gdh
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Everything posted by gdh
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We've got a railway bridge just outside town and it's just been hit by another lorry. Too many people watch satnav not the road now...
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They're rubbish, I swapped to the oil spout for petrol but it only gained a few months
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Nice set up, the third roller makes a big difference. How are you finding the grader at the end? I'm looking at fitting one but it's a bit cramped already where we cut.
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Usually by the ton as most our hauliers have weigh heads now and the sales are done in tons. Obviously inconsistent with species/density but that's reflected in the price. Cubic metres would be better and we do keep an eye on how far up the bolsters it is but that has its own issues with bent and shorter logs bulking out loads.
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Pretty sure that's a 4wd symbol unless you have another button for that. Plenty of mud about to test it.
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Cheers. So how long would you leave them outside to dry before putting them in the shed? Do you off load them straight into you truck,trailer etc when ready to deliver? My idea is to keep them out for 6 months or so and then tip in shed when semi seasoned or is this just added unnecessary added work? The problem ive got is wood that molds when left in shed for 12months. Thanks Ah sorry, should have mentioned we've got a heated drying shed, similar to a kiln (not in the picture). We cut straight into the boxes, dry them, then tip into the pickup when we need them.
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We use them and they work well, they get a few more breakages than ibcs but they're bigger, safer to stack (I've seen 10 high before) and easy to repair. You will need a fairly strong box rotator and loader if you want to flip them. We collected from spudbox for £69+vat with a double floor to avoid the bigger logs damaging it.
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Agreed with big j, everyone assumes because we sell firewood we burn the best quality pieces. We don't - we have a 20inch/18kW log burner and burn everything from the short bits to stubs of branches we cut off and massive wedges from pointing gateposts, as long as it's reasonably dry it all burns fine and we rarely sweep our chimney in the 20 years we've had it.
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As long as it's dry that's the important thing. Most people like ash or beech, I like oak but if you're buying it most will be a mixture of what's available.
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Help pricing standing hardwood firewood
gdh replied to Big J's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
At least they were honest and gave you a reason, if harvesters can get on the land you'll struggle to do it cheaper and they can put that saving into the timber price. Hopefully you get some contracts where it's too awkward to get to usually so you'll be able to offer a needed service -
Only thing I've seen of it is a dealer emailing me and saying 'due to new regulations we need your permission to continue to contact you, please respond yes or no' (or something similar). I don't know anyone who's going to bother but with statements like fines up to 4% of global income I'm guessing they're targeting larger companies. It seems like a massive waste of time and (our) money like the BSL scheme, mtd and most farming regulations. Other than creating a few jobs I fail to see how these schemes benefit anyone when there's laws in place anyway.
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Just to add it's a milwaukee fuel (brushless) I have and if you're comparing batteries the only difference between 4ah and 5ah, and the 8 you can now get, is how long they last between charges.
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Impact wrench for nuts? I've got a milwaukee m18 and there's not much it won't shift, makes changing chipper blades much faster and it took nuts off a 12ton trailer that hadn't been touched for 5 years the other day.
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I carried our processor on the front once, it was alright until you a hit a bump. The problem is you need more weight on the back to keep it balanced. Do you run it on the front? I know the front pto is usually weaker if you have one.
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Help pricing standing hardwood firewood
gdh replied to Big J's topic in Forestry and Woodland management
£15 a ton sounds fair as it looks like a nice site to work on and assuming you can leave the brash in the woods. -
I wish I had your customers. Out of curiosity is that with vat? it looks like £120 plus 20% is all and retail is usually 5.
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You're probably going to get a range of answers between £80 and £150. I would want £95 delivered but it's all going to depend how much others are charging and where you're based. If you got stocks now is a good time to sell as others have run out.
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I wasn't aware of that, I wonder where imported firewood stands with that (I guess it's nearly all hardwoods). With the power stations I was referring to imported pellets where we import a large percentage of world production. I'm guessing the bark rule is for bugs so wouldn't apply after heavy processing.
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I think sitka was around 45 a ton for small diameter delivered in when I last saw, it was rocketing but touch wood (pun intended) seems to be stabilising now. As said the large power stations are burning ridiculous amounts but I'm guessing there's a point where it will become cheaper to import, as a lot already do. Roadside tonnage is usually calculated and delivered weighed or calculated.
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That's a good point but the best chain is very subjective, in day to day use there's hardly any speed difference I've seen (at a guess, I think stihl were slightly faster) and if you add up all chains used in a year you can easily save a few hundred quid. I normally prefer to buy the best quality with machinery but going from sugihara and stihl to oregon and rotatech (for examples) hasn't made a noticeable difference and once you damage a few chains on stones or a bar you're glad you only spent a third of the price. I could well change my mind in a few years but it's making business sense at the moment.
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If it's a new bar it could have been damaged in transit or a defect, I had issues with a new sugihara and it took me a while to spot the damage otherwise I would think the sprocket's the next logical step. For what it's worth I've been using rotatech, including on a 24inch processor bar for 18 months with no issues other than the initial stretch.
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Sherpa AS940 is an alternative, not much it won't cut. There's a remote control version to so you can get off it in brambles.
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Agreed, even with the machinery available I prefer to do most stuff under 6inch diameter with a chainsaw. Or just chip it. Our old processor with a manual handle was alright for small stuff but it didn't make the best quality wood and as soon as you have a joystick machine small logs seem painfully slow because the saw comes down at a set speed regardless of what it's cutting.
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With 2 people on normal timber we're 4-5 cube an hour with our tajfun 480+ realistically. That's 9 inch logs into boxes, longer wood is quicker of course and we don't use a log deck so the person loading can knock stuff straight easily. The big processors are only faster on large diameter stuff. My record with 18inch softwood from big logs through the 12 way was just over 15cube in an hour on my own but obviously that's not a regular occurance. I think if we graded the logs first it would increase speed a lot but probably not enough to make it worth sorting them first. I would also love to get bigger timber in...
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I think you've got the right idea, if you can do as much as possible yourself then you can hopefully maximise profit, you can also cut to a size that suits your system and little things like cutting on the bends make processing much easier. We've just got an excavator and tree shear to do small sites, it's very good for coppicing and smaller trees but the cost of running it with 2 men for a week means it ends up as the same cost as buying in for the wood.
