DocMustard
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Everything posted by DocMustard
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I have spotted one of these 6hp machines this morning (Forest Master), I am after something for chipping brash/thin stuff to 40mm max diameter. Probable a day (6-8 hours) usage per month. I don't have a huge budget and do not have a requirement for a large professional machine. Any suggestions or advice welcomed.
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Good morning, thanks for the advice, I will give this one a miss based on your advice, I'm certainly not desperate at the moment.
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Morning all, I have access to a recently felled horse chestnut tree. I have never logged or burned this before, does anyone have any experience of the species? How does it season and burn? I have capacity to season it for at least 2 years.
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THIS ADVERT HAS EXPIRED!
- FOR SALE
- USED
Pair of Ranger type 1 chainsaw boots with toecaps, size EU43, UK9. Less than 5 hours wear, with very little flexing marks in the leather uppers and no scuffs or scratches. Soles are in equally good condition with little sign of wear. Provided with 2 metre long laces.£65
Preston, Lancashire - GB
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How To Operate a Log Splitter
DocMustard replied to Ontario Firewood Resource's topic in Firewood forum
Is there a word missing from the title of the clip..........the word 'not' by any chance? After 5 minutes there was more physical work being done to separate the part split logs than anything else and the thing nearly tipped over twice dealing with a couple of knots! If this is how they operate and how they are meant to be operated I will stick with my axes, wedges and sledgehammers thank you. -
This is common sense, hardly a 'free hack' as the clip header suggests. Contain the wood, it stays where it is and you don't have to pick it up from several feet away. Personally I find having a chopping block at mid-thigh height more user friendly, and don't mind the added exercise of bending and stretching a bit to pick the logs up. It's horses for courses with most manual tasks like this.
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what logs have you been chopping today!
DocMustard replied to william petts's topic in Firewood forum
Had a good tidy and stack session today as it was dry for a change, logged up some lumps of green oak and beech to get them started on the seasoning journey. Turned some old red pine roof spars into kindling to finish the afternoon. The x27 axe was doing a great job on the logs. -
That top pic looks like some oak branches i have, particularly the heartwood rings in the centre.
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Light heartwood and the bark appearance suggest willow. Look very similar to willow i cut a couple of years ago.
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I have freed up a log store in my yard that i will use to house a portion of oak that i will split to stove size. I have never had fresh oak firewood before so it will enable me to establish how some of it seasons and dries. I am in no rush so if it needs two seasons that is fine. I find with this sort of thing nearly every day is a school day. Thanks to those who have provided advice (neiln).
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what logs have you been chopping today!
DocMustard replied to william petts's topic in Firewood forum
I spent the last 2 weekends sawing and splitting a load of felled roughly 2 feet diameter beech trunks, I sawed them into 17" sections then split each one into 6 pieces with wedges and 14lb sledgehammer. That was the easy bit, carrying them to the edge of the woodland was hard work as the ground was sodden wet and very uneven. Shifted 5 cubic metres so far in about 13 hours of work. There is one trunk section still to do, about 12' long and 3' diameter at the thickest end tapering to 2 1/2'. The tree had to come down as it was starting to rot in the middle. -
Hi Stubby, no grub or beetle holes that I could see in the affected trunk. One other which is a bit greener (not processed it, it was in the same store) has lots of holes in the bark like lead shot marks, I have assumed that particular truck section has had some form of woodworm or boring insect in the bark. That won't get processed for months yet, I guess if it displays the same characteristics when I process it then it may suggest the same cause. I've fetched 6 logs in so far this evening and it's burnt great, so I'm not worried about any effect on the wood heat output, I'm a naturally inquisitive person so am interested in the phenomenon and its cause.
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Evening all, question for you. I've been processing a few cubic metres of 12 month seasoned ash recently and one trunk has the bark in an unusual condition. The bark is quite crumbly and when knocked off with an axe there is a black soot-like powder between it and the edge of the wood. The wood itselfappears fine, typical whitish appearance and is reading under 15% humidity with the Stihl meter, so is burning pretty well. I'm keeping this separate from the other processed wood and only bringing in a few logs of it at a time to put straight into the stove, in case it is some kind of mould or other spore that I don't want in my other wood nor in the house. Has anyone experienced this with ash and do I need to be concerned at all? Is bringing a few logs in at a time the best approach? Thanks for any advice/anecdotes.
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I'll give it some consideration, thanks for explaining your experience of holding good sized quantities of wood stocks.
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Well, to be honest, I'm not sure, but given the state of the nation these days I would not be surprised what people may steal.
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I split some rounds yesterday and discovered that it splits lovely when green. The reason for me wanting to pre-season it in bigger chunks is merely the security factor, as I am seasoning it in a log store in the garden I want the pieces to be big and difficult to move, to stop them going missing. I've done this with beech before, although it makes final splitting hard work, it means the wood is secure. I'm a bit paranoid about it being stolen especially given the prices of processed seasoned logs these days.
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Good timing, this week I've cut up an oak tree that had been felled as it was going rotten in the middle, right at the bottom of the trunk and had been condemned. The trunk rings are up to 22 inches diameter, and I have about a tonne of 10 inch diameter branch wood. My plan was to simply split the whole lot into halves and leave it for two seasons in a covered log store outside, however having read this post I will split the trunk sections into quarters to aid seasoning. I do intend to stack the oak wood loosely to get plenty of airflow through and around it. I've got sycamore and beech too, which I can use to mix in with the oak when the time comes, I plan to season these for at least a year again in covered storage outdoors with lots of airflow space. I'll be checking the mc with my Stihl moisture meter fairly frequently. Some interesting points about oak in the posts above, Vincent Thurkettle's book describes oak as an excellent firewood.
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Typical crap advice from the government & regulators. The thing that needs to be achieved is a reduction in moisture content. That could be achieved in one year if the wood is stored under cover with good airflow and a hot summer. The requirement to store it for 2 years is not specific enough, I.e. what if someone stored it outside with no cover in the rain etc for 2 years? Would that make it ready to burn, no, but it will have been stored for 2 years. My advice would be to sell the buyer a moisture meter with the wood!
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I had a query once from someone at work who had used a petrol chainsaw to try and cut logs but was very disturbed by the saw throwing the wood out of what she called timber jaws. I asked her what she was doing and was told that she was trying to operate it in the same way that she had operated an electrically powered chainsaw some years before. I then discovered that electric chainsaws don't always have a variable throttle and she had been using the electric saw with the throttle fully depressed. What she didn't know was that the petrol saw had a variable throttle and was thus taking it to a small log at full throttle which was throwing the wood up in the air. So if you dont already know, regulate the throttle use on your petrol saw.
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Thanks for the advice, I'll have a look at the options at .050 or less. Cheers everyone.
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Afternoon all. I'm looking around for a replacement bar and chain for my (please don't take the proverbial!) Stihl MS181. It's got a .050 gauge chain and bar fitted as it came new. I'm finding that I can get better prices and a wider choice of chain cutter types if I get a .063 gauge. Obviously the pitch would remain the same. Is going up a gauge from .050 to .063 an issue? Uses are light felling, limbing and firewood cutting. Thanks.
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Enjoyed watching your video this morning, great piece of work. Could do with a couple of those wind blown ash to stock me up ?
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I was expecting a link to a YouTube video. There are no end of videos on there covering home made splitters, some with questionable personal safety levels.
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Hiya Spuddog, do you have any of this hornbeam wood you would sell for me to process myself, are you willing to sell some on unprocessed in unsplit lengths? I'm down the road in Freckleton, PR4, will pay cost & delivery for a pickup & trailer load whatever that is (guessing a couple of tonnes). Drop me a message, thanks.
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Great post this, anyone burning or attempting to burn wet wood needs their stove removing from their house as they obviously don't have a clue what they are doing. Why regulate the installation of stoves, flues and sale of wood when people can attempt to burn whatever they like? On the subject of drying wood out, i find that the wind and sun, through an open sided log store with a felted board roof to keep the rain off does the trick, I've 2 year old beech that is down to 11% moisture that burnt lovely all winter.
