Rob D

Yep it's expensive but on average I lose or damage contacts all the time.... dailys work well for me. It makes me look at lazer surgery again but the way I see it () is I can cope with my life wearing daily lenses... I couldn't if my eyes stopped working and as said I reckon my contacts actually protect my eyes. There's such conflicting info from sites like this LASIK Complications, Risks - Top 10 Reasons Not to Have LASIK which is clearly run by people who have a business interest in stopping surgery and then on the other hand all the hard sell from the people offering surgery and how wonderful your life will be now you've had it! I reckon most who have it do well but as time goes on it'll only get better....

Worn contact lenses (Daily disposables) for the last 17 years... Takes a while to get used to them but they are pretty amazing if expensive (£40 a month). Will get my eyes lazered at some point (one at a time) but in the meantime I actually think these lenses help protect my eyes from all the crap the gets fired into them!

I think it's a great idea Andy. When you see posts of 'I live near Dorchester any work going?' you may be the best worker in the world but you've just put off about 90% of potential employers. Josh really great vid - one thing I'd add is perhaps a small piece to camera at the beginning or end introducing yourself, age, years of working in the industry, where you'd like to be working etc... Yes I know a bit cringeworthy and not something to broadcast publicly but it's sort of putting a face to the work.

Used to work in the health service (psychi) Dave and through that you come into contact with lots of other different professions. Most H&S is there so that you can't be sued i.e. I have followed what the guidelines have stipulated, I can prove it as it's all written down.... And when someone does get sued all the 'higher ups' run around to invent more red tape so if the same accident/problem occurs their backsides are covered.... that is what H&S has become.... Ironic because in turning into such a multi headed monster it may well cause the opposite - less safe working conditions!

Nice work Si - great to see real 'feeling' in a carving

Cheers for the tip Morten - I've been using a tipex type pen recently which works well ..... until it siezes up! I'll try a few of these especially the brighter colour ones.

H & S has come about mainly through litigation... Someone has an accident=someone is sued... report made.... how can we avoid this happening again.... = further risk assessment, more safety devices, a little more red tape, another hoop to jump through... How about you train someone for a job and then you trust them to do that job unless strong evidence suggests otherwise?

As above PVA works well - it's cheap, non toxic and easy to paint on .. I do think it makes a difference although as Big J says it's further down the importance list than the other things he's mentioned.

Focus on the job and give yourself continuous positive feedback.... It would be ironic to injure yourself because you're worrying about injuring yourself .... I've had a few minor accidents and each time it was because my mind was not on the job.

Ha ha - excellent

That's good for 1 tank and I know fuel is not cheap Jon - but it'll only get more expensive.... it'll just have to be passed onto the customer.

Yes it's strange that solid nose bars are still made in some ways as I can't find anyone who uses them and I've never sold one! I know they are there for use in gritty conditions but I've never had problems with sprocket nose bars no matter where they've been used. But you can change the cannon bar noses over - the oregon ones fit cannon so you can if you want put a 3/8 nose sprocket on a longer bar... I've never tried milling with 3/8 lo pro on big saws - the only people with access to this are logosol for the MS660. They get there bars made by GB in Australia. Also they have the 3/8 lo pro drive rims and picco Stihl ripping chain. I am getting some 32" powermatch bars in. They are unusual as they have a .050" guage with a standard 3/8 nose sprocket. I was thinking of changing the nose sprocket to .325 and putting on some Oregon 95VPX chain (.325 .050) which cuts a slightly narrower kerf than normal .325 chain. I'll re grind this to 10 degrees and see if it's worth all the hassal!! But they won't be here for a few weeks yet.....

Cool and nicely sanded!

Jon you really need to get a camera for threads like this!

It can be a tricky thing selling the timber... I've often found it's finished products that sell better. Oak posts always seem to be sought after... Perhaps ask around a bit first and see if it gets anyone interested.

Just a quick heads up there's an 090 on ebay that looks pretty genuine... Worth a look if you need a dedicated milling saw but sometimes they can go for big money. Stihl 090 AV Pro Chainsaw. not 088, ms880, 070, 076, 075, 066, 660 sawmill | eBay

Ah - thanks for explaining as I thought a bandsaw would be ideal quarter sawing.... But I do think it's possible to do practically with combo of mini mill and Alaskan! But not really for anything less than 36" butts and boards no thinner than 2". Ref the longer uprights they're good for halving the log.... I'd like to figure out a way of guaranteed halving it through the middle so if there is a taper to the log the mill follows the pith all the way down.... I sort of have a couple of ideas either - have the ladder independent of the log. Or a way of attaching ladder so that the supports come out from the log at each end exactly the same height from the center at each end.... .....hard to explain I'll put some pics up when I've had a crack at it!

Nice pics Jon - def the way forward I reckon to take photos as you're milling when the woods still wet to show that lovely grain

There's a lot of debate over this..... I've alternated between 3/8 and .404 on an 880 and in summary: I'd say .404 is a better chain for milling - it has less teeth, it stays sharp longer and it clears the chip better. Yes you lose a smidge of wood in extra kerf but if you're worried about kerf you shouldn't be using a chainsawmill!

:confused1: what do you mean by that?

I think this depends on who comes and sorts out the wood though doesn't it - if they say 'yes I'll have it - here's the money will be over there tomorrow' - and they do that there's no problem. Yes it will be worth more in firewood if you split it, dry it and deliver it - but then you need to take the costs off of doing that including your time. In your example you had 4 cubic meters of split oak - what's the value of that? I'd say about £200 in the yard and around £280 if delivered green... but then you have to take your time off for splitting it and then some more for delivering it. So his offer of £250 is about right - and as long as the buyer pays quickly you'll not make any additional money but you'll save the time it takes to split it.

I think you'd need some diagrams to demonstrate it! The mini mill is a good tool to use in conjunction with the Alaskan for quarter sawing... I did a beach and here are some pics but I think it would take a few goes to perfect. It does give you much more stable timber. I've done a bit of quarter sawing now and it's not that bad with a chainsaw mill - but on the proviso your planking to 2"+.... it's not that wasteful.... couple of pics below but didn't have time to take any more.... The next time I have a better plan of how to do it..... Jon I would have thought your new shiny woodmeiser would be ideal for quarter sawing? Quarter up the log. Load a quarter onto your mill. Take a plank off the bottom, roll the quarter onto the other flat edge. Take another plank. Roll it back etc. No need to change the height the band cuts at. You're too used to sitting in your comfy seat I expect these days It's something to look into as wide boards are great but no where near as stable as quarter sawn.

Still got 40 cube of mixed (hard and soft) dry wood left.... My theory is you need a good 2 weeks of cold weather early on to get people in the habit of using their log burners.... after that they'll use until it gets warmer. This didn't happen 2011 and it was milder as well..... One plus point is it may thin competition for this year.

Great to see some experimentation with different combos... First off I'd hazard a guess that the 550 uses .325 chain? And a lively saw so high revs, high chain speed. That combo will give more teeth cutting the wood at higher speed = smoother cut. Fast chain speed is a great thing but with full chisel - was that grabby, aggressive and difficult to stop the saw bogging in the cut? All the ripping chains from the manufacturers are semi or micro chisel - full chisel (unless in softwood with an over powered set up and sharpened to 5-10 degrees) will not be great in a mill. Try a micro chisel chain sharpened to 10 degrees and you'll find the boards come out much smoother and are nicer to cut. Looking forward to the pics - if you can get some close ups of the boards that's be great as a question often asked is 'what's the difference in smoothness between ripping and non ripping chain'

Oh and finally as you have a that great wee boxer - think about larger, heavy solid pieces where you're only doing a couple of cuts to turn an unwieldy log into a seat or similar..... .....you have the advantage in that you can deliver them with your boxer.... a major advantage!