Rob D

I'll send him down but he's pretty knackered now...! You'll have to start on some self flagellation to give him a chance to catch his breath!

I don't get it - it's free to drive your car to a recycling centre and just throw it into the household waste skip.... Why go to the trouble?

Now that deserves a chuckle !! Would have loved to have seen that Dean. It was quite funny how the spectators turned up to watch... then got bored and wandered off!! There's me dripping in sweat forearms burning from slinging the sledgehammer saying 'oh it'll soon be down... they often put up a bit of a fight..!' then turning to John and saying 'we may have to get another vehicle on this!!' I had to work for every milimeter those wedges went into that tree.

Oh I'm in that corner right now naked whilst telling my girlfriend 'harder' with a freshly sharpened .404 chain....! As Stevie says it was thorns in the back and engine getting in the way - but no excuses - I could easily have cut the hedge back a bit more! Could have double checked by sliding the saw back in before putting 9 wedges into the cut!! Ah well but we do live and learn don't we!!

Took a large oak down today (good 4 foot plus at bottom). Had a slight backwards lean but weight evenly balanced. Was in the middle of a thorny hedgerow and then behind it was a minor road and power line. Oak was pretty much dead with only a few bits of green left. So started to clear away the fence and make some space around it only to find a few hornets flying around...! After they'd cleared off carried on... Arranged to have road closed and got John (Shutler) to come over in his pickup to give a hand pulling it over. Everything going smoothly, closed road, took out sink/gob cut. There was a bit of decay but plenty holding wood. Went in one side with an 18" bar on Makita and put in a couple plastic wedges. Tensioned pull lines and then finished back cut with 880... Don't ask me how as I've felled plenty of big trees but I didn't bring the saw parallel with the sink (thought I had done). So followed a hard 45 minutes of wedging and tensioning, wedging and tensioning..... Finally pulled it over.... Showed a large portion of uncut wood in the middle of the tree. Could have avoided all of that if only I'd stuck the saw back in and double checked.... but I didn't..... They say it's the end result that counts but by a schoolboy error I made a lot of work for myself today... Slap on wrist administered!

Liking the design on that...

Nice spaulting on the beech - Does make lovely in door stuff as long as it hasn't gone soft...

But this film I still think is a cracker... cheers for the heads up dean. Shame I just turned the comp on... missed it !!

That's the small log mill and unfortunetly it can't be extended... Unlucky on the finger - shut mine in the truck door the other day and after a week still feels sore!! You feel a right idiot

Excellent Josh - remember to glue the ends on the bench. When that is sanded and then oiled it will look even better! Let us know if there's any timber in the yard as there's another arbtalker near you who has some for me and can bring down... but I need a few tonnes more to make up a full load...

Hi Phil. If it's the small log mill you've got then it can't be extended... If it's an Alaskan (that clamps onto the bar in 2 places) then you can put any size rails on it from 24" to 72"

Against all better judgement Steve has set me up with my very own Alaskan sponsered chainsaw milling sub forum What this means is - I can shamelessly drivel on about chainsaw milling while occasionally advertising the various products I sell. I will be doing special offers now and again exclusively to other Arbtalk members. This will be alongside the ongoing offer of 10% off everything I sell at alaskan mill I home of the portable chainsaw mill I'll be posting regular videos full of chainsaw milling as well as others to share my limited knowledge on drying timber and making rustic furniture. I'm also hoping others will feel inclined to post ref their Alaskan milling experiences.... To kick off here is a vid of me milling the walnut root josharb brought to the FR Jones show. Spent 2 hours pressure washing this rascal and had to sharpen the saw 7 times - but beat it in the end!! Those really not into chainsaw milling look away now! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI43LLv1PUo]YouTube - English walnut root - chainsaw milled with Alaskan 36" and Stihl MS880[/ame]

That's pretty clever stuff in the first couple of vids... I can sort of see the principle but there's no chance I'd have the balls to do that in someones back garden !! Looked a bit random to start with - I suppose getting that wedge in there as you're doing the back cut and the way you carry on cutting is what makes it work... Saves getting pull ropes and winches out... Yes clever stuff indeed

Thanks Ed that looks really good - I shall certainly get one of these... Can see exactly how it works... Although I am an avid fan of 12 volt grinders for getting the teeth sharp... so ideally a seperate 12 volt tool for the depth guages would be perfect. It seems strange that there is a myriad of 12 volt style sharpeners and bench grinders but no machine that will take the depth guages down accuratley... Time for you to invent something in your wee shed there I think Stevie !! Recently (last year or so) I've started to realise just how important the depth guages are in getting that saw cutting well. When I take the time and trouble to get all the teeth right and all the depth guages right the chainsaw feels totally different - so smooth and fast. Currently I use a battery angle grinder with flap disc method but as your dealing in thousandths of an inch you never get it spot on....

Just wondering if anyone knows of a small hand held type device that can quickly take depth guages down to the correct height i.e. you set it to say .030 and it sits on the tooth and machines it down quickly. 12 volt or 240 volt... Not being lazy and of course there's nothing wrong with a flat file and depth guage tool but you can be doing a lot of sharpening when milling and on a 48" bar depth guage setting manually takes a while. It would be nice to have a little tool to make depth guage setting faster....

Hope it's just work you and 'Gloria' get up to when you're out there on your own....! Had to get a new hydraulic motor for my chipper the other day - £300. Could you take one of these that could come off the pump and be pushed onto a cog that then drove the 2 main wheels? It would then just have to have a manual lever to control pressure and therefore speed... Just an idea..

Nice one Tom.... That's just one continuous stream of chip that comes out of that thing!!

A quick, cheap and easy way is just to draw in pencil and then use a soldering iron to burn in what you have drawn....

Good solid looking bench ! Nice original design as well

You can't be looking forward to the job MWEP or not - it's going to be a messy, insect biting, branch scratching day chopping all that lot apart !! But good on your mate for paying for the lost day - I have never had that happen to me in 8 years !!

Likely the same fate would happen to the next tree...

How did you get the client to pay for the lost day? That's good going :thumbup:

Poplar is really only good for firewood and as you say if you do plank it it goes very lightweight... but I suppose if you wanted a large table lightweight it would be ok... Also I think it is one of the few woods that if you do split and dry it and then it rains or gets wet it soaks the water back up like a sponge!!

Need a bit of luck on your side sometimes Mark.... Glad it missed you. I hate old poplar pollards or just poplars in general... alright in a field for a straight fell though... but in a garden over stuff they're a nightmare. You just can't trust 'em.

Need a bit of luck on your side sometimes Mark.... Glad it missed you. I hate old poplar pollards or just poplars in general... alright in a field for a straight fell though... but in a garden over stuff they're a nightmare. You just can't trust 'em.