SbTVF

Give Henry a ring at Kilworth. If he doesn’t know the best way then probably nobody does.

4 calls before 9.30 this freezing cold frosty morning. Not easy to write down names and addresses when you cant feel your fingers! Been waiting for a cold snap like this to push the sales on though so it’s all good really. How’s everyone else getting on this season?

‘Nowt queerer than folk’ as they say in Yorkshire! I love it when customers bitch like hell and call stove fitters all the names under the sun and then it transcribes they didn’t even use them, they just didn’t like the quote they gave them. [emoji1751]‍[emoji3603]

Perhaps he should wear ear defenders then?

Weren’t that bothered actually. They well used to machine noise now they’ve been in a week or two.

Been ringing up some big stuff before a mate comes with his vertical splitter today. Spud ported 576 on top of the job.

Love my spud ported 576xp. Been cutting some oversize firewood today and it really makes light work of it. Will probably have one our 550s done next year too I think.

Don’t I just know it too. So many supposed ‘best supplier in the area’ round here. Funny how many I get complaining about them! It’s mostly the sycamore that does that but we get a high percentage of sycamore in this area so need it out really. Think I’ll get a proper frame, legs and top sides build for this. Will do the job this year. Don’t know where I’d put a trommel until my brothers sheep have lambed and are out of my bloody shed!

Bodged this up today just to see what happened and I was very pleasantly surprised! A dumpy bag of dust and smashed bark from 10cube of bagged logs. It could easily be refined, however the bigger pieces of bark will still end up in the bag but it’s still a vastly cleaner product at the end I guess.

Drying firewood and then moving it again tends to create a lot of rubbish when bark/splinters/sawdust fall off the logs and end up in your customers bag of logs. We already use a brash separator at the end of the conveyor when processing but the only way we can store enough to see the season through is to tip it into dry storage loose then bag up loader bucket as demand requires. Does anybody use the trommel style cleaner made by palax/hakki pilke or the other style that they do along with posch also? I don’t want to end with complaints and I’d rather reuse it ourselves in the boiler than it go to waste when customers don’t want to use it.

Its about £40 or more roadside fresh felled don’t see why it wouldn’t be at least £50 or more with it being sat a while!

The issue with the UK system though is that it was only intended to replace the use of fossil fuels so they shouldn’t have allowed log drying as a suitable use where it wasn’t already being undertaken by fossil fuels which the vast majority of kin dryers now definitely weren’t doing back then. They’ve literally created an industry financed by RHI through their shoddy legislation and shitty implementation of it as per usual. We kiln dry but the boiler was entirely financed by the farm and farm house. The log kiln is on the system but only uses maybe 15% of the output and it would still be cheaper to use (if they made us take it off the heat calculation) than putting up a great big shed on field space that we can’t afford to give up anyway. When we applied, all they asked for pretty much was that we were a business that had been operating for the last 10 years or something. Didn’t check that the log kiln was existing and being fired off gas. Then again, ofgem wouldn’t have hit their implementation targets if they’d said no to all those installations would they ?‍♂️

The verdict is in as far as I’m concerned. Lasts for almost twice as long as the old LPX. Did 26m3 of logs with the EPX and only 14m3 with the LPX both brand new. There was noticeably less stretch on the EPX too. Needed 1 less tension up over twice the cut volume. Sharpening now with my granberg precision so will see how it fares second time out. I’ve done videos of both and I think the difference in cut speed is marginally faster but maybe only split seconds at the most. Will try upload.

Unless all the bases and tops were in absolute a1 condition so they fit together perfectly and unless they were stored inside out of the wind I wouldn’t risk it. They’re quite unstable 4 high at times. I do a row of 4 high with a row of 3 High either side outside on hardcore and that’s been ok.

Location? Asking price?

Not had a lot of time on processor of late ( it's my wedding in 3 days!!) but the chain is still cutting like new after 16 cube, it's not the cleanest of hardwood either which normally destroys full chisel. Never got even close to that from LPX so the stay sharp ability is definitely evident!! I hope once it's had a sharpen it can run for as long between each sharpen. I tried getting a video up of the new chain but it wouldn't work. It'll have to wait until I get home from the wedding/honeymoon in the first week of november for a comparison video.

Your customer is an idiot. No such thing as too dry. You’re better off without customers that complain dry logs are too dry. If it’s an open fire they should be buying seasoned logs anyway. That being said, they’ll be back up to 18% or thereabouts in no time this winter anyway.

Sales have slowed this last fortnight due to the mild weather. Those customers who were out are probably stocked up already and those who we haven’t heard from we saw quite late last season so won’t be in need yet I imagine. Had a good 70 odd cube out through September though which is our best September yet!

Took up your offer on the chain Rob. For use on our Tajfun 400. Been using Oregon semi chisel on a sugihara bar for the last year because full chisel dulls far too fast. Rotatech does not agree with the sugihara bar for some reason. The EXL is going through everything like a hot knife through butter so far, oak, ash, elm, lime, sycamore, beech and can barely tell a difference in cutting tone, almost sounds like a circular saw him actually. It leaves very smooth cut surfaces too. Put 9 cube through so far, best I’ve done is 30 cube on fresh from the box with semi chisel but it cuts maybe a 3rd to half as slow per cycle so if I do 15 with full chisel it’ll be a time saver. Old LPX struggles to do 7cube from a sharpen usually. Videos to follow.

Yep and it’s a good job I did or I’d be getting complaints. I actually think it’s wetter than the 6 month seasoned I dried earlier in the year [emoji15] Perhaps I dry my logs too much...?

Thanks! That sensor only goes to 70 so I’m assuming we get more like 72 at times! Yeah it’s 90kw of water heat exchangers with 3 fans circulating it through a 10” sub floor or exhausting if the vents open. Gets to about max 60degrees if I vented constantly but that doesn’t do as good a job either imho end up with wet centres in bigger logs usually. 100mm of kingspan insulation all the way round. Probably going to add another 75mm to the ceiling when I get around to it before next season.

Slight topic detour today. ‘What logs have you been drying lately?’ Imported some ash, oak, alder and birch from Lithuania to take the pressure off while I’m away for a fortnight getting married and on honeymoon. In the absence of a working tester I put the oak and ash in our own kiln to see what would happen. Worst case I’ve wasted electricity running the fans and best case they needed putting in anyway! Got back this morning and they’re on 70 degrees at 46% RH. Definitely worth putting in there. Had 6 month seasoned logs in there give out not much more moisture. At least they’ll be dry I suppose. [emoji17]

You need to be getting temperatures well over 50 degrees to even come close to being effective. Ours runs at 65-75 for a week with enough air flow to completely change the air every 30 seconds and it still takes a week to dry 16 cube from 35% moisture to 15%. You need high temperatures to increase the water carrying capacity of the air and then lots of air flow. Ideally a heat recovery system is used on the wet air vent to remove the water from the air and send hot dry air back to the air inlet.

Sent you a Pm.

Find the growi uk website and give him a ring. He was more than happy to discuss the options with me and I was only thinking of buying in some oversize! Very helpful guy. He would even come with an extra man and 2 395’s to ring up for you if you wanted! Think he’s Hertfordshire based if I recall correctly. Even it ended up £500 a day, if you did 50m3 that’s still cheap I reckon!