Woodworks

Sorry for a slight derail but is it still safe to cut it back when it's been wind burnt? Got a largish laurel hedge here that needs heavily cutting but back the freezing easterlies we had in March have left all the outer leaves distinctly brown

Looking back I can see how that looked haha. In support of Stiga we have an old Stiga Multicip Pro that we picked up SH for £200 seven or eight years ago that has proved bullet proof but doesn't fold.

I was talking about a Toro. Cant remember the model but it was a 3in one with aly deck

Does the mulching head not wrap with long grass? Also what sized brush cutter does he need to run a mulching head

Dad had one for domestic use but the drive mechanism needed parts pretty early on in it's life.

Used to make high class furniture at the same time as chopping logs. Both wood but at opposite ends of the spectrum. Do you have a plan for something else Matt?

Yes it was not average here (220mm of rain) From the MetOffice site UK last month March 2018 March began with an exceptionally cold easterly flow and widespread snow, and daytime temperatures remained below freezing in many parts of the country. It turned milder from the south during the first week, and until mid-month the weather was generally wet and cloudy for most with low pressure dominant, but north-western areas remained drier. A second cold easterly outbreak brought widespread snow on the 17th and 18th, though this was not as severe as at the beginning of the month. After a brief dry sunny spell, the milder unsettled regime returned for the rest of the month. The provisional UK mean temperature was 3.8 °C, which is 1.6 °C below the 1981-2010 long-term average, but it was significantly less cold than March 2013. Mean maximum temperatures were between 1.5 and 2.0 °C below average in most areas, while mean minimum temperatures were mostly between 1.0 and 1.5 °C below, but were nearer 2 °C below in Northern Ireland. Rainfall was 110% of average, and some places, notably Devon, the Midlands and some eastern coastal counties, had over twice the normal amount, but in contrast Cumbria, and western Scotland to the north of the Central Lowlands, were much drier than average. Sunshine was 83% of average, and it was dull over most of England and Wales and eastern Scotland, but most areas bordering the Irish Sea had near average sunshine and it was a sunny March in the Western Isles. The UK monthly extremes were as follows: A maximum temperature of 16.6 °C was recorded at Colwyn Bay (Clwyd) on the 10th. A minimum temperature of -10.7 °C was recorded at Cawdor Castle (Nairnshire) on the 1st. In the 24 hours ending at 0900 GMT on the 15th, 70.6 mm of rain fell at Trassey Slievenaman (County Down). Wind gusts of 73 knots (84 mph) were recorded at Warcop (Cumbria) on the 2nd and 17th. A snow depth of 57 cm was recorded at Little Rissington (Gloucestershire) on the 4th.

My nephew has a couple of acres of overgrow ground that is covered in long grass and 1" saplings. He is looking to clear the area and presumable keep it tidy in the future. Dont think he has much kit at present so any advise as to what he should get would be great. If it makes any difference to machine availability he is in Canada. Thanks

Do you have any 18v kit already? If so think most of the big brands do pretty good kit when it comes down to it so juts buy a bare model to suit what you have.

I guess two blizzards in March set things back. Mind you hasn't it been cold everywhere?

Nothing out here yet

Lovely work Lazarus No magic to sanding. Start off with course grits (80-100) if major marks to remove. Then move up a grade say 150 and be very careful to remove all the courser scratches before going on to finer grades like 240 grit etc. If machine sanding belt sanders are great for fast wood removal but so easy to leave digs from the side of the belt. Random orbit sanders are your friend for this sort of work and the advise on grits is the same. Nothing worse than putting on your first coat of finish and then spotting some course abrasive scratches that you failed to remove. . If you good with hand tools do as much as you can with a sharp plane before commencing sanding being careful to plane towards the centre when doing the edge. If you plane outwards over the edge on end grain it's highly likely to spelch ie split the grain. Finishes to bring out the depth of colour Linseed oil. Fantastic colour but very slow drying. Old saying was 1 coat each day for a week, once a week for a month and then once a month for year. Boiled Linseed dries faster but does not give quite the depth of colour. First coats need to be thinned to aid there penetration into the grain. Both Danish oil and Liberon finishing oil are pretty good and you can have nice finish in week. Oil based varnishes can be pretty good as well. Only recently learned there is not much difference between these and drying oils like Danish just the amount of driers added to them make them go off quickly. Look up "wiping varnishes" if interested in this.

Maybe ask on here or on local appropriate facebook pages. Someone on the local farming facebook page asked about firewood processing and within a few hours there were loads offers when I had thought I was the only one around here doing it. Must be a few operators in you neck of the woods. If not maybe you will find plenty of work.

Yep. I bought one with the aim of doing lots of contract work to justify it for our small logs business. As said plenty of them out there already at low prices if Ebay is anything to go by. Just hire someone in to get your logs done. No hassles with machine maintenance, breakdowns and storage plus a guy who does it day in day out should more productive than yourself learning the ropes.

4K with a new chassis! Doesn't sound like it's worth much now then. What does it cost to buy and fit one, guessing north of 2K? So presumably as is £1500-£2000? I am not going to bust a gut to get it sorted as it's not mine but such a shame to see it left to rot.

But the reason a ring cracks is not to do with uneven drying. The ring is the key here. A circle cut from board without the centre of the tree would stand a better chance. From my previous post "This is because the circumference of the wood shrinks more than it's radius, and the big radial crack essentially allows the remaining circumference to shorten." Yes sometimes you get lucky more so with small diameter material but the OP is talking about a ring a meter in diameter! I dont want to put a downer on it just being realistic that an oak ring of a meter diameter has a very small chance of drying out without cracking badly.

Looks a beast if you can sell that chunky a log. At the best part of 3 tonnes per split I wouldn't think it should't get stopped buy much.

A ring of any species is almost certain to crack badly as it dries. Found this that looks like it explains it better than I can. You say it's well seasoned but is it dry inside? If it really is you should be OK Wood shrinks by different amounts in different directions. There is almost no shrinkage in the direction of the wood's grain (lengthwise). There is some shrinkage radially (perpendicular to the growth rings), and a greater amount of shrinkage tangentially (along the curvature of the growth rings). The cracks in the end grain of this partially dried firewood at left illustrate this concept. The firewood had only dried at the ends when the photo was taken. Shrinkage is thus only at the ends, while the middle of the wood has not shrunk as much. Cracks have opened up at the ends to make up the difference. The cracks are mostly perpendicular to the growth rings, because there is more shrinkage along the direction of the rings (tangential shrinkage) than there is perpendicular to them (radial shrinkage) Once the wood has fully dried throughout, the whole piece will have shrunk by the same amount. With the center of the wood as shrunken as the wood near the ends, the cracks will mostly close up again. The different rates of radial and tangential shrinkage can cause distortion in wood, such as cupping of boards. It can also cause radial cracks from the center of the wood to the edge, as shown in the photo at left. This is because the circumference of the wood shrinks more than it's radius, and the big radial crack essentially allows the remaining circumference to shorten. It's generally best not to have the center of the tree trunk as part of the board because of this. Beams used in timber frame construction usually include the center of the tree, and usually have cracks along the flat sides because of this. However, that is considered an acceptable defect.

That would be my concern. Can sell logs that size Tom?

Sorry Matt but you have to get in line Got a few friends who have had their eye on it for many years. To be honest I think Will is spot on and I would always rather have something that had done some miles than the life this one has had of pottering around the Devon lanes at 20mph. Looked underneath and I think it may well need a new chassis to get it on the road . It's getting taken down to Mark Kelly to see what it would need to be made roadworthy. Are you seriously interested if my mate passes? Dont think it's going to go for much anyway if it's a new chassis job.

Some friends of ours have an old 90 that's been sitting in a field for some years. They have now come around to the idea it should be sold before it completely rusts away. The thing is its ridiculously low miles for it's age so they have no idea how to work out a price. Are there any good landrover forums or groups where they could get advise on how to work out a fair price? Thanks

Could you use small bags filled with wood chip? Need a bit of plastic for the bags but the wood chip would offer the bulking and protection without being able to escape.

Probably not as overloaded as you might think though. Had our old LM105 loaded up with 9' lengths and weighed it all and only had 1600kg on there. Not oak though and not stacked up like that

Dont think you need to get any better at filming. That could be a promotional video from Logosol it's so good.

From that list I would take Sikens every day of the week. It's streets ahead of Sadolin IME. They used to be sold by the same firm with Sikens being the premium option. Colours are less natural with Sikens though. Oils might work but my experience with Osmo is great at advertising and hype but pretty average products but not tried their outside offerings. Upside to an oil is it should be easy to reapply but will need it more often.