Witterings

Especially if they're uncut, unsplit and unseasoned. If you'd done your chipper and up to felling small trees certificates and had your own saw you could use .... what would you get paid per day approx as a subbie in the south? And how much extra if your phone stayed in your pocket all day 😄

That's funny ... great minds think alike .... fools however 😄 Might want to take a look at a thread I recently started as there's some useful info there along the same lines

Agree with everything in here ... although I'd possibly go one step further and do the felling small trees as well, I think it's only an extra day and is a lot cheaper to do all at the same time than separately. Must admit the bit that I won't be too keen on is the rain, that said I started doing quite a bit of cycling a few years ago and love the saying .... "There's no such thing as bad weather, just a poor choice in clothing" 😄 And the cyclists on the road that think they own it and are complete a55holes .... I'm not one of them! 😂

It's a bit of both ... I manage to scavange some wood and throughly enjoy the process of cutting it up and splitting it. Despite the fact my day job went crazy busy as lockdown started I took on every single outside project imaginable at the house and it made me realise how I enjoy the physial side of doing something outside as opposed to sitting at a desk and it'd also bring me back to working with other humans. I wouldn't totally give up my "day job" but would ideally do them both part time potentially and picking up some firewood as a by product as a bonus as well.

😰 😂 So true about the the phone, people who can't leave them alone drive me nuts. Made the mistake of buying the Mrs a smart phone for b'day a couple of years ago mainly because she loves her photography and thought it'd be nice to always have a camera with her ... as made famous in the Pretty Woman film .... HUGE mistake!!

Brilliant and than you for that .. some really useful info! I've subsequently gone and found out about the training courses available and spoken with Kingswood training who were incredibly helpful although probably too far away from me. To a degree it's slightly catch 22 especially if doing it for some wood or as paid work. The chipper course is about £ 225 which is probably worth doing but still doesn't enable you to use a chainsaw at all .... I'm guessing it'd be a lot more useful (and more interesting for me) if I could limb / cut up on the ground and even more usefull again if could fell small trees but with each step the cost gets higher. It's that balance between how much I'd do it in the longer term and if it's worth making the investment although the NPTC certfication lasts a lifetime. I'm based just south of Chichester on the coast. EDIT: The above got posted whlst I was typing 😄

I'm thinking about offereing local arborists help as a groundsman in return for wood as opposed to payment i.e. on a voluntary basis and trying to find out if I need any qualifications to do so and if so what the minimum would be. I work for myself sitting behind a desk all day and sometimes it drives me stir crazy, I just want to do something I'd enjoy and that gets me outside even if only on an occasional basis but also as a way of seeing if it's something I'd want to do longer term and as partial income. If that was a route I decided to go down I'd put myself through qualifications at a later stage and then try and find part time work when someone needed an extra pair of hands or had been let down. Any advice anyone can give much appreciated.

Is there any real difference between the Bar / Chain oils and mineral vs semi-synthetic, I was just about to pull the trigger on some husky mineral oil (the cheapest) and then saw the link for Stihl SynthPlus which reads "to prevent resinification during prolonged downtimes" Is there actually much of a difference, it's only a few quid more for 5 ltrs, I'm an occasional user so it will have prolonged downtimes and if it helps reduce maintenance cost I'm all in .... if it doesn't make any difference I may as well just get the cheap stuff.

Cheers all and much appreciated .... looks like I'm a convert 😄

This makes sense and raked over you can see it's all red hot embers on the top ... shame I only learnt this in the last year of using a charcoal BBQ before I went to the dark side ... gas 😱.

I guess it's that debate which seems to be ongoing ... I'm relatively green (not "much" of a pun intended 😅) to having a burner and because of our property we needed a twin flue which is a shed load more expensive than a standard one. I've seen both sides that say ... softwood is fine, stoves originated in Scandi and they don't have hardwood so as long as it's seasoned properly there's no issue. Flip side ... softwood will gunk up and destroy your flue over time ... I guess I'm being over protective to a degree especially as it's fairly new and everytime I've cut down / cut up soft wood you get covered in sap so my jury's still out. Stubby .... you obviously bit your tongue ... what do you know that I don't ... please feel free to go off on one and educate me 😁

I registered as a site ages ago but stipulated hardwood good for burning ... the only call I've ever had was someone looking to offload a large amount of chippings. I think people are wise to hardwood having a value so don't give it away .... maybe I should have stated I'd happily pay for uncut / unseasoned, I'm guessing if you'll accept softwood you'd probably may get more response.

Not really a question or anything but just a topic for conversation ... probably partiatially driven by lockdown boredom as well. I'd seen comments in the past about getting to know your burner and it does take a while to learn how it responds to different situations. Having read you're best off with a deep'ish layer of ash left in it, I'd let it get bigger and bigger over time and recently found out it was suffocating the air supply especially when staring it up so don't leave so much in now as I used to. Biggest thing though ... the instructions tell you to spread the embers out before reloading, as a kid and having had many a camp fire (possibly virging on pyro) and learning they burny best with the wood in a wigwam type formation allowing loads of air in betweem and the fact they were pointing upwards allowing the flame to burn "up" the stick helping to fuel the fire. With a wood burner it works much the same way and you get a great flame ... BUT ... I think it puts the flame / heat at the top of the burner nearest the exit point / flue and a load of the heat's getting lost. The last few days I've spread the embers out and lay logs in flat and whilst it's been the coldest stretch we've had this year and I'm convinved it kicks out a shed load more heat ... partially due to the flame going the whole way up the side / rear of the burner heating what I'm guessing are ceramic plates instead of the heat disappearing straight up the flue, but also the logs settle into a slower burn as the flame from the bottom's not constantly burning the top so it also seems to be using a lot less wood ... win, win 😁 Anybody else that's bored during lockdown please feel free to chime in with your tips and tricks

Nearly went with a Burley but the area we're heating (open plan to another room) thought a convection rather than radiant stove may be better ... probably just marketing BS but mug here fell for it 😄

Thank you for that so no reason I shouldn't add a washer or 2 to fully close it ?? You mentions non Defra though but these 2 links say Defra approved?? Morsø 3142 MORSOE.COM Morsø 3142 Badger Multi Fuel / Wood Burning Stove WWW.STOVESUPERMARKET.CO.UK The Morso 3142 Badger is a convector multi fuel / wood burning stove with plain sides. It is equipped with a riddling grate and ashpan, making it easy to remove ash and clean...

In response to the above. I'm calling the primary air supply as the dial / wheel on the door which allows air to pass through the shaking grate. The secondary as the lever under the ash lip which regulates the air supplied across the glass window .... as per page 8 clause 2 in the link here https://morsoe.com/media/com_hikashop/upload/safe/72311200_-_3112-3116-3142_n-en_uk_-_defra_1608915016.pdf

Cheers for the replies ... I'm guessing by closing it completely it'd just reduce air supply / dampen the fire more but bearing in mind I never fully close the secondary anyway. The net result if I did close it off would be I'd have to leave the secondary more open to get the equivalent flame .. is that right??

The primary air control on my stove which is a dial on the door like many others doesn't fully close but leaves a 1 to 2mm gap the whole way round the dial ... should it be like that?? If not the bolt that feeds through the door that the dial screws onto may just be fractionally too long, there are already a couple of spacers / washers on it, I could easily remove the bolt and add 1 or 2 more which would probably mean it closed fully but not sure of it's been designed / fitted so it shouldn't? If anybody happens to know would be much appreciated, I was going to e-mail the manufacturer but in these strange times combined with the new year thought it may be a while before I received a reply.

Washing machines live longer with Calgon .... maybe I should try some of that 😄 Do washing machines really ‘live longer’ with Calgon? – Which? News WWW.WHICH.CO.UK Calgon claims to extend your washer's life, but we found no convincing proof that washing machines 'live longer with Calgon' when we put it to the test.

Your English is good .... you've certainly mastered where and when use of the word "crap" may be applied .... good to see you've got the essentials down to a T 😄

An awful lot has been around 7/8" with some up to around to around 12" maybe 14" but I can see this increasing in size over time but not by too much. It's why I'm tempted to go with the 16" and then maybe get a 20" later if I find I need it .... certainly if you were regularly cutting 18" it'd make sense to have a 20" from the start but that hasn't been the case so far.

I thought bucking probably was an American term but didn't know what it was called in the UK so cheers for that. The saw will be a Stihl 261 and think I'm probably going to go with the 16" and if I ever need it can get bigger at a later stage although I think it'll probably cover most of my needs. Cheers all for your help!!

Cheers everyone for the input ... much appreciated!!

I think you've just hit the nail on the head and in essence it depends what you're using it for .... I'd forgotten he mentioned cleaner and better for the engine because of it. Guess it all comes down to how much use it gets... someone using all day everyday as you say it'd probably cost you more for the fuel than the saving ... someone like me will use it 4 / 5 times a year for 2 / 3 hour stretches it may be beneficial. Cheers for that a really helpful response!!!! Which part of Devon u from .... used to go down to Okehamton / Jaconstowe quite a lot and love it down there ... a beautiful part of the country!!

What's people's overall preferred bar length for bucking which is most of what I do. Up until now have only had a 14" bar and am about to buy a new saw for chopping up firewood ... it'll take up to a 20" quite easily but I think that'd be overkill for what I want to do with it but may possibly buy a 2nd larger bar down the road when money permits. Tempted to go with a 16" for weight / ease of use and for cut after cut it'll be that fraction faster ... interested to hear what others preferred would be??