Bustergasket

Looks good How many bags are on each the pallets pictured ? cheer

I had a flyer in the post, i will try and take a picture, it looked like they will have lots of bits of kit and working demos, i have been to a few of these before and can defo say it’s worth a trip out, some awesome bits of kit and plenty of demos, mostly carried out in the woodland, trying to get there sat pm [emoji106] thought it maybe if use to some of you on here

Well i have been leaving the machines running more and more on their own, so i went to more timber as i was on my own and came back to find logs everywhere and this [emoji23] it was a simple jam and i suppose an indication i have not quite got something 100% buttoned down, other than this the setup is going very well [emoji106] keep on chopping

We are looking at chemical castration so it’s an injection into the nuts that can last 6-18 months so you can see the effect before deciding, i have seen a few dogs go more aggressive after chop, depends on why they are been aggressive i guess

This is the new boy, settling in slowly, he is super round the farm, but i think he is finding the local pub a bit too much, he is 14 months old and had zero socialisation until the last 12weeks with us, not bothered by shotgun noise, great with other dogs, good with females, great round machines, wary around men and has kicked off big time at a few blokes, we have sorted his dominant and continued challenge for top spot behaviour round the farm, and he is becoming reasonably affectionate with us, completely different with others though, and his unpredictable tendencies are keeping me on my toes, he has so much to learn, iam really hoping he will chill over the next year, fingers crossed

i heard of a bloke who had a similar situation someone kept nicking his chopped logs so he somehow drilled a hole inserted a crow scarer and plugged it, he did a few of these and left them in a prominent position, they disappeared and funnily enough he had no more logs go missing!

Have to be honest Matty, i did not price a lasco, i think both bits of kit will do the job, and it’s surprising how fast they bust stuff up, as is seen by Stephen’s reply earlier in the thread, i think that’s on a bigger machine, but from what i see i think the small versions are just as impressive, prob just don’t have the reach and are very slightly slower, you just let the cone bite and it takes the timber, no pressure needed other than to stop it rotating the timber, i can see corrosion to the cone could be an issue as it will increase the friction, working on a silicone boot packed with grease, does anyone else do anything when not in use ?

Well i have been mulling over the perceived pros and cons of using a cone splitter for a while, this is the S2X800 model, picked it up yesterday from Fuelwood and managed to split some of the larger diameter lengths last night, it was a doddle to get the hang of even in the dark with only the digger lights on, iam running it on a 4ton machine, plenty of power, i had the 245mm cone, probably should have gone for the 300mm option, but like all these bits of kit until you have used them you just don’t know, i cannot see any downside to using the biggest cone possible (maybe wrong) i would estimate i split 10 ton in two hours, now originally i was going to reduce the larger dia 500mm stuff so it would go through a processor, however i was surprised to see the timber was 20-25%, so decided to bust it smaller and used for boiler fuel (running a bit low) i plan on grading the straight stuff to the processor and the gnarley stuff for boiler, i think iam going to get on well with it for producing boiler fuel and getting some of the nicer stuff through the processor, it splits huge volumes very quickly and the slivers are welcome boiler fuel, i will put done more viewpoints up when i have had time to use it s bit more, here is some pics

Well we managed to get an hour on the machines on sunday, we fed through all the bits which it refused a few weeks ago those two simple mods now mean the woodcutta will reliably cut 430mm diameter and the splitta will also just take that, there is still scope to go bigger with woodcutta but realistically as the splitta would need serious modifications and then it would not be a standard machine, so it’s probably best to leave it where it is and look for a splitta 400, pretty sure they will do nearly 500mm, the difference in volume is huge, when going from 360 upto 430 there is almost 50% more volume going through the machine, we really were struggling to keep it fed and get the bags away, the new single entry gate needs to be fixed to stop it sliding from side to side as that did jam under the ear which was left from moving the backstop roller closer to the chainsaw sprocket but that’s simple, the cleaner and conveyor are also working well and have to say we are ending up with very clean bags i have been thinking about moving the fingers on the cleaner just a little bit wider but fear it might take out too much of the smaller stuff which people seem to like, i guess best option would be to make them adjustable or make it so you can swap the whole set of bars as a complete unit [emoji848]

How did you get on ? did you manage to keep up with it ? [emoji106]

Sounds like a tidy machine, what timber do you plan on running through first ?

I have the logs set to 10 inch, from what i see you will get 20% more volume through the machine in the same time and have less rings to cut, i can still put 8 inch through but sometimes we adjust the feed up a bit so they are a bit chunkier if shorter, if that makes sense ? what conveyor did you manage to buy Rob ? you will be rigging up a cleaner next [emoji106]

I would give Fuelwood a call, i know when they added it to one of mine they worked me out a deal, there is some fabrication and some hydraulic mods so it’s easier to do while the machine is there, they definitely feed better with the conveyor especially odd shaped split rings [emoji106]

Good stuff, i have been running splitta 360 for about 5 years now, for us it works great, it’s a very versatile machine, it’s the one that sees the most use and produces very high quality product which is very regular, and it’s built like a tank, what form is your 200 tonnes ? you will like it at fuelwood, did you buy the one with infeed conveyor ?

I find cherry gives up the moisture pretty quick, oak is slow, turkey oak even slower [emoji106]

Good stuff [emoji106] when you get it up and running happy to give you some pointers of the things i have found to get the most out of the machine, once you have spent some time with it be good to know how you get on [emoji106]

Cheers, iam no expert welder but i do enjoy it, almost as much as chopping firewood, there’s so many things to sort out when processing wood it gives the old grey matter a bit to think on [emoji106]

Well it’s been a while but i finally managed to get some time to modify the infeed timber guides and rollers, the first mod was simple it just required two new holes and we have been able to move the inward roller guide an inch closer to the chainsaw sprocket, it will still clear the gripping dogs so essentially should give another inch in that direction the second mods took a more figuring the woodcutta used to have two swinging roller plates that used to ride up on the top of the timber, the first one was short and used to swing into the second, i saw on the newer machines it’s modded so just one is present, the issue i was seeing was sometimes timber could jam as it transitioned from one to the other, so cutting old brackets off and mounting the pivot height has given us two inches in height, we just had to weld a closure plate on the second now only remaining swinging roller, i ran out of time to prove out the mods but i cannot see how it can fail to work better, (famous last words), other than that i can say the machine is running really well and we have also done some more welding and cutting to get the conveyor and log cleaner up and working, we ran off a quick 6 cube on sat and the comments were that the bags looked really clean and the timber size was the best it been, customers are also liking the squares more than the triangles but it’s more of a size thing, those big triangles that don’t get resplit can be too big for some, realistically these won’t go out till later this year i have put castors on the conveyor now so it’s mobile, just wish i had a bigger barn ! i have some more mods to do and will post up some more pictures when i get a chance, a few people were asking about stringy timber, we get very few that stay together, i delivered 3 loads at the weekend and we had 3 pairs that were still together, they were 1.5 cube loads so no worries [emoji106] keep on chopping

Sorry to hear your fella got knocked down, very sad. Yes 10 is good, he dodged the bullet so many times, cancer at 4, lumps of at 7, crutiate ligament issues from 8 onwards, also lost his bernese bitch girlfriend over xmas, she only made 5, the TM,s seem to have not had the interbreeding so much yet, they reckon can go to 16, he is a good watch, iam sure as he finds his feet he will make more noise, had a couple of mates helping out today on the wood, i think he gets the measure of people very quickly, have seen him give people a split second wild eye look, in conjunction with a body twitch like he is going to play, but it’s gone as quick as it arrived, its unsettling as you are left thinking what was that all about, he is just sizing them up i think just gauging the reaction, it’s taken me a week to work it out, and he does it with people we have invited in, he has not done this anywhere but on the farm, he is still young, he had a half hour session with me on the second night and since then has been a different dog, i believe in not using any violence or aggression towards them i think the dog is like a mirror, iam glad i have had a few big dogs before and feel those guys trained me well enough to do the job with this one, both myself and Mrs both agreed we could not have dealt with this one if he was the first big dog, probably different if we had him from a puppy though in fairness, you should go and meet your man in cork and have a look, iam impressed in many ways with this one, hope this helps[emoji106]

This is a pic of his dad, the youngster is a good boy, just started to find his feet, barking at delivery people, mrs introduced him to the postman, that when we found out the old boy had been having two treats a day for the past 8 years! this one is not so food oriented, he has been sick today all over the place, probably something he has sniffed, licked or eaten, hopefully he will pick up tomorrow, this was at the weekend

I had a bit of red hot steel melt into my eye ball just last week, after a few days went to docs, she jabbed it with an ear bud, now it was sore, said emergency got a&e right away, so i phoned asked the waiting times, eye clinic is shut, anyway found a private clinic so phoned and just asked if someone could get it out, they said we have a specialist and he will stay late, we’ll... went down and this very nice guy had a look, wax a bit concerned as it was deep, so he checked the back of the eye ball, then he said all looks good so look at a point and don’t move your eye, i could feel him in there but no pain, when he got it out, i asked him what it was etc etc and what did he use to get it out, he said, steel, and he used a hyperdermic syringe needle, great job, better safety glasses from now on [emoji106]

Thanks Mick, he is better today, i guess settling in, have a good one [emoji106]

Just lost my boy, he was superb, managed to get him to almost 10yrs, i have just taken on (collected him today) a 1 yr old rescue Tibetan Mastiff, iam just realising how much work i have ahead, he ran upstairs and got on the bed, was not really up for getting off and was happy to make lots of noise, i managed to diffuse it and put his lead on him and give him a right timed pull he then protested but this guy is full on, he proceeded to have 10 mins of what i assume was mad house play downstairs which we completely ignored, iam now sat downstairs going through some alpha male appreciation time, while ignoring the fireworks, what a dog, i hope i can turn him round, i guess that’s the problem with a rescue and it’s not made easier by his breed, why do i always choose the hard way ! i really hope i can get there with him as aside from his little dominance display he appears a nice dog, in hindsight he should have not gone upstairs, i was just spoilt with my Bernese who was magnificent [emoji106] this is the new addition/ hooligan, i hope we make it through the night !

Another vote for Bott, not cheap but very good, weight distribution is always our concern, the racking system can hold lots, invariably it has to go down one side, if you plan on carrying some large heavy stuff look at what they offer that would allow it to be stored on the opposite side to the rack/ drawer system, think they do some large sort of bin things that lock in place, good luck

Cheers for that, the woodcracker looks awesome, is that what you use ?