wills-mill

We've just been pulling some out of the upper Thames, little freshwater mussels and loads of sludge on the limbs that had dipped under.....

My favourite tree..... I really like the wooden ones, none of your fibreglass rubbish

You beach boys need to get into Brighton and feel the elm-love there.... there seem to be quite a few East Anglian elms cropping up on the forums here, which is a bit of a surprise, I always thought they were stuck up north.... Good stuff!

I just ask them what type of timber they'd like to buy...... It all goes a bit quiet, then they say "sorry? what?" I just say "I'm a sawmill, you must be looking for some wood?" The conversation usually ends rapidly. But then I seem to get directory enquiries sending pizza bookings and cinema enquiries to me as well. I'd take their pizza orders and credit card details if I was a bit more business minded

I always reckon if you haven't got many pennies to rub together and need capacity, a nice loading height, decent road dynamics and mpg, then try a "Lo-lux". All the 2 wheel drive Jap pickups seem to sell cheaply and don't get the abuse that the top-heavy 4 wheelers do.... Vauxhall Brava/ Isuzu/ Mazda/ Ford/ Mitsubishi/ maybe delving back towards the old Peugeot or Ford P100 pick ups. Sometimes the old uns turn up in nice nick after a careful old builder or farmer moves on to something else. Does anyone know if a 2 wheel drive version of a pickup will have the same gross weight as the 4 wheel drive, but have more payload as the truck weighs less???

You don't want to be inside a helmet when the shell fails:scared: Have you ever taken a sledge hammer to an out of date helmet?? It's great- they're just so tough.... the harness inside is the bit that deforms and collapses to save your melon. Has anyone been clever enough to put a military field dressing in the 'spare' space between the harness and the shell??? :drunk: which bright spark thought up that one.....

As an extra point for anyone wanting to get their full motorbike licence--- the practical test is changing in October (I think) and will include test centre based manoeuvres, and will only be available at a limited number of test centres. Prices will go up no doubt. If you're looking to do B+E in the South, I can reccomend Hill's Driver Training at Plumpton in East Sussex....

I've got a really nice old first aid tin I car booted . The usual sticky plasters and minor injury bits, plus plenty of sticky and non-sticky dressings, steri-strips, a load of eyewash pods (you crack the tops off them like the one-shot 2 stroke oil pods), a couple of burns specific cooling gel pads, rolls of micropore tape, scissors, a big military field dressing (another vote for them- very very good). If you want a good basic kit for big, nasty injuries including a foil blanket then get a "Tractor Kit" from Mole Valley Farmers- therTractor kit Rubbish contents like most commercial boxes, but good to see a bit of thought towards messy accidents. EDIT: This firm Frank Sammeroff manufacture the Army field dressing....

Tonne bags: tie 2 loops around your waist, stand on the other 2. Shovel the rakings between your legs. Easy Top tip: always carry a spoon and a mug

I think most small mill owners and mobile sawyers (like me :wave:) DON'T want big truck loads at a time. The cost of the timber and transport and the time and effort of milling and stacking gets tied up for a couple of years as the timber dries. A big stack of timber makes a big hole in the pocket- personally I like individual trees or a little parcel of the same species, unless I know I've got a definite order for a large amount of the same timber. If I can mill on site rather than hauling round timber I'm happy and if I can split the sawn timber or do some work instead of coughing up cash I'm happiest. If a Tree Surgeon rings me I usually ask "what do YOU want out of the tree?" and usually find that planking out a nice bit for shelving, a coffee table, deck, bridge, pergola, benches or whatever goes down well. Quite a bit of the time the householder or site owner gets keen as well--- that's just fine by me. Most of the time, distance from base is the biggest factor when it comes to buying or bartering timber for my own stock. If I just go to mill for someone, and they are paying for the milling and keeping all the timber then life is much simpler and the logistics are much easier. Beech is a difficult one though, I find that it's a very utilitarian commercial timber and doesn't light the old fires of lust for most people. Walnut, Yew, character boards of nice gnarly Oak, brown Ash and other less mainstream timber tend to give people the wood-horn a bit often. Maybe it's just my personal feeling, but I've got some nice beech boards and loads of spalty timber that was accidental (I didn't get round to milling the butts quickly enough), and they aren't disappearing that quickly. I suppose if people want to do serious 'straight line' joinery (like a beech joiners bench or sturdy, sensible built in cabinetry), they will want clean, straight grained and almost undoubtedly kiln dried timber. That's my definition of a commercial timber, what you'd expect from most places selling European Oak, or steamed kilned beech from Germany, or any of the mass utility softwood products- quick and easy to mill and process, and unlikely to have defects and surprises. As a smaller mill, it's difficult to justify pricing and cutting a product that puts you in direct competition with the mega-mills- making a product that is usually whacked out with great precision efficiency and speed. So when people tell me I should be knocking out loads of sleepers or fencing timber, I tend to keep away. I feel that it's like a small scale pig farm trying to compete with a Wall's or cheap supermarket sausage. You've got to ask some questions: Am I going to do it any better or make any more profit than the big names? No, probably not Will anybody make the effort to buy something commercial and day-to-day from me when they can buy it with their weekly shop easily and for a knockdown price? No, probably not Do I really want to make this bland and commercial product which is knocked out by the million by someone else, out of a convenient but boring material, with possible environmental and ethical concerns? No, probably not When you look at commercial building, fencing and joinery timber from DIY places, builders yards and timber merchants it's something that's needed in huge quantities every day of the year (frightening amounts), but I don't think a tree surgeon who uses a chainsaw mill or who gets a mobile sawyer in for a day a couple of times a year should be knocking himself (OK, themselves) out trying to compete with. OK it's realistic to knock out some really nice building timber or weatherboard and be competitive and profitable, but MAINLY we smaller types should concentrate on what is different and unique to our timber. The timber's source, method of conversion, local benefits, real character and soul, lack of transport and energy issues are something that can never be bettered by PR and packaging. It should be a source of pride. Strangely, I'm really delighted to tell people sometimes that their timber is NOT from a sustainable source. I collect or salvage quite a bit of timber from building and clearance sites- old gardens or large houses getting blitzed and developed. I'll get a call from one of a few climbers or company owners that have seen the light and don't like waste- and I then like to let people know that their wood was saved from landfill or saved from being logged up, though sadly the site where it was grown may never have the spaces again to grow a decent tree...... I feel I've had my rambling head on and ranged far and wide from the subject of the thread. Apologies. I'm going to say a dozen "Hail Steve's" and work out a Dummies Guide to timber measurement and pricing. Knowledge is Power, and I think most people feel left out of the timber chain......

I think those tailgate/ dropside type catches are called 'antiluce catches' in catalogue-land...... Nice setup

Morning Rog, how's it all going? and while we're here I better say "hi" to Keith the Lurker sorry to miss you two at the pub... we'd just left. I'll catch up with you Dorking types soon!

No criticism meant.... of yours or any other persons work... What I'm trying to say is- I think it'd be a shame if coroneting became a textbook procedure with a standard methodology. Long live freestyle! " i dont tidy my coronets up, i bore in and cut holes in and around the cut to add for happy bugness" Good Lad! a gold star on your report card

I love milling Thuja- 'tis a great timber :wave: The salmon looks ace! Here's a site for a very talented mate of mine- he loves mad techniques, has forged his own huge chisels from brick cutting bolsters, has modified and shortened a big Stihl brushcutter to take metal milling cutters, big air tools, 020's with grinders on the nose.... the lot http://rogerday.eu (click the b'band button for videos) I'll second a vote for grinders with a sanding disc- they can take a huge amount of wood away very quickly (with 24 or 40 grit discs) or be very delicate. I find flap discs too expensive, always used plain (fibre) sanding discs with a flexible backing pad. The discs are about 35 to 50p a go...

I don't see why coronets all seem to be cut as a standard tidy radial method... 'bart's head'... The whole point is random crunchy cuts isn't it??? I've done some bits before- mainly with massive oak limbs with loads of weight and leverage. I don't like to prune any big limb right back to the stem, doesn't matter if it's done Shigo/ natural target style or flush it's all invasive and damaging. I left one limb long with a long stub that's fluted and sculpted and did a bit of ring barking to encourage the limb to snuff it. I don't imagine bats and bugs are picky about how tidy your cuts are - it's just human tidiness again

I think various folk are looking into imidacloprid as a control for scale insects and woolly aphids. It's usually soil applied with a compost mix in nursery stock and then is absorbed by the insects as they feed.... but there are indications it works on a larger scale as well. EDIT: unless you like your bees http://www.pan-uk.org/pestnews/Actives/imidaclo.htm

I have an ivy tax, a dog poo tax and a sloping/ muddy site tax....

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=481 I haven't got one

for the best in treeporn..... get a catalogue from grube. They'll post to England if you're nice to them. Huge selection of stunning top notch tree gear- mainly forestry based. If I remember right they've got quite a few chainsaw and small engine based winches. http://www.grube.de/csc_article_details.php?nArticleID=9187&VID=kaA7VBrHsrhlIa2q

Log and Matt--- I had the same with my 357, it was grumpy and unreliable and no amount of tuning or carb kits, filters etc sorted it. It just lived in the saw box, being useless and a waste of space. I took it along to a 100% husky bloke (Ray Foster, Turners Hill, W Sussex), who told me he'd had several 357's with carb problems- the new model saws don't have any/enough adjustment (apparently common on newer 020 Stihls as well). He refitted the saw with a replacement older pattern carb and it runs beautifully now, absolutely rips along.....

It would certainly hug the road..... Like towing a bungalow

I can imagine how pleasant that is to tow down our bumpy, greasy, twisty little lanes.....

Those little cranky winches are really very good for the money, though they get a bit chewed up after a while and aren't always brilliant because of the short cable. I used to always use them with a length of old climbing line and a prussik- you could get the slack out of the system before using up precious cable. If you need to pull any distance get 2!! Seriously, if you link 2 together, crank one in then the second.... I've now found an 800kg lift Tirfor on eBay with a huge distance of cable, very light and always in the truck. I think that was under 40 quid, it doesn't look pretty, but our local lifting engineers have given it a medical are happy with it EDIT: 4 tons is a pretty ambitious claim- that's probably pulling a 4 ton vehicle on a nice smooth incline. Not a 4 ton load or a 4 ton lift

If you want to circulate your hot air better, you can get ducting kits that blow hot air from ceiling height or the fireplace around into other rooms... If you blew some upstairs it would circulate back round bit cheaper than a whole new stove and boiler system

The 'Mog's moved on now- I kept the implements and got the tractor and some dosh in exchange for the beast. I think Mr Branchline sold the company and goodwill to Bartlett's??