openspaceman

Yup my non crystallised part of my SIP fell by 15% over the lat year, factor in 10% inflation and it is even worse. I doubt I will ever need it as I can manage on the state pension plus the part of the private pension I drew but it was something I was leaving for my daughter to distribute among the grandchildren if I die before reaching 75, because it would be unaffected by IHT. I lost my job suddenly so I only reached half my target fund anyway but the bankers and financial bods who run these pension schemes are the only winners. I wonder if a few sovs buried in the garden may not be a better bet when we have financial turmoil like this.

As one who only climbed with simple knots or a shunt it is interesting how expensive these aids are. I take it some of the cost is due to the many recalls we seem to hear about/

I agree and that last bit is interesting; normally when you break down a log all the pieces take up more space. In the case of a uniformly round ring on its side and "square" stacked side by side and one vertically over another then there is about 25% air space, if they are stacked diagonally with the top layer resting on the space between two logs it drops to <10%. It would be close but a well built stack of wedges of split logs could be between the two.

That looks like bacterial slime flux but the "root" cause may be that the soil level has been raised because that soil to butt junction doesn't look right.

I have used tek sticther screws to give a bit of purchase on a steel sheet, no reason they wouldn't work on aluminium. Fastco Fasteners & Fixings WWW.FASTCO.CO.UK 7.8 x 25mm Mega Stitcher Self Drilling Tek Screw With 16mm Bonded Washer Pack of 100

I suppose it makes better sense to use a whole long leg allen key pushed all the way through and then brazed along the short leg.

Comb.Tool 8-10-14 - Genuine Husqvarna Part - 501 68 89-01 | L&S Engineers WWW.LSENGINEERS.CO.UK Comb.Tool 8-10-14. Genuine Husqvarna Part. OEM No. 501 68 89-01 ...but I would grind off the weld, drill a hole and braze in the long leg from an Allen key

Shame Noel doesn't visit here anymore, he could explain why a modern sub can travel faster under water than on the surface. Thread divergence due to three veterans

You do have the ability to edit your original post.

I'm usually spoiled for choice and whilst having nothing against burning dried poplar apart from having to reload the stove more frequently a drawback is the extra space needed to store it, same is true of some of the softwoods too.

That's my opinion too. I moved over to them as soon as they became available for my blokes and myself. I still have three working ones ( in various battered states) from when I stopped production forestry twenty years ago. Mind I prefer to pick the 346 up for most jobs for lightness.

Yes I suspect it is the volatile solids, basically the stuff that becomes vapours as wood is heated up to 440C, that get respired first all the time the wood is moist enough to support microbes. Which is why I think it is best to cut and split wood early in the spring so it can dry fast, especially perishable wood like birch and sycamore.

I'm using some logs from old standing dead oak. There are beetle holes right through the heartwood because the bulk prevented it drying enough to dissuade them. Now after a summer in the shed it is 17% in the middle, using my mc meter, and 18-20% on the outside where i think a bit of rain was blown in recently.It burns well with a purple flame but needs the fire to be very hot and it is slow to start, hence I use some softwood kindling and other logs to get up to temperature. I think the reason is all the "lighter" volatiles have been respired away long ago. Even fresh, dried oak doesn't give a particularly vigorous fire. Birch seems well endowed with these volatiles, especially the oily bark, so freshly felled, split and dried birch is easy to light and has a lively yellow flame in comparison.

you will appreciate a takedown of an old lime outside the local farriers then.

Sorry to hear that @Gimlet I have enjoyed your posts and 50 isn't past it even if you get no job offers. I faced similar loss of work when the sawmills and pulp mills I supplied shut and I staggered on assisting others till I eventually took a zero hour, gig economy, employment. A disagreement with the company owner ended that after 7 miserable years and it's nearly seven years after that that I've slowed down so much that lack of work doesn't bother me. You are a biker too I think so don't give that up.

Bottom picture is open, air gets in through the gap. If you don't noticed much difference open or closed suggests more air is getting in at a low level. Is the ash pan sealing when it is closed as air entering under the grate will make wood burn more fiercely.

Looks more like a cedar with sirococcus blight to me

Yes and one can stand at the top reservoir and see how the level change. It was built when CEGB ran all electricity generation, probably to soak up the output from Trawsfynydd in the early morning. What fascinated me was that the turbines are quite a bit lower than the lower reservoir which must be to keep them under pressure to prevent cavitation. The reservoirs are sterile and separate from the local hydrology as the turbines will mash anything passing through, so not that good for the local wildlife. We will be seeing (I hope) plenty of new ideas for energy storage for peak lopping over the coming years, compressed air, liquid air and others that store for a bit longer than batteries. IMO money would be better spent on these and rooftop solar panels than the £1000 per household being invested at Sizewell. For a quick start the turbines are spun up in compressed air until they are needed to generate and water is let in, I did the tour many years ago.

Yes that would be "betterment" so the while an employee should not be expected to pay the cost would be no more than it's written down used value. BTW what are the rules on repairing a piece of equipment covered by LOLER, big stuff we had to have inspected and passed by an insurance approved engineer and that would cost more than a replacement ladder. For domestic use I would sleeve it and borrow a MIG with a spool gun, I'm even more useless with TIG.

Weak clutch springs overheating the drum on idle??

I thought that full tracks were a bit of overkill for most chipping jobs and remembered the Ford 4000 with half tracks pulling a trailer with FMV crane, it could go anywhere the County would. So a cage driven by the same hydraulic motors as the feed rollers and a lightweight steel (or plastic) band track which could be put on around the road wheels and off quickly.

The thing about an updraught fire is that the initial kindling burning is fairly complete, the conditions have not yet got hot enough for a CO2 to CO reduction to take place, this heats the layer above which produces the white smoke. Yes the pyrolysis products will have a little CO but it will be mostly just tarry volatiles, this is a good thing as they are particularly acrid so give good warning if they get into the room. At the end of a burn when there is a thick layer of red hot coals but the draw from the chimney lessens as less air is sucked in at the primary level then the CO rises. At this stage there are no volatiles or smells so if there is an escape into the room the first sign, in the absence of a CO alarm, is lobster pink bodies.

It's probably because the chimney is a bit cold when you start the fire so rather than push the cold slug of air up the chimney it takes an easier route out the vent. More modern stoves do not have this vent direct from the room but rather the air is preheated by the back of the stove and is ducted to the same point just below the flue exit and slightly below the baffle (this is so any unburned gases have a chance to meet some air before passing up the chimney. Once the chimney is hot air should be sucked from the room through the vents. It does seem a bit worrying seeing as how the baffle is not quite the same as the original design, do you have a CO alarm? Can you shut the top vent during lighting? The main problem would be if the fire dies down to coals and the chimney becomes cold, allowing carbon monoxide into the room The white smoke is a mixture of pyrolysis offgas and partially burned wood/paper. This is because a fire at the bottom of a heap is hot enough to pyrolyse the wood above and create offgas but the conditions are not hot enough to support a flame. One way round this is to light a small heap of kindling on top of the main logs. It tends to be a little slower to heat up the stove but creates less smoke as a flame establishes at the top.

I have not been involved for 6 years but we had transit trucks of 2002 to 2011 era, I cannot remember when they changed to common rail injection but they were all 2.4 durotorque engines and chain driven overhead cam. I think most were dual mass clutches but when the clutch went they were changed to ordinary flywheels. I cannot remember much trouble below 100k miles but the common rail pumps needed replacing on some soon after. We had one timing chain snap, I think when someone slipped it into 3rd instead of 5th on the motorway. We fitted a new chain kit but something else went wrong within 12k miles, probably because out workshop wasn't clean enough for engine work. After that it became more economic to put a complete new engine in a newer vehicle as they were about £2000 but you had to fit £500 of new parts, belts, hoses etc.

Yes I use one after cutting garlic and onions, works well but I don't know any science behind the phenomenon