Douglas Fir and sequoia value

[Johnsond]

15 minutes ago, difflock said:

Yes, but I took the advice, from on here, and instead bought a trailer, just tonight.

On the way home, towing said trailer, the Skoda shat herself, flashing glowplug light, defaulted to 2nd, and not rev beyond 2000rpm and very erratically at that, quite wonderful when towing  AND then I got a flat wheel 5 miles from home.

Sounds like a pretty shit trip home. What trailer did you go for ?? Was it to put the mill on ?? 

[difflock]

A 5' by 10' 3000 Kg Dale Kane with mesh extension cribs,  6 months old, but unmarked.

Fingers crossed it should fit my needs,

Now all I need is a car to tow it!

 

[openspaceman]

6 minutes ago, difflock said:

Now all I need is a car to tow it!

Whatever you choose don't get one of those Stehr Puch derived Mercedes?

[Johnsond]

18 minutes ago, difflock said:

A 5' by 10' 3000 Kg Dale Kane with mesh extension cribs,  6 months old, but unmarked.

Fingers crossed it should fit my needs,

Now all I need is a car to tow it!

 

Good strong trailers ??

[difflock]

Stronger than the Nugent, or so I  assessed, at least in respect of the construction of the cribs etc.

And yet only 575 Kg without the mesh extension cribs.

It certainly towed well until my shitty-Skoda-special "computer says no" moment.

Btw. I was told Dale Kane is a brother of the Kane that builds the wonderfully well designed and constructed agricultural trailers, one of which I lust after, but unjustifably expensive for my humble needs, and much, much  too grand to yoke to the well tired 1984 1490 D Brown!

Cheers

Marcus

P.S.

It shall indeed be towed by the 3500KG rated 1998 Steyr Daimler Puch.

P.P.S.

Even the 300D 88HP lethargic slugs of G Wagens from the early 1980's were rated to tow 3500KG,

the theory being one could never attain enough speed to get into difficulties I can only suppose!

 

[difflock]

Oops

Sincere apologies for slightly hijacking this DF and Sequoia thread gents.

mth

[Wulbert]

I recently paid £1,250/ cubic meter inc VAT, for kiln dried, off-saw American DF in 4.8m x 150mm x75mm lengths.  So, should be a few quid's worth on your pile if you get it sliced up nicely and dried. Not sure if home-grown DF is regarded as inferior to imported stuff?

[Stere]

Wow seems thats expensive?

 

 

What will you use it for?

[Wulbert]

Yes, a lot of money. This was from a timber merchant, so all timber straight off the shelf and ready to use.  All their stock was in the £800 - £1000 /m3 + VAT range.  I used it for (semi-decorative) purlins in a shepherd hut I was building. Needed the right material and needed it now, or build would get delayed. ( My usual sawmill had no DF). 

 

It's a funny thing timber, when you're selling it, it is worthless, and when you're buying it, it is as expensive as hell. 

 

Having milled and seasoned a few larch logs with a chainsaw mill, I can see that value needs to be added at every stage. There's a lot of work between, tree butt lying in a field and straight, dry, regular, knot free timber off the shelf in a warehouse. C'est la vie I guess.

 

I'm interested in the DF post here because I have access to a large DF, recently felled about 800mm girth by 10m+ long. Wondering if I could slice it up with a (yet to be purchased) Alaskan mill and save/make some cash. The value given above seems disappointingly low to me.

 

I had hoped to use my chainsaw mill a lot more than I do, but quickly realised that milling is the easy part, getting the logs moved out of the woodland and onto the mill is where the work/time/expense is. Running out of friends & family who will willingly help me cart logs around.

Edited March 16, 2019 by Wulbert
Adding pictures

[Wulbert]

Hey Big J,

 

Thanks for the advice. I've heard of Pol Bergius, got his leaflet somewhere. And thanks for the info re; value of tree butt. ( I'd forgotten what a great Forum this is, just returned to it as I'm looking for trailer info) 

 

I hadn't realised the huge difference in quality/perceived value of imported V homegrown timber. I do know that there is a movement (here in Scotland anyway) to use more local timber in buildings and an argument that (some of) it is not as poor quality as has been traditionally believed.

I recently got some planed, Scottish larch, and it is lovely stuff and would make a beautiful internal cladding, however I don't know how much work it took to get that result from a local tree and when I wanted longer lengths, rather than 2.1m, it started to get trickier to source.

 

I think I'll take your advice and do some proper planning; maybe hire a horse-logger to pull timber to roadside ( got lots of Larch thinnings too) and then hire a Woodmizer chap for a couple of days.

 

I'm guessing there are many folk like me, who start off chainsaw milling and quickly realise it is a time-consuming way to make giant piles of sawdust! Good fun and good opportunities for DIY / side projects, but not viable for big projects or timber to sell.