drinksloe

u've been a very lucky boy then. wot sort of clamp is it? 1 that just holds the saw when ur not holding it or like some i've seen on net that turns ur chainsaw into a chop saw? the 2nd type always look well scetchy any that i've seen, ur far safer holding ur saw

Exactly, if u work in forestry get ready to start carrying 2 combi cans into the wood.

1 thing i've noticed no matter hte size of the log ur splitting, just slamming the axe as hard as u can into the middle of the log generally doesn't work very well. I always try to have the bottom edge of my axe head sticking out of the log makes a big difference, eveb when ur whole axe head is only 1/2" into the log it more often just gets stuck or does nothing, 1/2" further back it splits it no probs. More about accurate cuts, finding any splits in grain and keeping axe head right on edge of the log

Sitka usually splits fairly easy althou some fibres might cling on. Just as neil says just work round the outside edge, once u get an edge off it often splits far easier. I've done some real ugly beech that size althou rung them a wee bit shoter as so heavy and just worked round the edges. My old maul wouldn't look at some of thoose beech but my Fiskars was flying throu them. Every now and again i go back to my old maul just to see if i'm in some easily split timber but it often does struggle where my X27 doesn't.

Another thing i do often, althou not all the time. If i have the time and get organised early spring, i dont fill the store up in 1 go, i'll only stack 1 row at a time, stuck 1 section to the roof then leave it for a week or 2 or longer to get the wind into it then stack the 2 row leave again and finally the last row althou u know it will have no problem drying quickly. Thats the other handy thing with the dividers u can also empty ur store in reverse and just take th front face of 1 area and if 2nd row not quite dry u can move to the next outside row and it gives the inside row more chance to dry. Althou i have to say where i am if ur timbers not dry by sept/oct its never really going to dry out anymore unless in a greenhouse/sunroom/poly tunnel just too much moisture in the air and little heat in sun at that time of year. Dividers are dead easy to put up and do make ur life a lot easier

are u splittingt the 8ft into 2x 4ft sections?? Doesn't take much even just some 2x2 4x1 from floor to roof so ur not losing a lot of space Be easier stacking and makes it easy to only use 1 sid at a time and refil the other side again when empty

As others have said width is a bigger problem than length. Also at 8ft depending the type of trailer it may only be single axle so easy to hand ball about in tight areas, when u step up to twin axles it becomes a lot harder. Like others have said assuming ur trailers are a similar style not an awful lot of point in stepping up from an 8 to a 10 and keeping them both. But it will all depend on the style of trailers and ur usage

Treat urself to a fiskars axe, not dear either but different league to the roughneck splitting maul,wot i started out with too and thought it was pretty good until i bought the fiskars. A tyre is a handy trick, place a tyre on top of ur splitting block and put ur logs inside so they dont fly everywhere. I'm lucky to have heaps of hardwood and very little soft wood/cypress so tend to saVE IT ALL FOR KINDLERS, i try to split the cypres in as narrow pieces as i can 1-2" with the big axe and let it dry then easyily split with the small axe after that for kindlers. Once u get ur eye in u can split great flat slabs of it quite easily My other tip would be for the store either have multiple stores or if 1 bigger 1, split/divide them into sections so u can empty 1 section completely and fill it up again with fresh stuff and start on the next section. if 1 large store that u can only take logs from 1 side u end up with dry stuff at the back and ur fresh stuff in front

Are altberg not another make the army use?? I'm sure i've seen ex army altberg boots advertised somewhere. For the money u really cant go wrong, doubt i'll ever buy a pair of expensive non chainsaw bots again.

Not steely's but the ex army haix boots are very bad to beat for the money. Ex army boots in general are very good nowadays I've had a few of the top end walking/shooting boots over the years now looking at 300 quid odd for them and my 50 quid haix are just as comfy and lasting just as long, had a load of abuse this year on a clearing saw job and looking rough now but still almost water proof 4 years later

It was Feb time and they summer roosts and under the supervision of a bat inspector, was for a big company on a major pipeline.. I'll be honest i have no idea the ins and outs of the law but assumed with the bat inspector there it must of been ok. He never had a climbing ticket so i had to climb for him. I thought the idea was exactly that to stop them gaining access, these trees were question marks wether they could stay or not depending exactly where they laid the pipe. I guess it would be another few months before they knew exactly where the pipe would go and by then if they were occupied by bats and tree/limb needed to come off/down it would stop a multi million pound pipeline in the middle of the pipeline laying season. It could of been almost 20 years ago too so no idea if best practice or rules have changed since then. Really a bit like putting the netting over a hedge if u might need to rip it out later in the year and don't want birds to be nesting there.

I totally realise that mark but i bet if u phoned a bat inspector thats wot they'd say or atleast many would say, they definately would with house building inspections, so really anything needing a building warrant. But there just covering there own arse aswell as when u see the tiny spaces they can use would be very easy to miss 1, but if ur there at dawn or dusk u will se them emerging I managed to get a sensible lad out to do my bat survey but the 2 'fancier' companies wanted £1200-1500 quid plus vat and that was 5 years ago for the basic survey, actually find a bat and need a licence/mitagation etc more money again, the roofer was going to reslate the whole roof for not much more. Lets face it almost any tree that is dangerous as it has a defect will most likely have bat 'potential' I mind 20 odd years ago done some volanteernig with local bat group, wot a bunch of nut jobs. IN my opinion very little common sense or dealing with them, just thought bats were more important than every other living thing and that was it. I mind sone farmer phoned up as he felled a tree and found some bats when it was on the deck and wanted some advice, all they wanted to do was prosecute him. I also mind on that pipeline job they wanted me to section and rigg down these 2 big rotten hard woods as they had potential bat roosts all throu them, so obviously rotten and full of defects. I told them to f@@k right off, no chance i'm risking my life to save a bats life. To be fair a better climber might of done them ok safely but way above my experience level back then, and a bit before mweps were really that common as they are now

I'm not an expert but i would expect most bat inspectors would want to wait until May time ( atleast up here) till the bats are in there summer roosts and do a dawn and dusk survey. I know with roofing surveys they insist on the dawn and dusk surveys even if no sign of bats anywhere in house/roof. I know i done some work on a pipeline many years ago and i had to climb trees around feb time with a bat guy watching and stuff any cracks and cavities with teram type stuff so bats couldn't access the cavities when they emereged from hibernation in spring. It was for trees they weren't entirely sure would have to come down or not depending on the exact line the pipes took, but they didn't want to be hampered by having a 'live bat roost' incase they needed it down when they got round to laying the pipes. Have to admit i have no idea wot paper work or licences they had to do it

The old rule of thumb was roughly the root will extend similar to the size of canopy, and most trees don't really go down that deep. We had some real massive Sitka blow on a site ( talking 3ft+ butts and getting 7x 4.9 logs of them, 1 paticularly big ugly log the harvester couldn't even lift the bottom 4.9 log) and they were growing in quite literally 1-2" of peat on top off solid granite bedrock. Truelly amazing they grew anywhere near so big, As someone else just said have a wander round some local woods u like the look off or decide wot wildlife u'd rather attempt to attract, which would help if there is other similar habitat nearby. Similar to above ur biggest problem will be the size, 1.5 acres is wot roughly 1.5 football pitches? by the time u have some open spaces and rides u might only have space for 3 or 4 groupings of trees. So ur probably better having more of a few species that go well together and compliment each other than a 'noah's ark' of 1 or 2 of every tree species. And possibly more of the smaller tree types purely as u can get more in, say a mature oak, beech etc could have a 10 or 20m canopy around that 1 tree Again about ur size depending wot wildlife u want to attract, 1.5ac will not really be big enough to fully sustain much on its own, but if there was 3 or 4+ similar types of woodlands in ur general area all linked by hedges/wild life corridirs then ur small area would really be punching above its size as well as improving the other areas too. So not a lot of point in trying to attract something not already in the area. The above suggestion about an orchard and ur wild flowers is a good suggestion Ur biggest problem will be reining in ur ideas to fit the space. Just a final thing to mention, just be careful about encouraging bats, i have nothing against bats, infact quite like them as they eat midges but the legislation around them is a bloody nightmare. If u ever want to do work on/extend ur house and u end up with a bat issue it could cost u a fortune and i'd be kicking myself f i had encouraged more. If u want to stick bat boxes up, i'd use homemade timber (untreated) rather than those concrete type that last for years/ever as if a bat uses the box tree is protected but once ur timber box rots away tree no longer protected, so up to u to replace or move the boxes over time. The legislation is all wrong too much stick with no carrot, imade a load of bat boxes to go up in my wood but when i got the prices in for bat surveys etc i thought #### that last thing i want to do is encourage more if it costs money in future

Do u have any other aims in wot u'd like to achieve/attract?? Some good advice above already about leaving plenty of wide rides, u could possibly look at altering ur wild flower seed mix for others nectar rich/butterfly etc, heaps of different seed mixes available from likes of kings or brights. If for wildlife an understory is quite important so shrubby type trees/plants. If u plant in small patches if u can plant shrubby/low trees round edges with the highest growing trees towards the centre Theyre will always be some maintence many of the good shrubby understory plants can be quite invasive if left to there own esp in good soil. Is it possible to fence it? While u say ur ok for deer and rabbits if u want widlife to breed chances are predators will be ur biggest problem, and has chesihire not got big numbers of badger? Mnay nature reserves are now predator fencing areas and seeing big differences.

Cheers openspace. Wot happens if the air gets too hot? Do the fans have a maximum operating temp? The fan will be quite a bit away from the inlet, i must admit i'm still looking at the finer details of best fans etc. So far pretty much everyone has told me its a stupid idea that will never work, so glad to come on here and see its not so silly. No no de humidifier yet, probably putting in a extractor fan. At moment only got the roof trusses, sarking and membrane on just before crimbo, its effectively a new build. Old roof ripped off and whole rear wall knocked down and ripped out, floor dug out to be concreted, shifted about 3000T of soil from a banking behind it and moved a burn so not been a simple build, will get easier now. My 1 problem which i will overcome somehow will be placing these pipes/ducts in the wall and then remembering where they are to connect them later after i get my completion certificate, don't want holes all over my nicely plastered walls!!!

I think it depend exactly on each persons circumstances, as said all have pros and cons. I have both a pick up and a wee van ( kangoo at moment) the kangoo is the 1st choice 100% of time no matter the weather unless i need to tow or carrying my dogs, i actually prefer a 2wd light van over a heavy pick up in the snow/ice But they're is a hell of a lot of forestry contractors, machine ops/digger lads and even the FC themselves all run wee 2wd vans. I don't think many of the FC vans are even 4wd anymore. I know a couple of big civils/digger companies and a big harvesting outfits that supply the employed boys just with wee vans and all work 100% of time doing forestry work in some big areas of forestry, so sometimes long tracks in. 10 miles up a track would just be norma, seen some sites 20+miles up a track Yes u have to drive a bit more sensible straddle ruts etc, 1 lad i was working with hit an 8" log on the forest road the other month and pushed/bent the sump pan in enough to foul/block the oil pick up. He was just going steady in 1st gear the track was a disgrace, forwarder running/turning on it and at the bottom of a steep peaty hill, hence the fact he couldnae even see an 8" log in the mud. mud pretty much bumper deep in parts and wee vans handling it fine as hard below if ur doing a lot of track miles u will get suspension wear no matter wot u buy even driving at sensible speeds, but the bill for wee vans are always quite reasonable, pick ups never have a reasonable bill. Put some winter tyres on a decent wee van and surprising where they will go quite often further than a big heavy 4x4 on summer road tyres ( if ground clearnace doesnt let it down) and buy a set of snow socks or even chains for emergancies if ur in a snowy area, amazing the difference winter tyres or snow socks make to summer tyres But i got caught out with 2 combi vans, the older 03 plate 1.7 was a brilliant motor off road or in snow but the newer 06 1.3/1.5? was absolutley usless just revved too quick with no torque And to cape of the disaster different sized wheels i just had put 4 new tyres on my old combi 6 weeks before it died and expected them to fit on the new 1, no such luck

Every day is a school day, neve rheard that 1 before. So if i had an electric fan at ground level blowing air toward the stove it would maximise the heat?? Trying to get a bit of flow going

Cheers folks I think i'll go with the bigger stove then. Aye open thats exactly the type of fans i was looking at coupled with that insulated felxi ducting. I take it this system would work better if the outlet vents are at floor level rather than ceiling level so the hot air doesn't just hang about at the top. Not expecting great lots of heat from it but if i can get a wee bit extra up far end of the house and take the excess away from the log burner area its just a win win really There is a drying cupboad being put in which i was hoping to blow warm air into, only 1.5 x 2.5m but it could make a massive differnce for that, as in the spring/summer/autumn time if heating off/low, i think the UFH might be too slow to respond to dry ur wet cutting gear and getting it dry for next morning. We'll soon find out anyway 1 way or other, can always stick an electric in if i really need to for odd occasions for such a small space

I think i have overcomplicated the question with detail. There is absoltley no chance of me plumbing the stove in to hot water system far too far down the line now with planning and building warrants/inspectors Would a stove 2.5kw more than reccommended make a room 50m2 ( or 150m3) which is a big room with 4 big windows too hot? Even if only on for 3 to 4 hours or so a day? To me it doesn't seem a massive amount more in such a big room But my experience is only with cheap stoves not performing very well in a draughty caravan and my dog kennel so My 2nd question is similar to wot u have done above Openspace, i was planning on having an inlet vent in the ceiling above log burner connected to a decent sized inline fan to suck the hot air above the log burner and blow it to the far side of the house throu insulated ducting in the loft. These inline fans are often blowing/sucking around 500m3 of air an hour so 5 times more than a normal bathroom fan. Must admit i'm not even sure if i can put this fan thing in till after i get the completion certificate inspector may not like any hill billy fixes/ideas

With the house design i'd end up losing a bedroom to make way for the thermal store etc, despite having 1 massive room the rest of the house is very tight and quite small rooms really Just not really vaible, or far more hassle than it was worth. The ammount of extra it would cost would buy an awful lot of LPG. Plus that was another issue with me being out the house for so long would 4hrs heat up enough water in the thermal store to run the UFH in a cold snap.for the other 18hrs And u still need to put an additional heating method in for during the summer months. It was well looked into with having all this firewood but just far too many problems for this house just couldn't get it to stack up. Could be different in other houses but in this occasion was just a non starter, The RHI boiler plus tank was 14k and thats for a 2 bed house and that was priced 5 years ago, just silly money, doing away with it has given me an extra small bedroom. A combi boiler will suit my hot water needs far better, just trying to minimise the costs for heating and use as much firewood as i can. IN my last house which wasn't paticularly well insulated my heating was only ever on for 3-4 months a year Too far down the line now with building warrants etc to change now anyway just trying to get the best out wot i have to go with.

Cheers so far Must admit the wax thing seemed a clever idea on the stove, i always mind 1 of those alsakan programmes and 1 bloke lined his greenhouses with bottles of water, water would take heat in throu day and keep greenhouses warmer at night, said it made a big difference in the spring and late summer there I think my hot air idea has been mis understood, i'm only moving the hot room air from the ceiling just as u would with an extractor fan in a toilet/above the cooker except instead of exiting out the wall externally i was hoping to move the warm air to the far side of the house throu a pipe/duct in the loft. Many of these inline fans are moving 500m3 an hour, that would be 3 times the air in that room Not touching anything to do with the chimney flue. Most folk i speak to with log burners say there great but after a few hours the room is far too hot so i was hoping to move that extra hot air elsewhere in the house and use the stove to top up the heat from the UFH. And thats where my experience is the oppisate to most but i fully appreciate it could most likely be because of the cheap stoves Aye i will be putting a direct air kit in to feed the stove direct from outside, which ever size i go for. I could of put radiators in, very little difference in money nowadays between the 2, but i thought if in the future i have to go down a heat pump route u really want UFH rather than radiators. I realise i'm not using the UFH quite the way its intended but my thinking is if say my ideal room temp is 24c ( for example) if i used the UFH to keep it at a steady 15C i can easy top up with the log burner, and will be using a lot less LPG keeping the house at the lower temp for 24hrs. And if well insulated will heat up quickly anyway and keep the heat. But to be honest the way i see it 15C is a half decent summers day up here so cant see the house being that much warmer,. But wot ever the final temp is using the UFH more as a base heat and topping up with the log burner hence my thinking i should go for a slightly larger log burner so i can have a quick big burn rather than a smaller stove that runs all day or u would if the UFH was providing the full heat I originally planned on connecting the log burner to a thermal store etc, but too many drawbacks with the system with the layout of the house. (single story, fire at 1 end all plumbing almost at other tight for space for thermal stores, no place for a heat loss radiator) Quite a few plumbers i asked said it is quite hard to plumb a log burner to do UFH from a log burner, which being honest i don't really understand, surely it doesnt really matter how the thermal store is heated as long as it is heated, but im not a plumber Main drawback was price and space but another major factor was most back boiler stoves can't be used in a power cut, had 3 power cuts the last month with longest for almost 5 days, while that was extreme i do live in an area with trees everywhere. I did try quite hard to get the water of the stove but just couldn't make it work with the size and layout of the house Must admit i do find it ironic how complicated modern heating systems are when u see an old back boiler behind a fire all convection with no pumps involved Just to add i'm going for a clearview stove this time its just the size is only the question. Only bought cheap stoves in the past as for a temp fix in a static while i done the house up

No just blow it out, its not coming out the chimney flue, meaning just to have an inlet vent in the ceiling, similar to Heat recovery systems or explair extractor fan and just blow it out into my drying cupboard and hallway at the other end of the house. I don't know if the vents should b low down on the wall so the hot air rises?? Just the same hot air as in the room so just moving it away from 1 place to another

Alright Just looking for some advice, i'm in the process of renovating an old house and need to choose the stove for heating it. The room is a kitchen/living room, roughly 10m x 5m with 3m ceilings it has 4 quite big windows ( modern double glazed, plus a front door, and insultaed to modern standards, air test etc) Despite that massive room its not really a big house, that room is essentially half the house where the windows were made it hard to have it any other way. The house will have under floor heating from a LPG combi boiler. The advice is around an 8.5kw stove. Wot i'm wondering being a tight jock who has quite literally firewood lying everywhere, got 80+m3 been under cover for 5 years now, probably have to wet it its that bloody dry. And piles lying everywhere else too And with the way LPG/all energy is expected to rise in the near future i would rather use my 'free' firewood as much as possible. Also the house is often empty for 12+ hours a day even at wknds usually out and about outside, so realistically fire will rarely be on for more than 4 hrs at a time.. Wot i was thinking was to keep the UFH turned down a bit ( i struggle to see the point/sense in heating an empty house to normal warm room temps) and use a larger log burner to provide the extra heat when we get in at night. Say step up to an 11kw or something Would that be too hot for the room?? My experience of log burners is not that good, put a 5kw 1 in my static from local blacksmith, guessing a cheapy chinese? and had to rip it out after 1 winter static was bloody freezing, and thats with 2" of poly sterene under the floor. Now on a cheapy 8kw 1 which is ok but ur still not sweating in t shirts in winter time,but both being cheaper i don't really know how hot a 'proper' well made burner is They are about to slate the roof at start of jan, but if i step up from an 8kw any higher ur really need a 7" flue. My other daft idea which is another reason for a larger stove is to install a a flue pipe above it say attached to a 6" insluted flue pipe with an inline fan and suck the hot air away from the stove and fire it down to the far side of the house. Some of these inline fans are blowing 5 or 6 times more than ur normal bathroom explair air extractor fan, really a hear recovery system on steroids with no fancy heat exchangers etc. Would that work?? Most folk i've spoke to reckon it won't but never give a reason why, but i struggle to see why it won't. Ur just sucking hot air from 1 pace and moving it 10m and blowing it out there, seems so simple i don't know why more folk haven't tried it I can mind as a kid my aunt had 1 of those hot air central heating systems, i'm sure they were'nt very effecient, but i'm just wanting to mov the excess heat already made. Cheers for any advice/tips

Dunno where u are but last year mibbee even year before, i was on a skyline job, real shiitty scots, no idea how it paid but seemingly mill was desperate for it for shaver bars and wood chip for animal bedding. They seemed to think scots was better for those jobs than other timber, or atleast that was the impression i got Is 30 quid a T not a bit cheap for chip at roadside? I thought it was making 50-60 quid at roadside, althou i'm just a grunt on the saw never get overly involved in prices etc