Mike Dempsey

It would make a cracking milling saw

Hi BJ I agree that the price of locally sourced timber is expensive. I broke up my kiln about 18 months ago because it wasn't very efficient and I am still using timber that I had milled and kilned myself. I am now in the process of making another kiln to a better design and therefore be able to kiln dry the wood more cheaply and quicker. The main factor in encouraging me to get my finger out was last year I had to spend over £1k on 65mm sawn square edged oak which came in at £90 a cubic foot. It was beautiful oak with very little waste but expensive. I tried a different yard this year which was cheaper but the quality was pretty poor. Both yards were in Yorkshire as nobody in Scotland can supply oak in this thickness to the standard I want. I will also be needing a lot of KD 2" oak as well. The money saved in milling and drying my own oak more than pays for the kiln in the first run so its a no brainer in buying it. I also enjoy milling up my timber and I have been doing it now for about 15 years and will never tire from seeing the boards as they are milled. My main difficulty will be storing the timber after it is kilned as I have limited space and I cant use it fast enough. There's a limit to how many bookcases and table etc you can have in your own home. Still I might have enough timber to make my own kitchen now, that my wife has always wanted, but I have always refused to pay for from someone else!

My resolution is to get back all the stuff my mate has borrowed over the last several years. I will need to empty my van before I visit his house though. My other resolution is not to let him take away any tools from my workshop and if he needs to use something he has to use it in my workshop. That way I will be able to use my own tools in my own workshop when I need to!

How about Old Trafford stadium, as they certainly aren't using it for football this season:laugh1:

Maybe just using it to dismantle her Christmas tree!

My brother is a keen trout fisherman as is his neighbour. I give them whisky cask oak for his smoker. As yet I haven't had any samples for my troubles!

Whats to stop someone checking out how this firewood drier works and is put together and just copies it. I don't know if it is patented but it wouldn't take much to make a few changes so it isn't a copy. They could then dry their own firewood cheaply and also keep the RHI dosh!

I would rather chop up my dining room table and chairs than pay that price!

Easy enough to get hold of the throttle spring and fit. I had to do this on my 281xp which is basically the same model. Yes the compression is really high. I have to stand behind the saw with both my feet angled into the handle base and pull with my left hand. I have used this saw for about 5 years now and the compression has never gone down in that time.

Hi Rob Its works ok in the wet. I put on the double wheels to help it stop sinking but that means it weighs a lot more than if I just used balloon tyres. I will take some photos the next time I am out. Mike

Here's a quick three pictures of my one person plank removal apparatus or oppra. Its a bit rough and ready but it works and takes out the hard work of lifting heavy planks. I didn't have any large wheels but as the council bin yard was near my workshop at the time a couple of sets of wheel bin wheels was appropriated (legally)! The other bits and pieces was just what I could scrounge or had lying around. The two clamps are just threaded rod with a nut and washer welded on one end and a bit of round bar on the other end. They are spaced about 8 inches apart and I can fit any width of plank on it.

My mate and I often go and do the bigger trees together as he has an 88 compared to my 66. About 4 years ago he went off on a round the world trip with his wife for a year which kind of left me stuck whem I needed a hand to plank up some 30 inch dia beech which I would then have had to carry about 40 metres to my van. Solution, I had to make up a wheeled apparatus which I could bolt to the end of planks that would turn in into a kind of wheelbarrow. I begged, borrowed and stole the wheels and other wee bits and pieces to make OPPRA - one person plank removal apparatus. It works really well and I have shifted some really big and heavy planks since then, even shifting 2.7m long planks of doug fir which were about 24" wide at 2.25 inches thick just recently (100m hike). I made it so I could fit planks up to 5 inches thick, but so far the thickest planks so far have been 4 inches thick. I don't have any photos to hand but I am going back to the workshop tonight and I will take a couple of photos.

As long as your ladder extends over the ends of your log by a few inches you shouldn't have a problem of curves in the plank if you are careful. I made my own ladder up out of square box section steel. Weighs a ton but there is very little flex in it. I go for a maximum length of plank of 8' as this is the size that will fit in my kiln. My ladder is nearly 9' long and don't produce curved planks unless I am being sloppy. If you do produce a curved plank either put the ladder back on to make a flat plank or get a hand plane and flatten out the top of the log. As with a lot of things taking time and care can produce better results!

I ratchet strap my boards very carefully. I did about 6 or 7 loads through my sauno kiln and every load was ratcheted down. I broke the kiln up last year as I wasn't happy with it and I am now in the process of designing and building a new one. I am going to buy marine grade stainless steel ratchets this time. BTW I have only ever used 10mm thick stickers which are 40mm wide and made from douglass fir. I have kiln dried oak, yew, beech, elm, ash, birch and walnut and used the 10mm ones regardless of the timber or the thickness of the planks

There's a very high risk in having table tops at 120cm from warping. Even if it leaves your workshop perfectly flat within a few months I would put money on it warping in a clients home. You don't have any control over the temperature or humidity levels and that's a recipe for disaster. Ripping wide boards and rejoining them is the way to go. I have made large mirrors before from single slabs of wood. The biggest was 8' high by about 2 1/2' wide. Due to the centre of the plank being taken out, the stress was minimised, and I believe it is still flat. I also have a router sled for planning wide boards that wont fit in my planer thicknesser and that has saved me a lot of hand planning effort and time.

what's wrong with just recording your own chainsaw and using that as a ringtone

I see its no longer available. Did someone here report it?

Have a look at the Linn Lumber mill Portable sawmill You get quite a lot of 'bang for your buck' as they say particularly if you want a static mill. Might be quite complicated building a trailer to put it on if you want it mobile but it is still doable. This is the one I fancy unless I win the lottery and then it would be a couple of the big Serras

I wouldn't have thought sticking up a skyline in a forest would need planning permission if it was to be used for logging. Using it for a ski tow might be a different kettle of fish though. You might get a favourable reaction from your local council as it is diversifying and bring in income to the area when there might be few jobs on the go. Might even get a grant for it. If you stick it up as a ski tow and get the grant for it that way, then use it as a skyline when there is no snow which would be bringing in extra money to a ski area might be the best way to go about it!

Did you buy it in person at a Stihl dealer who showed you everything about it or did you buy it online!

Finished the job this morning with 15 minutes to spare. Didn't stop to brew up. Not as cold and windy today as it was yesterday so not too bad. I now have 10 decent slabs of 2 1/4 inch thickness. They are pretty dry as the tree has been down about 2 years. Think I will use some of it to rebuild my kiln and the rest for my outdoor woodshack. Need to go back and plank up some at 4 inches thick for the main posts. Sure beats buying it in from Jewson etc

Actually it got brighter today about 11oclock so I did go out milling. Still freezing though. Got some nice 2 1/4 inch planks about 9 feet long. Only four planks today but I did the top planks on another 2 logs as well. School finishes at 12 so I have about 3 hours of milling which should be more than enough time.

I have treated myself to a 4 tersa bladed Sedgwick planer thicknesser, a 22 year old dewalt radial arm saw with a 14 inch blade and 2 feet of cross cut capacity (both working brilliantly with a little fine tuning). I have also finished building my spray booth so no more spraying out of the back doors and I am going to build a kiln over the holidays to dry my timber in. All of which make me very happy and when my new dab radio arrives I will be able to listen to the footy at night without all the static. This beats the new socks etc I will get for Christmas from my rellys. I have also got a mysterious pressie from a mate for helping him out. My wife says I am not allowed to open it till Christmas day but as I have a company next door who sell and service xray machines I might pay them a little visit with it!

Well done Eddie, first one in Fife now I believe. Just hope they really push it and don't just give up easily and leave it sitting in the corner:thumbup1:

The plan was to mill up a couple of big windblown douglas fir today. I want to build a outdoor shack for air drying timber at the workshop instead of taking it home to air dry it. The Met office said it would be good weather but as usual they got it wrong. It has been blowing a gale all night and now it is a mixture of sleet and snow going horizontally. This is my last chance to do a full day's milling before Christmas as the schools break off for holidays tomorrow with a half day. I'm not happy at all. At least my wife's new computer desk stands a better chance of being ready for Christmas day!