difflock

see, domestic bliss, I were sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of cider giving helpful advice:lol: A skill larned from mi father:001_rolleyes:

An see, If I recall this was all laid with 5" by 3" stick on its FLAT, so nominal 4"thick. The scabby concrete in the foreground in the first photo was the first concrete laid in November with frost "proofer" added (and covered with a tarp and rugs/carpet) It was a 5.0m wide bay meant to be laid with a vibrating screed, which was hired but shited itsel, therefore concrete started to "go off" before it was fixed. After getting burned with that experience the rest was laid the traditional way an levelled/tamped with a straight "stick" with blue water pipe handles (another cutting edge invention o mine, way back then) Note this concrete ALL survived the 2010 bitter frost without spalling (well except for the shitty first batch) Simply because no excess water added, therefore no pores cracks left when the excess water evaporates, therefore not porous therefore no free water contained within the concrete to freeze and burst. The professional job done at my work, after this concrete was laid has since been replaced. And it was reinforced and about twice as deep. Gibber mutter an twitch.

Perversly the wee place we bought as a retirment project. Had a brand new oil fired AGA fitted about 20 year ago. U nfortunately I would have been more interested in the solid fuel range that was wrecked out with a sledge (cos I found the scrap bits round the back o the barn) Seriously considering converting to wood fired, if at all possible/practical as I do not wish to keep the bugger in oil, on a megre pension. m

Hi sur, I tuk photos this afternoon. Will post tomorrow. cheers m

Just recalled another snippet, the deeper the pour, the easier it is worked, plus the standard full 6 to 8m3 load covers less area, therefore less finishing time per full load. PS A very good University friend who is now a Senior Physio turned up one day while me an the two brothers were waiting for the next truck load to arrive. Gillian rather neatly summed us up as, "3 cripples waiting for more concrete" She warnt wrong!!

Having seen "professionaly" laid concrete (an expensive job under the supervision of a firm of architects) with TWO layers of mesh in failing inside of 10 years, simply because it was laid like slurry, with the mesh tramped in from above. (and witnessed by myself) I will reserve judgement. And having seen the brother, with great difficulty lifting 3" thick of uncracked shovel mixed concrete from about 50 or 60 years ago (and the cement content would have been minimal) from a heavily trafficed (incl del trucks of all sorts) farm street. I will again reserve judgement. Having said that I somewhat reluctantly agreed to our builder reinforcing the subfloor concrete in the house we built in 1995, but building in poor ground conditions, with floors poured in-situ on top of existing clay that would shrink when dry after many years of being covered by the floors/surrounded by cavity walls. cheers marcus

I suspect the fitter (farmer?) brought the pipe round the front, and "nicked" the edge of the door to get the pipe in, thereby not interfering with the metal of the range itself. Otherwise a pointless exercise. Dammn, too slow in typing, bugger! As best I can judge from the photo. Dad converted 2 solid fuel ranges over 40 year ago, from solid to wick fed oil burner unit. Both still working.

For smallish quantities, i.e. a couple of loads max. I would always spec 20 or 25 newton, only fractionally more expensive per m3 Only downside is, if I recall, higher strength "cooks" off quicker, and is therefore less forgiving of delay. On chalk (pure luxury lad) I would have thought 4" unreinforced should be fine. If it cannot sink into the chalk, it cannot flex, therefore it will not crack. Fibres are quite good to prevent cracking, but a bugger to get properly mixed in. A good point about the wetting and covering and frost. I take that so much as a "given" as not to be worth mentioning. PS Most of this is relying on 30 year old memories, with not a lot of experience since. marcus

Other than super specialized mixes with various additives, there is no such thing as "self levelling" concrete. It should behave virtually like a sand castle on a beach, except it "slumps" a little. For absolute max finished strength the optimium water/cement ratio is 0.4, i.e. for every 100kg of ordinary Portland cement (OPC) add 40kg=40litre of water only. Assuming your sand and aggregate are perfectly dry. Otherwise subtract the water already contained in the sand/agggregate. This is why the Premix truck's docket has a specific box with room for a signature for "added water" , because on professional jobs with test cubes taken, if the conc does not come up to strength, someone has to carry the can. Gensetsteve. No easy answer, depends what the substrate is. I have seen 3" of good concrete, properly put down over an undistrubed farm "street" carry HGV's and premix trucks, without cracking. The "rule of thumb for agricultural concrete laying is a 5" by 3" "stick" on its edge, which with the roughness of the stone below gives going on 6". Said "sticks" being the standard purloins to span the 15' 9" agric shed bays to carry tin. Unreinforced. Mostly the reinforcing is added to cover for lazy/sloppy work practise. cheers marcus

From a final year failed Civil Engineer (i) Excess water is the enemy of all concrete, in the absence of fluidizing agents it should be stiff (hence the "slump" test) (ii) Absolutly no need for rebar (iii) 4 or 5" thick is plenty over that small span/area. Assuming solid beneath and the hardcore is well vibrated with a heavy plate. Volume for 4"=100mm deep 6*4=24m2*.100m(100mm) = 2.4m3 (or 3.6m3 for 6"/150mm) Could you not get a "Mini-mix" truck nearer hand?, I think they usually max out at 3.0m3. Or consider a pan mixer behind the tractor and mix your own. Or buy dry mix and simply add water at the site, putting it through a pan mixer. 5 miles on a rough track is going to vibrate the water out of a wetish mix. Needs to be semi-dry, then wetted down and remixed at the site. Definately put plastic below, the primary reason is to prevent water escaping from the mix down into the hardcore below, when being vibrated/tamped. cheers marcus PS Rule of thumb Concrete needs 1 month to cure (28 day strength), so give it time before putting the tractor up on stands or jacking on.

Mull29, Various factors at work (i) The pig-shite thick types who mindlessly worship a particular marque, be it BMW cars or MF tractors. Regardless. All makes/marques have their highs and lows, sometimes they produce a complete dog, sometimes they get it "just right". My father bought a new 434 International, he had previously bought a new B250, followed by a new DB 990, the DB 990 was eventually replaced by a Fiat 640. Whichever tractor he thought was best (probably excluding Ford and MF because of their take it or leave it arrogant sales staff) (ii) I dont like to see tractors over-restored, almost certainly to better paintwork standards, than when they origionally left the factory. Much much nicer with a patina of age/scruffy from fair wear and tear. Classic tractor (Dec issue) feature an MF 390 working on a race-course. Absolutly gleaming but on its 3rd clutch inside of 6000 hrs. The driver is more concerned about keeping the paintwork gleaming, than learning how to use a clutch. PS Despite the 434 being on a loader for most of her life,servicing 180 acres of stock farm dung from straw, I believe she did not get a clutch until 25 or 30 years of age. Seriously. cheers marcus

Sex on a Stick Dan, drive good as well. A petrol one LPG'ed should be affordable too. Absolutly wonderfully engineered. Having driven one through the tracked vehicle off road course at War and Peace (Beltring) then hammered it down the County Road. It felt perfectly at home in either environment, and solid and quiet, with slick gearbox and diff-lock controls. I want!!

Is it Gold Plated or made from a Tititium/unobtainium alloy. Bloody rip-off.

Try concentrating there Lyons!

Was speaking to a local Arb guy this morning, discussing their chickens and other livestock. He said his wife was now was planning on getting a Pig. I said "why bother.......................................... she's got you already!" boom boom

I would probably put a toe in the water, by expressing interest and making a sensible off beforehand. My experience of land auctions is that they tend to happen in slow time, though the couple of places we bid on had several lots and permutations of lots. If yer not in ye canny win. PS from my limited experience in the NI agric land market. Whatever it gets bid up to before the auction, generally gets doubled before the fall of the hammer. As a very rough NI guide.

Well it certainly is tarted up. PS Me not a MF fan.

OK Amazons excepted:001_tt2: low years?/motorway work?/known history?

Yep, Mod-sales could be pricy, but was it Marshalls? had a Valmet sourced from there at the last APF show (I believe) that was claimed to out lift/out perform a significently bigger New Holland. How closely their asking price is to the monies paid I dont know. But!, they sure are prepared to sit on stock for years, from my somewhat hapazard monitering of their site. cheers m

I noted an American "Pick-up" for sale on an Americal sales lot. Cummings diesel/Allison transmission. I dont remember the brand? a bargain at $20,000.00 and only 199,987 miles on the clock. Folk here would fall about laughing at giving going on for £15,000.00 for a truck with 200k miles on. Ps Amazons are bloody huge already, so Plus 3" is quite sommat.

My piece of string is yon long! How short is yours?

Consider the 2 valtras on sale ex RAF through mod-veh (withams) complete with very good loaders

On the question of size, I recall somewhere, once-upon-a-time, reading some Austrian or Swiss spec for military vehicles, which included a width/length/height limit. So as to all these vehicles to access otherwise inaccessible areas. America is indeed a large country, and so much of its infrastructure grew up around the motor vehicle, that they virtually never have any cause to pay heed to vehicle sizes being too big. For our old world sometimes meadieval, constraints.

Thanks Doobin, Since I got the wee 605 Fiat crawler.(she started first kick after being parked up for 3 months:thumbup:) I dont really need another:blushing: Anyway the T80 got proper mechinical transmission, so much better for hauling logs. Tis my excuse anyway:lol: I have seen a Mooroka or two come up for (UK) sale bytimes. But they looked entirely shagged out. And actually would have doubts about the rubber tracks gripping ability over stumps, compared to steel tracks, that is.

Well, still dreaming YANMAR | T-80 Comfort Cab Edition I reckon on the 18" tracks with the Krpan EH 5tonne winch on the back:thumbup: Edit, Would there be room in a 40' container for a big trailer sawmill as well Jonothan?