Bustergasket

Well had another load in today and so asked and was told straight away elm, it’s not made easier trying to id just from pictures but i really appreciate the input, Mick Dempsey was spot on [emoji471]?

It looks like a heavyweight hardwood, tight grained, i think Mick could be right, the bark looks like some pictures i have seen of elm, if it is elm then i won’t be feeding it through the processor, i need some new doors in the old house [emoji23]

Here’s some more pics and also what i think the leaf maybe, i say that as ian not sure 100 percent that the leaf was associated with the stem but it was in very close proximity

It was bought in with one of the loads of timber, it has a grain similar to a cherry or other fruit, but the bark is different [emoji848] there is a bit of mould similar to the way Alder goes ?

I have this in the stack, any input as regards species greatly appreciated

That’s the Badger, don’t mind if it needs a bit of work, failing that i may have to look at making one, they did one which had an automatic mini hammer to close up the rails prior to regrinding the channel, been wanting one for years, just don’t see them, more popular in the states where timber size dictates large and more expensive bars [emoji106]

I have been looking for a while, if anyone knows of one for sale i would be interested, based in the u.k. but would ship from overseas, long shot but figured worth a try- cheers

Would agree looks like alder, tends to be straight and tall, my experience is it can be prone to going mouldy quick, but burns well and dries fast, assuming it is Alder [emoji106]

I know someone who wrecked a stenner 52 sawmill cutting rings, he nearly killed him self in the process, i saw the ring that was retrieved from a nearby field and it looked like the blade had cut in about 1/3 then the ring rotated, essentially giving more to the blade it the spun and was ejected, mate said it went 30 ft in the air, appreciate new bandsaw blades are not as coarse on the blade, but i would guess it important to get them well anchored down, i have used a large BGU 3 phase 12 inch diameter cut 9kw tilting saw to do what you are proposing and the drop into splitta, it’s possible you could use woodcutta but you would have to set each ring, i would suspect that if you had a woodcutta you would just buy in the timber, it’s very fast, automatic and i would suspect the labour saving and higher output would make the numbers stack up, provided you have a requirement for large volumes, the splitta will take anything that fits, this is what i was feeding through yesterday if you had a 2 ft length then woodcutta will deal with easy it would just be the single rings that needed a few inch off would take a bit of time, i sell the a grade woodcutta cut from cord at the normal price, if someone is more sensitive to price offer them the more varied arb stuff, just fed through the splitta, arb stuff is hard, cord is much easier, spent most of yesterday collecting an oak stem which has about 7 cube, reality is if i stayed and processed cord i would have done 30 cube [emoji106]

Iam looking to buy a Splitta 400 hydraulic, if anyone knows of any or has one then pm me, iam based midlands, many thanks

Well.... once you start... so been modifying the infeed to allow larger dia to the saw, here’s some pictures before after cut the side out changed the angle slightly and welded it back uptrimmed the dogs back on the one side now it will cut the log previously refused , managed to torch another chinese fire blanket , it’s looking good and the more open nature of the infeed gives more leeway for surface irregularities, need to re center the log hold down arm, keep on chopping [emoji106]

Cheers, they held together really well, i think the chap is going use screws as he was shocked at the price of nails [emoji23], i did start to try and use the log splitter to push the nails in.... let’s just say that needs more work [emoji23], it turned out a nice quiet way to make them and i found you can adjust the gap as it burns, just by pulling them slightly apart or by using a poker [emoji106]

Well i had a customer who was looking for something else to sell alongside the logs i sell to him, he buys from me about 150 cube a year so has a bit of time, we came up with these torches.. now i know they have been around for ages but he had never heard of them so we got figuring the easiest way to make them, i had some Doug Fir, and set the Transaw to 500mm, the hydraulic clamp arm did a good job of squaring the timber, i just cut the blanks and the timber fed through great, i cut 70 blanks in 30 mins, then took a 6 inch nail put it in at 5 inches from bottom, and another an inch up from that but at 90 degrees, onto splitter and just touched the end opposite the nails and at 45 degrees to, was not sure if it would work but it was quick and easier that chainsawnow i wanted to see how they burnt not ideal as still a bit green but once going lasted for ages i suspect if dry it would have all burned, anyway this was an interesting project for the transaw as it has sat there unused for too long, anyway keep on chopping [emoji106]

Well here is the latest....i have had a slight weep from the log lift arm for a while now so decided to pull the ram and have a look inside, so i ordered a seal kit from Fuelwood and also a new ram as a back up, the new ram has different pin sizes so i ordered some phosphorus bronze bushes to arrive at my 20mm pin size however i was keen to strip the old ram and have a look, inside, i could see straight away the o ring seal had failed, and it was on the blind side which was why it was hard to see, and then on removal of the rod i saw some damage to the soft close end, it looked like the split pin had failed and has been getting munched now iam sure its an easy repair but i figured it’s 20 years old and prob had had enough so decided to fit the new with the new bushes especially as i had it, i will rebuild the old as a back up, well the ram removes and installs in minutes so it went back together great, the new ram does not have a soft close end so i can add an external damper, this is how the new ones are, i will get one ordered, for now the arm transfer speed has been slowed down just a quick turn of the relevant knob, now it’s looking like iam back at work on monday so decided to have a push and mod the infeed, i have observed while using on large dia that there is some scope to get a bit more, it would involve moving the pivot point for the log hold down arm, i moved it 2 inch back and 2 inch up it now means the nylon tapered rollers will go up past the crossbar, original holes still present so easily switched back, i fed through a previous refusal and it went through ok, getting to confident i put an even bigger bit through and that has showed me a small tweak to the conveyor is in order, i have put off these easy tweaks as realistically the splitta 360 is already running at over 400mm dia and without doing a major mod iam not going to get more, however iam now pretty much resigned to the fact that i need a splitta 400 which has more capacity so if anyone knows of one coming up, would need to be hydraulic as opposed to pto, please let me know, here is the conveyor also been chopping some smoke chunks as an experiment i set the log length down to 4.5 inch and ran them side by side through the splitta, was not sure if it was going to work but it did, just something that iam trying in addition to the logs and kindling. I have also run out of timber so will be on the lookout for some more, it’s chopped 270 cube over the past few weeks as i have been running it for 2-3 hrs a day just on my own, i have had time to monitor the counter it looks like i get about 1250 cuts per chain average dia 10-12 inch it’s .404, don’t know how that compares ? anyway you all keep on chopping and have fun [emoji106]

That looks like a good set up mate ? have you still got the Hilux ? my old Mk 4 is going strong ?keep on chopping ?

That’s great Richard, all ok here thanks, are you using it with the table and the wide wedge ? iam pleased you are happy and that it’s all going well, hope you are all good mate [emoji106]

Well i thought i would update this as i have been running the Woodcutta and splitta on my own, it’s quite interesting to see how i have adapted. It’s had to have some TLC and as i have some time iam able to really go over it and bottom out lots of little things i have been meaning to do for a while... first up was i noticed the saw arm was fouling on the left hand timber clamp arm on bigger diameters, i suspected something had moved so decided to pull the clamp arm out, it’s a really simple job, literally 5 mins, i got it outside and saw some small cracks, and also the geometry of the arm needed to be reset, so i set about setting it up and running the square and a couple of steel rules, i could see it needed to move about 15mm towards the centreline of the machine, i used a 9inch superthin and cut almost all the way through the joint this allowed me to keep the baseline alignment which was ok, whilst tweaking the arm in the direction needed, i ground out the crack and found some rolled channel which formed the basis for a reinforcement the phosphorus bronze bushes are huge and were in tip top condition, i managed to blob some weld around and stick it all back together and give is some paint Now while is was down i though it was an ideal time to change the oil, was not sure how bad the oil was going to be, i changed the filters last year, oil was an unknown however it was surprisingly clean however as i had the fresh oil it went in, next was the transfer shoot which had become misaligned and it had broken away from a temporary weld that was done last year, easy fix bit of cutting and welding and all good, i then spoke to Pete at Fuelwood and we discussed tweaking the flow on the splitta timber feed carriage down a bit just to try and see if it would make the return stroke a bit less frantic, that’s working well and it’s a bit quieter too, i have some more mods to do which involves making the infeed have a bit more clearance, i think the newer machines have most of these mods already incorporated, and it’s important to remember that this machine is 20 years old, if i can cut a 1000 rings a day i dread to think how many it’s cut over its life ! i will get some pictures of the mods to the infeed when i get to it, [emoji106] Happy chopping !

I love Kefir but i think like you 2 months out of date, did you open it? was it like cheese? good job you checked i prob would have gotten a mouthful ?

Just had a look into this... This may help, there is some issues with the light not going off after refill if system is filled to the top, iam aware that it’s almost impossible to not brim the system as there is no gauge, however advice is drain 2 litres and then make sure vehicle is on the level, reset the yaw rate sensor and then clear the codes, it’s something to do with the level sensor been ultrasonic and it cannot deal with more than 100%, i think revised software is on the way, also critical that veh is level when filled as the ultrasonic looks at the yaw rate sensor, hope this helps ?

“Should” be all the same.... the reality is very, very different.

We have seen issues with incorrect spec adblue causing issues in a whole number of vehicles, there has been batches made which have a different specific gravity, we saw a Jag the other week and the owner had filled with cheaper generic unbranded fluid, we drained and refilled all ok, we only use the Ford Omnicraft product, costs about £12 quid for 10 litres, also have seen issues with my ranger and there was a software update for the (i think they call it selective cat reduction) SCR system basically what controls the ad blu usage that was not resetting after it had been filled, you then needed to do a calibration, i now tell people to avoid running them once the light comes on, with mine i have just been adding 10l every 2000 miles and the light has not illuminated. Hope that helps ?

That’s shocking ! how can you get 175 bags ( i guess bulk bags [emoji6]) out of that lot and retain your sanity! it must have taken days and days ? fair play GDH [emoji106]

Yes i think you are bang on, the charge time on the milwaukee is 1.5-3 hrs, realistically we can bring the timber to the saw just prior to loading the deck, and i can hang the cable out the way, also much cheaper, just chatted to dealer, he said makita or husq as the brushes are easy to change, apparently the stihl is a bigger strip out to change the brushes out, so atm it’s looking like corded

Iam after an electric saw to trim the round wood prior to going through the processor, so essentially it could easily be done in the same place so no real need to have cordless, although cords are always a pain, question is are the battery saws going to be good enough to chug through 400mm diameter, it’s not every length that needs to be trimmed, and the main consideration would be noise reduction, i guess on the shortlist is cordless milwaukee, dewalt, makita, stihl ? corded i don’t really know what’s out there so would be really interested in your opinions [emoji106]