openspaceman

Sorry I missed that point. BTW felling trees in leaf in order to cause water loss is known as sour felling. AJH

I'm glad you found that, I think the equilibrium mc in my house is about 17% on a wet weight basis, the sawn timber trade often calculates on a dry weight basis and for wet wood there's a lot of difference. The equilibrium mc is dealing with the water bound to cell walls and there is a small amount of energy in the bonding, so the emc is slightly different as a log gains moisture from when it loses moisture. Essentially the free cell water is fairly easy to remove and the wood doesn't change much as it evaporates, the cell wall water loss causes the wood to shrink, mostly tangentially, less radially and little lengthwise. It's controlling this latter water loss that seasoning planks is all about, making sure moisture leaves the surface at exactly the same rate it can migrate from the inside. This is not an issue with firewood where a few extra fissures speed up the drying. With hardwoods the point where the free cell water is gone can be demonstrated by blowing or sucking through the grain. I would consider wood with the free water gone to be seasoned for firewood. I'd also caution reliance on hammer in probes as a good measure of mc of drying, as opposed to stable, wood because in summer the wood surface will dry much faster than the moisture can migrate from the middle. A quick test is to cut a bit from the middle and gently microwave it on a defrost cycle, weighing before during and after. A point will be reached just before pyrolysis starts in the middle which is the oven dry weight, subtracting this from the wet weight gives the water content. If you over do it you will not be able to use the microwave for cooking again To do it properly the sample needs oven drying at 120C for 24 hours. Any more than this an volatile organic compounds will be lost, reducing the dry mass. AJH

Never risked that, the saying was fell on Xmas Eve, transport on Xmas day and mill on Boxing day. Oak was often felled in late winter, left at stump and extracted after the hay harvest and then milled in the Autumn so that initial drying in the stick was not too fast. AJH

I expect you've done it by now but Carl, at Oakover, has the 8Tonne tracked one that Greenmech built. AJH

The 3000/2 has castellated ring nuts on the outside of the drums. The main thing to be wary of is any pick up or rust on the shaft, clean it up before pulling the drums. You can normally start them sliding by using the clutch lever. pulling it to engage the plate to begin pushing the drum off. Then you can push some steel plates behind the lever and do the same again before resorting to the hammer. BTW if you do use the hammer wear ear defenders. I'd try CeeGee in Builth Wells for parts if they are still running. I've a feeling it will be worth refurbishing the existing levers as prices were astronomic even 15 years ago. As to wire rope The trouble with the thinner diameters is the build is all small wires. The 11mm and up use a similar 6/19 build but the outer ring of the 19 is 9 fatter wires over 9 thinner which stands more wear than if the 19 are all the same size. Avoid Langs lay which is used on some industrial lifting gear. The other poster's advice about the clutches is good but I thing refers to the worm drive winches, 4000 and above. When replacing the clutches I've found it easier to cant the tractor over slightly to keep the plate in place on its pins, though my memory is such I'm probably confusing both types of winch. The 3000 is a much poorer build. AJH

Which model? I've changed clutches on 3000/2 and 4000/2 and I think I have a grubby manual for the 4000/2. I took it out of retirement on Sunday for a play, no end of fun but got severely puffed pulling out the wire. AJH