ash_smith123

Yes sometimes if you get 5-6 nice and straight 35/37cm 8 way logs you can do a cubic metre in 5 minutes but an average of 3/3.5 is about right. I couldn't go back to a bar and chain! [emoji30] gives me nightmares thinking how much time we spent messing about with our last one. We don't sharpen it enough really but it still goes strong after 1000+ cubic metres

Yes 1 on the jcb loading the deck and taking the crates away with the forklift and one sat on the processor!

[ATTACH]222057[/ATTACH] A artic load/52 cubic metres of hardwood in just about 15 hours over the last 3 days! The new jcb is brilliant out in the yard too!

So let me get this right... they have given you a MasterCard registered to your name with a £21k limit on it?! So if you spend the £21k + £8k your putting in you've just got to pay back the £29k on the credit card? How's that a grant? That's just how credit cards work isn't it? I'm confused [emoji23]

I've got a JCB 520-40 telehandler coming this week and wondered if anyone has run a screw type splitter on a Telehandler? I've checked the specs and for the screw I'm looking at the flow rate and pressure seem to be within the limits.

We've just burnt about 50 cubic metres of it in our boilers, it's perfectly fine when it's dry, getting it dry is the fun part! I've been burning 10" popular logs on my fire at home for the last few months and I've never burnt anything that gets as hot. It doesn't last that long but my god it burns hot!

You don't want to drop that 40t into Pontypool do you? [emoji12]

We have 2 kilns and also import what we can't produce. It doesn't sit very well with me either. I would much rather produce it myself and you do make far more money producing it yourself but firewood is our income. If I don't sell it I don't eat and the mortgage doesn't get paid so if I can't keep up with the production I have at the moment we've got to import to bridge the gap to make money. We are fitting another heater that should half drying time/double production so we are looking to employ someone next year and produce 90% ourselves.

What you are saying is right but it's interesting what you said about the cord price having to come down. Why does the cord price have to come down? Why don't the retail prices go up? Harvesting companies have costs like everyone and all costs are increasing so there's no reason why the cordwood should stay the same price, also supply the demand comes to mind! Like anything if the wholesale price goes up the retailer puts the retail price up. Doesn't seem to happen so much in firewood, everyone just moans about cord price but keeps there prices the same

Not only us then! He said he sells thousands of cubic metres and has never had any complaints! The stuff was complete garbage. Said it had been in the kilns for 7, 24 hour days. If that's the case the glen farrows much be useless! I can produce that stuff in 12 hours! From the sounds of it speaking to a few people he's a London office boy with pots of cash to throw at machinery but doesn't have a clue

It's a great machine Sam! You won't be disappointed

I tried a load from a company in Penrith that apparently does a lot of wholesale "approx 1 cubic metre bags of kiln dried hardwood" Actually 0.7 cubic metres of hardwood reading 30% on the outside and 40%+ on the inside. You live and learn! Nobody in the U.K. can compete on price and quality when your buying in precut / kiln dried firewood. Either cut it/dry it yourself and make more money or buy it from the Baltic's

Our 95kw attack runs at about 40/50kwh and 130kw eco Angus runs at 70kwh so whatever your KW is half it and that's about what you will get. These figures from renewable energy companies are basically useless. You won't get anywhere near what they tell you.

I've got one, great piece of kit! The processors half the machine without one

They could go down the route of something like the BSL but Like you say it will be almost impossible to enforce. There will be a "black market" for firewood!

"Taxing people when burning wood" that's what it all comes down to! When something becomes popular the government try and find a way of taxing it. It's just happened with waste oil heaters that garages etc use. You now have to buy a permit which is about £3000 a year to burn waste oil. They want you to get your waste oil collected, cleaned and buy "cleaned oil" basically so they can tax it. These sort of reports can really damage the industry. If the main media get hold of it (the daily mail already have) it could really cause problems!

I thought we were mice free until one of the little s**ts chewed through a brand new 3 pack of Tesco boxer shorts I bought the other day! I completely understand about the quality but the quality I get from the EU is usually very good.

Yes importing is lucrative but I've always said doing it yourself you will make more money. I just havnt been able to keep up (drying not processing) in the past so I imported half my stock and produce half myself. There's been a few threads on here where people have asked about starting up and I've said importing is the way to go to start because it's easier to make money quicker. to make a tidy wage out of firewood if your processing it yourself you need to be doing around 1000 cubic metres per person. Unless you have £100k+ to throw at machinery, cordwood and advertising your not going to sell 1000 cubic metres in the first 2-3 years. You can buy a forklift, a container and a van for £10k in and get earning straight away. .We used to buy it very cheap from a local supplier who couldn't keep up with us and now has stopped doing it so we thought let's just do it ourselves. I've had a few quotes from uk companies that are £1+ more than I was paying before. I sell 60x40 nets of kindling and the few EU companies I use wouldn't produce this size net for me. We are at the stage where we can afford a kindling machine and I also want to expand the business and start doing wholesale kindling. So there's the reason I have bought a machine.

Going well thanks Matt! It's a Great machine, very well built! No worries Sam, I will let you know when we have them available for wholesale. Hopefully in a week or 2!

Been playing with the new toy today!

That's fair enough. As long as your happy with what your making that's all that matters!

Just out of interest GHD why do you sell it so cheap?

£45/50 a ton softwood around here at the moment. The biomass plant in port talbot has gone bust so hopefully it will start dropping again as they were taking anything and everything. At £60 a ton, all costs considered per loose cubic metre delivered to the customers door isn't much over £50. If your selling it around £90/95 . Take away the VAT and you've got yourself about £30 a cube profit, £120 for kiln dried will get you £55 so there's money in firewood, You've just got to do the volume.

You will be looking anywhere from £50-70 a ton delivered at the moment. I know CW were paying £80 a ton for Ash from a local supplier

It's £30 per quarter, £120 a year. They seem to charge you £30 a quarter online.