Mike Dempsey

Pretty cold up in Glenrothes, had a wee bit of snow here yesterday. Glad I'm sat at computer instead of at the fireworks like the missus and youngest daughter. They had so many clothes on they looked like big sumo wrestlers!

Pine is crap for this sort of job. It doesn't laser very well, has to be fresh felled to minimise blue stain and the bark falls off when it dries out.

Actually it was over the last couple of days and picked up this morning. Made 12 of them for a corporate day out. They are about 200mm across and about 30mm thick and made from rowan. Mike

If anyone is 'concerned' with local council employees who are cutting down trees etc with no ppe and signage etc why don't you phone the HSE. You may be preventing someone getting a serious injury or even death. As an aside you may also create that much **** flying about that tree work may revert to only the tree squads and some of it may become available to private companies if there is too much work!

First I've heard of this. Why school jannies are undergoing chainsaw training is beyond me. Fife Council have about 6 tree squads throughout the region who do a pretty good job so why they need jannies to be involved is crazy. I am quite sure that the parents of the school kids in Fife would rather that they picked up litter and did their normal duties instead of being a jack of all trades and master of none! I have heard of multi-tasking but this is stretching it a bit too far.

here is a photo of some similarish spalted beech. I didn't have a lot of time to hunt in the workshop to find an exact match. Beech I find is one of these timbers which have a wide variation of colours and patterns once it starts to spalt. A bit annoying for me when sometimes I need to get plain beech for projects rather than the multi-coloured and multi-patterned beech.

Felix, that's brilliant. Bet there wasn't a traffic warden around for miles though. Just when you needed one. Would have loved to have seen the driver explain that one away! A couple of years ago a I had someone park their expensive car quite close to my workshop door which opened out the way. Despite being asked politely to shift it as the front of the car was in danger of being hit by a very heavy door, the owner sais it was safe where it was and wouldn't be touched by the door. In front of about 5 witnesses I opened my door and left a huge scrape along the front bumper. He didn't half look really stupid particularly when everyone fell about laughing at him. On another occasion the factory shop opposite my workshop had a big sale on. Despite putting signs up requesting people not to park their cars in front of the workshop someone parked their car there when I was away for lunch. I parked my transit with a bit of difficulty it must be said, about 2 inches away from his, side by side. It took the fat bloke about half an hour to get in his car from the passenger side, with his mad wife shouting at him all the time and a few other bystanders admiring his lack of dexterity. Don't think he will park there again in a hurry. Thing is, I would have moved the van if he had asked me - but he didn't!

I have milled up a couple of beech that that look like this. Good for bowls, furniture etc but crap for the laser-engraved business cards as it is too 'busy' and you have difficulty reading the writing. Mike

Neither did my sophisticated computer geek 18 year old son

Not one I have milled up here so I had to do a little research. I thought it was a hard and tough timber and according to wiki I was right. It says it can be used for general construction purposes such as wagons and tools, which makes me think that it is probably a quite open-pored timber. This is why it would also be used for wine casks. If used for furniture etc it would take a lot of coats of lacquer/ varnish in order to fill these pores. It is part of the beech family so possibly not very good for outdoor purposes. Makes good firewood and charcoal though!

Hi BP I'm in Glenrothes and have about 15 years of experience in milling. Whereabouts in Fife are you. If you like I can take a look at it and give you an opinion on whether it may be worth milling or not. You can give me a ring on 07769703520 if you like. Mike

A well serviced engine with oil and air filter changed regularly along with a good quality oil (asda own brand isn't one of them!) is still the best way for getting the most mpg from any vehicle.

I had an old 266 which after I put a new piston and barrel in was working brilliantly. Pity it got nicked a week later. Really pissed me off. Will order a new fuel line tomorrow. Thanks

Stripped the carb down on the husky 281xp today as is was starting sluggishly (not going to full revs when it catches) and would cut out and not idle . Carb wasn't too bad and I cleaned the fuel filter with the airline and also the air filter. Put it all back together. Starts a wee bit better but will still not idle and still cuts out immediately your finger is off the trigger. I did notice a little hissing noise when I connected up the fuel line to fuel filter but I don't know if this is part of the problem. Could the lack of idling be due to a small hole in the fuel line letting air in? Mike

As usual overpriced from Festool. I designed and made my own minimill up a few years ago for edging boards when a customer wanted 5'' square traffic bollards. Don't use it very often but it works very well when I use it.

Just had a look at their prices. Much better, thanks Nipski. I will phone them next week.

I just thought it was fascinating that it looked like 2 trees, one in front of the other and not just one individual tree and I hadn't noticed anything like it before. This then leads to the question of should it be trimmed back again to the condition it was like in 1983 as a kind of social history marker of just left to grow as it is now.

Can anyone recommend a cheapish supplier of twinwall for my new woodburning stove for the workshop. I have done a quick search online and there is such a variation on price that it is confusing me. Mike

Nod got it right. The miners would only climb up so far to cut all the branches up for firewood. The top ones obviously kept on growing and the lower ones are all new growth. Very common in mining communities. Not many chainsaws around otherwise they would have had the whole tree I presume.

The event is connected to Maggie Thatcher

getting warm but not on fire yet!

Hi Guys There is a very clear event in 1983 which led to these trees being the shape that they are.

Out for a very informative guided tour of a big countryside park yesterday to look at milling some big ash for the rangers. Spotted these 2 unusual shaped sycamore growing in a field. Anyone hazard a guess as to why they have grown this shape. The only clue I will give is 1983 which will probably make it trickier for the younger arbs out there! I will post the answer later today.

I joined The Federation of Small Businesses a few years ago due to a tax inspection. It took me 6 months to get them off my back. I had to deliver to them 4 years worth of accounts so they could check them. Every now and then I would get a letter of them with a few questions on it. Its quite difficult to answer detailed questions on your accounts from 3 years ago when you don't have access to them! The FSB will provide top accountants/tax lawyers to represent you in the event of an investigation by HMRC. The taxman (person?) is out to screw every penny from you as the bankers and energy companies haven't been paying taxes for years and small business are an easy target. I run fully computerised accounts now using Sage Instant Accounts and its lots easier than doing it manually in a book.

I came across this EU report last year and have included a couple of snips here to help the discussion. Its full title is 'Wood Fuels Handbook, Production, Quality Requirements, Trading'. Its 83 pages long and quite technical but makes interesting reading on a long wet day! Sorry cant remember where I found it.