Rob D

Have to whole heartedly agree with the above... wood does not dry out in a few days... and this time of year it will hardly dry at all... if the meter is telling you otherwise it's inaccurate. In the summer if you split it, had it somewhere very very well ventilated with a strong hot breeze blowing through then you can dry in a couple of months.... but that is as fast as you'd do it. Wood dries very little in the round even if from a dead tree. Under 8" will dry in the round slowly but above that diameter it will be wet in the middle. After splitting a couple of days later it will feel dry - but won't be.

Cracking bit of furniture well done for finishing - so easy to get waylaid 80% through a project!

To give my site a boost I'm offering free delivery regardless of order size to anywhere in the UK, Scotland and Ireland. You also get 4% off listed prices as an arbtalk member so register and I will unlock your discount Chainsawbars ? bars, chains and chainsaw accessories

I have the 8" bars on my website here. These are under the ACCESSORIES tab in the top menu bar. Here you can buy carving bars, chains and drive sprockets specifically for carving. I have one on my 192 and didn't find the need to grind the top plate shorter. However the best chain to go for is the Stihl .250 RMS as this already has a shortened top plate for carving. If you want to buy off the site register and I'll unlock discount etc

Yes you want to run it slacker def on carving bars but not so you can tie a knot in it!

Its a Stihl duromatic bar - but bar nose tends to get hot and sap power...

That is just enormous!

Just shocking.... they really are inadequate scum.

With the good ole mini mill!

If it'd be a worthwhile investment why not get a new one? At least you know where it's been.

I dunno... there is a fair step from the MS181 to an MS260 or Husky 346.... I had an MS181 and it's fine for very small stuff while the 346 (which I have) and MS260 (which I had!) are a lot quicker and would be a good choice for someone looking to 'go up a saw'. Also both accept the Oregon 95vpx bar and chain system which I've found to be superb.

Looks a great way to dry wood and a bit of adaptation i.e. on pallets somehow would make it loadable.

Thanks Si!

I've got a dewalt 18v and makita 18v... although it sounds like the hitachi one is better than these from another post on this thead. But if you're going to crack them off and do final tighten manually these impact drivers will do the rest no prob. I use them all the time on my furniture driving index screws into hardwoods.

I have a system I got of ebay. Definition is good and you can watch over the internet or your iphone BUT it took me a long long time to get it all working.... And there is a major drawback with IP cameras (cameras you can view over the internet) - without going into all the technical detail if your hub switches off and on or refreshes your external IP address changes. And if this changes then when you dial in to look at your cameras the address set up in your phone/computer will be different from the one your hub now has. The only way you can then get the new address is to go to your hub and find it out manually then put the new address into your phone. This is not a problem if you have stable power supply and hub but if your hub starts playing up it knackers the system.... You can get a static IP address which doesn't change but this apparently costs a lot and is not a one off cost but something you rent monthly. You also have to figure out how to 'port forward' i.e. when you want to view remotely your hub needs to forward you to the DV and this is where you pull your hair out understanding the difference between external and internal IP addresses.... All that said my system cost £370-00 inc vat + the cost of monitor for 4 IP cameras with infra red. Now the landlord saw the set up and got some cameras from Maplins but the definition and picture is no where near as good and nor is the playback. I'm going to do an article type thread on my camera system on my chainsawbars sponsered forum and I'll set it up so people can PM me for the IP address and password and see what it's like to remotely access them.

If it's fencing type material i.e. up to 8" then I'd go for a swingmill as they are fully portable, can at a pinch mill up to 6 foot diameter and are fast and accurate. The down side is you cannot do wide boards. But if you only want a few wide boards just use an Alaskan.

If it was in good nick good ol ebay will prob get you £500+ as long as you can ship UK wide and the pics are good. Would be a good milling saw.

My pennys worth Stevie is : Go round looking and using mills with people before you buy anything as milling is not really an 'out of the box' thing. The two main choices are bandsaw or swingmill (circular saw Peterson or Lucas). They're both very different. What are you going to do with all the timber you produce? This is by far and wide the important question as it will determin what machine you want. Producing milled timber is easy compared to selling it (I've found anyways). There is no perfect mill that will do everything so I would say do a good few months of research before you take the plunge! Try and work with people who have them.

Ho ho - thought that as well.... a smudge with a blow torch and that would clinch it!

I've been thinking the same thing about also having builders bulk bags (0.65 cube) as an option. I could then do a mixed bag for £55-00.... But the .065 cube bags are almost the same price as the cube bags... A tricky one as I'd like to stick to my guns with the cubic meter bags but educating the public how volume relates to price is proving a very uphill battle..... Yep... it's a tricky one alright

Bricked myself when I first started spiking - and it doesn't help when they occasionally kick out but you do get used to it the more you do it. Stick at it

I know what you mean.... there's prob so many things that could be used for but if there's no demand for what you saw then it's tricky to justify getting it milled..... looking around at some of the stacks of timber in my yard testifies to that.....

I think you may struggle to find someone who wants the timber.... I expect they could be used for something (as all wood could be used for something).....!

Woken up at 5.30am this morning and it is howling