Bustergasket

Have you tried a dogmatic head collar ? our boy took to it straight away and it turned him into a baby on the lead this is him a year ago,

Our boy is good with most low energy dogs, does not like spaniels or border collies i think they emit that thing that says something is about to happen! same with kids, high energy and he goes nuts, he is only two and they grow / fill out till 5 yrs, hoping he will chill ?

This is the Rescue a year on from when we took him on, he will only let me and the mrs touch him, does not want fuss, we have to manage his local environment very tightly in terms of people, he is ok out and about if people ignore him, his behaviour is consistent in that if someone shows an interest in him then he is keen to point out he wants to be left alone but really only as they approach, he has taught us lots, and iam sure we still have much to learn, iam hoping that as time passes and with a fair&firm but gentle and consistent hand he will become more trusting, i will prob be proved wrong but it does not stop us trying [emoji106]

Hi Sam, possibly could find a use for the thumb on the pallet forks, if you could send a pic that could be useful, or PM me your number and i will give you a call, cheers Dan

I had a real chuckle the other week, i was at a mates farm and there was some lads putting up a steel frame, everyone stood around, drills and bits everywhere, bolts all scattered, prob was needed to enlarge some holes, all bits broken or dull, i managed to sharpen a 20mm bit with an 4 inch angle grinder [emoji23], the looks of disbelief until they touched the rsj [emoji23], comments on here are right once you understand how it’s got to work and the muscle memory is learned you will be away, it took me a long time to fully appreciate what’s going on, but once understood it’s not forgotten [emoji106]

That’s good, i think we can go about 20mm larger than the hoop, it means we lift the ring out and put back in on the other side, it must be straight, if we get jammed then i have found a 5ft bale tine, splitting wedges, lump hammer, it’s easy to tap the wedge into the ring from the side just nipping off the top while it’s stuck under the bar at the splitter chamber, we use the bars to lever the ring back or straighten it up as required, most jams we can free in a few minutes, it’s very rare now that we have a jam, we have not had any jam for the last 100 cubes but we do grade the timber and have developed a bit of a sixth sense as to what’s going to go through, iam based midlands, how often if ever do you leave it running on it’s own ? when iam on my own i will leave it going while i go and stack the bulk bag it’s just filled, you have to make a judgment based on how the next bit of timber looks [emoji106]

Hi Dave, great info, sounds like you have a great set up [emoji106], i will run the tape round but pretty sure my hoop on the splitta infeed is just over 400, i know the woodcutta is upto 430mm and you are right the volume goes up big time with diameter, i have done quite a bit of work getting the length as long as possible as this also increases volume through the set up, yes the small stuff goes through the cutter but i then feed that through another splitta which is set up for kindling, we have fashioned a sort of side shuffle arrangement so we can keep the machine going, we run at 1 bag a minute, with two people, bagged stacked and wrapped on pallet, realistically after a 100 bags (60x40) you want to go and do something else [emoji23] we have been using the new bags with the one way locking collar so no time knotting the bag [emoji106] i also do the barrow bags full of kindling, they are easy, since we have the cleaner we are getting more shrapnel out the bags, iam really grateful as i use it in the farm 2000, do you ever leave the machine running on its own ? the more we get to grips the longer we are able to leave it, it’s not without risk but mostly we can sneak the odd coffee and doughnut in without it stopping, we really like the way you are away from the dust and noise, also you can think about other things while the machine runs, i don’t miss pulling levers ! have you had the pressures tweaked to optimise performance ? made a big difference to mine, but it was much older than yours, sawdust is my next thing to tackle [emoji106] there is huge amounts, where abouts in the country are you ?, cheers Dan

great for cooking on, got a polish guy who loves it [emoji106]

Dries quickly, burns fast, can be prone to mould if not dried and kept dry [emoji106]

I bet if you stacked it in that trailer you would be around the cubic meter loose give or take ?

so long as it’s dry all wood is good, Accacia surprises me, it’s very dense and lasts like oak

It’s very true that the processor will need a fair amount of fettling to keep it spot on, i think £15 a cube is good value and definitely worth trying that before you shell out on kit [emoji106]

I saw a video might have been posted on here but the guy had something like 20 blokes on chainsaws feeding another 20 or so blokes on splitters, the volume was huge think it was in poland, depends a lot an how you are sourcing your timber, if you are buying in processor grade then get a processor it will pay you back in no time, i started out with chainsaw +axe, then splitter, the best thing i bought was a second hand splitta 360, we used to get arb and managed to get the tree surgeons to ring everything sub 10 inch, we would then use wedges to reduce diameter to under 400mm and feed it through, it was still manual but was quick and the quality was superb, with the money earned i added onto the splitta with conveyors and cleaners, and now have the cutter, i don’t do arb timber anymore just buy in processor grade, this year we have done just shy of 500 cubic meters, also have done kindling and log nets, for the nets we just do a few hours here and there in an attempt to break the boredom, here is a video of my set up, it’s all quite old but it works well, the payback time on a processor can be quick if you buy at the right price [emoji106]

Yes i can see that would work, my machine does have variable travel speed of the cutting arm so i can slow it down but just trying to give the motor an easier time [emoji106]

Ok appreciate this is a bit unusual.... iam contemplating some mods to the chainsaw bar and chain, iam thinking of running a longer bar, question is would running skip or semi skip help it to avoid bogging down and keep the tip speed up on larger diameter timber than what it’s designed for ? it does produce huge amounts of saw dust / chips and i do wonder if having more space between cutters would help, would welcome your thoughts [emoji106] keep on chopping

Thanks everyone for the input, some interesting points and great video, there is certainly some good attachments for the mo, that Exac one shear looks great, i have spoken with them and trying to put something together [emoji106]

Well....iam looking at something like this to cut up smaller diameter say upto 300mm timber, machine is only 4 ton, most will be down and on a stack, iam thinking i could do without the rotator but that would limit it to just cutting from the stack, iam sure i would be able to tidy up some of the low hanging bows around the place, reason iam going down the shear route is that it’s quiet and iam hoping less manual than chainsaw etc, the bits sheared are really only going in the Farm 2000, other option would be a static shear that i use the grab to load, any ideas / suggestions appreciated, thanks, keep on chopping [emoji106]

Hi all, i had this flyer from Fuelwood, hope to get there on Friday, thought it maybe of interest to some other members, [emoji106]

Henley-in-arden [emoji106]

My vote goes to the Ranger, there is still a few 3.2 and 2.2 at Ford, huge savings on the older power trains circa £3000, and £2000 scrappage, also 0%, i tow full up 3.5t with a 2.2 super cab and it goes well, ok it’s working hard but the engine loves to rev, the 3.2 is a lot less fussy but we like the 2.2, i had a run in the new 2.0 biturbo, impressed with the 10speed auto very smooth and it keeps the engine in its powerband very well, the new one did feel more car like and the difference was noticeable but not enough for me to change, we have only got 15k on the ones we have, on another note just put 4 new michelin latitude cross tyres on and they have transformed the 2.2, if anyone is considering at the moment i can supply these at cost price on a supply only basis, i have a target to hit WRT Michelin sales, we can also fit and will try and price match where possible, we do all sorts of vehicles from a Ford ka to Lamborghini’s based midlands [emoji106]

I have been running a Ht70 for about 6 years, i would think you will be much better off with an accumulator, it will allow you greater flexibility in terms of loading times, it will also allow you to run the boiler hard, ensures max efficiency and clean inside, it uses plenty of timber, nice simple technology, plenty of manual labour to chop, stack and load, if you had a good supply of cheap dry timber then this would make it easier, i imagine it would boil system which had insufficient volume of water very easily, thing is once you have loaded it you want to let it go and absorb all the energy released into the tank, it will sense when it’s upto temp and then the fan turns off but slumbering is not so good as you may get smoke and tar build up, mine can take 11 days to cool down in the warm weather, prob 3-4 days in winter, hope that helps [emoji106]

We are still using single cab hilux, super cab ranger and a nugent 14ft cage trailer, loose loads in the pick ups and bulk bags and log nets plus kindling in the trailer, contemplating going to barrow bags as easier to unload and i think i could get over 20 on the trailer so that would be a bigger route, i also just bought a pallet leveler to make stacking and rebagging easier, we have the process down to touching the wood once that’s when we offload, if we bagged it into barrow bags we could just the pull the bags off in effect still only touching it once, also added benefit of grading, i guess only way is to try it and see [emoji106]

this bit is not straight but it deals with this ok

Here is a quick video, my camera skills are not good, but you should see the machine is quicker it’s automatic nature means we can munch through much more timber, we even managed a doughnut and coffee outside while it was munching away, a bit risky leaving it alone, i has a hose fail the other day luck i was in there otherwise it could have been a right mess and expensive, next things will be to have the oil sampled and then looking to run a HVI 46 hydraulic oil [emoji106]

It’s been a while and we have been busy running the Woodcutta and splitta, we have done some extensive upgrades to the hydraulic circuits, electrical circuits, and we have added a number of sensors which mean that the machine looks after itself much more on its own, upgrading this machine so that it has many of the features that the latest machines have has been a great exercise and have to say We have received the usual great service and support from Fuelwood, along with the upgrades the pressures have been increased by about 40 bar, We have put a photocell sensor on the outfeed so it now has the pause function and a switch which now means the magic finger is no longer needed. Today i have stripped out one of the clamping jaws as i could see some cracks appearing from a previous repair, i was pleased to see the bushes were in excellent condition and were made of a phosphorus bronze and were huge they look like they will last forever, anyway i welded some reinforcement 5mm and ground it up and repainted I have done a video and will upload when i get a chance, we are really on top of the firewood for this coming season, and have taken on a couple of new customers on a wholesale basis prob about 100 cube and that’s been no problem, we are getting on so well iam considering selling the transaw as it’s not getting used [emoji848]. slightly different note but yesterday we had a refusal in the splitta the only one all day but it shows how consistent the log size is keep on chopping [emoji106]