difflock

We were at that inbetweeny period where despite needing some heat, it was quickly too warm once the fire is lit. Mind with the pisser of a day/evening it is I will be keeping her well kindled tonight. (and I might even light the stove as well....BOOM BOOM!) House was showing 15 deg at lunch time. (it encourages the Mrs. to keep working) Generally aim for 17 to 19 in the hall. Which means between 25 and 30 in the living room:lol: Depending on how near the fire one sits.

Originally Posted by Rob I'm not sure how to be honest! I dont know that I would wish to employ such an frankly dishonest gentleman. in jest:biggrin:

I found the Thor petrol engined trailer mounted unit rated at 13tonne, that I hired for a few years, deadly slow, it was not that it could not split the timber, just slow, especially on the return stroke where one had to hold both levers for seemingly forever. Possibly not such a problem if owned as one would not be so anxious to maximize productivity during the hire period. Then if held a fraction too long it fractured the roll pin that held the splitting wedge att to the ram:blushing: I got quare an slick at changing them mind:lol: The 17 tonne Krpan PTO driven unit is in a different league altogether. As I presume would any of this catorogy/class of tractor mount/PTO driven splitter would be.

Sniff! "We" have moved on from the evolutionary dead end of PD engine technology there TCD:001_tt2: However, on reflection, I tink the 507 spec VW oil is actually more to do with either the extended service intervals or variable service interval schedule. Der Octavia only gets a service every 18,600 (30,000km) I am good with that.:thumbup:bearing in mind the per litre price:thumbdown: I might even re-cycle it through the old David Brown after. Ps I like smilies!

John, or Steve? I reached this conclusion over this past few years. Despite having 40 acres of Sitka/Lodgepole forestry at my disposal for "free" (i) If I work it alone I can not justify the equipment required, nor any semblance of a ret on investment. (ii) If I employ staff to run on a business footing, I will soon run out of timber, plus we do not have the population density to make a firewood "round" cost effective. So I will lose money even faster. It is exactly the same as I told a farming Uncle. Both in farming and firewood the market has polarised Either (i) on a hobby basis for satisfaction and beer money. (no income tax no VAT!) Or (ii)On on a suitably large industrail scale to be efficient, and milk the grants. Cheers Marcus

I figger VW's successful installation is down to plain engineering common sense and good design. In the "bodged" installations on the "PD" engines i understand the DPF was fitted somewhere below the floor pan of the car, rather than in the engine bay. Whereas in the designed from scratch 1.6 TDI it is nestled up in at the rear of the engine, immediately after the close coupled turbo. Plus very well insulated (well the car would probably catch fire otherwise!) So basically has the best chance of getting and staying skelping hot. Plus plus the super-duper 507 oil probably has an influence on der DPF. Could be a bugger to work on though. Tha

Au contraire. Wor intelligent 7 speed automatic gearbox mostly hums along at about 1250 to 1500 rpm of choice , rarely exceed 2000 or 2500 before upchanging. Often pulling sub 1000 rpm in 7th, this being the intelligent gearbox's choice:biggrin: That said plant the throttle and she drops from 7th to 4th in a blink, an boy can she go. Overtaking is NOT an issue. Who needs more than 105 Skoda BHP However iffen driving a Vauxhall your advice is sound. But then one would be better driving a petrol cheers m

(i) Take owt HJ says about DPF's with a very large pinch of salt. Early VW's where the DPF was a bodged affair introduced during the production life of the older models gave trouble. I gambled that VW would have sorted the installation with the 1.6 diesel which was designed from scratch to have a DPF fitted. We bought a Skoda Octavia 1.6 diesel DSG. I drive to work 3 miles and stop. home for lunch and stop. ditto at quitting time. A lot of short runs. That said we have put 35,000miles on her in 2 years. Weekends eh! I have smelt the DPF cooking off a couple of times when the car was new. Other than that I do not know it exists. MPG's are very good, mostly 55 or 60 plus on a longer liesurly run. Stuff running a petrol. PS I drove a Meriva 1.7 automatic diesel on exactly the same runs duties. It was a bitch with the DPF clogging, required sustained "fleecing" to clear and only done about 35mpg. This over some 3 months. So dont buy a Vauxhall with a DPF.imho. :thumbup:So take it from me buy the 1.6 diesel Skoda. ps Consider an Octavia, some absolutly crackling deals at the moment with the model being replaced next year.

Hmmm, cheap disposable clean burning bags/nets and bung the whole sealed bag into the gasifying boiler. Really reduce the handling too. Be very good for my spindly birch, I like new toys btw! simples

Well dammn me! I wants. I was doing a bit of home-work re bandsaws/chainsaw mills etc at the APF. Good job I didnay buy owt. But can I wait 2 years to the next APF, to buy the bloody big saw I will need offen Mr. Jones. Mind only be for cutting Sitka, I can tell the Mrs. I will build her a log cabin for us to retire to. sigh

I could be more than a little jealous, regardless of any other brand loyalties. Enjoy her Hodge. ANyway one that clean and tidy be wasted on me:lol: And yes price seems keen, even with the hours.

I choose to install ours in an over-thick conc slab simply to act as a huge storage heater, with the massing of the house it does to work. I run the underfloor for a 1/2 hour or an hour in the morning then switch it off. This was ideal with the oil boiler as it could run absolutly continious for up to an hour or more. hence more efficient burning. Internal temperature barely varies between night and day. A couple of degrees perhaps. But that is for background heat really as the big wood burning stove provides almost instant space heating on demand. It is also good now that I`am using a gasifying wood boiler with a thermal store/buffer. Cos I can draw the last 20 deg out of the store, i.e from 45/50 down to25/30 before relighting.

Sorry, Towel rail not intended as a heat bleed. Rather to b e able to warm/dry towels without recourse to turning on the whole (or zone of) radiator circuit. Easy peasy to spin the TRV shut if one does not want the towel rail heated. Especially if position of TRV thought about when installing. Yes, we got underfloor, cannot recommend it highly enough (fitted it myself with the rest of the plumbing) BUT was unsure if it was needed in a dwelling constructed to current insulation standards. However possibly consider installing underfloor heating in the bathrooms / wet rooms, if nowhere else.. Kinda wish i hadny bothered to fit radiators in the upstairs bedrooms at all. Sufficient heat rises from the downstairs. Especially if the flue from the wood stove is routed through the en-suite of the master bedroom.

Having survived the process 15 year ago I am definately (i) Older (ii) Poorer & (iii)definately better informed. Would I do it again for a retirement build....hmmmmm............ depends:lol: Certainly Go for wider doors, when we built 2'9" doors were the same price as 2'6" doors. Believe no-one on the sales side, always ask to see examples. Assuming a reasonable mains water supply. Go for an unvented system Go for Solar Domestic hot water panels Consider leaving a spare coil in the cylinder for altrn heat source input. insulate insulate Insulate, though i think current Bld standards demand this anyway. I would not worry about attempting to achieve Passive-haus standards, settle for a Scandavian style centrally located wood stove to heat the whole house. DO not site an oversized stove in the room one is for "living" in! GOOD quality double glazed windows. No radiators or underfloor at all should then be possible? Other than towel rails. If plumbing towel rails with radiators ensure the towel rail is plumed on the same circuit as the hot water coil. then they still work even if the radiator circuit not on. Def boot room with shower and toilet. Consider a study/office space somewhere handy downstairs. Consider an integral "garage" if only for secure warm tool storage. Try and site the dwelling on the site so as to benefit from Solar Gain/ but with shelter from the prevailing wind for the door that will be used most. Think about the whole site/garden/future plans?? BUT As commented above, and has been told to me by experienced builders. One requires to tumble the first house and build the second one right for the site plus ones needs. Which can only be ascertained after one moves in. Think about window and door placment vis-a-vis furniture??? I made quite a few lay-out mistakes, despite designing the house myself........with Senior Managment breathing over my shoulder. Build it big but keep it plain.well that was our choice. look up the "greenbuildingforum" and get your head fried with information over-load. Good luck.

However if purley for firewood the rocking table type is so much faster and safer to use, than a traditional bench saw that was probably really intended for ripping. If one attempted to use a bench saw at the speeds it is possible to work a rocking table saw at I would say one would be certain to lose fingers. Horses for courses.

I suspect the No of C1+E licence holders is low, the sneaky brutes at the DVLA failed to publicise that one required to state the need for the 12,000kg GTW when they changed the rules in 1997. I was one who did not "twig" and am therefore now restricted to 8250kgGTW. Like most guys my age with the old car licence/grandfather exemptions. I suspect that most who are (or leastwise were,as the regs may have changed) doing a lorry test go straight for the C catogory and then C+E. Certainly I would if I required to drive a truck commercially. cheers OOPs Incorrect in my post above, wee 3500kg beavertail about 1750kg but for the tipper varient nearer 1250kg:blushing:

Especially as there were quite a few problems with the pellets supplied here in the Province a few years ago. Problems sufficiently intractable such as to cause people to rip the boilers out and go back to oil. I understand the big firm in question has now got a grip on their production and delivery processes. Unfortunately in some part the problems were due to ignorant installers who needless to say were fully certified. btw I was not at all impressed by the female staff on the HETAS stand at the APF, fat lot they care about quality or the end-user. IMHO.

Fit longer link arms or a hydraulic top link? Or cut the mudguards away?

The brother offered me the old, origionally flat belt driven, cast iron table saw. I had properly converted it to PTO drive as a teenager, it worked fine but essentially a hazardous operation. Especially with round logs:blushing: So I bought a Krpan from Marshalls, tried the 230 volt version, then bought the PTO version, if the 230V version had had a flywheel incorporated it would have been a winner. 230v so much handier than PTO I am well pleased with it, though already considering "improvments":lol:

Ag tractors appear to be a very grey area, if one is prepared to run them on clear diesel, should? be OK. Under Ag regs one is allowed up to 23,490 kg GTW or some such similar figure. And front linkages are becoming more common. A wee 200 or 300 series Fendt would be nice. Otherwise look at the Iveco van series, a 5.2 tonner downplated to 4.750kg with a tidy tipper on the back could still have a payload of going on 2 tonne if I recall off-hand and plenty of volume on the back. Plus still legally tow 3.5 tonne if driven by a pre 1997 car licence holder. 4750 + 3500 = 8250kg NIE run a similar spec to tow a 4720 series J dEERE tractor with a PTO chipper, without cab shaving in just under 3500kg on the trailer. This is the reason for no cab, to keep under the 3500kg weight limit. The 4720 JD is 40 or 45 HP cheers m

Ok TCD, ye got me wtf is MOFT:blushing: Ah love acronyms btw:lol:

And I'll have a fifth of Tequila (or is than an America-ism?) As always signed Gibber Mutter & Twitch

And I'll have a fifth of Tequila (or is than an America-ism?) As always signed Gibber Mutter & Twitch

Funny enough a stand at the APF on the demo circuit was demonstrating 2 different capacity machines for producing "granny logs" out of branches, or ideally harvested coppice? A very deceptively simple mechanism, 2 (gear linked?) rollers with 3 blades on each, blades timed/set to meet so as to guilliotine the branch as it fed through. Driven offen a wee tractor PTO........................Burp and a branch gone..............and a bag filled with wee short logs. I was pleased to see sommat at the smaller more realistic end of the firewood market, in my preception. cheers marcus

Funny enough a stand at the APF on the demo circuit was demonstrating 2 different capacity machines for producing "granny logs" out of branches, or ideally harvested coppice? A very deceptively simple mechanism, 2 (gear linked?) rollers with 3 blades on each, blades timed/set to meet so as to guilliotine the branch as it fed through. Driven offen a wee tractor PTO........................Burp and a branch gone..............and a bag filled with wee short logs. I was pleased to see sommat at the smaller more realistic end of the firewood market, in my preception. cheers marcus