Getting our winter firewood

[Pat]

just some photos of our Christmas jobs and some shots of our place p

 

[froggy Steve]

looks like a fun day! Our ex-postman delivers our winter wood - 4 to 6m3 will heat our house from Nov to April - a mixture of oak, chestnut and hornbeam, split, and cut to 50cm lengths, delivered and stacked 40€/m3. Cheap heat

 

[StarCruiser]

We have arrangements with local tree surgeons. We sometimes come home to a tree in bits on the drive. We have to chop and cut it to length but I built a 13 tonne hydraulic log splitter a while back which has served us well. While we pay little to nothing for the wood, we can't be choosy. We've been burning leylandii last season and this so far and have had no problems with it, including deposits on the liner which have been no different to burning ash. Ash does of course give far better heat but lives up to its name with the log burner needing emptying every week.

 

[Pat]

This year we are pulling down,pine,casarina(she-oaks)eucalyptus gum and Manuka.it gives a bit of variety.I would love to see a couple of photos of your 13 ton log splitter.Our on we bought new at our national farming field days.Made in Aussie with a good hydraulic system and a big Honda motor.all the best for the new year.

 

[clivehorridge]

Nice post Pat

Always good to see folks working

 

[StarCruiser]

I'll see what I can do Pat. I've got some somewhere but I'll probably take some new ones tomorrow.

 

[Ben]

Looks like a nice place you've got there Pat.

I like your John Deer, its like my bosses only less wheels!

 

[BobMurphy]

I had to take these two dead Sycamores down earlier this year. The bigger one is (was) about 70ft high!

As they were both leaning over the road I took them down from the top, using an anchor chain attached to an 8-ton Merlo Telehandler to ensure they fell back into my property.

I now have a 'Cherry-Picker'; a Ford Transit with a Versalift NF36 sprouting from the roof. It was very handy for taking the branches off before cutting the tops off then cutting the trunk half way.

My neighbour took a couple of pictures - That is me in the Safety Harness clearing the fallen timber from the farm road. The Cherry-Picker bucket is visible on the left.

A handy tool this . . . . (the previous owner's livery has now been removed ).

The trees have been sliced-up like a cucumber - awaiting splitting into logs. Some of the discs are over one metre in diameter .

Most of this will go through the wood burner in the workshop. We don't use the open fire in the house unless its REALLY cold.

Bob.

 

[Pat]

Bob,It's good fun as long as we are careful.I admire the way you did your sycamores, must have been a fair cow with all that foliage.Like your cherry picker too,very handy.Do you have any trouble with the local council with rubbish fires to burn any excess?Are you on a good sized block?

 

[Pat]

Ben,it's a 4x2 gator and has a diff lock and manual tipping tray and I say to my son don't take it in the paddocks when they are soaking wet and you won't get stuck.So far I'm the only silly clown that's got stuck.Boy it's hard to live down.

 

[Pat]

As an ex forester Clive,I thought you might like them.

 

[Pat]

What age would your firewood trees be Steve?when I think of Europe there is always the thought that most timber is a good age.

 

[Pat]

This is a picture of our fireplace.They call it a Kent Woodburner and we have had it for about 30 years.It has a wetback on it for water heating.We took it out about 2 years ago and I completely rebuilt it so it's better than new.Don't worry about the dog and cat as they're warm.

 

[StarCruiser]

Yep, they're happy alright Pat. Some friends of ours had a cheap cast iron pot bellied stove that used to glow cherry red. Their rather elderly cat would curl up in front of it and go to sleep. Trouble was he used to start smouldering and wouldn't move unless they moved him ! Daft cat!

 

[clivehorridge]

As an ex forester Clive,I thought you might like them.

Could never call myself a Forrester Pat, but in the UK, tree felling is a very expensive business. In the 50s & 60s many folks fell into the trap of planting leylandi and were left with the legacy of a 30m tree that they had no room for and a potential bill for up to a grand to shift it.

I was living in a cottage in the country with an open fire and I was nifty at climbing trees. I used to rope myself up, shin up the tree planting anchors on the way, and cut it from the top down in 3m stages, or thereabouts. It was dangerous as I found out, but luckily my mistakes were small and I learned as I went.

My only regret has been the toll it has taken on my back. I used to use a 36" chainsaw and after a 10 hour stint I would realize that it's too heavy for lopping. Should have got myself a few smaller saws.... Hey-ho, that's it. Too late to cry now

Anyway, an enjoyable pastime and I learned a lot about thinking ahead and self-preservation!

 

[BobMurphy]

Bob,It's good fun as long as we are careful.I admire the way you did your sycamores, must have been a fair cow with all that foliage.Like your cherry picker too,very handy.Do you have any trouble with the local council with rubbish fires to burn any excess?Are you on a good sized block?

Yes, Safety is paramount, though I have done some daft things in my time and got away with it (like standing on the top rung of a 36ft ladder, left arm wrapped around a branch while right arm had the 20" chainsaw. When the huge branch fell the tree was swaying about - and I had no safety gear apart from the chainsaw helmet and boiler suit. I'm older now .

I live on a farm with a 2-acre patch. We had 76 mature trees that were very old - some over 90ft high. Over the last 26 years they have gradually died and I have become adept at taking them down. I also fell/lop trees for neighbours and friends if required.

Regarding fires . . . I live next to Edinburgh Airport in full view of the new Control Tower who report any smoke, so I have to liaise with the Fire Service before burning any garden waste. black smoke (i.e. people burning tyres) can lead to Environmental Health and Police becoming interested. Generally, if the wind and weather are right it isn't a problem.

A neighbour now has a 6HP hydraulic log splitter. I used that recently and while it is very good the noise does my head in after a while. I am looking at the electric equivalent which is a lot cheaper than the petrol version. If I need to use it off-site I'll take my 6.5KVA generator with me . I normally use a large axe for splitting up the slices, which I find perfectly adequate (it is a big one though ).

There is something primordial and very satisfying about preparing logs and having a full wood shed by the end of Autumn .

Bob.

 

[BobMurphy]

My only regret has been the toll it has taken on my back. I used to use a 36" chainsaw and after a 10 hour stint I would realize that it's too heavy for lopping. Should have got myself a few smaller saws.... Hey-ho, that's it. Too late to cry now

I agree, Clive. I started with a 20" McCulloch 610 (a grand saw, I still use it) but have moved to smaller saws for trimming - a 10" Pole Saw (a Strimmer with extension shafts and a little chainsaw on the end - very useful around the apple trees). A 12" Stihl 181C, a great little saw for logging as its light yet powerful. Then there is a useless 18" electric thing - a big mistake. A 20" Kraftech KT5200 ?) petrol (not bad in a cheap, plasticky way), the old 20" McCulloch warhorse and a 24" Solo 662 - a bit of a beast.

I have long wanted a decent 36" saw - or larger, but manage with the 24" when cutting large trees.

As I head towards my 69th birthday I find it more tiring to do the extreme outdoor stuff for more than a few hours. It catches up with us in the end .

Bob.

 

[clivehorridge]

I agree, Clive. I started with a 20" McCulloch 610 (a grand saw, I still use it) but have moved to smaller saws for trimming - a 10" Pole Saw (a Strimmer with extension shafts and a little chainsaw on the end - very useful around the apple trees). A 12" Stihl 181C, a great little saw for logging as its light yet powerful. Then there is a useless 18" electric thing - a big mistake. A 20" Kraftech KT5200 ?) petrol (not bad in a cheap, plasticky way), the old 20" McCulloch warhorse and a 24" Solo 662 - a bit of a beast.

I have long wanted a decent 36" saw - or larger, but manage with the 24" when cutting large trees.

As I head towards my 69th birthday I find it more tiring to do the extreme outdoor stuff for more than a few hours. It catches up with us in the end .

Bob.

Can agree with all that Bob, especially the last bit, and I'm only 62

The 36" was from the hire shop in those days, the only one they had. Chain saws were very expensive to buy then and I certainly didn't have the funds to purchase. These days they are very affordable and come in all shapes and sizes. Electric chainsaws are a waste of plastic IMO, only good for kindling.

Yep, I've always found collecting and preparing firewood very therapeutic, and wielding a medium-to-large "fellah" is quite a good work-out too

Maybe I'm odd, but I find grass cutting therapeutic too, sort out most of my problems walking behind the rota-mower for 4 hours in the summer. Like the idea of the mini-on-a-stick, I've seen them and always wondered if they're effective. Good for pruning the uppers on the fruit trees.

 

[froggy Steve]

What age would your firewood trees be Steve?when I think of Europe there is always the thought that most timber is a good age.

At least 3 yrs old - much younger and they are too wet, much older than 4 or 5 then too dry and burn too quickly.

 

[StarCruiser]

As promised, not the best of photos as its tucked away in the store at the moment.

The cross shaped blade goes further down and is lifted and lowered hydraulically.

The ram is a modified JCB dipper ram with a special valve that speeds it's unloaded operation. Unloaded it gets to the other end in about 2 seconds. Takes about 5 to 10 with logs in the way.

The whole thing runs off a power pack and both items I designed and built from scratch with parts made up in a local engineering shop. The splitter design is not easy to produce.







The power pack is based on a Kubota Z600 I bought from eBay which turned out to be totally knackered. Found a short block from a tractor dismantlers and made one good engine out of two bad. Married this to a variable displacement hydraulic pump giving up to 30 lpm at 3500psi. This equates to a maximum force of 13500 kg on the ram. [emoji3]

I used to run it from a JCB Beaver power pack giving around 9000 kg and bent the first set of blades which were too thin at 1/2" X 4" so went to 3/4"X 4" with a hardened back support behind the blade. It hasn't moved yet. [emoji83]

I hoped to upload some video but have spent far too much time trying to get the video in the right place that it will just have to wait.