Steven P

You sure about that?.... As for the logs, it can be hit or miss. I look at it as the people who work in your area regularly will have somewhere to tip their waste sorted, those that don't often might be having to drive theirs back to a base miles away - and it is these that the tip site is great for. Might be that you get loads of 'outsiders' working in your area, might be the local companies get all the work. People do get logs through tip site but I wouldn't be banking all my winter heating on it.

Like the rod idea, could have done with that a couple of years ago when my baffle plate needed replacing - it wasn't sitting on the lugs any more

If you are careful I guess you can do this technically, take enough bricks out the chimney to let you have access to install the liner and then put the bricks back in again after?

For this year you might have to suffer and pay for some dry firewood, but while you are at it, keep warmer by splitting and stacking what you have outside. As above, there is a lot of water in wet logs that will be making your house damp as they dry - you'll have to have the windows opened to get rid of that which kind of reduces the heat from the fire

Has this tree ever had any work done on it before, not sure but cut back to where the trunk splits all at one point, maybe a few years ago now, Cherry trees do grow back quite happily .

My chimney comes out the top and not the back but the stove will do both, my baffle plate is 'L' shaped with the 'L' angle about 135 degrees. Horizontal at the top and sloping downwards at the back to rest on a ledge just above the fire bricks. I don't think these are precision designed. might be wrong of course. I think the baffle plate slows the exhaust of uncombusted gasses up the chimney and creates some vortexes so that these gasses can burn - and that improves the efficiency. (again, I might be wrong, but that's how it works in my mind). I think then the critical thing is to have - something - there to do this, and whether it is a piece of vermiculite, 3mm bent steel or a bespoke piece all will work, My first thing to do would be to measure the firebox, and see what you can get with the same width (or a couple of mm short) - you can get an angle grinder or saw to chop the length down later (I got a domestic angle grinder from Argos the other week £35, did the job, not too expensive). I say the width - in mine the baffle plate has a couple of notches so that you can lift it past the bolts on each side - get the width right and you might not need to cut these yourself, saves a job. If you want to get it right get an amazon box (the card is about the right thickness) and make a template, perhaps firm up the angle with a brace to keep it steady while you check it goes in and out OK - and measure that, am sure there will be an aftermarket -something- out there Last comment, for this I suspect a friendly local fabrication shop could knock something up quickly given the dimensions for about the price of an OEM piece, you might need to help out with cutting slots in as required but the basic shape should be easy for them

.. my school work experience was working in a shop..... I think yours is so much better!

Just quote the GDPR regulations, there must be something in there, the data being that you worked on one of their jobs (implied from the photographs) and didn't give permission for your data to be used in marketting

"My guess is that they flood it and then its dreadful if not impossible to start." - take the spark plug out if you think that's what they did and pull it over for a bit to clear it usually works for me

Have you looked in the existing fireplace? Where is the lintel across the top? It sounds from your question that your first preference is to be in the fireplace itself and if the lintel is high enough it just needs opening up a bit more. if that is feasible then you will need to check the clearances around the stove to the chimney walls as well Next I would go for option 3, flue goes up the chimney, you get some heat out of the chimney to. You'll have to measure this up carefully, I know a mock up photo can be off with scales but the angle of the flue will be at 45 degrees, given the stove height, a bit of streight flue, the angle and so on, where will it penetrate the chimney or ceiling to get the stove where you want... and this might mean you have to go for option 1, the outside wall to get a cheaper install. I reckon 45 degrees will take you to the base of the arch or a bit higher. If you can get a builder in to do changes then a new lintel in the chimney and open up the fireplace a bit more might not be that much, and if you are thinking DIY install that will give you an easier flue install being a straighter run

and remember that the local guys who work in your area will have arrangements in place, are not sitting on a huge pile of wood hoping for someone to take it off their hands. Outside the area and people will look for places to dump logs, As an example, one of the local tree surgeons around here has to double back 1/2 mile along the dual carriage way to get to mine or go 1 mile in the other direction to get to his yard - I doubt he will ever call in given his kettle is only 2 minutes further down the road. [edit] I should say however that the tip site is a useful feature, keep on it and be patient, I have had a few loads of logs from guys operating locally, never enough for a full winter and you might need to be a little proactive and also talk to the local guys, let them know where you are (if they are in their area, they won't be looking for tip sites, but if the difference is a 30 minute round trip to tip a load or a 5 minute trip they might remember you)

I was tempted by the pallet buster, are they worth it - look like they could do the job but a lot of tools are like that till you try them

My tool of choice is AutoCad and certainly that is possible with that - if you break that down to the basics you need to read from an excel file 11 columns of data, then take that info to position a circle or ellipse? and some text based on coordinates in excel. BricsCAD should be able to do the same which is cheaper, for 2d only BricsCAD lite might work?. I am not sure about Rhino, it doesn't come up often in CAD forums that I read, you might now though, can you do any automation with it, like excel Macros, AutoCAD uses LISPs - if you can there are loads of examples out there to do mostly what you want. Even easier if you can save the excel file as a CSV file type. If you go to CADtutor.net, someone might know enough there to help out before you spend any cash on software.

Pallets - if they are still whole then you are usually OK to go through the stringers with a saw. My preference is to assume they are kindling, use a decent piece of wood to prize them apart - crow bar if you must, then just split the planks lengthways. At half or third width, a decent hit with the axe chops them into length

and there are after market suppliers who might have a baffle that is close enough to the original if you can get dimensions (even dimensions from inside the stove)

He knows now, perhaps he can finally tell us exactly how long a piece of string is?

Setting a price.. what do your potential competetors charge? and what units do they sell by? that will more than likely set your prices than a calculation based on the weight you buy, and the weight of dried wood you sell

'through an internal wall' - what is this made from? You'll need to take into account whether the flue could ignite the internal wall, any ceiling or surrounding materials (look above any ceiling too). I think that 2x 45 degree bends are OK, can't remember if there is a minimum separation between them and also a minimum from the top of the stove, partly so that the sweep brushes and rods can navigate through. Draw - depends a lot on the overall height of the system, 8 or 9' out of the shop part of the building, if you can get a 6' section on top of the stove as well then my mind says this is about the height of a bungalow - and stoves get installed OK and work OK in them. A lot of this depends on temperature difference (you get a better draw the day after a fire than when there wasn't a fire)., hot air rises

'safe to use the wood burner this winter' to me sounds like you have the wood burner there and ready to go, just checking that the chimney is OK? It doesn't look any worse than mine did and the sweep didn't find any problems. The chimney liner makes the wood burner more efficient (well it is really the register plate at the bottom which blocks up the big hole with only the stove chimney poking through that does it), it isn't necessary to have a liner but the fires do work better with it and the lined chimney is cleaner. If you arn't sure then a chimney sweep can advise best

How heavy is a 'bag' of 'wood' My comment will be the type of wood, hard woods? Oak has a density between 600 to 900kg/m3, Balsa at the extreme about 125kg/m3, both are hardwoods. Green oak (lets use oak since everyone wants that) might be 50% heavier than oak at 20% moisture content (as an example) Is the wood measured in an actual builders bag that is stretchy or perhaps into a box or other container that isn't? How is the wood put into the bag? thrown in, dropped of the end of a conveyor, stacked neatly or roughly stacked? There are many variables and it is unusual to see wood sold by weight - mostly by a volume. There is no set volume either, a load, a 'ton' bag, a builders bag, a boot full, a tipper load, trailer load, or a net bag (from the petrol station.... which is the most likely to be sold be 'weight') As for weight, that is tricky to specify

I was told be a shepherds wife once that a sheeps whole goal in life is to die, they'd probably hang about that tree just waiting.

Second comment on this that is sometimes overlooked is that for domestic work, the customer will sometimes ask for the wood to be left, sometimes to be taken away. Are all jobs priced such that any wood taken is to be processed or is that a nice occasional bonus when you can take a couple of tones of oak to process into firewood to sell on and a nice pain in the butt when you take a couple of tonnes of laylandi - taking the wood away is a nice customer service either way, the profit is in the tree work itself.

Regulations - if it met the regulations when installed you are OK even if they have changed I think, for a new install or upgrade you will need to meet the current ones.

You're a bit far away from me but.....I'd do that if needed and if the logs were delivered (to collect them from my local tree surgeons tip, 20 minute round trip for a car boot full, another 10 minutes cleaning the boot of tree bits (got a newer car this week.. it will stay clean till then end of September), and what, 10 car boots to a tipper load, 6 hours of collecting, almost quicker to give you a hand for a day!) As for 'free' - yup that would be great but it has to be mutually beneficial to everyone, if you were close to my drive on the way to your usual tip site (East Kilbride by the way......) it might make sense if your work day is shorter for it, or if you need to get back to finish the job. Drive half way across the county to mine for free doesn't make sense, and you might want me to chip in for petrol money and driving time. Got to be realistic.

As above, my first fan was a £50 one from an online store, the next one is a £18 (I think) Aldi one, both stove top fans, and both about the same, I noticed the difference when the first one stopped but not necessarily when I bought it. A slow steady jet of air coming out the fire place, point the fan at the living room door and it sort of sends it to the hall to go upstairs. I reckon the stove top fans at this price the thermoelectric generator are vey similar, and the difference will be the heat sink and fan design. The greater the temperature difference the more power you get from it... so a larger heat sink and a better fan design sends more hot air out. However I don't know how many of these are designed by professors in thermodynamics and how many are designed by a Chinese man (mostly made in China), scrap of paper and put together it sort of works. I suspect there are more Chinese men making these than there are professors. If you want you can get a basic fan and heat sink and spend the same again to get an upgraded generator for a little more power (I haven't yet, got the old one to do that with sometime), and even more power? Try thinking of a water cooler for the 'cold' side but that is going a little far I think My next one will be a Sterling engine fan just for the aesthetics.