gdh
-
Posts
1,680 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Classifieds
Tip Site Directory
Blogs
Articles
News
Arborist Reviews
Arbtalk Knot Guide
Gallery
Store
Calendar
Freelancers directory
Everything posted by gdh
-
We were up to 90 days of rain with only 4 dry here although we did put plastic over our first 300 tons, unfortunately that ran out last week. We're lucky that we dry our wood but that's now taking 4 weeks instead of 2 or 3. We've finally had a few dry days, the problem is it's getting colder now and if the wood freezes like last year we'll be blunting chains all the time. Still it's all part of the fun of firewood. ;-)
-
We peak at 60-70 cube of firewood, 10 cube of 4ft pieces for a boiler and 15 cube of chip plus 20 for ourselves. We tend to have a couple of weeks like that more than being really busy in one week because we're on a farm so there's other work to do.
-
Yes, we dry the wood in a shed we converted into a kiln, it takes 3-4 weeks to do 180 cube. We dry the chip to but that's mostly for ourselves and one other regular.
-
Orders seem to be picking up since snow was predicted. It's the first time this year I've started falling behind with the cutting. We're averaging 50 cube a week now and a bit of chip.
-
Decide how much you want per hour for labour, divide the cost of all your equipment by the number of hours it will last, add on any overheads,fuel etc and you've got your hourly rate. Then add a bit more because it's never enough.
-
Expensive logs I can deal with but it really annoys me that those chains are slack.
-
Wholesale log suppliers a bit of help please I'm new sorry
gdh replied to A Hicky's topic in Firewood forum
I can't help with the logs since I'm mid Wales but if you want to put a new boiler in any time soon you should look at the rhi grant which pays for the heat you make. It's a lot lower than it was but it would still come close to paying for all your fuel and you could probably get the commercial version which lasts 20 years. Our price for big loads of hardwood is currently around £60 a cube delivered locally if you're interested but could easily be double near you. It's very hard to get unprocessed seasoned hardwood but unseasoned is £55-£60 a ton around here. -
There's farming connect in Wales which pays 80% of costs and applies to agriculture and forestry. Not sure if there's an equivalent elsewhere.
-
With firewood it's worth getting vat straight away as you buy in at 20% and sell at 5%. I can't see that vat will be too complicated for you as it's the business that pays not the individual. I'm in a similar position and don't have any problems but that could because I don't make enough money.
-
It would probably be worth hiring a processor in for a day, if the wood is reasonable you should easily get 20 cube done in a few hours. If you enjoy cutting the wood your self or can't get a big lot at once you could look at getting an electric splitter and a small generator, I'm sure that would be cheaper than a tractor.
-
Yes,as far as I know it's only for what you sell/use for BSL customers, that's why you need a drawing or map to show which stacks are which.
-
We haven't had one but I know it's more complicated now with the land criteria where you have to prove everything you buy or grow is sustainable with lists of everything that you buy in and where you stack it. It also has to be a low enough moisture for your boiler. Edit. Sorry that second bit was for RHI
-
Thanks, I'll take a look at the graphs to.
-
Out of interest do those of you drying at high temperatures in 24 hours find it only dries the outside or have you got around that? We had too many issues with drying that way so we've gone to the other extreme and dry at 30-35 degrees over 3-4 weeks. And in reply to woodworks, on our own log burner we'll burn anything up to 30, we just stack it by the side first. 15 is what I would like but we still see it as a luxury.
-
Also it's interesting that certainly wood who are one of the biggest suppliers that I know of market their kiln dried logs as below 20% average. I wonder if that's split and measured or not. On average I would personally want around 15 but it's easy enough to burn anything up to 25 with a decent fire.
-
The bark isn't too hard to dry but as you say it's the damp layer underneath that can cause problems, nature can be awkward... We like to sell our wood below 20% as a maximum but we usually read 0 on a moisture meter because we keep it in the drying shed until delivery (I know that's technically more like 6%). I found that if you dry wood down to say 14% then it's often double when split, it still burns perfectly though, I go on the surface reading myself as that seems to show what will burn well. I think the official advice is to measure across the split side of a log. And happy new year.
-
Nothing wrong with using some initiative to make some money. As has been said going into firewood any bigger is expensive so I would concentrate on getting the most profit out of your current wood. If you're processing by hand the timber doesn't matter so much - get as much as you can free from your main business and maybe even offer to remove it for other people. You could even try going around local farmers. If they have a fallen tree in a field or on a fence offer to remove it for them, it's hard work but could save you £50-60 a ton.
-
We found that without forcing air through the chip it just starts to compost. It might work with a very thin layer but I would think that you'll need air flow and heat.
-
How is your yard surface bearing up with continuous wet?
gdh replied to cessna's topic in Firewood forum
I'm normally happy to have everything concreted but our drains blocked today and nothing blocks drains like sawdust... -
Not sure to be honest, we looked at electric ones but we don't have 3 phase electric here. It's costing us around £1 a ton of wood in diesel so the saving wouldn't be much anyway and then there's the issue of moving the processor, it's much easier to move to a clean spot than shovel the bark and sawdust all the time. Admittedly the processor weighs around 1200kg so that tractor just takes the weight off a bit then drags it.
-
Yes, that tractors served us well. We just had to add an alternator to it and change a few electrics around so it would power the processor. And I can't argue with less than 20litres of fuel a day when you compare it to our bigger tractors.
-
We bring the logs in with a trailer then load with our kramer. If the column wasn't in the way it would be the perfect set up for us.
-
I can't find a picture of our firewood setup at the moment but here's some over size stuff we were splitting. I hope this uploads...
-
Bobcats are good machines, the main advantage over a tractor is that they can spin on the spot. I haven't driven one in years but they're easy enough once you get the hang of it. Personally I would get one that's all controlled on the joysticks since I didn't like controlling the arm with my feet. We had one with tracks to use in the woods but the bearings tend to go on concrete all day. You can also get loads of attachments. We had a bucket, grab,pallet forks, chipper and flail topper.
-
We deal with the contractor whenever possible, usually on a bit of our own woodland or a neighbour. It can save money over buying from someone like tilhill but the downside is you usually have to take every size of timber they cut so you can have a lot of small or oversized stuff.
