Gav73

Mine have to earn their pocket money and the youngest quickly realised that hard graft led to more money, which is why he started selling the kindling

I'm older and sensible and get the kids to do it. Youngest has been splitting and selling nets of kindling since he was 4! He's got more money in the bank than me!! As for speed, they would out split everything other than a proper kindling machine.

Is that the fast microwave popcorn or the slow on the pan stuff? [emoji23]

I agree, although I did wonder why I had to carry a car battery around with me [emoji23]

I got one of these from eBay many many years ago. It says it’s 12000lm, not sure if that’s correct or not. It’s very bright and considering it was only a tenner, I’d say it’s worth every penny. Battery life is amazing and I can leave it for months without it draining.

So reading this, am I right in thinking anyone who signed up to (and paid for the privilege of joining) the woodsure scheme has actually wasted their money until it gets debated and signed off? And that woodsure have as much authority as me when it comes to picking what colour the paint will be for the living room?

Apparently there’s loads of lithium in Cornwall, once it gets dug up the costs might come down a bit for the batteries - maybe! I’m not yet convinced on the idea of a battery chainsaw, I’ve fallen foul of battery drill/drivers running out of juice at the worst possible times. It’s probably one of those things where I need to borrow someone else’s and use it for a while before I bite the bullet and buy one

I think I’ve seen the same video, your improvement looks like it makes it much easier to line up the next cut - something I didn’t think was that easy on the original version [emoji1303]

Explains the different terms well. Now all we need is the answer to the “how many logs do you get in a net” question

Have to agree with this one. I split some poplar yesterday that had been sitting in the “to be split pile” for the last 2 years. Bark fell off just with me looking at it, some was lighter than a feather and coming in at 13% moisture, other bits were as heavy as newly felled oak rounds. On these my moisture meter read 75%! All the rounds were off the ground on a pallet and open to the elements. Guess some got more than their fair share of the rain. I know from past experience, that once they are stacked and undercover the wind and sun will dry them out very quickly

Sure, just send me a picture of the part you need and I’ll get it off the spares mower

Why would the customer complain? Only reasons I can think of is they’re pissed off with you or they’ve been sold a duff batch.

Nope it’s not. The new wheels were a lot more bloody expensive, but the principle is the same, no point having a self sealing tyre if the wheel rots

There’s no way the testing will happen at a customers place, for that to happen you’d have to disclose the customers details, that opens up a whole data protection issue. There would also be the issue of proving which bit of firewood you supplied. Woodsure will have your details and the test will be on your firewood at your premises.

I might be able to help you there, as well as the one I’m running, I’ve got one where the engine gave up, I’ve been using it for spare parts, so I might have what you’re looking fot

When you prime it your finger naturally covers the hole, I don’t think it fills with fuel as it doesn’t drain out when you take your finger off it and I recall that you have to take your finger away for the bubble to come back out (I’m assuming the hole is doing that, by letting the air back in) Obviously it’s been a number of months since I last used the lawnmower!

I’ve had a sovereign mower for years. Yes the “primer bubble” does have a hole in it, it’s meant to have it. The only time it leaks from mine is if I store the mower on its front end. It’s not like a normal primer on a chainsaw or hedge trimmer and you’re right it shouldn’t have fuel in it.

I will never use any of the puncture preventative stuff after seeing what it did to my Dad’s Harley Davidson wheels. It basically rotted them from the inside - luckily he found out when getting a new tyre and not when he was out riding!

The nutrition test is fine in theory, but doesn’t work in practice as the tolerance levels are massive. Fat for example can have a tolerance of 20% either way if the fat content is between 10-40g per 100g. That could be a big variation from what the label might say. The problem with any test is the real world will always be different to laboratory conditions. Just think about how we use firewood, best practice is to bring in firewood a few days before it’s going to be used to - because it drops the moisture content a bit more and therefore burns better. If kiln dried logs in a warehouse were tested against air seasoned logs kept in a barn, even if both are properly seasoned, the moisture levels will different because of the relative humidity. There just needs to be an agreed method of calculation that is reasonable and simple. Overcomplicate it and everyone gets confused and won’t do it. I agree with it being an average, there just needs to be a sensible way of calculating it.

So according to the video on the woodsure website, if you took a few of your kiln dried oak pieces, split them, measured the centre and then averaged the results (assuming they are all 30%) then they wouldn’t be within the rules. But I’ve also read somewhere the measures would be the average reading of both ends and the centre of the split piece of firewood if woodsure were to conduct the test themselves. (Think there’s a thread on here somewhere that mentions it)

Bit of a strange thing happened today, I was bringing in some firewood to fill the baskets indoors before the next cold spell starts and noticed the holly, that I split and stacked in October last year, in the next log store bay was full of shakes. I grabbed a couple of pieces to tap together and got the sharp ding. To make sure I got the moisture meter out, split a piece in half, and got a reading of 15%! It was probably the worst thing I’ve ever had to split - the base of the trunk was over 18” in diameter, biggest holly tree I’ve ever heard of. Manhandling it was horrible, chainsawing it up into firewood size rounds was horrible and splitting was bloody hard work - tried the axe first, three massive swings before it would start cracking! Moved only my kinetic splitter and it took a couple of hits before it started to crack and finally got the 20t venom on it which managed it well. The tree surgeons who took it down and gave it to me were cursing it as it knackered up their chipper! I was expecting this to take well over 12 months to get anywhere near dry enough to burn. Anyone else experienced anything like this or it this some kind of freak phenomenon?

I’d post the info on gumtree, ebay, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and anywhere else you can think of - you might find someone will recognise the reg number and tell you who it belongs to and where to find them....

Correct. I date each bay when it’s full using a markal paint stick - better than chalk as it doesn’t wash off. I had the same problem of remembering when I split and stacked, but the dating really helps.

All of this is arb waste, The trick is to put the “unstable” and odd shaped bits at the back and use the more uniform pieces at the front to stabilise the stack. It doesn’t take long to do

I had to endure chainsaw wellies until I found some decent boots that would fix me. The curse of having size 13 feet! I couldn’t wait to get rid of the wellies, uncomfortable doesn’t come close to describing what it’s like to wear them