cornish wood burner

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)

Being realistic it might be over sensible retail but they look like real works of art to me. If you cannot sell that first one for well over £200 I would be amazed. I am not in the market for a coffee table but If I saw that for sale at £200 I would have a serious think for about two seconds then snatch your hand off.

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?

Biomass is rated on size and moisture content. Size will be rated as G30. G50. G100 etc. Max size and length is important. From memory G 100 max length is 300mm whereas G 50 is 200mm exceeding these figures will give you and your customer grief. Different boilers have different moisture requirements. One with an underfed hearth normally will not accept chip with more than 35 percent moisture content. Step grate machines 50 pc MC is usable. Your customers will prefer the chip to be as dry as possible. They will not want to use chip to boil off water.The price you can get will reflect this. Transport will vary with each customer. Artic with a walking floor is good for large loads but access or store size may limit this. A chipper with a series of screens to cater for different specs is ideal. Some chippers are not really suitable for biomass.We have seen several some good some not so. We often get small free loads from the likes of hi line when they are in our area. This chip is normally small, wet and of low value. We are much more fussy about serious quanties that we pay for. This is obviously a very basic outline but I hope I helps your understanding of what is required. If you have any specific questions I will try to answer them.

We buy some chip for biomass along with 2~ 3000 tons of chip wood. Do you need details of what we or other users require?

And me The two resident workers looked carefull and let's face it they needed to be but when that presenter put his hand on the window frame that was being machined I winced. He was far to twitchy (and annoying) to survive there for long. Great video interesting to see the old machines. Tempted to say brings back memories.But I won't.

One thought which 35 do you have ? I believe a good 35 X would struggle to make 30 HP at the PTO and the other models a fair bit less so read the spec carefully Hodge that chipper is a Komptech 8010 C takes some big timber if you ever have some serious chipping to do.

Its one of the chippers we hire to chip for our wood burners Built on the back of a lorry with a grab of course. Bundle of slabwood a once. Chipping seasoned timber output is about 50 tons /hr Actual not manufactures figures I will find some details tomorrow if of interest. Is it OK to name the owner. Over the years we have had several chip for us driven by different power units and we have found you do need adequate power for speed and quality. Slightly different to the chipper the OP is talking about, I guess quality would not be an issue.

Chippers we use are run by 300 to 800hp so little different but if the smaller ones are anything like these take the manufactures power requirements and add 30 percent. As I remember the 35 reaches its PTO speed quite early so if your power is marginal that won't help. I would think if you were a little down on power it would slow you a lot. I would imagine someone on here is much more familiar with small tractors driving chippers

Cheer mate

Have you tried spraying every thing with a good quality contact cleaner.Not the WD 40 lube type but one that will remove the oxides which it sounds like you have plenty of. Good scrub with a tooth brush with plenty of the cleaner. If you get an improvement that might point you or whoever does the final fix in the right direction. .

Agree with that. Starts a fire well but having burnt between 6 and 8 tons of only spruce I certainly would go for Douglas fir if I had to part with any money. Spruce is the only wood I have burnt (MC sub 20) that went out when I shut the Rayburn down. As loskie says mixing is better so as you have 25 tons on your hands could mix at your end or sell your customer some Douglas or similar for them to mix. Failing that suggest they feed their wood burner little and often with plenty of air.It will burn just you have to drive your fire differently. It is a pain thou

These DPFs are certainly a pain especially if you do short journeys. Driving at 80 sounds the answer

You can reason with the 'norms' I have come across but not the HSE inspectors. Never really had a major problem so the HSE only inspect us (cross fingers) Remember my guys think before they act!!!! (again cross fingers)

You think? Whether you believe it or not it underlines my favorite piece of H&S advice. Take a second to think before you act. Common sence really but I have never heard that from a HSE officer. Did they all miss that queue when it was being issued or is lack of it a job requirement?

They were VERY serious at Sperry about health and safety even back then which made it even more ludicrus. I take your point about the changes tho. Thought it was a more interesting story than the guards that our HSE man wanted. Made two machines almost unusable

Presumably it's not something like a seized or tight bearing

I have told this story so many times and believe it or not you are not the first to doubt it. Unfortunately for the operator it is unbelievable but true. I was working in the same factory but in a different department. I too did not believe it at first but I have no reason to doubt any of the story. This happened about 35 years ago. The factory was Sperry Gyroscope (now British aerospace) Clittafotd road Southway Plymouth