Problems milling sycamore

[Big J]

Daft question but does the red dye leave any trace?

 

No trace of the dye and in terms of environmental impact, I probably produce 50 cubic metres of Sawdust for 10 litres of diesel used, which is much better than a chainsaw mill.

[muttley9050]

No trace of the dye and in terms of environmental impact, I probably produce 50 cubic metres of Sawdust for 10 litres of diesel used, which is much better than a chainsaw mill.

 

The difference I suppose Is that your diesel doesn't get burnt and may find its way into water courses etc. Nor really sure of the impact though.

[Ilnumero]

So today, I have milled some ash, cherry and oak, as well as some more sycamore. I turned the water right down so that the sawdust wasn't clumping so much. There was much less staining on the syc, and the other timbers were fine too.

 

The main thing is that the customer was happy with it. I didn't mention the problem and they didn't either, so we're all happy.

 

I will try the diesel, though, that sounds interesting. I am trying to collect the sawdust as I have a project for it, so there won't be any contamination issues.

[delabodge]

strange, never had any staining on any sycamore ive milled only chestnut and oak due to tannins,,,,?

[Ilnumero]

Will get some pics tomorrow.

[Big J]

The difference I suppose Is that your diesel doesn't get burnt and may find its way into water courses etc. Nor really sure of the impact though.

 

Chain oil doesn't get burnt either though. You'd easily use 5 litres in a day's milling whereas 5 litres of red lasts me weeks.

[muttley9050]

Chain oil doesn't get burnt either though. You'd easily use 5 litres in a day's milling whereas 5 litres of red lasts me weeks.

 

But bio oil is much friendlier than red. I rarely chain mill anyway but do crosscut a fair bit. Any of these things getting into the water courses or polluting woodlands is no good for me. I'm happy that my lucas runs happily on water. Would be interesting to see a study on what sort of an impact these minor amounts might have. Maybe it's insignificant maybe its not.

[Peter]

Have you tried rapeseed oil instead of diesel Jon?

 

It certainly runs like diesel, don't know if it would prevent staining.

[MattyF]

Rapeseed may encourage mold?

[Big J]

I just use diesel. It works well, I use next to nothing and I have red in the yard for the machines anyway.