openspaceman

Prior to FEPA we would "incremental drift" spray large infestations late July prior to planting and then follow up with knapsack spray, once basically established we would leave the trees to get on even if there was a loss of increment from the competition. Softwood crops like tsuga would eventually smother it after 20 years or so. For a very brief period a formulation of dicamba was approved for bracken control, It's use was particularly suited to the wide spacings we started using with broadleaves in Tuley Tubes following the BWGS of around 1986. What made it appealing was it could be applied as a solid stream between the planting rows as the planting was done and worked on the principle it leached downward till it was absorbed by rhizomes, it killed virtually any root it touched but bracken was the only weed with an extensive root network so most other weeds were only affected directly adjacent to the line of spray. It again needed follow up but often allowed the plants in shelters to get away with no further treatment as the bracken regrowth was etiolated and sparse for a couple of seasons Bracken seems compatible with conserving bluebells! After 1986 I stopped using herbicide and looked at rolling and crushing but events dictated a move away from establishment and to harvesting windblow which I foolishly stuck with. However I did notice that bracken infested rides which we drove down would return to grass for a season or so before they were reinvaded, I would try and drive over the whole ride with my tyre print just to see the effect. What would be interesting would be a small vineyard tractor with front wheels set out and rear wheels tracking inside pulling a small roll on the linkage to run between the rows but I think reserves in the rhizomes mean that bracken will not be killed only weakened by these cultural methods.

Pass but it's past you bedtime and the more significant thing will be excess air

Ian you are right but the difference may not be as great as you think, IMO the bigger gain is in less pollution and smoke. As I see it the sums are fairly simple for a first approximation and I note you did state by the same volume, and we'll assume no volume change from 30% to 20% which is stretching it a bit as that is the region when there is most shrinkage: Take 1 kg hardwood log at 30% mc wwb, it contains 0.7kg of dry wood containing 3.617kWh of heat energy and 0.3kg of water that will be lost at chimney exit temperature with 0.225kWh wasted to atmosphere, net heat released to stove 3.39kWh Take the same log and instead dry it to 20% mc wwb , now the amount of dry wood is the same 0.7kg with 3.617kWh of heat energy but the water vented up the chimney is now only 0.112 kg so you have more than halved the water in the wood and are now only wasting 0.084kWh up the chimney but the net energy released to stove is now 3.53kWh a net gain of 4% usable heat.

He's a clever chap, I'll ask him if he can create a vacuum The thing is reading on the US forums these early 261s do seem to be sent out lean

I rebuilt the ms261 with new rings and it ran fine but it revved to 14800 on high idle. My colleague built a pressure testing kit, sealed the inlet and exhaust and pressure held fine, quite amusing to see it cycle as the crank was rotated. So tonight I decided to strip the carburettor; all as good as new inside but I blew it all out just in case. Now I suspect it has revved this high from new and ordinarilly it would not have seized if kept in work but we do a lot of rashing down... So I've pulled the HI adjustment limiter cap off and I'll see if I can tone it down to about 13500 for a longer life.

I take your point and I burn wood of higher than ideal moisture content but there is little doubt that drier wood will more likely burn smokelessly. My personal view is that there is not much advantage in burning wood that is below its fibre saturation point (25-30%) because getting dry to that level is easy. Drying below 20% is a bit pointless in my log pile as it soon picks the moisture up again. The main thing for clean burning is to maintain a high enough combustion temperature for the products all to burn out cleanly, big or sophisticated burners will do this with 45% mc feedstock.

But was the charcoal burning? The phenomenon you saw was pyrolysis with heat provided from the atmosphere in the oven gradually heating the log up to the point where the mixture of wood chemicals start splitting up and then the products of that reacting with each other within the wood. In the microwave case the ambient temperature of the oven is near room temperature and the surface of the wood can lose heat to the atmosphere, the heat that drives the drying process is water molecules within the wood being vibrated by the electromagnetic waves and then releasing their excited state as heat deep inside the log, the outside of the log remains cool but the inside gets hot enough to form char and oxidise it. Now imagine if your oven were a big kiln with recirculating fans to get the heat in and moisture laden air out quickly, supplied to dry kindling on a strict shedule to do it quick enough and then finish before the wood got too hot, then imagine if the kiln owner decided to try logs instead of kindling and to get the moisture content down he ran the kiln cycle twice... Then imagine what you would do if you noticed a bit of smoke coming from the kiln, sensible people might peep in the door and then close it again and block off all poorts whilst cooling everything down with water. Other people might fling the door wide open and run away schnell and allow the whole thing to end up in flames.

I doubt it as it would depend on the amount of electrolyte (mineral salts) dissolved in the water, pure water is non conductive. The resistive type meters use the conductivity of any sap left in the wood as a surrogate for moisture, I don't know how capacitance based ones work but none actually measure water.

You only need to weigh one piece initially but with a 100gram piece you need accurate scales, I tend to use postal scales and saw a bit that is near enough capacity for the balance. I generally microwave at 25% or defrost setting and check frequently until there is no further weight loss. Green weight - oven dry weight = water content. 100 times water weight divided by green weight give the moisture content in % on a wet weight basis. Leave the piece out of the rain for a few days and you can measure the water uptake it will often absorb 10% of the oven dry weight in summer and more in winter. You can have problems in microwaving large pieces in that the water in the outside layer evaporates, the dry wood on the outside layer then acts as an insulator plus it does not absorb the microwaves as well as water in the inner layers does (bonds have different resonant frequencies) So the water in the middle turns to steam, the steam still trying to get out superheats and reaches pyrolysis temperatures from 250C and up, this splits the wood into char and woodgas but the char spontaneously combusts in the presence of oxygen in the air spaces in the wood. So if you do it too big or too fast the sample starts burning from the inside. First indication with hardwood is a whiff of vinegar.

Lost the last person that had known me for all my years on Sunday last, end of an era for me. She always told me I should get a proper job like my younger siblings!

and if any of you remember ARBRE it was Yorkshire waters pulling the plug that helped kill it, they wanted the asrc to dump on. Still the stuff has to meet pas100 standard before it can be resold so any "contraries and it's worth a complaint.

... but can one ever over grease a plain bearing? I know a build up of grease oozing round a shaft can be one of the ingredients of a grinding paste. which is one of the reasons for sealed for life bearings. Even just wiping over a grease nipple can push a bit of grit past the ball, but yes the nippe should be cleaned first. I regularly greased my Cranab every day of use from 1984 and it was still going strong when I parked it up 7 years ago ( must go and see if it's still there ;-)) but I'm seeing premature failure on joints and bearings on the firm I do work for simply because users don't grease and fitters don't read the service instructions.

Only 1 million? If it's the same firm we dealt with they were grant getters par excellence so certainly would have had a lot.

OK but what indigenous or invading insect can give a bite that raises a small blister?

I never had one but was put to shame by a bloke that loaded an artic each day with one pulled by a ford 4000. Basically you drive forward with them dangling , stop, reverse a bit to lock them in position and start loading.

Had 180A one for 45 years collected it direct from youngs in twickenham, not used since I bought the welding genset.. You just run 2 phases across the correct input terminals. it needs a blue 16A socket on 230V.

Too right and I thought I understood things financial, I had to change to repayment and would have been paying for another 7 years if my wife hadn't cleared it. Still don't know what the thread is about.

I don't think na diesels get near stoich and run weak of 20:1. The reason diesel's part throttle economy is better is that the volumetric efficiency is always 100% or more.I'd be interested to know if turbo diesels can approach stoich. Also of course diesel has 10% more calories per litre which propel them a bit further.

Baltic redwood and european redwood are importers names for sawn scots pine

This is a classic problem with landrovers (I don't know what vehicle you have) and the oil level should be checked. The reason being when a hot diff casing with a blocked breather goes wading the sudden cooling causes a vacuum which will suck water into the diff through the hub seals. Water then sits at the bottom of the casing with gear oil floating on top until it emulsifies.

That was euphemistically called "eclectic thinning"

why not have a circular saw machine for smaller stuff?

Yes but it's quite strange how so many secondhand ones have lost them or are illegible

Thanks. They seem to have a strange pricing policy, £118 for a kit to mark 300 items (marking just once in one place?) but £408 for a kit for 600.

Yes they are definitely an afterthought and as I said I think it is better practice to only hook to the rings on the track's chassis which means using two more straps and ratchets.