Rob D

Basically I pay someone to send orders out. This is on a commission basis but for very small orders he gets a minimum £3-00 per order. Add this to postage charge and small amount for packing gives close to £5-00. What you have to realise is that to cross reference weight of items, postage method, where the item is going would cost a lot to implement - much easier to keep things simple and have a flat postage rate. So as you said why not just buy the stones when you have something else to buy? No system is perfect and to be honest you can't really compare different postage costs from company to company - they may not have the same overheads, different courier arrangements etc. etc.

Looks fantastic Jon Shame to get covered in sawdust really

Just posted on that one - I don't worry about it - it'll take a few years to happen and after that you could re shape back to the heartwood.... Or just treat from the word go to preserve it - up to customer.

Excellent - loving the made benches on site... I did a couple more at the CONFOR show but very poor take up there... in the end swapped one for a service and inspection on the crane on the truck... Strange how it goes at different shows - at Jonsies people were falling over themselves to buy a slab or a bench!

Nice to meet you there Ed and good pics you got them up quick Bob should be there tom giving a hand on the milling stand! See you there Jon.

The ring will always split somewhere - you can minimise this by laminating onto some 1" ply (I screw and glue). Indent the ply around 2" so not so visible. It will still split but the ply holds it together. You can then fill the split if necessary when fully dry.

1. is would something like a husky 372 or a MS440 be power full enough to do what I want on the mill running a 36” bar but strictly not using all of the cut available on the mill? Not enough power - MS660,MS880 or Husky 395,3120 2. If yes to the above can I get a 36” bar to fit wither of the 2 saws above or am I going to have to go for a bigger saw? Bigger saw 3. Does it sound feasible / sensible to do the proposed and square up smaller butts with a chainsaw mill and re-saw on the PTO saw. Yep it's a great way of doing it - chainsaw mills really work best at quartering or halving a large log then re sawing it on something more efficient. 4. Any advice on how best to mill hardwoods (especially oak) with 3 and 5 star shakes is would be very much appreciated as my man mainly uses the mizer for re-sawing softwoods. There's not a lot you can do. Try and chainsaw mill in line with the shake and then quarter saw. Try and avoid simple through sawing - too much movement in the finished planks. Oak is a nice timber to saw with sharp tools.

Another arbtalk related offer type idea would be to do short term offers for a certain day i.e. get x6 files with any chain bought, get a free additional chain with any sugi bar/chain combo... And again some of these would be specific for arbtalk....

Don't really climb trees anymore but arbtalk has been fantastic to put out new ideas and promote my business.... It's a great place for getting advice and also for giving advice. I reckon there's more timber out there getting milled because of it

I've tried milling at 3/4" but very difficult to keep it straight... Personally the thinnest I ever go now is 1 1/4" - but there may be others who have had better luck with thinner boards...

You could do the same type of thing with the Lucas - the only pain being positioning the log. Beech seems to me not really sought after so worth putting your energy elsewhere unless you manage to tap into a market...

It's a good point and worth re stating - on the whole through sawn timber is not the best way to saw wood although at first appears to be the easiest way. Halve a log first then saw it - that's what you want!

Ha ha - I was thinking free postage - but it's just not very exciting... If a larger order goes in I was more thinking of a free chain, file pouch, dozen files etc... Something a bit 'meatier'....

My gut says hang onto your money at the moment... beech I have always found a difficult timber to shift. Also you really want to get away from thinking about through sawn timber i.e. going all the way through a log top to bottom - boards end up heavy, tension builds in them, they warp and crack, they can then be hard to do anything with. But you can still saw this fine with the set up you have. Almost everything now I saw is done by: Mill top of the log. Mini mill or free hand down the middle of the log (almost better if you don't go all the way through) Wedge the log to split it so it falls apart in x2 halves Roll the halves upright and re saw 2 1/4" This then gives you: More stable timber More easily movable timber Easier selling timber because of the above Fast quick cuts as the max you cut is around 18" so you really motor along If you can then sell the timber and make some money you can then look towards a bigger set up.

Ok so it looks like we'll be heading down the freebie route...

Or could be brutally disappointing!! Just kidding

Yep that was what I was thinking - the freebies would relate to order size and I would make sure that people would be pleased with what they got and they would be weighted over the 10% they would have otherwise saved. The trouble with other systems like a rewards system etc is it seems quite an easy thing to sort out but when you get stuck into the bare bones of it it starts getting really in depth and complicated... The selector services on the website for instance - how hard should it be to do it? The reality was it took aaaaaaaaaaaagesss!

Good idea - I'll put it to the web builder - the only thing I can see him saying is that although in principle it sounds simple - to implement is difficult and therefore expensive.... I'd asked him about doing a points type thing before... it was a lot of cash!

I've had confirmation that the ship is docking on the 16th September so as long as everything goes smoothly should be fine for that date.

All the bars should be going out on the 21st October.

Arbtalk 10% discount to be discontinued on 20th October .... need ideas for how to replace it. What are the reasons for it going then? Now that CSB is the importer for the Alaskan mills, Sugihara bars, K+H felling wedges and woodchuck tools there will be a major move to shift these out to other retailers. A few other retailers stock the above but the main retailer is FR Jones and son I can't give a retail price to other dealers that I don't stick to myself i.e. I offer 10% off to arbtalkers, Jonsie matches these prices, other retailers will then match this price - this then is the retail price! There is then no discount! I want to offer arbtalkers something extra that no one else gets - but it won't be a discount. So what would you want? Free postage? Bonus equipment (actual useful stuff like files, log vice etc not simply stuff that I just want to get rid of!!), t shirts..... etc And this would be at least to the value of 10% - or higher if a regular customer. There is a coupon bit - was thinking arbtalkers could then just put in 'arbtalk' to ID themselves as an arbtalker. Ideas please!

PM replied!

Not far off it's Lymington pier!

Welcome to the forum

Glad you got your woodchuck sorted - they are very well made tools and the maker and designer of them (Tom Hoff) has spent a lot of time making them as good as they can be... in fact I was asked to take one of my vids down as he I was not using it and demoing it correctly - good to see someone that takes so much pride in what they make. Anyways - ref discount - I do an arbtalk disc of 10% but Jonsie as as the other supplier of tools/bars/mills I sell matches that price... But this will have to change soon as other retailers come on board...