Rob D

Nice one Andy. Get a plan in your mind of what you're going to do with the wood. I have to say one of the best sellers I've got into is chopping boards. You'll need: someone with a good size planer/thicknesser dry planks a good sanding tool with grits from 80g to 400g walnut oil to finish I'm aiming to do more vids through Nov hopefully showing more about how to turn those planks into cash!

It can be very tough running your own business - as said read the stress thread from start to finish. There's plenty of people have been/are in your situation.

Thanks Andy - and there's a pretty good set up vid here if you need:

Liked it and a new one for me. It does look useful for smaller chogs as it seems like it's easier to push over and snap...

Thanks and if you're already signed up the 10% discount will come off at checkout.

I doth challenge yee ..... yep I reckon ya can't say fairer than that!

It's coming up to 10 months since the chainsawbars website was launched and thanks very much to the people who have bought off the site.... In brief: Delivery - no longer will be free delivery on smaller orders or over £100. Price increases - will be some price increases on the site average 5% but not on bars or chain Artalker discount - raised to 10% to mitigate the above Save Edge Files - now found here Products for the category: Round files Sugihara bars - new order for 4 months time will include all the shorter bars in the full pro solid silver version Cheap carving bars - £20+ vat each (-£2 after arb disc). Several of these came without the oiler holes drilled.... They are ok bars but I'd rather just sell the best and these are average. Carving bars In detail: Delivery - On a small parcel the delivery cost is not the problem - it's the wrapping, doing the invoice and then going to the post office that takes time and I have to pay someone to do this. So am quite happy to do small orders but delivery will be minimum £4.95+vat - that said if I feel someone has paid way over the odds then I usually put in a few freebies to make it fairer. For the website it would cost too much and be too time consuming to put in a weight for each product, then balance this weight against the destination address.... similarly there will be no free delivery over £100, I just don't send the volume at the moment to get the rates where I can do this. Prices - several costs have gone up recently and so some of the prices on the site will go up - this will be over the next 3 weeks.... not massively but on average 4 to 5%. Bars and chains will stay the same. 10% discount for arbtalkers - to balance the increases for people on here I've put all the arbtalkers who have signed up on the site to 10% rather than 4%. And this applies to arbtalkers who sign up in the future - but I'm no longer advertising the fact.... Quite a few people browse arbtalk, see I do a discount and then ask for it.... so if you want it sign up first then PM me and I can put it on your account. A lot of the prices won't be live on the site for a while so if you buy sooner rather than later you'll get the 10% off the older cheaper prices. Save Edge files - I'm the only supplier in the UK for these files and they are now on the site Products for the category: Round files Also in most of the chain sharpening tools when you open the window to look at the product detail the links to the appropriate video that show you how to use that tool are built into the description. Sugihara bars - Now looking to get the next shipment organised - this will have all the shorter bars as the solid replaceable sprocket i.e. 13" to 20" inclusive. Also there will be a 14" light type bar (solid bar but with areas of the bar removed and replaced with resin) with replaceable nose sprocket for the MS200T (or MS201T etc). This will have much greater durability than the existing laminated bars on the market as well as having better build quality and tolerances. Also getting a 12" carving bar as well. Zebra carving bars - Quite a few of these bars came without the oiler holes drilled due to a mistake at the factory (not sure exactly where they are produced). I had Nick Speakman use one for a couple of days hard carving and he reckoned they stand around 40% of the same use as say a Cannon or Oregon bar. These I am selling for £20-00+vat each (or £18 inc arbtalk disc) but you will have to sort out drilling the oiler holes yourself! I'm getting some Sugihara carving bars in a few months - I'd rather stock just the high end bars. To buy just put in Stihl 018 into the selector here Carving bars

All good points Andy - the disposal of the empty cans is an issue... Maybe they do need to re think how the fuel is supplied and distributed... a hard one I think!

I shouldn't worry about a bit of dust under the filter Andy - my MS880 seems to have much more than the 090 after milling and seems to cope with it. Things like, Letting the saw idle 30 secs every 4 ft down a plank Idling for a minute or 2 with gentle revving after finishing a plank Do not just switch off at the end of a plank. Don't mill the last board in a heap of sawdust - just firewood it or lift it onto something higher Regular air filter cleaning The biggest thing I've found is to allow the saw time to cool and getting the air flow over the fans - not so much with your 090 as I think the older saws had more metal in and revved lower so less heat build up.

I'm sure they sell large drums of it? But more like 100l. But would 25l be an advantage? - I love the 5l containers as they're so handy... otherwise you just end up decanting from the 25l can into a 5l can.

Very good post - it's looking at the additional benefits of supplying a good product. Someone comes to you to buy Aspen and then they also see that you sell other good products. Why won't dealers take on the product? - I think you need a proper rep to go round to dealers to look at taking on new products. All the larger companies do this and it's a strategy that seems to work.... I have the same problem with what I sell.... I think you need to get out there and promote your products directly to dealers and demonstrate them.... (Something I'll be looking at doing once the new Granberg mill has been put into production). But as you say it's a big commitment taking on someone full time when you're a small business....

Well done for getting out there and doing it - a brave thing to do fresh out of college and no doubt you'll reap the rewards. But yep some pics would be good - I've been out there a few times as the missus is from the South Island... if you get a chance have a look at the kauri trees and the kauri museum.

I got a container from Aspen esp for storing a pallet load of fuel... they were doing them at a special price when you bought a pallet... Not sure if that offer is still there but it's pretty good!

How do you mean cleaner running Andy? To stop it getting clogged with sawdust from milling?

Ha ha! I've had postage on my mind today and did a search - felt it needed a reply.

I know - but I used round up regularly 6 years ago - I only looked up this article today! It may have been published for years (although may not have necessarily been available online all that time) but I never thought to look up anything about roundup as everyone else selling and using it said it was harmless and a 'good one to use!' That was the general opinion of it.

You're looking at it like it's a black and white thing - it depends on what you're sending. Under 1kg - Royal Mail £4.30-00 courier £16-00 Over 4kg signed for - Royal Mail £9-75 courier £16-00 Over 10 kg signed for - Royal Mail £19-75 courier £16-00 So not as clear cut as you're making out. Chainsdirect work on large turnover and small margins which I would expect gives them lower postage rates - to this effect are I would say their business strategy is successful as I could not match their prices and stay solvent.

Pretty worrying as I used 'roundup' all the time for a good few years and the thoughts then were that is was harmless to humans and so not to worry if you inhaled a bit here or there. There's an article here, 'Since glyphosate is being marketed as a safe and environmentally friendly product and its use is so extensive' which sort of summed up how I used to feel about it. Full article here if interested: Glyphosate fact sheet

Nice thread Andy and thanks for posting. I think when you start to mill timber usually one of two things happen- you buy it and never use it..... too busy! OR you mill every bit of wood that comes your way! but it's hard work, you don't know where to store the timber, some of it gets firewooded anyway as you get fed up moving it! And both these approaches tend to resign the mill to the back of the garage.... I think this worked well - good selective milling - as the customer wanted the planks, it was half a days milling and you come away feeling satisfied with your elboes more or less intact.

And ironically this post is the biggest load of tosh I've read in my life!

Have a look at some past threads Jon as I'm sure I've seen a couple recently with poplar being offered...

Well done - that looks pretty doable! As long as the curve in the log is in line with the wide section of the root. And the root looks pretty clean although a pressure wash would be even better.

I think it more likely a blip rather than a change in the economic climate..... Wish it were otherwise. That said there will always be people that need work doing... sometimes the hard times force other people out of the industry which then creates a bit of relative demand. It's tough but you've got to stick at at IMO and keep improving the service you offer.

I'd put some pics up here as otherwise I don't think you'll get many takers... also is this going to need milling through the root ball...? If so you're looking at smashing up a couple of chains on a big set up so just to factor that in as well as the time sharpening etc.

Lovin' the back! Great work