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

[Big J]

5 minutes ago, Wulbert said:

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.

You can't really make the comparison in quality between American/Canadian softwood and what we have here. Our climate produces rapidly grown, but low-quality timber. Having milled huge amounts of western red cedar here, and seen Canadian stock, they are different entirely. 

 

Anyway, with reference to your douglas fir, don't chainsaw mill it. It's not economical at all. Best to use someone with a mobile bandsawmill to cut it up for you as the cost of the bandmill hire for the day will be recovered easily just on minimised kerf. Chainsaw mill is 10mm, bandsaw blade less than 2mm. 

 

A 10m stick, mid diameter 800mm has a hoppus footage (volume measure accounting for sawing waste) of 144 cubic foot. Off saw, depending on the specification (cladding boards, beams, posts etc) you have a value of around £10-18 a cubic foot (low end is low-grade cladding, upper-end large section, long beams), so a recoverable value of around £2000. Using someone like Pol Berguis (Black Dog Timber, near Perth) with his Woodmizer will cost about £500 for the day, and you'd get it all done easily enough, plus more if you had it. 

 

Just don't do it with a chainsaw mill. Douglas is hard and dry and you'll be cursing yourself before you've finished your first cut!