Steven P

Couple of comments The charts are ore for radiators - which in turn you work out the size of voler you need - not so relevant for an electric heater wth a thermostat (got to get radiators right, a pain I guess if you have them too small an need to upgrade. and possoly upgrade the boiler too). For elctric heater ig you et it too small it is chea enough tojust buy a second one. Infrared heating to make it cheaper? Never convinced by threse tyes of claims, if you want the room to be 20 degC, or 25 deg C. then you need to put in the same amout of energy. Sure - if you arn't moving about shie an infrared heater at your desk, but as soon as you move about the room you'll feel cod again. Also in a garage, you want some warmth in the ar to stop things getting damp - so go with a fan heater One thing to note, if the office is not occupied, do make sure that the heater won't overheat anything when you leave, with a fire hazard. To answer, yes oil filled, 2.5kw sounds OK. Since it is oil filled it will take a wile t heat the room first thing but will retain its heat in the evening when yu shut up and kee the office warmer overnight

Might be way off the mark, but I had a job once climbing communications towers - and from the top of them you can see loads of stuff that needs to be climbed to maintain them. Comms twers, electricity pylons and so on, depends how much you like climbing

It was generic compatable glass. No problems with it so far.

Im not up to speed on the regs these days, but... so long as you arn't adding to certain tyes of circuit, or altering its protection (the fuse / RCD) then you're OK. Like everything its all for safety - get the cooker wiring wrong and it will just trip the RCD - get a fuse box wrong and it might never trip and then kill you. Cable - B&Q fr about £10 when we got ours, or reuse the old one. Nor here that when ours was deliered we paid for the old ome to be taken away.. and the old cable went too (to be fair we inherited the oven with the house and 10 yers of it no tbeing cleaned I canunderstand why they left it it was worth it to get it take way). I did wonder how self cleaning ovens worked. But... 500 deg C and its clean? so how come my wood burner glass doesn't self clean?

Massive problem with toads is they look like bark. Had a mouse nest in the garage logs one year - nice and cosy and dry for them (no food in the garage so it was just bed for the) -mice were long gone by the time I got to it. Squirrels and seeing the lead flashing - they gnawed through the wheelie bin ld and starting living in it one year, I tipped it up so the squirrel cold get out then took it in the garage to patc hit with mesh and fibre glass, next day got a text "The squirell is in the bin" - sneaky thng must have been sat in the there hiding and watching - and then high as a kite all morning from th fumes. Kind of glad it did keep still rather than jumpng out. I ddn't have the heart to let the bin men take it with them.

I have one living in my freshly cut log pile ( am wanting to stack these for the year so toad will be homeless soon) Couple of questions, does aonyone else have interesting wildlife in their wood piles? (we also had a wood wasp the other year too -huge ad scary looking) Second question, has anyone left any wood piles to atract wildlife and any tips like just throw them in a pile, stack tem, stack them on pallets or bricks or rocks? part bury them? (Mr Toad eats slugs, slugs eat my vegies, mr Toad is good)

Looking back 12 months, I was getting my stove ready for the winter. I put in screed fire brcks (see quote) a year ago and so far so good, they appear to be harder wearing than what I was using before. The one at the back has cracked...but I put that down to the grate falling apart and warping last easter. The faces of the bricks are still in good shape. They even came out and went back in again without breaking - thats a first after being in for a year. So far so good. Just to uodate for the thread, the stove is 7 now, had 3 or 4 sets of fire bricks, a new grate (ny fault for not clearing the ashes out) and ew glass (Cindy fault for slamming the door shut oto a log) [ just needs a new baffle plate (next winter i think) and the internals have all been changed.

Ahhh, yes, the garage, I live in Scotland so fully expect it to rain for 90 days in the next 180, the logs have to get under cover somewhere One thing I forgot to mention before, I make my log piles in sections - so for example tonight I movd some inside and took out a section - but because of this the logs either side didn't fall into the hole that made. Got mine on a palet in the garage, but outsde I just raise them up on bricks - its a space thing that my log pile is longer andthinner rathr than square

OK so I am moving my dry logs ito the garage this week (don't worry, the car has never got close to the garage, doesn't know what it's missing), and the part dried and fresh logs are to be restacked to dry where the dry logs were. I know this sounds like a lot of hassle but it frees up some drive space. Just womdering if anyone has any fool proof ways that dry the logs quickest. I am considering stackig them in rows against the wall, with an air gap of 5 - 10cm between the row, and using longer logs as a roof. In the past I have made hollow circular houss withe the walls a couple of logs thick, plus a roof - the boys played in them in the sumer and the inside walls of the logs were always dry. Sowhat are your top tips?

Looking at it from ther point of view to play devils advocate, its a domestic property.. and how many domestic properties have tipper trucks r grabbers parking up round the back? So when it was installed, above car height, it was suitable and that might their reply - its suitable height fr a domestic property but if you want it raised because the proerry is changing use (they will see it that way if you park plant there) then thats something yo uwill have to pay for.

I must remember to say hat next time I get out my wish list of 2 stroke toys

I was looking at them just now, they also have a chain sharpener for £20, and was going to ask on here what people thought consdering the price of the machine

In glasgow and in the winter it will be on most of the day, obviously building up to that as winter starts and ends. Iver he summer probaby a coupeofhours a month to move the air around the house and remove damp

I have a MS181 which does me well enough, 16" blade. Anything too big I can turn the log arnd and cut from a differnt angle - I don't think anything has defeated it yet. I guess the limiting factor for me isn't the saw, its what I can phsically lift into the boot of the car to take home. As above the local dealer has all the consumables for he saw

If you're supplying the PPE for your employees then it would take a special effort not to have a uniform look within your team (like having to go to differnt suppliers ).

For the petrol there is plenty of anecdotal evidence of the big petrol stations being better. I did some work at Grangemouth - the base petrol is the same but it is given brand specific additivs as it's being umped int the tanker (in highly controlled quantities too). They all meet the minimum standards but its the addatives that mae the difference. For the sake of 1l if fuel and not much more I'm gong t give it a go and see if it helps. Sort of convinced me when the car 'fxed' itself hen t got different petrol. As an update< i adjusted the 'L' o the carb amd it started better today but still not perfect. I'll ry the different fuel next and then look at mechanical things

Thanks - my MS181 was a nightmare today, took ages to fire, wouldn't restart after a couple of minutes when I stopped it, and later refused to play at all. So in conclusion - carb then? Ome thing I read earlier was to open ip the 'L' o the catb a bit which sounds wrong because it was working OK as it was set. -edit- Forgot to mention last night about petrol. I run mine on supermarkt petrol - and also the car (nearest petrol staton). Anyway,the car engine warning light came on... and has clered itself as soon as I put Shell petrol in it - better quality petrol? and I am thinking that over time this might have affected the saw So next week going to get Shell petrol to try

I've had some in the garage since about November and they haven't split.. yet.. about 25mm thick and I kept them in a pile of sawduxt for a few months (my thought, right or wrong was that they would dry slower that way). However if it was important that they didn't crack I would be tempted to cut them closer to the weddng

Go for the middle ground, someone might take them unsplit mid summer . I would but am a bit far away

Not desperate for apples, just seams a waste to see a pot of apples being thrown out. I'll clean up the wound in the morning

I wasn't sure whether to put this in here or general chat becuase I have 2 questions... First off, one of my apple trees was used as a swing by The Boy a couple of years ago abd broke a branch off, the Outlaws (used to be farming types) strapped it back up again and it has thrived for a couple of years. Today it fell off, probably the weight of apples on it. Looking at the scar it only rejoined half way - so am I right to assume I cannot do much with the branch apart from firewod now? Should I ne looking to do anything to protext where the branch snaped off. Second question, there are about 2 1/2 kg of unipe apples.. so does anyone have any killer chutney recepes? (alternative is squirrel / deer / cow food depends where I thow them). I guess smthing like, Apples, sultanas, vinegar and sugar plus some paprika for a bit of a kick? Not so happy - 50 apples that are 1/4 of the size they were when ripe and this was the branch wih most apples on too

... though if your worried, pop them over to mine and I will get rid of them for no charge. If you are storing them outsde then not a problem, they coe in, go on the stove and the tove door is shut, the mould won't go anywhere

I'm not gong to say whether this was a good rate or not - you know your business, overheads, mortage and love for the job, and and much you want in your pocket at the end of the day =. It might be that this days work then leads to 6 months full time jobs, only you know. However it might be worth working it out for yourself a minimum rate, For example (and plucking numbes from theiar for the example): Chainsaw £1 each hour use for replacement / servicing Chain £1 an hour for chain sharening Vehice £2 an hour (to sit on the road not movng) Wages £10 an hour (up to you, I want tomake the sums easy) Admin £1 per hour worked Fuel 50p an hour other hardware £1 an hour of work. Write it down, list it and you could even have it to shw a client if they question the costs So these are your fixed costs.. add more and change the values to suit your business - th eminimum you would charge if the jobs was ver the road at a neighbours Then add in jbs specific - such as travel costs (petrol, vehicle time, your wages) - you could do it as a flat rate i forget what HMRC say a vehicle costs, 50p a mile? plus your wages) Then add in a bit of spare to negotiate with (no one will admit to this beer money but evey business does this £1000 job, bit steep? OK, so if I don't do this (20 minue job), I could do it for £900....) Then you could wrk it out for your business and this job whether the rate was good. £15 might not cover all your costs and give you minimum wage. Hourly rate can work out OK if you get the rate right and you can add in for travelling and so on. As a custmer though I would be tempted to prefer a day rate of pece rate

Maybe but to be fair, the glass was a long log, the grate was me being too lazy too often letting coal ashes build up (let that be an en expensive warning), suspect the fire bricks wre half caused by PET coke, the latest one is caused by the old grate moving and warpng as it fell apart - but the baffle plate, defenite caused by it getting hot I do prefer to run it full on rather than ticking over - it appears to keep cleaner that way

Gong back to a comment about its work - 5 or 6 tmes in 4 year. I tend to get my little engines running at least once a month for a while just to keep everything moving inside (2 stroke oil so it is OK to do repeated stsrts with little wear - and I use the same mix for the mower). Certaily helps when I want to use them properly, and might be worth considering