Rob D

Good job - nice to see a taller type carving... good idea as well a snake as if you ever had a smaller really twisted tree coming out the ground would be a good thing to carve

Hi there Simon.... you can sign up to Chainsawbars ? bars, chains and chainsaw accessories and then send me an e-mail to say you have done so... you will then qualify for 10% off all prices. As said stick with your 36" bar... I do have 42" bars for the 660 but only cannon and so very expensive... Go for a 36" mill, chain and precision grinder and this will give you a good start. I have found picnic benches to be the most popular thing and easiest thing to make. Cheers, Rob

Another good blog here which is interesting but nothing concrete again! Is Yew wood toxic… | woodturning blog

I looked at the references or at least put them into google but seems to mainly talk about toxicity of berrys and leaves... Ref if someone was injured - how about a splinter from a board? What if someone dropped it on themselves and they said it was because handholds were not correctly placed? Would you be liable then? There's risk with everything but is the risk with dry yew wood a real and dangerous one? All said and done it's prob just not worth the risk but a shame as said before it makes an attractive board.

Should have elaborated - if used with the small log mill not the Alaskan - 20" bar will give you 18" cut.

You'd really want a 70cc saw with a 20" bar...

From Trada: Good Morning Unfortunately this is not something we can authoritively answer. There is a publication “woods injurious to human health”, that says the following about yew... “The leaves, stems, bark, pollen and wood contain at least eleven different compounds called taxines, which are responsible for the toxic effects of yew.” However this was written in the context of woodworking and sawdust. There are essential oils in yew, that may leach in the presence of moisture, and these are toxic. But most timber’s can contain chemicals that could be harmful, the question is if the quantity in which they may leech into water or food products is harmfull, and I do not have data on this. Generally speaking, many timbers are used for chopping boards and bowls, and this publication lists many chemicals for these timbers that can be toxic and reported ill effects with working with these timbers (including timbers like oak which are commonly used). But little ill effects are heard of in their use as bowls and boards, where such products are often seasoned and finished, often the chemicals are shown to have an anti-bacterial effect rather than any toxic affect to humans, this is possibly due to the concentration levels of these extractives being lower in contact with food/water than in woodworking and sawdust exposure. I suspect you could ask me about any timber, and you would find it contains a number of “toxic” chemicals. If you needed a definite answer, you would have to get the items tested in a laboratory. We do not do this work, but I suspect the fee’s for such work would be at least a few thousand. Kind Regards

I've spent a while trying to find answers online and have been meaning to e-mail TRADA (just have done). But history seems to state it's ok and you'd have to physically eat and digest a good bit of wood to kill you. What I've found on the web is similar to what these guys say FAQ - bunburyboards.com "But is the wood itself poisonous? If so, how poisonous? Some say it is fine, and have spent decades drinking from yew goblets and eating off yew plates. There are also many doubters out there – “If in doubt, don’t do it” advice is all over the web if you do a search. " I've done my research and as long as TRADA agree it's ok to use yew for chopping boards I'm going to do it just making sure there is no flaky wood or bark.

No worrys! I've been using the F-n-R for the last couple of months and all the basics are there but it still needs a little tweaking... small things like sawdust getting in the box which then stops you rotating the saw so you have to stop, undo screws and blow out... line adjustment on the horizontal needs re thought slightly... and a few more things... It's all coming along but it's got to be right and although small things to fix it needs to be solid and robust as when it's raining and something is not working right is frustrating... I have a bandsaw and have yet to cut any wood where the band wanders.... sharp blade and slow progress seems to cut straight as anything.... but I've not cut any tricky wood yet... ! But still a way off I'm afraid... one thing is I think it will be very easy to drop the mill onto an Alaskan and use that for large slabbing.

Go and pull out as much as you can then forget it and move on.

Sounds Similar to what I'm doing with mine - the essential ingrediant is having a planer thicknesser or knowing someone that does... I never really knew how they worked but am going to post a vid up soon...

It's the sort of wood that if you have customers it's worth milling and if not prob firewood.... everyone says 'carvers love it' (not chainsaw carvers but hand carvers) but I had a few come round and they only had the odd bit... If it has burrs or some figuring that would be worth milling.

It could be worth it but just check that there is no ring shake ... sweet chestnut over 70 years old is often prone to it... I milled a biggee a few years ago in my naive keeness to mill everything and threw 70% away! Its a bland timber but good for outdoor stuff

It's a great idea and gets a waney edge round the outside... Have tried this a bit on smaller logs but really I should be doing on larger logs... will try again as customers are always looking for the waney edge all round rather than a flat edge at each end!

As said by Alec - don't take lack of interest in a thread personally... I have plenty of threads with no replies... it's not to do with keeping secrets - milling timber is still behind compared to the US and so most people are still getting into just sawing wood through and through... 2 years ago i would not have known what quarter sawing was! One thing with threads is that you can make it too broad and sometimes this puts people off replying... we all are on arbtalk posting away for an hour or more at a time yet with a stack of paperwork on the desk next to the computer not being done! It's a quick fix with bite size portions being handed around and there's not many that like long posts! As it happens ref sawing burr it was another member on here who put me onto that - Big J.... collaborated by another member Watkin!

It's not necessarily obvious but a quarter tip will be much smaller than that bar tip you have there and a dime tip smaller again... The benefits are you can do more detail work and also there is virtually no chance of kickback so you can really play around with the tip. Also the stellite coating on the nose helps prevent bar wear. You will need a 1/4" drive sprocket for the smallest tip (dime) bar as this bar only runs 1/4" chain... or you can get a quarter tip bar and run 3/8 lo pro chain which is prob what you are running now.

I had some black poplar with rippling in it... Really impressive looking wood... I had oddles of the stuff in big butts but at the time space needed so was mainly firewooded... I should have milled more of it.... hindsight and all that! http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/alaskan-mill/45517-black-poplar-plank.html

Tricky question to answer but any wood with any sort of figuring is always good... But at a push - Walnut - nice to mill, lovely to look at, easy to dry. Oak - Mill so much of it - that tangy smell is so familiar - not keen on the wormy sapwood though! Ash - fairly easy to mill and olive ash can have some lovely colour Beech - cause it's easy to find big lumps of it! Sycamore - as it's popular!

Lovely piece of furniture Ian

Nice looks a good tidy job

It doesn't have that many traditional uses but can still be used inside. Benefits are that it dries very quickly, does not suffer with many drying defects and is one of the few light woods... negatives are it's very soft!. If you have a market for it it's worth milling.... if you don't then don't worry about it!

Nice job! And good display in the basket... I've found some good success with rustic boards this year... everyone seems to go for the waney edge pieces which is a great way of getting rid of bits and pieces too good for firewood!

You can order a mill of the website - but register on there first, then tell me and I can set a 10% discount on your account then. I'd go for a 36" Alaskan mill, ripping chain and precision grinder and stones - sharp chain is everything with chainsaw milling. You could have a go milling that branch but if I were you go and see Big J - he'll no doubt have some timber there you can practice on and the experience and info you'll get off him will be invaluable.

Possibly - back yard stuff tends to be better with the Alaskan as the Peterson is still a bit of a brute to move around and a little time consuming to pack and set up. You have to be a little careful talking to those who own a bandsaw as many will always tell you bandsaws are the best over and above anything else (because they own one!). The case is horses for courses - some people will find a bandsaw far more useful than a swingmill and vice versa. I have a bandsaw now and it is very good... but for a lot of the large trees I go out and about milling in 70-80% of cases a bandsaw would not be able to mill them. If you have a yard where you get a good load of timber dropped into it and have a good loader then a bandsaw will be best. Milling out and about - probably not. If you're milling thinner boards 1.5" or under the kerf is more relevant than 2"+ If you're doing more off piste milling the swingmill is better esp for large logs as you can set up round a log reasonably easily and once set up is super fast but limited in that they will only cut 8" to 10" (I find it a real fiddle doing the double cutting...) I tend to use the Peterson most as around a large 3-4 foot tree, 5m long it is just so fast! In many ways they are but looking at your situation I'd still say a good chainsaw milling set up and a moderate size bandsaw at home will work well for you. Break logs down into as big as you can move to bring home and re saw. If you do get an occasion where a swingmill has to be used then hire one in got the day. It's very tricky as there will always be times when you wish you had a swingmill rather than a bandsaw or a larger bandsaw than the one you have etc etc etc

I did a whole thread on this. You've got to give more info if you want to get people interested and some good pics. It could be worth selling or just firewood. http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/alaskan-mill/39337-if-youre-trying-sell-walnut-butt.html