cornish wood burner

Probably a fair comment but it should give a little more accurate comparison if you are interested. You do get a feel for moisture as you say but for many different species, hard and soft, a meter might confirm your guess. I sometimes buy wood chip for our boilers so an accurate meter is essential for pricing chip of different mc. I reckon to be able to predict the reading within a few percent by a squeeze, but most suppliers would not be happy with that.

Presumably you have a spike type meter. These meters work on electrical conductivity so the spikes go further into the end grain or bark. This gives a better electrical circuit so end grain reading could well be higher. These meters are useful as a guide but often can be inaccurate especially at the low and high end of the scale. If you want a meaningful measurement then weigh and oven dry. You need some kitchen type scales that weigh to a gram. First weigh your wood. Dry in a slow oven 60 deg ish for 24 hours until the wood stops losing weight. Divide the weight loss by the original weight and you have the moisture content as a normally used wet basis. If you do this for a few different pieces then you will get an idea of your meters accuracy throughout the range.

There obviously something wrong. Do what Jon suggests, have the battery tested and measure the drain on the car. Most cars will struggle to start after 3 weeks with all the little drains but a week that's ridiculous. Check for the obvious things before going too far, interior lights, boot light, don't suppose there is a light under the bonnet, stereo running etc.

Some 3 phase motors run 415v or 680v. Not the most common but they are out there. Check for it on the motor plate.

The trick is to have a skill, kit or a product that your average householder will pay for because they cannot do it themselves. Same goes if you are employed. I have had my share of being self employed and great most of the time. Down side can be lack of work, cash flow and chasing unpaid accounts, especially when you start. Having a customer going bankrupt can hurt when they own you a lot of money, but it's a risk you take. I made a choice 20 years ago with working up to retirement age in mind. I am employed now and I earn a good living because I have a skill that my employer will pay a premium for. You can succeed either way.

Unless you can up the temperature my guess would be it will take a few days beside a fire. I dry the softwood chip in an old microwave at work. If you are impatient and the kitchen management is not looking that's a quicker way. However anyone doing that a must be very careful not to over do it. Quick blast for a few minutes, take it out, let it steam and weigh it. As it gets warmer reduce power or time and check the weight loss. Eventually it will stop losing weight unless you over do it, in which case you will have had a fire. Not something I would recommend in a good microwave.

Definitely inaccurate in my experience. Most electrical conductivity/ pin type I have come across (including our works one ) are reasonable in the middle range but seem to stray in the high and low ranges. I have calibrated mine and between 20 and 38% it's fairly accurate. However above and below that zone it's fantasy land. Presumably useful for selling impressively dry firewood though. As Stubby says useful for making a comparison, but for an accurate reading weigh and dry.

5% is very low unless you are in a desert. It might have needed longer cooking. Even in the last hour of 24 in the oven at around 60 to 80 deg C my 480 gram piece still lost 2 grams.

They burn very well. Probably the driest I've seen for a while. I did get some slab wood under 18% in the summer after being stacked for a couple of years but that's unusual here.

You obviously didn't allow for the Cornish weather we've been having.

No idea what the machine is or how it works, but if you have something like a joystick control you probably have micro switches on the driver end of things. They are used for many things but have a frequent failure rate in my world.

Just taken the samples out of the oven and weighed for the last time. The largest 480g sample lost a couple of grams over the last hour but close enough now. Scales were checked for accuracy with increasing weight and were within 2 grams over 800. Two sample logs one 7 inch dia 6.5 long other 9 inch dia and 8 inches long. Large log had 16.9% mc in the centre sample 17.5%mc in the outer sample inc bark Small log. 18.77% mc centre 19.1% mc outer The small log didn't split suddenly like most of the larger ones so I can only assume the extra moisture made it less brittle. All logs were stacked with gaps to allow for air circulation. As I've said previously 15 months open air seasoning and 30 months in the shed. As the smaller one was wetter and the outsides of both wetter than their centres it suggests to me that both are gaining moisture from the air. Moisture % calculated on a wet basis as normal Looks like Aunt maud has won the coconut.

A1 advice Jon

Testing them now John. 2 1/2 years after being ringed up and almost 4 years after felling. Split today for testing. Weighed, now oven drying so I won't know the results until tomorrow.

I suspect you will be a lot closer than Jon. I have weighed 4 samples from 2 logs. 2 centre and 2 outside samples. All are drying in a slow oven at present.

Anyone care to guess what moisture content will be for this ash. 8 inch diameter air dried for a year or so outside then logged in the summer and stacked at the back of an open shed for 2.5 years

The ash in question has severe shrinkage cracks so presumably its lost some of the bound water over the years which has tightened the cell structure. For my own interest I might do a moisture check on a couple of these pieces. I also have some lengths of smaller diameter of the same age under cover so I expect that will be similar. What surprised me was the brittleness of the straight grained pieces. Knots are actually a help as then it seems to split slower and I do not need to retrieve the pieces from across the shed. In future I will try and split the ash before it gets to this stage. It's good to understand what's going on, thanks all.

So it's the lignin drying and hardening over time making it harder to split?

Know what you mean, we cut down a eucalyptus many years ago and as you say doesn't get easier with keeping. We had a bit left that we used wedges on in the end. It was the muzzle velocity of this ash that surprised me. You wouldn't want to be in front of it. Other pieces I split after a couple of years and they were very easy. Amazing difference.

I've just been splitting some 6 to 12 inch ash that has been in the back of my shed for a few years. Almost all needs the full 8 tonne of my splitter, then it goes off like a gun. I kept these rounds intact for ease of handling but I'm having a rethink on that. Is it the sap hardening doing this?

Hi Daythe trees. Decide what implements you need to buy for your jobs and work back to give your tractor size. For example if you need the reach and power of a farm contractor type hedge trimmer then that will rule out a small 40hp tractor.

As Jon says the idea of diesel is to make the bitumen tacky again then it will bind together.

Why not season before you chip your wood or is it arb waste chip? Our chip doesn't lose much moisture in our unheated shed but you have the advantage of heat so worth a go I would think. On the rare occasions I've had room to turn it the surface dries presumably by air movement but the bulk seems virtually unchanged. If you could get air through it I expect that would be best.

In my day job we normally call the distribution board or cabinet mcbs "breakers" and any motor protection devices such as you have named "overloads". Sorry for the mixup but it's common terminology with the engineers and electricians I deal with.

A household breaker trips in a quicker time than a motor rated breaker. The motor rated one is designed to trip slower to allow for the large starting current. Neither are designed to protect a motor. Both are thermally activated. A motor should be protected by a motor overload which needs to be adjusted to maximum running current found on the motor plate. Again thermally activated. For example a motor with a max running current of 5.9A could have a motor rated breaker C20 to protect the cable. C is trip time 20 is current carrying capacity. A heavily loaded motor with a heavy load such as a compressor might need a D rated trip to allow a longer start time drawing a high current. The motor will be protected by a motor overload which on installation will be adjusted to 5.9A. This allows for the heavy start current but if the motor stalls the overload will trip to protect the motor. Overloads are infinitely adjustable, breakers are available in set ratings.