wills-mill

I've been milling some super slow grown small WR!

Lovely looking bit of WR! I find that the ones round here are lovely and easy to cut, but have a dulling effect on the bands- perhaps because they are mainly planted on chalk soils and they're pulling up mineral deposits??? Perhaps I need a pressure washing bay! Very nice setup you've got sorted there

I've just come across this on one of the other woodie sites- William George & Co | NO RESERVE - NO VAT. English Air Dried Specialist Timbers Cut To Planks. Large Selection of Species in Various Sizes - Everything Must Go! Home - MAC Timbers Air dried homegrown timbers in Corby for sale. I've no connection to this and it's a bit of a trek for me, but hopefully it's of some use to others

Thank you everyone. I've found some Chestnut that I'm really happy with, but will try and get in touch with everyone who's relied or messaged. W

I like my Brenderup (2000kg 4260 twin axle), we got it with a curtainside canopy and it's a really versatile thing. 10 mins from flatbed to dry and clean transport. It wouldn't take the thumping and scraping that a heavy duty Ifor would, but then it doesn't clang down the road like a massive thumpy slab of clattery concrete like an Ifor either. Brenderup is miles better quality than the lightweight Ifors. I helped a guy load some 8x4 sheets of ply into an 8x4 Ifor at a sale recently. The base of the Ifor is an 8x4 sheet, then the sides sit on top of that. great Pics are moving two Danckaert joinery machines, an overhead router (local job) and a big multirip from darkest Lancs. W

Poo Oak

The copper contacts in the starter motor are a pretty quick and easy change. My Fourtrak did the same, it went for 18 months on some homemade brass ones, then fitted genuine Nippon Denso ones. KUBOTA STARTER MOTOR SOLENOID CONTACT REPAIR KIT (NIPPON DENSO ONLY) | eBay The "Nippon Denso Clunk of Doom"

Oh, the good old hedge kitten.

Fair enough, my mistake. If a lot of those moving parts aren't from Wood Mizer or their direct suppliers I'd be very surprised. How on earth could someone go through 14 Wood Mizers, as far as I know the first ones came over in 1986 (?) so he's been through 1 every 2 years, or lives on cloud 9.

The 30in Wadkin is sat next to a 4 cylinder Perkins Perhaps I need to find a hookloader flat- then the big thicknesser and a band resaw could go travelling? Edit- to be honest, manipulating massive slabs to feed them through a thicknesser without knackering the machine would be a bit of a nightmare. It's quite a lot to expect a thicknesser to cope with wide waney Oak that has kinked and moved when drying, and getting them over a surface planer by hand to get a decent flat surface (and not crack the cast iron beds) would also be a bit of a pickle. Perhaps the router sled and handheld tools are best

I think that is GiB's argument, that the Felling Licence is more than adequate as documentation. Perhaps the FC should have been pushing a similar line 10 or 15 years ago? The licensing costs are scaled with the turnover of the enterprise involved. It's a £100 licence fee for anyone with less than £1 million turnover, or £1 per hectare for a woodland owner. I'm keen to apply, so I might do a thread on the process if anyone is interested.

If receipt and invoice mention Wood Mizer, then it should be a Wood Mizer. With a VIN. I think you do have a case to argue, but it is a little bit shaky. If you bought a machine with no blade covers, crappy wiring and no guarding around the main drive belt, then it's visibly not a machine that's at factory spec. There are a lot of WM parts on your mill, the wheels, brake and drive shaft, up/down switches and gearbox drive, lots of the blade tensioner (in fact most of the saw head and mast) have come from a Mizer. It is not '100% this is a full copy', however, nor is it a full Wood Mizer. If the seller bought these parts in to make a machine from scratch, then there are several thousand pounds of new parts right there that Wood Mizer were quite happy to sell! Most likely is that this is a tired old machine has been brought back into a usable state with the minimum of expenditure. The quality of the welding and fabricating can't be taken as an issue- as a purchaser you were happy to pay the agreed price, so you must have been happy with what was there. It's a bit like you've bought a lashed up Ford Escort for banger racing/ track use/ rallying. It is definitely not an roadgoing Escort any more, but it may well fulfill the function that it was built and sold for. Ford might not be happy if you had a car with a Volvo engine, Vauxhall running gear and a homemade rollcage, but what happens in a private sale for a machine used on private ground is probably not their concern. I don't mean to sound rude, but if the mill cuts to a sensible standard and you are content with the output, then you have a machine that meets the criteria of a decent sawmill. What has happened to you is obviously really stressful and unpleasant, but it is much more obviously a non-standard/ unacceptable machine than the usual secondhand machine issue of an old dog that has been blown over with new paint and stickers.

Some of the Euro Oak sleepers are terrifyingly good quality for very little money. I've done a few site milling jobs where we've found it more cost efficient for the customer to buy in a few dozen sleepers and plank them out. The strange thing is that treated softwood sleepers are quite close on price.

I (personally) feel it is an unsustainable system that suits producers with logging rights on huge areas overseas, or massive plantations in the developed world. It's a bit of a joke for small woodland holdings and individual trees, and I'm very happy to explain to my customers why my timber is not FSC. Today I'm milling a big Sycamore from a North London park and some Thuja logs from a garden in Haslemere. Neither are remotely acceptable as FSC produce, but I can document a full chain of custody down to the last cough and bum scratch. The end user is always happy to know the story- it's usually the rubber stamping dudes in the middle who don't want the hassle.

This looks quite handy, it would be nice and open at the front- GALVANISED STEEL BUILDING FRAME,18 ROOF RAILS 9.5 METRE SPAN | eBay

Edit- Without prohibitive cost and paperwork, you CAN provide legal and sustainably sourced timber (with a traceability/ chain of custody paper trail). You can't provide FSC timber without coughing up. It's a bit like selling fruit and veg that is grown without chemicals- unless you jump in with the Soil Association, you can't legally label anything with the magic 'organic' word, even if it is as clean as a whistle. There's Government advice on timber procurement and the definition of a legal source. The people to talk to are at CPET (Central Point of Expertise on Timber). From what I remember from a few years back, there was no need to be locked into a costly scheme like FSC. To keep most people happy you just had to define the scope and geographical range of your timer buying. I wrote up a little statement about legalities and the normal sources for my timber, with a bit about felling licences and replanting/management conditions, it seemed to satisfy most people. https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/making-sustainable-development-a-part-of-all-government-policy-and-operations/supporting-pages/timber-procurement-policy-tpp-for-public-sector-procurers-and-suppliers-of-timber I've been looking into the Grown in Britain scheme, which mainly uses the FC felling licence as documentary evidence of legality. Very sensibly priced.

Can't help with the Tree Officer, but I can give the thumbs up for the beach cafe beside the nuclear power station 'Sizewell Tea'

Well done, proper job!

The Wetterlings mauls are also sold re-badged as Husqvarna mauls. Usually quite a lot cheaper.

I had a set with run flat bands inside as well. Ridiculous heavy but tough as nails

Another vote for Startrite bandsaws (Band-it, 351 and 352), other ones to look out for are decent size Elektra Beckum and Scheppach saws.

The only thing I've got photos of- My grotty BSA Snipe 12 bore single. Worth nowt. Hated the plasticky looking Beech, so I decided to barbecue the woodwork, then wire brush and wax

Big J would know what prices are like locally. Down in SE England you'd probably be looking at anywhere between £2.50 to £6 per hoppus ft for roadside Oak, unless it's truly exceptional. J is a member of ASHS (Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers), it might be worth looking to see if there's a member near you. ASHS seem to represent the smaller, niche mills who may well have a market for some of the odder timber that would be less attractive to the really big mills. Association of Scottish Hardwood Sawmillers - Home

It's a slippery slope! All liked...... I've worked out how to 'like' from my Woodlouse page (rather than my personal one)- you go to the page required, then click on the three dots beside the Message button. This opens up a menu of options, one of which is 'Like as your page'. Will.

Done!