wills-mill

The idea of towing the green beastie down a pot holed road makes my toes curl, just over 8 ft wide on a homemade base. Yummy.

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/MJ1500-European-Quality-CE-Certification-large_60082983769.html https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Electric-Gasoline-Diesel-Engine-powered-Wood_60425030740.html https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Sawmill_214703487.html Little beauties! No doubt one of the Chinese firms will get their act together at some point and create a consistently decent mill.

Yes. Horrible things for holding up vehicles but useful for loads of other jobs. Made mine into a brilliant cider press once....

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/general-chat/99944-monteray-pine-mill-ring.html

The camera folk deserved a brew for filming that one. The cameras probably weighed more than the Homelite!

It sounds as mental as exhaust gas recirculation on modern diesels. No doubt it's fantastic scientifically, but a bit lacking in the real world. I sometimes think that the Germanic (and Russian) ceramic and masonry stoves built in stoves make a lot of sense, where bone dry softwood is burnt in full air very fast (and cleanly) and the mass of the stove soaks up the heat, releasing it slowly into the room over hours. A couple of rip-roaring fires a day, and there's no tar, slow burning, and very little heat heading up the chimney.

The Forestor is a bit of a weapon for knocking out smaller fencing/ building type chunky timber, but it needs decent trestles, handling kit and a couple of people to go best. When it comes to anything like accurate planking, one man operation, or on longer or heavier logs, the Trakmet will wipe the floor. Tweaking heavy and unstable lumps around on that high Forestor table is no fun on a regular basis. If you go near garden timber with metal or grot, then the cheap blades on the Trak are an advantage as well. Forestors will do neat fencing jobs like splitting small softwood for half rounds, you can split out arris rails and point stakes as well, so they are more suited for farm and forestry timber- the sort of cord sized stuff you can flick around by hand quite easily. Your decision, probably based on what timber and produce you're looking at?

I can't help with the axle diff locks But, you can run a Ranger in 2wd low range and not get tyre scrubbing (if you have the RFW switch and light system that the Mazdas do). RFW are free wheeling hubs that are actuated by a vacuum line and an electric solenoid, so the solenoids can be bypassed... I copied this from an Aus forum- "Ranger/BT50 Mod to get Low Range 2WD. Ok this is the Mod I have one to my Ranger so has to use Low range 2 wheel drive for backing a caravan etc. there's 2 relay's under the bonnet on the left side of the brake booster. 1 plug is black=free solenoid and the other plug is Blue=Lock solenoid. I did the following mod. #1-Cut the red wire back about 100mm from the blue plug. #2- Run a length of 3mm twin core wire from driver side foot well into engine compartment. #3- place shrink wrap over the wires before soldeing each end of cut Red wire to one of each of the twin core wires, and then cover the soldered joins after soldering with the shrink wrap. #4-Using a Narva rocker switch #63020BL with amber LED, run an earth wire to ground the switch and run the twin core wires to the switch Power & Acc poles. #5- To Test. Start the Ute. The Led on Rocker switch will light up if it is in the On position. Move the 4WD lever to 4WD, the Rocker switch Led will turn OFF. Move forward to engage RFW (Remote Free Wheel hubs) and the RFW light on the dash will light up. This will give you 4 wheel drive. Now move the 4WD lever back to 2WD and disengage the RFW switch so the dash light goes out. To Select 2WD Low Range. Turn the Rocker switch OFF (LED OFF). Move 4WD lever to Low Range and move the ute forwards, the RFW light will not come ON. This will give you 2 Wheel Drive Low Range. When you reselect 2WD High Range, turn the rocker switch back on. This will sometimes bring the RFW light on so just push the RFW button again to turn it OFF"

or have a chat to Westtec- Westtec Forestry

Sounds really tidy. Do you know what sort of efficiency difference there is between running hydraulically compared to a 3 phase pto/ diesel generator? Looking back to when I paid up for a big 3 phase network connection, I don't think I'd ever go back. The standing charge from the network is based on the total potential usage of all motors on site, and ends up as a ridiculous cost if you spend a decent amount of time per month out on site work. Thanks for mentioning the readymix lorry. It can go on the mental shopping list alongside cheap dustbin wagons. Both awesome mobile pumping stations.

Yup, most third services will switch over the oil from the bucket tip and crowd circuit.

I always think there's scope for an endurance event where the competitors are weighed in at the start and have to charge around with a log that is x percentage of their bodyweight. I did Mr Mouse's Tough Guy a couple of times years back. Tough Mudder just looks so squeaky clean and corporate compared to slogging through nettles at a donkey sanctuary. I'm 39 now, and the idea of damaging myself any further without financial incentive seems a bit wrong

No idea of the grand plan, and I've not heard of the scheme so far. One thing to bear in mind is that the Emerald Ash Borer is working his way westwards (near Moscow recently), and so at some point our use of Ash from the Baltic might well leapfrog EAB to this country. Emerald Ash Borer would make Chalara look like a nun's picnic

A big bandsaw is very handy- [ame] [/ame]

Richard, my global aero kiln uses the awesome power of global weather systems to dry my fuelwood. No Latvians or aeroplanes are harmed during the process.

it's state of the fart I'll have you know. Not many people are selling my Sequoia and grotty Oak hipster artisan blend.

I operate one of those global aero kilns. The grant money is rubbish, but there's very little maintenance. If it turns up to the customer and it's dry, what's the problem?

This is my homemade tilt-o-matic. It's impressive but you need machinery on site to handle the cants.

Mr Trak Met again or something from the States like a Baker resaw?

Aye, the flexibility of the tongue is useful but it's often abused when people smash the life out of their cladding with a Paslode. As far as the yield per log goes (if you don't have a dedicated resaw) there's the big issue with a lapsiding attachment on a mobile bandmill that you can't make use of the falling boards. You are limited with featheredge yield because you can only get featheredge from the central cant. With plain rectangular boarding, you can clamp and edge all the falling boards as well, and that ends up being very useful and productive. If you have either a dedicated resaw machine, or something like the Woodmizer powered resaw attachment, or a Lucas mill with tilty-angle thing, or you do a bit of hilbilly USA style 'poor boy resawing' then it's not an issue. Woodmizer lapsiding maker

I think that's right in part, it's a hangover from cleft boarding.

I've just moved over to having the kit for tapered featheredge after a decade cutting plain boards. Still can't really see the fuss, over the years we've put up plain cladding alongside featheredge and there's no visual difference to speak of. I can see your point down at a closeboard level, but I've also seen plenty of cladding failures from featheredge supplied with a really skimpy weak edge, so sometimes it isn't the bees knees. Every larch lap panel out there is made with a parallel board and they don't seem to be that unpopular.

More in depth films here- [ame] [/ame] sorry for the derail. Back to the bracken.

Jeremy is a good old stick. Myself and Roger and a few of the coppice lot have spent some time with him and the clog knives (shaper, hollower, gripper bit). His opinion is that using Alder is OK but it wears very quickly, so the leather upper would have to be transferred regularly to a new sole. Sycamore lasts longer as a one-off clog. Although (apparently) their lasts aren't quite the proper shape, Walkleys are still manufacturing a reasonable amount by machine. The safety clogs look pretty tidy, it sounds like clogs held out for a long time in foundries and rolling mills, much safer when you're stood on red hot plate Walkley Clogs safety boots

Be nice to the Cedar, between the squirrels and Chalara there might not be much else to work with.