openspaceman

Me too although I never got further than using flying and fixed bollards and have never used a zip line when lowering.

Yes it would have to be cheap to cover those costs, what is the mark up on flue components, 50%?

If you are not offering it for sale then why not. Otherwise you would have to produce a technical file proving it conforms to all the regulations and then issue a certificate of conformity.

Do you not lap the taper before fitting a new key in case the keyway has raised a lip?

I'm not involved any more but did keep a spreadsheet to keep a check on dates but a printed and signed paper copy for the lads to have on site with their risk assesment, if I only did domestic work I would just use the spreadsheet.

This is spot on as an observation. One of the first thing taught me in economics was the financial benefit benefit of a monopoly and how in the absence of this to create a false monopoly. It also makes me think back to the time of guilds and how that they suppressed innovation. I experienced some of this from the 70s when I could approach a landowner, get a felling licence, buy timber and sell it to a sawmill, then Forest thinnings came along and negotiated exclusive rights to supply mills, then H&SaW bit and we had to pay money to the into the NPTC pyramid scheme, then FSC... Just layers of middlemen feasting at the table whilst contractors grovelled at their feet licking up the crumbs they dropped.

Aldi one on special buy his week. I've no idea if it's any good but find that my ferrex tools are cheap and fine for occasional use. Ferrex 2.5HP Air Compressor - ALDI UK WWW.ALDI.CO.UK Find Ferrex 2.5HP Air Compressor at ALDI.

I don't think I have come across elm with shake

@MattyF the right to roam is just that not a right to do the things you suggest which are all criminal acts. I only own a cottage with a small garden with a well used sidewalk at the front and public footpath to the side with hedges but no locked gates to prevent people trespassing, it seldom happens but I do regularly find poo bags and litter chucked into the hedges and have had things stolen from the garden and cars. The right to roam is also restrictive on CROW access land and is not the same as the rights on registered common or section 15 land. All those things you mention also happen on other public places like roads, parks and the foreshore to which people have rights of access which you wish to curtail. Don't get me wrong, I am appalled at the things people do in the countryside and from a nature conservation point of view I was against the wholesale opening up of some land but to restrict access to the countryside unless you can afford to own it was ended with by the mass trespass on Kinder Scout. The problem with younger people not being concerned about the countryside is "That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone"

They may be if there is indeed a right to roam, let me have details and I can check or go to the MAGIC.gov.uk site find your woodland and then open the access drop down menu. Then tick the registered common, countryside and rights of way act section 15 and countryside and rights of way open access layer boxes. If it does not come up on that (and most woodland was not included in CROW) it's unlikely there are any general rights over and above public rights of way. I get a bit annoyed by "private" signs as people up to no good ignore them and other walkers are generally good about not trespassing, they become another eyesore just like many inappropriate signs. There is a move by the current government to criminalise trespass which will lead to loss of public rights over time. We are already seeing common land that should have been registered by landowners being lost, and often built on, because the landowners have strong support from the current government, which I think is a shame. Yes if it not common land or section 15 land again it would be a shame as openness is often a big amenity aesthetically. The major point to me is public rights were won over time in the face of landowners wish to exclude people unreasonably often to no great advantage to themselves but from sheer arrogance about there place in society.

Picture 11 looks like a nice clean bit of cherry which may produce nice boards

That's what is on my bench atm, a 4hp Johnson, cleaned the points and put new plugs in and it fires up fine, just got to see why the water pump isn't circulating. Bigger job is deciding how to repair the floor of the inflatable, the internal joint between 3 of the ribs have sprung apart.

I would expect to see a few tar spots from beech bark disease, also its difficult to see from the pictures what the extent of necrosis exists under the bark which one could normally check from tapping.

We have this one locally that is not quite so spectacular but just sits on a verge minding its own business with no protection. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.3734577,-0.4926481,3a,75y,23.76h,109.05t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sMaJeGfBV4oZcpXjoGyZsVg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en-GB "Addlestone is home to the ancient Crouch Oak tree, under which it is said Queen Elizabeth I picnicked. It also marked the edge of Windsor Forest before the forest was cut down to build towns. "

Oh go on I want to see how it works, mine is similar but lighter weight parts so that is the sort of thing I am after.

We were cutting oak beams mostly so you tended only to need to remove bark for a few cuts, it was a pain and I looked at buying a Prinz debarker but never did. I never really got into using the woodmizer as I left it to a chap that it came with until he went to Afghanistan to convert the natives. The sawmill got sold after that.

Yes high temperature sterilises dry wood but warming wet wood leads to mould growth. By far the major amount of energy needed to dry wood from green is that which is used to turn water into vapour. The corollary is that wood that is air dried only needs a small amount of heat to sterilise it and polish off the last bits of moisture.

Yes this is much my experience also but does lead to the conclusion that it is a waste of energy to force dry below about 16% unless it is to be burned before the moisture level has had time to increase.

I'd be interested in seeing the front drive refurbished. I have acquired a honda engined champion and the drive doen't work. I'm looking for options to get it driving again. Is this one veebelt driven off the engine and drive engaged by tensioning the belt with the bowden cable?

I used to use a small hatchet to knock the bark off the line of cut with the woodmizer. A long time ago I went on a visit to a softwood sawing line and the chipper-canter ran a whole shift without changing blades on the new line because the wood was all debarked and sorted, previously they had to change bandsaw blades three times in the shift. The cost benefit was not in saving saw sharpening but in not having three losses of downtime as the bands were changed plus having bark to sell.

Does it dry to the 10% mc you advocate?

If the roof is a good emitter of radiation and a poor insulator then condensation can form even with an empty space underneath, this is because on a clear night the roof will become colder than the ground and thus as the temperature drops the dew point is reached sooner than the surrounds. I have experienced very bad dew falling from steel roofs but no found any problems with clear acrylic or polycarbonate so far.

First picture looks like old mechanical damage to me, with the last couple of years growth trying to occlude the wound.

The high speed tracking we had worked on the standard flow but halved the number of pistons in use in the final drive, thus halving the torque but potentially doubling the speed. I imagine modern diggers use much more sophisticated variable displacement pumps. You could put a priority flow valve in the circuit but these work on black magic and can overheat the oil unless they are positive displacement ones (which I have never seen used)

I'm well out of commercial work now but could pop in to look, I was a woodman for over 35 years buying standing and selling to mills but retired from that for last 20 years. Where are you? I'm in NW Surrey