Recent purchase thread

[SpikyMikey]

I'm 57!

Old enough to know better

 

[ChrisHGTV]

I bought some new speakers (B&W 607 s3) and then realised I needed a more powerful amp! Oops. They’re very much at the low end of hifi but sound very good to me! The corner speaker positioning isn’t ideal I know but I’m somewhat limited due to the room layout (and the heirloom furniture I can’t get rid of!). One thing I really like about the amp (a used Rega Brio-r) is the buttons that are not level. Apparently this was to get the shortest path for the wiring, so pure function over form - I like that! And it’s made in England.

 

[SmartAmg]

I bought some new speakers (B&W 607 s3) and then realised I needed a more powerful amp! Oops. They’re very much at the low end of hifi but sound very good to me! The corner speaker positioning isn’t ideal I know but I’m somewhat limited due to the room layout (and the heirloom furniture I can’t get rid of!). One thing I really like about the amp (a used Rega Brio-r) is the buttons that are not level. Apparently this was to get the shortest path for the wiring, so pure function over form - I like that! And it’s made in England.View attachment 162899

Impressive!

 

[ChrisHGTV]

Impressive!

I’m really liking just relaxing with some vinyl of an evening. Some of the records I love most are my dad’s old ones I used to listen to when I was little. Some good 70’s prog rock!

 

[SpikyMikey]

Slight thread drift with this one, in as much as it wasn't purchased but given to Mrs S by one of her staff; she works in an organisation that is well-known for its unnecessary levels of bureaucracy.

 

[W1ghty]

Bought this 5 ton twin blade wood splitter . Having bought 2 trees the other year I soon found that some wood is almost impossible to split easily with a maul/wood bomb etc .
Ignore the “monkey” screen , it’s a work in progress aftef being hit on the forearm by some wood travelling at the speed of something very fast .

 

[BTB 500]

Bought this 5 ton twin blade wood splitter . Having bought 2 trees the other year I soon found that some wood is almost impossible to split easily with a maul/wood bomb etc .
Ignore the “monkey” screen , it’s a work in progress aftef being hit on the forearm by some wood travelling at the speed of something very fast .

We have a single-blade splitter (6 ton), which gets used a fair bit. It was an older model that we bought NIB from a member here a few years back - it doesn't have a guard, which I thought was pretty standard on all types now. I've found that wood tends to go 'bang' when it's dry - I cut up and split the bigger stuff as soon as possible after dropping the trees now, and don't have any problems. I split some down further (for kindling) by hand - that is much easier when fully dry (seasoned).

 

[ALFAitalia]

Girls!!....use an axe like a proper bloke does...and me! Log splitter......pah!

 

[SpikyMikey]

Girls!!....use an axe like a proper bloke does...and me! Log splitter......pah!

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[BTB 500]

Girls!!....use an axe like a proper bloke does...and me! Log splitter......pah!

Hope you only use a hand saw?!

I have to process too much wood every spring to split it all with an axe. As mentioned I do make kindling that way though.

We recently had no central heating for 4 weeks, so a good stock of seasoned firewood was definitely a plus

 

[Chrishazle]

I know what you mean about needing firewood - remember the 1987 storm? We lost power, so no hot water, electricity or (oil) central heating, thankfully open fire and a loose SS BBQ grill that I "organised" over the fire (as well as the gas BBQ under cover outside the back door) so we could heat water and cook, plus 2 large cast iron vintage kettles that I would fill and leave over the fire overnight for washing water in the morning. Later we replaced the open fire with a 15Kw wood burner, it would put out so much heat that in subsequent power cuts we could stoke it up and leave the living room door open and it would take the chill off the entire house and not go out overnight, real life saver!

 

[ALFAitalia]

My old house in the sticks had no central heating at all... we relied on an open fire and one Rayburn for heating and hot water. Nearest gas mains were4 miles away. The Rayburn burned all year round if we wanted hot water....nice in the summer as you can imagine! So yeah I know what it means to need firewood. All chainsawed to length and split with an axe with a few bits taken down to kindling with a billhook. The townies might need to Google that one!

 

[Wolfie1]

I did a heap last weekend, enough for the whole winter. I use an 8.5 ton kinetic wood splitter, its very fast and deadly

 

[W1ghty]

Girls!!....use an axe like a proper bloke does...and me! Log splitter......pah!

I spent 4 hours the other week doing just that , with a lot of times the maul just bouncing off the wood ……hence the purchase

 

[Londonscottish]

I bought some new speakers (B&W 607 s3) and then realised I needed a more powerful amp! Oops. They’re very much at the low end of hifi but sound very good to me! The corner speaker positioning isn’t ideal I know but I’m somewhat limited due to the room layout (and the heirloom furniture I can’t get rid of!). One thing I really like about the amp (a used Rega Brio-r) is the buttons that are not level. Apparently this was to get the shortest path for the wiring, so pure function over form - I like that! And it’s made in England.View attachment 162899

Nice set up. I have the equivalent Monitor Audio Golds on stands. But I've always been a big fan of B&W stuff.

I never got round to fitting a proper audiophile amp like that yours - I just re-used a spare Yamaha AV receiver I had lying around and added a Tannoy sub. One day I must look on AV forums and see if I can pick up something like that Rega.

 

[ChrisHGTV]

Nice set up. I have the equivalent Monitor Audio Golds on stands. But I've always been a big fan of B&W stuff.

I never got round to fitting a proper audiophile amp like that yours - I just re-used a spare Yamaha AV receiver I had lying around and added a Tannoy sub. One day I must look on AV forums and see if I can pick up something like that Rega.

Before I got the Rega (it was only about £275 used) I was using an old Cambridge Audio amp. Even though the Rega is still at the entry level the sound difference is really noticeable. I’ve always been slightly sceptical about some hifi claims but I think at the lower end of the cost spectrum the improvements can be really noticeable. I’ve certainly found that anyway. The speakers have also changed quite a bit in sound now I’ve used them for a while. They seem to have a much more rounded sound, I’m really liking them.

 

[Swotty]

I spent 4 hours the other week doing just that , with a lot of times the maul just bouncing off the wood ……hence the purchase

I buy my wood from a local supplier. It's good, seasoned stuff but he still insists in delivering stuff much bigger and thicker than the requested 50cm logs.

Started off with a standard 4 ton splitter and then bought a s/h 6 ton one. Still unable to deal with the big stuff.

So now a farmer friend comes over once a year and attaches a huge blade to his tractor drive and vertically splits, well, anything. I really want one. Charges me €50 for 2hours.

Anyway, Mrs Swotty refuses to let me buy a tractor with a log splitting attachment ... meh.

 

[BTB 500]

My old house in the sticks had no central heating at all... we relied on an open fire and one Rayburn for heating and hot water. Nearest gas mains were4 miles away. The Rayburn burned all year round if we wanted hot water....nice in the summer as you can imagine! So yeah I know what it means to need firewood. All chainsawed to length and split with an axe with a few bits taken down to kindling with a billhook. The townies might need to Google that one!

We're in the sticks but do have mains gas (and sewage) ... unlike our neighbours Hence a gas Rayburn for heating & hot water here, although it's 30 years old now and parts availability is starting to be a concern (a replacement is £12k or so ).

 

[BTB 500]

I buy my wood from a local supplier. It's good, seasoned stuff but he still insists in delivering stuff much bigger and thicker than the requested 50cm logs.

Started off with a standard 4 ton splitter and then bought a s/h 6 ton one. Still unable to deal with the big stuff.

So now a farmer friend comes over once a year and attaches a huge blade to his tractor drive and vertically splits, well, anything. I really want one. Charges me €50 for 2hours.

Anyway, Mrs Swotty refuses to let me buy a tractor with a log splitting attachment ... meh.

I fell my own trees (you can take down 5 cubic metres a quarter on your own property without needing a licence) - these are mostly quite small so not all of it needs splitting, but I cut to 23cm for our wood burner so there's a fair bit of sawing involved! We're classed as a smallholding (although we don't grow anything other than a few vegetables in the garden), so are subject to DEFRA rules which only allow tree (and hedge) cutting between September and February inclusive. Hence I normally do the wood for the winter after next in January/February, so it gets almost 2 years to season after being stacked.

I have a small tractor and did look at PTO driven splitters, but it's more convenient to trailer the wood up to our yard and saw/split it there using a 240V chainsaw on a stand and the splitter (although some of the bigger stuff has to be cut to length with a petrol chainsaw). I can do this under cover and our solar panels provide most of the power, then the wood is stacked straight in the barn. I do use a chipper on the tractor to shred the stuff that's too small for firewood - this is done where the trees are cut though, and we spread the chippings on paths and in gateways.

Local farmer comes in once a year to flail the hedges (you need a bigger tractor with a cab for this), and in the summer to make some hay (he keeps what we don't need as payment). All good fun.

 

[BTB 500]

I spent 4 hours the other week doing just that , with a lot of times the maul just bouncing off the wood ……hence the purchase

I have a wood bomb that I use occasionally for splitting tree stumps left in the ground - that needs driving in with a sledge hammer ... hard word!