Rob D

Superb cheers for posting

Good stuff - that's pretty good cash as well! You'll easily be able to buy those bars

Loved the soundtrack - great vid!

Have a quick look at this. Not looking to get donations as not arb related in any way but thought it may give you a chuckle after a hard days graft! Rich and Pat ? Run Fat Boys, Run!

I'm opening a new website soon and it'll be free deliveries on orders over £100-00 ex vat. I think if you do something like this system it needs to be well advertised on the site. Ref pricing it depends what you're selling. But I would say that quite a few people will call you and chat for 10 minutes to get info on a product then search the web for the cheapest. I think you need to offer something different especially entering in market with lots of competition. Why not have a person on the phone but just out of hours i.e. 5pm to 9pm? And have this service 7 days a week all year. Most of us are working in the day and it's the evening you have to buy your bits and pieces. And have your phone hours well advertised on site. Personally I wouldn't price match. If they want to buy off Amazon why not let them. How about offering more bundle deals i.e. buy a circular saw get 2 spare blades for £10 or whatever. Perhaps you don't make anything on the blades but do better on the circular saw and the total is cheaper than competitors. Also if we're your target market how about an exclusive discount for those registered on arbtalk? Also maybe a tiered discount system whereby the more you spend the larger the discount earnt on your next order. A few ideas for you anyway!

Not heard that about stinging nettles... That reply wasn't posted on April the 1st was it!

Come on that sounds like a vendetta. What did you buy? What went wrong with it? What was bad about sales service? You can't just put a broad statement condemning someone with no reasons behind it

I've found the vented log bags superb. They are definitely the way forward. Also means that you can give better portion control. The quality ones are tough and fully UV stabalised. Mine are on their 3rd round. I've not looked back since using them.

I must admit I find it hard to get my head around what timber is worth. But my advice would be work out what your costs are (include everything). Work out what you will sell at. What's your profit? Are you happy with that? If so buy as much as you can lay your hands on. If not negotiate the price or look for other sources. Get to know who your local tree surgeons are. Do they sell logs? If not you may be able to pick up their logs for free as long as you're reliable and don't mess them about.

I think sometimes these situations crop up no matter how many precautions and such.... You say the husband went crazy - did you tell him his wife? had oked it? And what was his reaction?

In the old old days I used to say 'yes' thinking it was good for business but now in wiser times I see that it de values what you do. My motto never make it easy for the customer. One 'can you just' leads to another. Say 'no not really' then an hour later relent and say 'well ok just this once but any more add on jobs will cost more'. The customer then really appreciates the freebie rather then looking for additional 'can you justs'

Andy you know there is a milling sub forum on arbtalk... ... just a thought to put your pics and threads there. Also my website treet|Hand Crafted Furniture you can list your services there as well as timber for sale. Ok so it's only a small little forum but it may grow with time. Not many people listing at the mo but there's a few people who look at it.

The Peterson WPF is a superb mill. Also very good as a woodworking tool too!

Those rings you have are absolutely superb. The buttresses just make it look great. In fact what you could do is fell the tree a little higher then use an Alaskan to get perfect thickness rings. I've done this before on lumps of wood but never to a stump...

You may feel comfortable in those trousers but your dog looks a tad uncomfortable!

If you stack them say for 4 or 5 months in a cool shed with a firm but not tight rachet strap. Keep an eye on them and any sign of the starting of splitting glue and screw onto thickesh plywood. Pre cut the plywood so it sits an inch from the edge of the oak to hide it. You can also cut away most of the plywood where the crack is. They will split there's no avoiding it but it's a case of keeping the whole thing from falling apart.

Love the quirky rings - they look superb. What are you going to do to stabilize them - I've glued rings to plywood and it seems to work well. They split but at least stay in one piece.

What a superb pic That is huge.

No not really... It's still early days and maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it.... It will come to fruition and it will be good. It will be transportable but biased towards a static set up. There will always be work for an Alaskan to do... Sorry about not being specific. As soon as I have more details I'll post.

I know it's irritating but I just don't know..... Can always get an Alaskan in the meantime - you'll always have a use for it. Cheers, Rob

That's a lovely looking lump! Quite a nice wood to dry although I haven't has huge experience with ash... seems to dry quicker than oak and beech.

I suppose in theory in a kiln they would still be the same as thinner slabs so 8 weeks ish for 2" but does depend on your kiln. As said above it doesn't really seem to matter if the butts been down a few years as it'll still be wet!

I get it on and off from now on but does seem to be getting worse each year.... The only thing that has ever worked to stop sneezing fits and symptoms is to stick a tight dust mask on for 10 mins. The symptoms disappear like magic although obviously not that practical.

I agree with the initial comments. You can hit nails and rocks but it does pretty much knacker the chain. You can re sharpen after but never comes right again. Has it's place but really for dirty work and hobby users but that's about it.