cornish wood burner

I would forget about them and concentrate on doing a good job safely. Otherwise you might be joining them in A&E

The pipe that provides the pressure on the splitting stroke is the one you need to fit the gauge to. I am not familiar with the machine but it should be the pipe furtherest from the wedge. I would suggest you fit a 'T' in the pipe with a gauge that will read more than your rated pressure if you know it. 4000 psi should be fine. If you know an agricultural engineer he will almost certainly have one you might be able to borrow. The next thing you need is the ram cylinder bore. (d) Your handbook might tell you this. Alternatively look on the shaft end of the ram and you might see the bore where the end cap is fitted. Mearure this in inches. If all else fails measure the cylinder outside diameter and subtract 1/2 inch for the wall thickness. force is pressure x area Area = 3.142 x d x d divided by 4 Gauge reading of pressure in pounds per square inch divide by 2240 to give you tons per square inch. If your gauge reads bar additionally multiply by 14.5 Multiply presure by your cylinder area will then give you your force.

Wonder if your splitter is delivering its its rated 10 tons. Might be worth putting a pressure gauge in the system and calculate the actual force.

Comforting to know my years with an axe and maul may have not been totally wasted. Hard lessons though.

I use 250kg per cubic metre when calculating wood chip in our shed. If the unchipped wood is around 600 kg /M 3 then that gives 1 solid to 2 .4 I would say you are closer than they are.

Did you mean lawn mower racing or me mowing between my trees. Only mowed one down to date. A little ash so regrowing again. Clattered a bit though, my lad thought it was hilarious My mower is an old Westwood S1300. Only PTO is the belt that would drive the grass pickup so I don't think the compact tractors have any real serious competition. It just saves me some hard graft and makes me smile.

Not only in the tree world.

A good plan. It sounds like you need big wheels to run over the hoof marks. If these fill with water you might be in trouble. I would be interested in your findings and what you go for. Good luck

Sounds like a hobby for the lunatics to me. Must be interesting to watch from a safe distance. I agree a locked diff would certainly be right for racing. Cornering hard through sweeping bends would lighten the inside wheel resulting in spinning.. I suppose travelling uphill across the slope the top wheel might be light so let's say it depends on the terain, the radius and speed of the turn. Given the OP said his ground was fairly level, with a pivoting front axle the back wheels should always be on the ground and give enough traction. Mine is fine even with a trailer load of wood. If I turn too sharp around a tree while mowing it goes straight on though. It is one of the best things I have bought for maintaining my wood/copse. It has cut my strimming by 95%, doubles as transport and a tractor. Works well for me.

Very good I can 't ALWAYS be wrong but on this occasion I sit corrected.

I would not agree with locking the diff. It is not the traction but the going straight on at corners when turning fast and sharp I have a problem with. If you cannot have your hardcore delivered as suggested previously they I would not contemplate anything other than a 4 wheel braked trailer. Even behind a 4x4 you can get yourself in trouble. I presume you do not need to carry wood to your house so my shopping list would be MS 211 Good quality strimmer to clear paths Westwood mower or similar no deck I would expect to pick one up for 2 or 3 hundred no problem.Make a simple wood trailer. Flat floor posts for sides like a wood lorry Saves the hard work in transporting the wood. Not so trendy as a quad but cheaper. That just leaves your hardcore. A trailer and something to tow it with, be it tractor or 4x4 will cost you a lot of money.Find a local builder with a transit tipper or similar would be my next choice after getting 20 tons delivered from the quarry. If you are really set on fetching it yourself (WHY) then first get a decent trailer. You might be suprised what your car can do.

Just read some info that said 6.5 percent of workforce in construction.

That sound pretty bad for the construction industry.Do we know the percentage of the work force employed in construction? Obviously if it was 33 percent then not so bad, however most builders I know have a story to tell either about their own or a workmates injury. It is a dangerous game but probably worse than it might be. What is your view on fixed price jobs prompting things you have outlined including excess speed and knowingly cutting corners.

If you wanted to make a toy how about using on old westwood ride on lawn mower or similar to carry everything. May even be possible to mount the winch on it. Fit an alternator to the mower pto to charge the battery. You might get some strange looks but it might beat hauling gear by hand.

Do you really need a 4x4 for occasional towing on the road? I have a braked 4 wheel 8x4 that I tow with my car that I use for transporting my wood.

Fuel or oil additive plastic container. Bit stronger than a normal plastic bottle, mine are only 500ml so you might need two. Will fit a pocket though.

If you did go down this route I would suggest it would be best to have some weight on the hitch, so if you build a small trailer for it keep the wheels further back than normal.Not so far that it will sit the mower up though. I use mine for transporting everything around my patch, strimmer,chainsaw, petrol,water and wood. Amongst other saws I have a ms211 and while it probably is too small for most professional users I do most of my cutting with it. Suits me and probably do for you to. Remember even a ms 171 beats a hand saw. Get a short bar though

Coming from farming stock I would agree with the above. Who knows what you might want to drive in the future. As a thought provoking exercise, I am doing a similar thing to you but I am keeping my copse clear with a ride on lawn mower. I have a ball hitch on the back and I bring close to half a ton of wood to the road on a home made trailer. Old ride-ons are as cheap as chips and if the ground is flat and good it is amazing what they pull. Great for getting between the trees.

Thanks for the info guys. Certainly more than I was expecting but all useful.

As you say the fly ash is a complicated subject.Higher temperatures generated by the secondary burn might affect things we do not understand. Not sure if products of incomplete combustion are significant though. I thought the modern boilers were very efficient and had vertically complete combustion. We did briefly use a little recycled wood but inspite of specifying clean wood only some plastic and wire crept in. I kicked that into touch several years ago before our farmer friend used it. Reason being I could see strange deposits on the boiler walls and in the ash which gave me concerns over the sensors. We only use round wood chip now and I notice the difference. I don't normally go into the waste side but my experiences tie in with your post. Apparently the farmer analysed the ash before using and was happy with the results but I cannot say if he obtained a permit.I think I might investigate this further as we produce a significant pile of ash from the 3000 tons we burn. For my patch I think I will keep to ash from my own domestic fires and do as Tony says (use sparingly)

Could it be the minerals and heavy metals accumulate in the bark and are then released by burning. The fly ash certainly is hazardous to your lungs very fine and easily prompted to be airborne. We do mix with the bottom ash on an outside tip so it is normally wet.

Thanks for that info Woody guy. I have been spreading ash from domestic fires but as part of my day job I run a couple of large wood chip boilers which it sounds like most of that article was aimed at. I was interested to hear about the fly ash. From the looks of it I would have put money on it being the best fertilizer, just shows take nothing for granted. I will also keep an eye on our furnace temperatures but from memory they were very close to 900 deg especially interesting as a local farmer has been spreading some on his fields. Apparently grew a field of corn with it. I will find out how he got on. Cheers

For the last few years I have been planting a narrow strip of land between mature wooded hedges. Once the trees I have planted become established I have been scattering wood ash around them. Species are the normal firewood types ie ash oak sycamore and hazel. All seem to be doing well but reading a recent post about farm yard manure for trees prompted me to ask if am I doing wrong?