gdh
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Everything posted by gdh
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You would get roughly 50 from fresh ash, I work off 1.8 cube of firewood per ton (the bags stretch).
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We use a Tajfun electric extractor, it's done thousands of cube with no issues and takes the sawdust about 20ft You do need a strong one because they can suck bits of kindling through which would wreck a standard fan. If you're bagging the sawdust you'll want a cyclone on the end to avoid it blowing everything out the bag.
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Yes, we changed to purely Rotatech, I think, 8 years ago and the chains have been brilliant I didn't get on with the bars but that was a long time ago. Once I got used to the 27° sharpening they stay sharp a long time although I've gone lazy now and bought an automatic sharpener...
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If it's straight lengths and between 4 and 18inch diameter probably £65 a ton roadside. Assuming that they're decent lengths not arb waste.
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I only do standard livestock netting but assuming there's no gates or anything I would guess around 2k plus vat. Ideally you want a digger knocker for the high stakes but actual erection costs shouldn't be massively high.
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I use one on our heizohack after having problems with loose blades. It's 1020nm so we also have a 5 to 1 multiplier which is useful. If I pull on a 4ft bar it's basically identical but it's nice to be sure. You could borrow a torque wrench to check once. They're pretty expensive to buy.
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I can't see the problem personally but the maintenance will be the first part of the course so your saw should be clean to take apart anyway.
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The air filter and spark plug is very basic and only needs a standard chainsaw tool. If you want your saw to stay pristine (that's unlikely felling anyway) then it's important to know. They use the colour of the spark plug to check the fuel mix is why they remove it Starter cord is a bit more work but you'll probably just take the cover off and it's very useful to know how it works. Cs30 includes basic maintenance so I can't see you'll get out of it and it's really not much work anyway.
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How did becoming VAT registered change your business?
gdh replied to Excels1or's topic in General chat
You'll probably lose a few customers but it's not as bad as it first looks because you're not actually going to need to charge 20% more. Most of your costs will have 20% vat removed so I'm reality it will only be a few percent increase and you can explain that to customers. You just have to get used to reading prices excluding vat when do costings which is actually a nice feeling seeing how much cheaper it is at first. 😉 -
I think commercial ones are offset so you can use them at any angle without the lift ram hitting the boom (depending on design). I hadn't realised how expensive they were now, we only paid £2400 for protech 300 about 6 years ago and that was new.
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Yes, we always use two people so it's a bit different for us. One in the machine and one eyeing in the stake, it's worth the extra person because we can hit 100 an hour on a good day. Although we do space the stakes out on the floor first. I looked at chaining to the mast but we knock a lot of 8ft strainers and gate posts and it would make that awkward, especially doing big hits on soft ground.
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The protech ones come with bolts to go either way. I like ours facing out so when you're knocking stakes you can just push up to the netting instead of lifting over. Also if a stake ever snaps it's less likely to get you or anyone nearby.
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If it's easy to get to I would offer £30 standing for hand felled softwood. Worth remembering that 50% of small trees will be chip wood anyway so £50 roadside. Phytophara licence is free (or was) but is a lot of work with records, clearing up bark and other regulations. I think a lot ignore it anyway if the wood hasn't got a notice on it. Personally I would want 12inch minimum at base for milling. If you are felling yourself make sure you get an agreement on what's being done with brash and stumps and how small you'll cut down to. It's easy to fall out over the little details. Edit: people will fell and extra for £10 a ton but that's large scale harvester work.
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Wait until you see the guarding required on the big horizontal splitters now. You ironically have to climb over it to get fallen logs..
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Are the trees already felled? It's a lot easier to push the tree over then cut the stump off if that's an option. Although on small diameter trees it shouldn't be too hard either way.
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We've got a multi fuel (18kw Aarow) that we only burn wood on and it's done well for 20 years. The extra air flow means it's easy to light and adjust and if you're careful you can clean the ash without letting it go out which we do once a week.
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It depends what you're mostly cutting. My go to saws are a 550 with a 15inch bar and a 572 with a 24inch bar and that covers 95% of what I cut.
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Mechanised Flail / hedgecutting cost- how do you charge
gdh replied to Jamie edwards's topic in Business Management
I should probably add that we don't look for work hedge trimming, just do odd bits so it'd easy for me to say £60 is just what I think it should be for a decent sized machine based on costs - £10-15 depreciation on the tractor, £10 fuel, £2 insurance, £5 repairs, £2 tyres, £15 driver, £10+ for the hedge trimmer off the top of my head. -
Mechanised Flail / hedgecutting cost- how do you charge
gdh replied to Jamie edwards's topic in Business Management
With a tractor it would normally be per hour. You can't really charge per meter because it depends on how many swipes, how thick the hedge is and obstacles like telegraph poles. I would probably want £60 but there's a lot of contractors and people with older machines doing it for much less to keep getting work in the autumn. -
I don't think anyone really cares if you call it cordwood, I hear it often enough, but usually you would just say you're looking for a load of hardwood or softwood. Most people buy and sell by ton. Hardwood has gone very expensive at the moment but best thing would be to phone hauliers if you don't want much as they'll have more contacts than asking every landowner. If you don't care about quality you could also try tree surgery waste.
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What's the best options for cutting your own logs?
gdh replied to Dougie Stirling's topic in Firewood forum
There's not a huge difference in pro chains, I use Rotatech for commercial production because they're the best value but Stihl, Oregon and Husqvarna are all good. Main thing is to avoid any mud or stones and a chain should last a long time if you're only cutting across logs. Keep an eye that that the bar doesn't wear too much as that can affect cutting as much as the chain when it gets really bad. If you can't justify a splitter it might be worth investing in a good axe depending on what you have. -
Not sure if anyone will want to take a trailer off but you might get someone to bring just a lorry. R K haulage are close and he might be willing. Depending how you're cutting it there's also dc2 in Llangadog who produce woodchip and might have oversized. I normally only sell firewood but we are nearby with a timber trailer if you're struggling with access and need stuff moved.
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I made an effort to watch all the headliners this year and I'm glad I did. I thought Artic Monkeys were enjoyable but nothing stood out as spectacular, GnR were a proper headline act and although the vocals weren't perfect they still worked and Slash was obviously brilliant and Elton John was a great way to end. An amazing performance and nice to see the hits one last time. Saw a few other bits I liked as well, the Lewis Capaldi performance was a tough watch because he comes across as genuinely trying to keep going. One year I might actually go...
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If you want firewood that's already processed give me a message, I'm only 15minutes from Llangadog. There's a few hauliers based nearby but it's a pain to get hold of hardwood at the moment.
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Does it have to be Makita? Milwaukee do one and Ego have a range.
