gdh
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Everything posted by gdh
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The conveyor is self tensioning so if you think you'll ever want a longer one I would get it and remove sections to shorten it as needed. The 35 is only just enough power, arguably not enough with the 12 way splitter so I wouldn't add anything else myself.
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The tajfuns use chain oil, they don't get through a lot of it anyway. I wonder if you could convert from hydraulic oil, you would use less then as it's much thicker. I can't see any harm buying bio oil and testing it, you would soon notice if the bar was overheating.
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So what's going to happen to the firewood market?
gdh replied to Woodworks's topic in Firewood forum
We very nearly planted willow, got as far as ploughing the field but the other local growers dropped out so we couldn't justify getting the harvester here. I can't remember the figures now because it was a long time ago but it was something like 5 years of growth then harvest every other year using a pellet maker. With the wood price going up it would be much more profitable now. -
We've got the leaf blower, it's very rarely used as it's just for blowing off machines but it's done fine with husqvarna xp mix over the last 18 months including leaving the tank full when we put it away. I don't think I would get their saws but the leaf blower was longer warranty, more powerful and cheaper than husqvarna so easy decision.
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So what's going to happen to the firewood market?
gdh replied to Woodworks's topic in Firewood forum
I'm not a fan of importing wood because of the disease risk and I think the carbon footprint is too much (although that's debatable because of the quantity in containers) but I don't think kiln drying is an issue. It's been discussed plenty of times but we can produce 'kiln dried' much cheaper and quicker than the vast amount of space needed for air drying. Especially if the new laws come in our climate is too damp to airdry so using about 7% of our wood to dry the rest seems an obvious solution to make a better quality, well priced product. Air drying is great in smaller quantities and other areas but it will vary between businesses. I don't think of either option as better or worse, we should be promoting dry and sustainable wood rather than worrying about drying methods. -
Regarding not seeing any visible smoke from fires it's the same with our chip boiler, admittedly that is a lot more effective than a fire because of all the extra technology but you get about 5 minutes of dark smoke at start up then nothing when it's up to temperature. Obviously the concern isn't the visible signs but it helps woods image to have a clean burn.
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It's on the limit but would depend on the haulage, we're near Llandovery. Pm me details if you get a chance. Thanks
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We're looking at fast growing hardwoods like chestnut at the moment, ideally we'll avoid softwood but it will be interesting to do the figures on kW per acre. Unless we can get permission to get sheep or something back in there to keep the brash down we'll have to avoid slower growing species like oak unfortunately as I can't see them surviving and can't justify the maintenance they would need.
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I'm not sure to be honest, I would say that's easily achievable with ash but I think there's a lot of stunted growth for our specific trees. I wasn't expecting much since we know all the local suppliers but you never know who's out there.
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Probably around a third of it, we're debating what to replace them with but we're holding off until we see if any are immune as it would need thinning over the next few years anyway.
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Worth a try here. We're always looking for hardwood throughout the year for firewood, ideally 4-18inch but we can take some bigger to help clear sites. We'll consider everything from 20-1000 tons and can arrange haulage. We pay good rates for decent quality and straight away. For smaller sites, ie overgrown hedges or a few acres we can extract to the roadside across fields for you.
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I normally measure with a hard push on the end grain with the occasional push in the bark which is usually the wettest point but more inconsistent.
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Depending on the strength of the pound imported wood is looking like it's increasing as well. Personally I wouldn't import as I don't think it's sustainable but from a business perspective it varies from year to year. It also depends if you're a producer or supplier, cordwood might be going up but if your profit margin is mostly in the production side there's not much point buying in long term. On a side note we're currently supplying 3 other businesses as wholesale and they say we're cheaper than importing but we will run out of wood at this rate which is the bigger issue than price because it's just not there.
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More than dry enough, I split some 0% oak last week and that was 30 in the centre. It will go dryer but it's ever diminishing returns and people already complain it burns too fast.
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Is that for driven wheels?
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Ideally you want a spool and a return, if it has a slewing drawbar you'll also need a second spool although at worst you could swap pipes between loading and transport.
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Some of the kiln boilers will take stuff like that (the argument being if it's going to be burnt anyway it should be doing something useful) but most boilers won't last long if you do that and if you want to claim RHI it needs to be dry and from a sustainable source.
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Had to light ours today, more to dry the house than for heat.
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Agreed. The Welsh system is just as bad- very little information on what you're buying, lots of paperwork and you just have to enter one bid and take a wild stab without finding out how much you were outbid or won by.
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If you're referring to the helmet it's to do with the plastic becoming brittle but as long as it's been in a box they didn't mind on our course, within reason of course.
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Vat registered companies.... how do you stay competitive
gdh replied to swinny's topic in Business Management
You'll end up charging a bit more but it should be from a lower base rate as claiming back vat on pickups, chippers, saws, chains fuel etc will soon add up. -
The irony is you won't even be allowed to cut it up for firewood...
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Lower than 17% is pointless here as it goes back up anyway when stored, any decent log burner should burn up to 25% without issue, if anything they should be working on stoves to burn wetter wood and I'm saying that as someone who sells kiln dried. Encouraging the use of dry wood I think is a good thing but more paperwork and regulations is going to force up prices and help nobody, I also worry that the 20% figure is an arbitrary number without any decent research behind it and is mostly supported by the larger companies who want to take out smaller competitors.
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I like the way that the certainly wood logo has been crossed out on the bags...
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Do you have a link?
