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openspaceman

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Everything posted by openspaceman

  1. openspaceman
    I'm late to this and others have advised using ducts. If you are going to need to deal with any of the utility suppliers, gas, electricity openreach and water then you might have problems putting it all in one trench. UKPower networks required a 2m wayleave to bring a 72kVA supply to our site and would allow no other utilities to share. There is a 2003 NJUG leaflet which describes the separation of utilities in a 2m footway, basically you need about 300mm separation between ducts.
  2. openspaceman
    I don't think so: any trailer over 750kg requires brakes on half the axles and if the tractor is post1986 they must be operated by the service brake.
  3. openspaceman
    No straps on the grapple or timber would attract a bit of undue attention.
  4. openspaceman
    Yes but how significant it is depends on what you are forwarding. I wouldn't advise it for softwood thinnings but managed for years on hardwood and softwood sawlogs and cordwood. 6 lever controls beside the seat and occasionally kneeling on the seat.
  5. openspaceman
    As far as I know you only need additional lights if the load obscures existing lights or the load extends 2m past the existing lights.
  6. openspaceman
    It will need to move with the wind in order for the new growth to form and put strength in the right places.
  7. openspaceman
    It looks like there's enough intact bark on one side for the tree to survive if it can put on enough callus to withstand breaking off.
  8. openspaceman
    It's a fair parcel for a small woodland but maybe not for the big estates and FC. The bit about the part load is a good point, I used to teach that the part load would often fall in value to the next (lower) grade in the assortment. e.g. a remaining part load of beech seconds (for framing) would have to be sent in with mining timber, it was often only fetching 25p/Hft over mining timber when that sold at 50p/Hft.
  9. openspaceman
    These people were very helpful to me Controls Hindle Controls but on a different machine. If they are simple Bowden cables then our local motorcycle shop gets them from Venhill Engineering Limited
  10. openspaceman
    This latter need not always be the case but it will put buyers off. If you are prepared to sell the second lengths delivered in with some beams as long as the mill can get some posts or scantling off them they were still worth £2/Hft+ and selling off butts at £4/Hf (all 1990 prices as I've been out of it a long time) meant you had to do your sums before making a decision. The mills that want planking butts will normally sell off the second lengths to another mill. Yes they tended to be separate markets Lots of beams less than 500Ht are more attractive to people with mobile mills and decent oak through the log seems to attract £3.50/Hft
  11. openspaceman
    I agree with that having seen them taken to some amazing side inclines. I've never seen or tried a Bandit. The Forst is let down by its tracking but no problem for short runs.
  12. openspaceman
    The problem with simply winching it upright is that the soil will have moved and this will create a fulcrum to stress the roots which are simply bent atm. I'd excavate a trench to relive this and backfill with something the roots will easily regrow into. Also keep any guy as near the bottom as you dare. Yes it looks well doable.
  13. openspaceman
    I remember the older McConnel flail hedgers had a simple make up valve that enabled them to run the pto pump using the linkage pump in parallel, if you do something like this ALWAYS return flow to tank into a zero back pressure point and NEVER via a spool valve. It also should return at a point below the oil level. The difference between running a flail and the splitter is that the flail always returns the same as what it takes but the splitter will be returning less on the out stroke so the linkage pump would have to supply the difference to prevent cavitation or sucking air. Assuming constant pumping open circuit system: Using0 this means the spool valve should not be a regenerative type.
  14. openspaceman
    It sounds like quality timber. I found if there was a decent proportion of planking buts or beams it paid to sell them presented at stump and dressed out. If possible remove any that are too poor for sawing from the parcel. Measure and list each stem. The invite 3 or 4 buyers to make offers. I've been caught a number of times by "friendly" buyers wishing to uplift and pay on monthly account. I also found there was much less ground damage if I undertook the extraction, which is often not a high portion of the value, even a farm tractor can pull 1000Hft a day off an easy site. Fencing oak or framing beech I would just deliver straight in to a mill. Buyers of the better grades still seem to be out there, Chantler, Whitmore, Vastern, EW at Cocking, Wests, the chap on here from Bedford and many more but you won't be thanked for asking them all to have a look.
  15. openspaceman
    No, the carb is protected by the fuel filter in the tank and as I said there is a gauze filter in between the diaphragm and the metering chamber, I cannot think of any way the diaphragm could be damaged by contaminated petroil. I can see how water in the fuel would cause this problem. Did the dealer strip the carb to show the damage?
  16. openspaceman
    I don't subscribe to this view, I know clients specify them but this is often only to have proof of application. A competent herbicide application is far cheaper and just as effective, even using relatively benign chemicals like ammonium sulphamate when it was allowed. It could be done without needing extra tools and far less labour. They have taken off in the utility sector because of the lack of professionalism of we in the industry. At 50p a shot these things are expensive for the amount of active ingredient they contain and what happens to the plastic when the stump rots? They are a triumph of marketing over good sense.
  17. openspaceman
    Which is interesting in itself as PUWER also brought in a code of practice for woodworking machinery and I cannot find exemptions for the requirement for braking to bring the machine to a halt within 10 seconds, did we get one for outdoor equipment?
  18. openspaceman
    I wasn't being accusitorial but rather suggesting there are lots of ways to slip up when starting out with a saw. I remember picking up and trying the Danarm 110 for the first time and wondering why it wouldn't cut straight. I did not realise the significance of even a slight nick in cutters on one side or how much filing was necessary to get it back on form. I wasted a lot of time and my money learning the business from scratch as I couldn't get a job, which is why I advise people to work for a firm for a couple of years and let the boss pay for mistakes
  19. openspaceman
    I've not known this to happen though I have found saws used (and filled) during wet periods to have a dirty brown scum form over the filter between the pumping diaphragm and the metering chamber, effectively preventing petroil from passing. I also don't know what dealers charge for labour but a carb kit is only about £20 and an hour's work to fit. With experience comes understanding, you may well have slipped up without realising, also as most saws are incredibly reliable dealers tend to be a bit suspicious of warranty claims.
  20. openspaceman
    You'll have a struggle buying it in any quantity nowadays. It's the oxidant used in making gunpowder. It will add nutrient to the wood and decrease the carbon:nitrogen ratio, thus theoretically making it attractive to rotting microbes but the main reason for adding it was to cause the stump to burn.
  21. openspaceman
    I climbed back in the cab of a valmet forwarder today, didn't fancy spending a day back there and I'm a bit younger than you. Anyway another lesson I learned early on is if loading shortwood load both bunks. The danger in only loading the front bunk of my botex was that on a downhill turn the weight transfer was enough to lift the opposite side bogey and tip the trailer.
  22. openspaceman
    Log burners in domestic properties always needed to have vented systems with the F&E tank as near vertically above the stove as practical and a 22mm overflow to the tank. The reason being that if the stove is fully stoked it must be able to get rid of all the energy from the logs by boiling off water and the water loss must be made up by a separate feed from the tank. There have been recent changes to part J of the building regs but I have not kept up. The pellet lobby argued that as such a small amount of wood was fed into the burn pot there was not as great a risk from boiling over in the event of a pump failure. On larger scale systems the thermal mass of the thermal store was considered large enough a buffer to prevent boiling. There are many reasons to prefer a pressurised system from a plumbing point of view. A way to combine a combi with a wood burner would be to use a plate heat exchanger into the feed of the combi if it can accept hot water.
  23. openspaceman
    I doubt it, traditionally it was air dried from mid winter to gradually lose the water in the cells, to about 25%mc As it is cold and humid the water leaving the surface is slow and the moisture content through out the log stays about the same as drying takes place. It's as the wood falls below this 25% that it shrinks, mostly tangentially, next radially and only a little longitudinally, at this stage what becomes important is not letting the outside layers become drier than the core such that they shrink more than the middle and pull a tear. The kiln has a controlled humidity which ensures the wood stays in equilibrium over all its parts whilst having an increased temperature to aid migration of moisture from the middle to the surface.
  24. openspaceman
    A John Venables had a chainsaw shop in Ewhurst for a while, about 30 years ago. If he rebadged the clothes then Penny Allanson-Bailey at Richmonds may know the origin.
  25. openspaceman
    Exemption for 100km only applies to agricultural/forestry work, otherwise it's 50km if GVW is >3.5 tonnes the items being carried are used by the driver in the course of his work.

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