for use in a stove is 20%, 14%- 16% or less is ideal. Hardwood at 25% will sit and sulk, it will also produce large quantities of soot and if the stove temperature does not rise above 100C tar. Kiln dried is expensive for waht it is but it does offer an immediate solution. I have measured some of the kiln dried brand leaders product this winter at 22%. I am told that the kilning operation alledgely kills any boring insects within the wood, that I have yet to confirm myself. I am burning Ash in my showroom that I cut and split about 2 years ago, its been in a barn and is around 13%. A I agree whole heartedly with you about lower MC being better no one is going to dispute that, burning wood at 15% is a different experience to burning it at 25% but that is not what the OP asked about. I have been researching Kiln Dried timber for the last 3 months. I have found that all the suppliers i have spoken to will only say thier product is 25%mc. I was dissapointed with this and have chosen to buy freshly cut and dry it myself, time will tell if it was the right decision but a saving of £45 per m3 is whats important to me at the moment. With regards to wood boring beasties yes kiln drying kills them, it is my understanding that this is only important for people importing / exporting logs as part of large retail contracts. I will happily burn mice extracted from traps on my fire so a woodlouse doesnt concern me. Its my view that because the stove makers and sellers are harping on that kiln dried is best, this is what people look for and want. They dont know that really all that matters is the log they are burning is dry and this can be achieved by storing any number of ways.

I am liking this idea, but as has been said before we are unable to walk into WallMart (ASDA) and buy Napalm.

The Elm is not dead standing, there would be something wrong if i needed help burning that. lol The Elms have DED. We have strict rules on the Isle of Man that the diseased timber can not be transported, it must be burnt on site. If that site is a homeowners that has a fire/stove then great they can utilise the Elm but if not then it has to be burnt. I am liking the pipe / leaf blower combination, i have some large steel scaffold pipes.

Hi All, Just looking for a bit of advice. How do you guys get a hot enough fire going to enable you to burn diseased Elm? I have not had a fire on such a huge scale before so any tips would be great.

Would you not be able to talk to your local log supplier and ask for the size of log you need then season them yourselves? Its going to save you money in the long run cause i bet even though the log supplier is going to have to cut them to 6inch its still loads cheaper than buying kiln dried logs. In my experience when Ash is split and stacked it takes around 6 months to get to 25%.

How tight is your chain?