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openspaceman

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Everything posted by openspaceman

  1. openspaceman
    I doubt it. E85 has a higher octane rating than unleaded but there is no advantage in a stock engine, it needs a higher compression ratio to get the advantage. Alcohol fuels have lower energy density, because they are already partially oxidised (as wood is) so to get the same power you have to feed the engine 30% more fuel. This means the jets in the carburettor need to be bigger, else you wreck the engine by running it weak.
  2. openspaceman
    The thing to realise is that one of the reasons for densifying wood is to make transport cheaper. Pellets have a bulk density exceeding 600kg/m3 which is over twice as good as loose logs or better chips and sawdust. The smaller cubers, like the Lister derivatives don't develop the pressure the bigger presses do and they will often have a binder added. I have seen IIRC sodium lignosulphite added which is a waste product in the paper industry after dissolving out lignin from the pulp. This does increase the ash and that is a problem for automated boilers. Locally it is easy enough to burn the sawdust direct rather than have to dry it to around 10%mc to make pellets or briquettes. As I have mentioned previously it is possible to to make a wet briquette and then press it and pulped paper makes a good binder but it tends to be done in hotter climates where the "puck" can be sun dried before being used in a cooking stove. Legacy Foundation | Legacy Foundation
  3. openspaceman
    Gav says Pawert
  4. openspaceman
    No but I'll ask
  5. openspaceman
    My boss imported a machine and sold it to a joinery shop, so I had some decent 50mm briquettes to try, they were well formed with a shiny surface and burned like big pellets. By hollow core do you mean there was an empty hole in the stacked pallet?
  6. openspaceman
    Yes and it's the reason wood can be steam bent, lignin adds the stiffness to the fibres, consider the difference between white and brown rots. However I thought Stramit boards were cement bonded straw? The other thing to consider is that whilst lignin does plasticise and form the skin it isn't very deep. Much of the bonding is hydrogen bonding, the same as holds paper together once the fibres lay close enough together, and just like paper, get them wet and they fall apart again. It's the extreme pressures that force the fibres close enough together in pellets, with paper its the pulping then drying. A medium pressure briquette can also be made by pulping but it does depend of some starchy or gelatinous products in the biomass to add extra bonding and these are present in many less woody parts of the plant as it degrades (done by retting).
  7. openspaceman
    I cannot speak for all makers but the pellets we produced had no glue or added binder, they were pure sawdust. MDF on the other hand contains about 7% by weight formaldehyde glue and formaldehyde is not good to breathe in, nor are products of incomplete combustions from it. The nose also senses who's burning it quite well.
  8. openspaceman
    That's bad, need to find another hedge trimmer then.
  9. openspaceman
    You're right on all counts, and I was forever breaking the glass by shutting the front on a log, This had me looking for old photos and here you see it from the 90s with fireclay holding the bits of glass together.
  10. openspaceman
    I agree the point about hedge trimmers being worse for vibration, I'm not sure it is practical for one to test the vibration levels of a machine, I think it is acceptable to use manufacturers published data and then just record the hours the tool is operating, then extrapolating from this the actual exposure at each handle. From the time I used the meter with an ms261 on track clearing sight lines I found I was well within limits but only used a tankful of fuel. I'm not sure the same would have been true when pulp cutting in the past when I'd use 7 tankfuls a day with a bigger (and less modern) saw.
  11. openspaceman
    I have been well aware of the problem as have many others but the penalties now are great and retrospective. I had the job of demonstrating a simple vibration activated hour meter which was not onerous to use on a saw but the operators would not use it and my boss would not enforce its use, the case I quoted is an example of how unwise this will be when those same workers have problems. When I started it was not standard to wear a hat, muffs or visor (but I did and still suffer with tinnitus), leg protection was not thought of. It would not be prudent for an employer not to provide these now and in a similar vein it is not prudent not to monitor machinery for HAVS.
  12. openspaceman
    Isn't that a delivered price? Is that delivery figured in the Hotties price? Aesthetically they are not as pleasing and I thing we agreed logs are a luxury good? The basic density for common hardwood commonly used for logs is in the range 600-680kg/m^3 so, given at 20% mc much of the shrinking has occurred then I infer slightly better than 50% stacking.
  13. openspaceman
    Council fined £250,000 for not protecting workers’ health | Media centre - HSE At first it was firms employing people with breakers, descalers and mining equipment but now it looks like our industry is coming under scrutiny. It is relatively easy to monitor and prove levels are acceptable for saws, strimmers and hedge cutters with a simple hour meter and published figures for the machines, I do wonder about pedestrian controlled stump grinders.
  14. openspaceman
    Those heatlogs have been made in a screw press, the outsides tend to be charred from the heat and friction of extruding them. I think of briquettes as being about 50mm round and made in a ram press, they look like big pellets and make sense for a joinery firm with sawdust to dispose of. All these three products from waste depend on being less than 10% mc to hold together without binders. I have hankered after trying a shimada screw press to make logs from autumn leaves but they are expensive and use a fair amount of power. £395/tonne at <10%mc doesn't compare very well with pellets at £260/tonne, how did you estimate your log price at £300/tonne?
  15. openspaceman
    Our blokes were often towing 1800 kg of Forst tr6 and trailer 150 miles round trip (on utility work) with the transits, sometimes 2500 with a GM1928, I used to find it wearing but they never complained and the trucks went on for 200k miles. I felt it was never properly costed in to the jobs let alone the long hours.
  16. openspaceman
    If the trailer weighs less then 1 old tons unladen or you are towing with a dual purpose vehicle no O licence required but if for hire or reward may need CPC. They closed an interesting loophole in 2013 which means those passing B+E test after that date can only tow 3.5 tonnes. Any prior to that could drive a mini artic with a MAM of 7000kg but I don't know what vehicles are homologated for that, there were some Ivecos produced up to 2004. So in theory you could end up with a payload of 4.5+ tonnes if you can bring the trailer and hitch in under 1020kg. Those with pr 97 C1+E as grandfather rights (with code 107) could drive a mini artic up to 8.25tonnes , it it would require an O licence and tacho at all times but there is an interesting stipulation that the trailer when laden cannot exceed the weight of the vehicle and I'm unsure how this would be interpreted with a semi trailer (artic).
  17. openspaceman
    Gasoil floats on water, it's the principal the diesel filters on old tractors use in the water separating filters. Mount the ibc tilting toward the bottom tap and leave it for a few hours, then drain the water slowly leaving diesel behind. I have a Mr. Funnel here somewhere if you want to borrow it, you'll only lose a litre of diesel at most if you are carful. Make sure the tube is a few inches off the bottom of the IBC when you draw diesel.
  18. openspaceman
    I cannot help with comparative figures but in UK you are almost bound to purchase petrol at a pump whereas you can have gasoil dleivered in bulk. You can claim all the VAT back on petrol but if you buy less than 2500 litres of gasoil you only pay 5% VAT, all of which is reclaimable. Gasoil is rebated of road tax so costs 50% of DERV before VAT The other thing is that diesel contains about 10% more energy than petrol by the litre, so on top of its inherent advantage at part loads a diesel burning gasoil has large financial advantages.
  19. openspaceman
    With Bob's I just wonder if the water pipe is on the wrong side of the themostat
  20. openspaceman
    Why not a straight wood gas fired chipper? Anyway all the time red diesel is substantially cheaper than DERV and you cannot reclaim tax on petrol the diesel will rule, even if it needs Adblue and a DPF. The niche for a petrol engine will be those towed chippers that have to weigh less than 750kg and even then it will be cheaper to get the +E qualification on a driving licence.
  21. openspaceman
    One that uses a spark to ignite the mix which is normally petrol and air but can be LPG or methane or propane etc and air
  22. openspaceman
    The point being HI idle is not the same as full power A diesel is more efficient at part throttle but not necessarilly at full power. There are ways of running a SI engine at HI idle without throttling it (which is where the low volumetric efficiency happens).
  23. openspaceman
    Our Forsts were taking about 20 litres /day on powerlines at most so about £10/day, the Vanguard 35hp engines specific fuel consumption is shown as 8 litres/hour at full power,. Problem is I never did get to record actual hours used per day so a bit difficult to make the comparison. As I said there should be scope for a watercooled SI engine set up purposefully but sticking a B&S standard industrial engine in aint it. Back in the day we had a large industrial vacuum cleaner using an VW 1600 air cooled car engine so I wonder if any of the little japanese 3 cylinder car engines could fit the bill.
  24. openspaceman
    I did much the same calculation in 2006 when the pulp mill I was supplying closed and figured I'd need to cut extract , process, season, deliver and sell 1000 green tonnes by myself and I already had all the equipment. May have been worthwhile at 25 but too much at 55 so I worked for others for the past 10 years. Pulp was delivered in at £29/tonne IIRC then, I cannot remember what price I estimated firewood was. Apart from the figures not being promising and the cashflow being problematic, the idea of being able to fell in February to April and then extract from May to June and process suring the summer seemed fine but finding a covered area for 1000 M^3 of solid wood wasn't likely to happen without incurring a lot of rental charges.
  25. openspaceman
    Erentek quoted me about £1500 to fit an air braking kit to a pick up which would work air trailer brakes from the LR. This would have enabled a trailer of 4 tonnes but GTW would have stayed the same. I don't like towing a trailer that is 3.5 tonnes on overrun brakes even if the truck is that heavy. Taking a tracked chipper out behind an unladen transit always worried me.

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