BXProject

Chester Hudson is a good source for obscure/old agricultural engine parts, alternatively let me know the details and I'll ask around here as I know of a couple of good places. My mower is from the early 80s (although the engine is a retrofit from the 60s!) and so far they've always had spares on the shelf.

I had a bad experience on shrooms as a teenager , the tiger poster on the wall came alive and the bastard chased me out of the window, shame it was upstairs.

mat_the_cat wrote:Chester Hudson is a good source for obscure/old agricultural engine parts, alternatively let me know the details and I'll ask around here as I know of a couple of good places. My mower is from the early 80s (although the engine is a retrofit from the 60s!) and so far they've always had spares on the shelf.

Thanks Matt, (is it 2 tees or 1?). There's a place in Dartford who say they can get the parts, but I'll have to take the saw in to match the part. If not I'll gratefully take you up on your offer

It's only the one T, but I don't bother correcting anyone - it's not the end of the world...
(If you hadn't already guessed, I'm mat_fenwick over on BXC).

Everyone has a chainsaw in Sweden. They have competitions (think tractor pulling) on second thoughts, don't.
What they do have is ones you have never heard of that are dead cheap but very good quality. Even the top of the range Husqvarna's are not that dear.

Mine's Swedish too, it's a Jonsered 2050. Not sure whether they are still going (it dates from the 90s) but it's a cracking saw, a lot of power for the weight.

If you search for V8 chainsaw on YouTube you will see some awesome bits of kit...

Bjorn had one of those. He's just bought a new one from work (he sells them) He's got a Stihl this time.
They have a wood burner which supplies the CH and all hot water, so one day each w/end for about 6 weeks in the summer is down to building up the winter supply.

I like using the splitter coupled up to the tractor. You drop your log on, all cut to around 400mm long with the chain saw, pull the lever and a + sign shaped blade splits it into 4, hydraulically. You can work up a fair thirst on that job.

Stihl make some pretty good stuff, I've come to the conclusion that it's better to spend similar money on a used good quality bit of kit (which maybe needs some work) than on a new one of dubious quality that you can't get spares for ever.

I would love some kind of hydraulic log splitter, I do it all by hand and pine (which we have lots of) is a right bastard to split due to all the knots.

I used a Johnsonred in France (I only remember the Johnson part of the name) and it was a very good saw. I've had a good small Sthil before (not a crap cheapy Sthil). When I bought it I used it to keep the central heating/cooking range for a six bed house going through a Scottish winter. The wood was all scavenged from Forestry Commission plantations and was all pine - so I know what you mean about splitting it, Mat. I had an old Range Rover with a big trailer and my whole life for a few months revolved around feeding that fire. Happy days!

Hydraulic splitters are good - but only if they're powerful (tractor-driven) as shit ones just do your head in and you're better off with an axe!

Have you got a tractor Mat? Tractors are great...

mickey taker wrote:I had a bad experience on shrooms as a teenager , the tiger poster on the wall came alive and the bastard chased me out of the window, shame it was upstairs.

Aww dude, that must of hurt! Shrooms eh? Make the unreal, real!

I schitzed out on weed and spent a couple of hours hiding in a compost heap.

Back off topic on a different tangent - no, sadly I don't have a tractor. I would like one though, but we don't have enough land to justify it.
What I'd really like is an excavator, but that would have even less use to justify one. Good fun though when we have borrowed one in the past!

Haha - that's some digger! Looking at those boulders I don't think you'd have much luck ploughing it

How do you burn your pine? Do you chip it at all, at all?

The boulders were there deliberately (although they crop up where you don't want them as well) for the base for a garage/stable... Would have been very expensive had we had to buy hardcore!

We just cut/split it into suitable sized sections (4" x 12" ish) and put it on the stove - we have a woodburner that once it's been on a while heats most of the house. Wouldn't chipping it allow it to burn too fast?

some wood burners use chippings or small briquettes.
The tractor ones are the only ones to go for, all the stand alones I've seen are far too flimsy and are bust inside 1/2 an hour. Easy enough to make though, out of 75 x75 x5 section and an old engine hoist ram. You could rig up a leky motor and a Cit pump with a dump valve.
See I was going to make one over there but Bjorn's mate Peter said he can use the tractor one any time.
They have quite a range of woods in the ...err...woods around the house. As well as pine they have Birch and a lot of Oak. The latter is hard on the chain saw but splits great, there is nothing but fine ash left when it's burned too.

Scarecrow wrote:Haha - that's some digger! Looking at those boulders I don't think you'd have much luck ploughing it

methinks you will find Vanny and Matt had a closer look at them than they wanted

mickey taker wrote:

Scarecrow wrote:Haha - that's some digger! Looking at those boulders I don't think you'd have much luck ploughing it

methinks you will find Vanny and Matt had a closer look at them than they wanted

They didn't tip the digger? I have to admit, that's the first thing that crossed my mind, how easy is it to tip one of those things?

Scarecrow wrote:how easy is it to tip one of those things?

Remarkably difficult!

We used to test most of http://www.rcollard.com/demolition.shtml equipment as they were based right next to the workshop... With the array of tilt, sheer, overload, overlimit, overpressure, overspeed and failsafes that are built into modern equipment accidents are very rare!

The majority of the medium equipment (such as Mat's above) have a fully loaded arm weight of around 2-3t at full extension and a body weight of 8-11t so they're pretty sturdy.

However, if you drive the fucker staight off a dirtpile you've only got yourself to blame really!

mat_the_cat wrote:...We just cut/split it into suitable sized sections (4" x 12" ish) and put it on the stove - we have a woodburner that once it's been on a while heats most of the house. Wouldn't chipping it allow it to burn too fast?

You might be eligible for a green grant for a new woodchip boiler. The advantages are that they work much like a gas boiler - you load the hopper with wood chips and then they are burnt in the boiler under controlled conditions - basically tou set the temperature you want to achieve in the house, and then the boiler tries to achieve After the initial outlay you're quids-in if you have a cheap source of chippings. You could plant in rotation (willow, usually) to keep yourself in fuel. I have the formula somewhere... You could even have your combined heat and power setup and with a wind turbine you're off-grid (or selling it back to the electric company who I believe are required in law to buy if off of you at a preferential rate.

Pah.
Looked into a wind turbine (only a small 1.8Kw one) and the local council said that no way would they grant planning permission for one.

Twats.