openspaceman

I'm using a lidlaldi grinder with a 4" diamond disc for sharpening circular saw blades, with the stihl tct chain. Trouble is I've never had a sharp one to compare my results with but it's certainly usable whereas before it was to dull to cut.

Only if the gross was less than 7.5 tonne, what's the kerb weight of the Iveco and the weight of the digger?

I didn't get a reply when I asked anybody about the age limit on the tests, it tends to be academic but my C1+E is valid for a little while yet till I'm 70, I think the +E as a result of a C+E test will be limited by medical??

If the plastic is the same as stihl's clean everything scrupulously, pull the bits back into place, roughen the surface with sandpaper then fibre glass with epoxy resin, not araldite as that's too stiff out of the tube but ok if you warm it up. I use some stuff for surfboard repair that can be painted on. Put the lot into a plastic bag and use a hair drier to warm the repair for an hour or two. Add a second layer to form a bash guard, maybe use kevlar but I have not tried this.

Are these the gross calorific values of the briquetes per tonne? I think we reckoned on 2.5% of the thermal output was needed in the pelletting, but of course this was electrical power which is "costs" 3 times as much as raw heat. This was on a 5 tonne per hour 300hp press. Some thermal energy was needed to get the sawdust down to 10%mc wwb needed to make good pellets. These energy figures were a small part of the capital and running costs of the facility. OK you have done well to do this, perceived wisdom was to burn the low cv gases given off they needed to contain 2MJ/m3 , below this even with a sophisticated vortex burner they needed a support fuel to sustain a flame. Yes the main advantage of this would be in shipping the product long distances, unlike bone dry wood which is hydrophilic torrefied wood also resists moisture (a product for absorbing oil spills on water used this effect as at the same time as resisting water it increased it's affinity for oil). This has advantages for bulk storage in the open where heaps of woodchip absorbs all the rain. On paper it looks like it would pay to heat the biomass to around 150C, at which stage the lignin has become plasticised and compress it then. The power needed to crush the cell walls is 50% less at this plastic stage. The advantage in the slightly higher temperature being the elimination of that last 10% of water and the loss of the higher oxygen containing compounds to increase the energy in the remainder. It must be fine temperature control to prevent the onset of full pyrolysis whilst getting an offgas of sufficiently high cv to self sustain the process without loss too much loss of too much energy from the raw materials.

HGV1 is now C + E so two tests isn't it? I would have qualified for grandfather rights for HGV 1 but was still just too young for the 6 month qualifying period, just as well as I don't like driving long vehicles or pulling trailers. I was driving furniture delivery lorries and used to dread backing into the loading bays of the smaller urban stores.

Yes most pre 1997 had the restriction code 107 which limits the gross train weight to 8.25 tonnes, were the 107 not present then GTW could be 12 tonnes. I think he difference was if you claimed HGV2 when grandfather rights on lorries over 7.5 tonne were introduced.

What are your thoughts on the 114?

I doubt you are far out. Of course the hotter you have your kiln the bigger the losses through the kiln walls, so extra capital cost in insulation becomes sensible. Also the hotter you go the higher the flue losses in your furnace but heat tends to be cheap compared with the power loss in having a fan moving lots of cold air. You can make a fairly simple judgement as to how much airflow you need at a given temperature as evaporating water off the log converts the heat in the airflow to water vapour, this uses a lot of the energy in the air so its temperature drops. As long as the air going in is hotter than the air leaving and your heat losses are low then you are removing water. You can check the loss from the kiln by running it empty with the same air flow. A simple kit would be two temperature and humidity logger and a power meter across the fan with a simple anemometer. IIRC our high temperature kiln had to circulate 14m3+ for every kg of water removed and there was a substantial amount of energy needed just to get it to temperature.

That's my take on it too, the costs seem to be about the same for C1 or C so might as well go from B to C1 to +E. I thought you could take these tests at 18 now subject to CPC?? My mate did this and it was a 4 day course (£1000) and then two tests. My C1+E carries me through till I am 70 because I took my test before 1997, what age is on your licence for the C and the E when taken as a separate test?

Thanks for that, I had seen it suggested to grind the backs off the cutters. If I ever wear the bar out I will try the narrower one, what are the drawbacks e.g is the chain easier to snap?

Look at the VIN plate on the nearside step (IIRC) the first figure under the VIN is the gross weight of the transit, the second is the gross train weight, subtract one from the other and that is the maximum towing weight. GTW on early ones will be 5750 and the later ones 6000. Very rarely you will see one with the higher ratio rear axle that can tow 2800kg but these tend to be plated at 4200GVW. We have a cheap 2004 plate steel bodied tipper but although street legal needs the instrument panel electronics overhauled and a lot of tidying up.

As Mark said with a transit that can gross 3.5 tonnes you can still tow a trailer up to the maximum gross train weight of the combination. Older transits can tow 2.25 tonnes and post ~2009 ones 2.5 tonnes which in practice with plant trailers of 2600kg gross weight and tare of ~500kg payload can knock on to 2 tonnes but you are venturing into tachograph rules (and exemptions).

nor me and you have the additional drawback that if you drive for long periods without engaging them the UJs can get stiff through lack of use. Worse still if you are bowing along and the grass begins to get a bit slippy and you engage 4WD high at about 20mph the stationary front prop, diff and halfshafts have to catch up a bit more rapidly than they were designed for.

Be very careful when drilling for the helicoil there is very little meat on the insert. I do it because the blokes like the quick release but the bolt and nut makes more sense. I use 2 6mm helicoils.

I haven't spoken to Lucy for more than a year but she was working out of Richard Court's office. 01483 208075

Mine sits alongside the seat, gets used for slashing a path through nettles as well as pruning

I bought some cheap ceramic knives from lidlaldi and have just got to the stage where I need to find how to sharpen them, so would welcome views on that also.

I got given a barely used einhell 40cc saw to repair last week, couldn't find fault other than a slightly bent tensioning screw and chain was missing. I ringed up 2 canter loads of 18" pine yesterday and it seemed ok but the new VXL chain I bought seemed to snag quite easily. I was wondering if the low profile Stihl PMM3 used on the pole saws would be worth trying for its low snatch and narrow kerf, any thoughts?

Interesting, I wasn't aware that has applied to all businesses since 2002, in the past it was only large firms. Also the revision is since September 2013 and is for 30 or 60 days after the invoice is submitted, but longer terms can be written into the contract if it is reasonable to both parties. In practice large firms do not accept an invoice until they have signed off the work so they still pay on 90 days. More to the point has anyone succeeded in getting paid interest using this legislation?

Try and give me a link or cite. The reason I posted to use the base rate of a commercial bank was that a year ago I was involved in setting a new commercial lease for a large civils company regional depot. Our solicitor used a standard lease from the law society and this specified barclays base rate +3% for late payments or disputes. The owner of the tenant company asked for Bank of England rates plus 3% but it was rejected. The reason for the Law society choosing Barclays rate was that Barclays is their bank, in the event of a dispute Barclays would affirm the rate at court, either by attending or by a sworn oath, Bank of England could not be called to do so.

I used VMware to take images, then if I want to look at something I run it up on this mint 17.

It's better to quote a commercial bank's base rate +?%

Takes a long time to dry, is a pig to split but fast growing and dense so a good firewood.

How did your trials with drying chip by turning it over with the telehandler in the summer month's go? I meant to say earlier that the 6" forst with the feed turned to half speed produces lovely chips from small lengths of wood. Leaves wouldn't be a problem for the feed but could cause ratholing problems in the firebox as well as the moisture being a big issue.