openspaceman

I agree they do seem to dry fast and the chief thing against them is having to load the stove more frequently. Most punters won't burn them because they have been told they "creosote" the chimney; anything will deposit tar if it's wet AND/OR smouldering. I only burned hardwoods for my first 35 years because I mostly worked hardwoods when I was contracting and after that I raided the wood dump of the company I worked for and only chose the better hardwoods. This last three years I have taken all sorts from arb jobs I have been working on. I was surprised how low the moisture content was of a 40 year old norway spruce butt I brought home in March 19. Winter felled it was less than 50%mc wwb, I think this was because it was the bottom of the stem. I have just dried a couple of pieces, one was in my wood store a couple of layers down and was 10% mc wwb, the other sat outside but not at the top of the heap, so only slightly damp from rain and was 22%, which is good but not as good as being under cover. Of course these figures will rise as the winter goes on. As I mentioned in another thread I was surprised that a piece of sweet chestnut off the top of a shortwood stack of western red cedar was 47% mc wwb whereas an adjacent piece of WRC was 30%, both on the stack for a few years. I shall risk burning the WRC this season but not the s chestnut. A similar piece of WRC from inside the shed since September was down to 23%. Since I have only had a wood burner with a glass door this last year I really do appreciate burning logs of <20% mc, I can maintain a good clean flame with minimal air and for the first time wood is heating the whole house.

It would make more sense to keep it horizontal and use an axial fan to blow over the wood, you'll want a few inches of insulation all round and a first in first out system as the wood nearest the stove will dry much quicker than that further away. Convection is a fairly weak effect. IBCs on scaffold pole rails pushed in from one end and extracted from the front at right angles? I'd think you'd need several IBCs in a tight tunnel

It looks like the chassis has bent at the point circled red as the engine should pivot in the other plane to tension the belts shouldn't it Pete?

That depends on how you define "work"; yes there will be some drying but the efficiency of heat in verses water loss may be low. You can go between the extreme of blowing ambient air through the box of logs to not blowing any air and heating the logs to ~120C, both will dry the logs, the first in months and the latter in 24hrs but neither will be the most energy efficient. We measured our efficiency in terms of heat supplied against the theoretical latent heat of water removed, we didn't monitor the electricity the fans consumed. With the high temperature kiln we were about 50% efficient by our definition, I reckon one could do much better.

The last thing you want is airtight as you need to vent the moisture. The problem is how do you get the most moisture removal for the heat you put in and generally that;s why you need to circulate the air in the container and dump a portion of moist air at a lower temperature than the temperature in the kiln.

Too right otherwise the hopper metal flexes and eventually fatigues and breaks off

I take your point but the Valtra was hardly standard as it looks like they had a direct drive from the diff to the rear wheel, to get the gearing up, and removed the front wheel drive for similar reason. I guess this is why 130kph was as fast as they could get with a 40kph gearbox (assuming a normal reduction in the trumpet housing of around 4:1). Mind 130kph with those tyres and no suspension could get a bit exciting.

It#s not ideal as it has a high moisture content and when dry is very light, so it burns away quickly. The reason to cut and split it is so air can blow through it to dry it. It's a funny business deciding what's best for your fire but as everyone here will say if it is dry any wood burns okay. I've a recent surprising thing about wood stacked outside. I have underestimated the amount of wood I need now I have arranged for my little stove to heat the whole house and not use the gas central heating. So I have already made a big dent in the 4 cubic metre glazed log store I built. To supplement my dry wood I have scavenged a heap of western red cedar bars that was stacked in a wood four years ago. The WRC is acceptably dry and burns fast and hot but you do need a good few logs in the fire at all times, a dry bit of sycamore will burn by itself. At the top of the stack was a piece of sweet chestnut 4ft long 8" diameter and with its bark intact. The thin sapwood band under the bark was pulpy and the logs felt heavy, so I weighed and dried one, it was 47% MC which is wetter than if it was winter felled. That same piece of wood kept under cover would have dried in a summer.

Dan's right, get it cut and split then stack it in a covered airy place and it will be dry enough in a season

Air bubble or combustion gases?

Yes the petrol powered one will be too slow compared with a simple 3pt linkage mounted one. Even with a small tractor a 6 tonne winch with a ground anchor is handy because even if you cannot travel with a log you can winch in and move on in stages. I'm considering a small petrol capstan winch for getting some poorly felled trees out to a place where the tractor can get a line on to them but don't expect it to be particularly productive.

It makes for an interesting problem, we had this when we specified a genset for a classroom CHP some 20 years ago. For economy you want to run the generator at the sweetspot for its size, in our case it was reckoned to be 70% of its peak power but it had to supply a peak load, which meant we had to over size it, problem was that in constant use it meant the conversion efficiency dropped from 40% to 20%. Then we used a synchronous generator, nowadays you would use an inverter generator but they tend to be too small for this use. A way round would be for the alternator to be rated at 15kVA and a smaller diesel engine with a massive flywheel.

I wouldn't say never, pressure washers are ace at forcing grit into bearings.

There does seem to be lots of choice of them on ebay but anywhere recommended for a genuine one?

I expect so but we were warned not to over grease because of this

excess grease also collects dirt which turns it into grinding paste

Yes it can

I've got that one and it's good but it won't crack the nuts of wheels that have been fitted by a tyre fitter but then I cannot shift them with a 1/2" ratchet either so have to resort to the breaker bar

Sweet bay is fast growing and coppices well in the south, may not be hardy above Watford

I agree and I prefer something that can be sharpened in the field, which is why I like maxi blades as they sharpen just like a chainsaw. The triblade will cut 1/3" but a sawblade is much easier on the gearbox.

My experience is quite out of date now but even then they were a bit of a kludge. At the time Hiab loaders from lorries were being adapted for more off road uses, one of the problems was that lorry loaders tended to work on the flat and so the slew function didn't need much force or pressure. Once you were working on sidling ground and were swinging a load slightly uphill the slew rams couldn't cope so intensifiers were used in the circuit. Later better solutions like tandem slew rams and levelling king posts on purpose built machines made the use obsolete. They may still have a niche, I envisaged using one alongside a regenerative function on a splitting ram where the only power was from a simple gear pump, this would allow three increasing forces as the ram encountered a tougher log to split. Plainly there are trade-offs and the obvious one is that the ram will work slower to gain the extra pressure, as Eddy says. So whilst one wouldn't buy a machine to run a high pressure ram than the hydraulics could supply if you already have the machine and want to use the high pressure cutter then it becomes possible. Of course the hydraulic components downstream of the intensifier need to be capable of resisting the higher pressure than the rest of the equipment has to. You have to select an intensifier ram so that the ratio of piston area to rod side area is the inverse of the pressure available to the required pressure. In the case Eddy specified the piston side to rod side ratio needs to be 250:190 and the stroke on the rod side has to deliver enough oil to fully operate the high pressure ram. The rod of the intensifier just moves in and out and is not attached to anything. In practice you will need a diverter to occasionally reset the intensifier ram if there is any creep or oil loss

Not a big problem if you fit an intensifier on that service then

So which functions of the shear require the extra pressure, 190 to 250 bar?

You are right as it is hazardous waste and back in the day required a consignment note, which cost money, as well as the waste carrier's licence. Which is why the home owner should take charge of it. Technically the same is true of a car battery, you may drive down to the motor factors and let them change the battery and keep the old one but if you take the new battery to your yard to fit you may not legally take it to the tip. A householder can transport it to a civic amenities site. In practice...

That would take the whole back boundary of my place if stacked 5ft deep and 5ft high, too much for an urban garden. However half that and build a pole shed covered with clear corrugated PVC and it would be fit to burn after one summer in the south, so no need to store 2 years worth.