Turbo Twister

The majority of it is rotten in the core, but the top section that landed in the wood is all good firewood, I reckon about 25 tons of it fell in total, getting it out will be time consuming so we are cutting it to lengths to pull it out quicker, then chopping them down smaller in the yard. It's a never ending chore!

Finally got around to cutting some firewood again! I got an emergency call on Thursday last to come take down an awkwardly dangerous tree that snapped and landed bang on a gate and post!🤦‍♂️ The whole tree was rotten in the core from bottom at least 40ft up. It also knocked an ash tree and 2 oak trees in it's path so I will be back another day or 2 in a few weekends time to finish chopping it. 42 inch bar flew through most of it, but I need to get the lower stem moved as the gate is sitting directly below it. I got a little welcomed help from the farmer to push it over, I knew the fence post would aid it falling as soon as it got a nudge, it snapped like a match stick!

Yeah, I don't like the lack of noise start up like a patrol saw, I actually thought there was a problem with it initially as it won't start up when the chain brake is on, not even a noise! It's a bit bulky on weight with a flexvolt battery but it lasted nearly an hour with cutting which to me, is impressive. 18v here is the same as your 20v there, just named differently.

As mentioned before on a page way back in this thread, I have petrol saws for their place, I got this one for site work as we cannot use petrol saws on some sites. I cut some beech beams with it yesterday and it was cutting quite well. It is great for anything up to about 6 inch diameter.

Yeah, I've been laying low the past few weeks, work has been quite stressful and I have just gone back on my tools after dropping project management, I'd prefer to be physically working rather than doing emails and organising jobs etc. It was an interesting experience but not for me, not at the moment anyway. I got around to making a proper work bench in my shed over the weekend, I picked up a hobby size bandsaw and completely rejigged the layout for storing all my planks. I plan do make some bespoke furniture over the winter months, now that the day job is less stressy!

I bought a new chainsaw! (Yes I know, its only an 18v battery saw) but in my defense, I have an MS661 for milling and a 201T for medium/small cutting. I haven't used it yet but I got it for construction site work as we can't use petrol chainsaws on site. Ideal for cutting 9x3's (3x9's for some of you guys!) I also got my winch installed with a second battery hooked direct to the bike battery, it fits perfectly in the toolbox at the back of the bike along with the solenoid and winch control.

You think timber is bad over there? Come over to Ireland, our "straight" timber is more like a hurley! (Stick used for playing an Irish sport if you didn't know). You'd be lucky the odd time to get really straight timber, but we might not have any timber in a few weeks if things keep going the way they are, sawmills closing down due to lack of trees being felled..

Not a lot these days unfortunately! Fractured a rib on site last week so I'm laid up for a few weeks😓 @sled_22 the box looks much better stained in my opinion, nice find!

This was the exact reason I used a hawse on the jeep, steel cable for rollers, not for synthetic! I'm up in arms about what I'll do now😂 think I'll stick with what I have for now, I wont be using it a whole lot anyway.

Ok, point taken on that side of things. I may go searching for a roller so, never had that issue on the jeep mind and it did a lot of work for me.

I've been told it's a bad idea to run rope through a roller fairlead? What is the benefit to rollers in your opinion, I'm just curious?

Took the mounting plate off the bike again because the winch has to be bolted as far back on the plate as possible, otherwise it fouls the back of the light housings. I will also be moving the solenoid pack into the timber box on the bike rack along with the battery as there is very little room between the winch and front right wheel at full lock. I will be able to use the second winch plate (it came separately with the winch) as a template to make a decent fixing point for the hawse. More to come!

It's not a Warn winch no, it's a Ninja Warrior Japanese made winch with synthetic rope. Warn Winches aren't easy to get this small in Ireland and I had a 6 ton Warrior winch on my old jeep which never gave me trouble so I went for a known brand again. I have no time for steel cables, after seeing one snap on a tractor winch years ago I avoid them like the plague! Second pic on is my old work horse, a grand vitara XL7 2.0L turbo diesel, a small engine by you guys standard, but big for here in Ireland. That was my thought, I think the fairlead is wide enough to do this, although I may have to weld a bit of plate on either side on the bumper, not a big job either way.

And so begins the winch setup.. unfortunately it was harder than expected to get the front left (as you look at it) bolt in, as the frame has been knocked about in its past life so I had to improvise with a flat screwdriver and a clamp to get all 3 metal components to line up. The frame is now bolted in place, next up is aligning the winch itself in place. Would I be right in saying the aluminium hawse is best off as far forward as possible on the bike? The frame that came with it keeps the hawse back about 6 inches from the front of the bike frame and I dont like the idea of rope rubbing on the frame when pulling.

You've said enough!😂

That's true, thanks! I do have another idea up my sleeve, I want to use the engine off the mower for a secondary stationary use, but it's just ideas in my head at the moment so I'm not saying anything about it. Obviously with the weather in Ireland, I can't use the mower all year round but I would like to keep use of the engine for another important firewood related job. That will keep you thinking 😁👌

Yeah maybe only 2-3mm of adjustment though. The blades are replaceable, the shear bar is part of the main frame so you'd probably have to cut it out to replace it.

Ah I get you now, there's no adjustment as far as I know, apart from the 3x holes through the blades being slightly bigger than the bolts that hold them in place. I must compare the old blades in width to the new ones out of interest as I'd say they will need replacing around the 100 hour mark.

What do you mean when you say anvil? That bolt is still tight yes. The bolts that hold the outfeed chute on, when I bought it 1 of the bolts was sheared, I will be upgrading the chute to a new, slightly longer one next season, as the current one, the top of the chute narrows down a good bit and I want a bigger opening to reduce blockages

A few photos of the chipper during an annual maintenance! I changed the oil, it has 2x sump bolts and 2x oil dip sticks for some reason, but it's very handy when checking the oil level when you are topping it up. I grease both bearings/both sides of the drum shaft every 4 hours of use with marine grease, so it should last a good while!

I know it isn't capable of 4 inches, I have put 3 inch through it in the past but it struggled a bit and I don't like seeing a machine struggle. I'll be cleaning a load of my equipment later today so I'll get a few more snaps for you. It's one of the best machines I have.

They can yes, I use a grinder with sanding disc for best results and I swap them around every 4 or 5 hours of chipping, otherwise the outfeed chute blocks occasionally as dull blades seem to affect the vacuum flow quite a lot (as I've learnt in my time using it). Anything bigger than 2 inches we cut up for firewood or kindling. I was told when I bought the machine 3 years ago "it will cut up to 4 inches" so I told the guy to prove it, to which he couldn't! He ended up knocking off a few hundred euro and threw in spare blades😂

Not exactly firewood related, but then again we need a tool to sort out the brash left over from cutting down trees! Here's a short snippet of me using my modified chipper, its powered by a Loncin 5.5hp 200cc petrol engine (a Honda replica) but it's a super little machine for what it is. It won't chip anything bigger than about 2 inches, but it cleans up a pile of brash like the one photo'd in about 1 hour. For this particular job, there was side access to the rear garden but it was blocked by a shed, so due to its width at 24 inches, I was able to wheel it through the house! The mods: I added a swivel front axle for ease of movement. New emergency stop button to replace the crappy bar that came with it (it really was a pain in the arse!) Replaced the adjustable outfeed chute with a fixed square chute for better results of chips exiting the machine. This machine is ideal for me as the majority of work I do with it is in built up areas, where access is tight or restricted. It cost me €1500 with a spare set of reversible blades that I have yet to use, and I've done about 60 hours of chipping with it so far. You can see in pic 2, the brash chipped is all the stuff from pic 5!

You must love your music😁 I do too but I usually dont play music (even through headphones) when I'm mowing, as I need to listen engine die back or other issues I wouldn't hear over music. We are back in a 3 week county lockdown (CV19) so the bike will sit tight until then at least as I don'thave any use for it in my own county. I have a lot of firewood work coming up next month so I hope to get the winch fixed in place by then.

That is what I had in mind alright. Thanks!