Mike Dempsey

I have had a bb curve for 2 and a half years now. Best phone I have ever owned. Will probably go for a z10 next time around. The camera is not too brilliant compared to my wife a kid's phones. I can use it as a credit card machine. The sat nav is pretty good though and I will have to get an in car holder for it instead of it sitting on my knee. I use Telmap Navigator which is free and pretty accurate as I also had a satnav on in the car on a 120 mile journey to compare it with.

Hi Bob No midges around my way at all. Its brilliant, as I have just come back from 3 days in Fort William after felling and ringing up a 1.5m dia beech which was about 75' high. It was rotten in the core after water got into the main trunk via a hole after a large branch came off. Super strong midge cream was needed every time we stepped outdoors unless there was a bit of a breeze. Beautiful scenery and fantastic fishing for sea trout though. Pity that wasn't all on the East coast though. As long as its daylight here I can go milling!

My winch is on its way and hopefully will be here by Tuesday. I was thinking about screwing an eyebolt into the end of the plank that I am milling and then feeding the rope up through it and then back onto the rail of the mill. Need to check to see if it is smooth enough to not fray the rope. The alternative would be to screw an eyebolt into the end of the plank and attaching a miniature snatch block/pulley wheel and threading the rope or cable through it. Has anyone who has tried it yet experienced the far end of the mill riding up slightly and making uneven planks?

There is a pub about half a mile away but you wont see me in it as I am teetotal! The oak wont be used for business cards as it is going to a customer to make some raised flowerbeds. Ripped into waney edged planks about 12 inches or so wide and pegged at the corners. Some of the planks are really pippy so I think I will save them for furniture. Bit of a waste sticking them in the garden. The site I am on just now is far away from houses and I can work as late or early as I wish:biggrin:

My wife and 2 daughters went to the ballet, my son is out with his girlfriend, so what can I do. Easy answer to that one - picked up the saws and went logging. Milled up some 8' long planks of pippy oak at 2" thick and about 202 wide. I am going to finish off the other logs tomorrow. Beats sitting in and watch crap telly. Or can you do something better than that?

It was stored dry for a few years. However I have used it for about 15minutes and it looks ok. Hoping to give it a 30 min run out tonight. I will keep a check on it over the next wee while and after I swap it over to aspen. Thanks

Got the air filter box today and with a little bodging got it fixed on ok. Filled with petrol/2 stroke mix and fired her up. Started after a few pulls. Very happy. I tried it out on some 6" high grass near the workshop and it works ok. As I am only going to be occasionally using it I will need to get hold of some Aspen. I would reckon although its about 12 years old, its only had about 5 litres through it. Would using aspen be ok, ie no issues with rubber gaskets inside it?

GM crops have nothing to do with "benefitting mankind" its all about profit for the companies that provide the seeds which are sterilised. In other words you cant save some seeds from your crop to plant next year's crop. You have to purchase them from the company. Eventually the local suppliers will all go bust because the GM crop seed manufacturers (and that word was used deliberately) can undercut them and then dominate the market charging whatever they like. The lengths that these companies will go to, to eradicate the opposition is astonishing and have highly placed staff in the corridors of power in the US. If you haven't read up on it I suggest you do because it is fascinating seeing how far they will go to peddle their lies and disinformation. Farmers in the US who oppose the likes of Monsanto etc have been dragged through the courts and threatened with bankruptcy just for daring to have a different opinion to them. There's no such thing as democracy any more and the 'land of the free' is certainly not the US. The community channel did a documentary last year about it interviewing US farmers and activists opposed to GM crops and it had me glued to the telly for an hour and a half.

Just bought the top and bottom cover for the air filter from a guy on ebay who was breaking one for spares. £13 inc postage which wasn't too bad. Also found replacement air filters as well.

I phoned my mate a wee while ago and he said the filter cover was long gone. Need to make one but that shouldn't be too hard. I will get a mac filter for it. Looking forward to using it. He has an unused brushcutter blade for it in his workshop though which I will get next time I see him. Brilliant

Have you tried your council's Environmental Services Dept. If something is causing a large number of children to come out in a rash/hives etc they should be informed so they can investigate. Failing that I am sure your local paper would love to run a story on it!

Thanks for all your help. It seems like my mates dad has taken off the top and bottom cover of the air filter and it also needs an air filter. I will phone him later to see if he has the covers lying about in his garage and buy a new filter anyway . Once again many thanks. Mike

My mate has just given me a Mac Cabrio 310 strimmer which was his dad's and who no longer uses it. Its had minimal use since it was bought and the owner wasn't a hashy bloke so I am keen to get it going. Its possibly missing one or two bits but I am not really sure and needing an air filter.. Does anyone have a manual/parts list they could email me or point me to a source. The McCulloch website in the UK doesn't list that model. Finally where's the best place to buy spares for it. Cheers Mike

just finished a commission for a few of these hangtags. 150mm long by 20mm wide and engraved using the laser. Double-sided engraving and made from locally milled beech, they will be used as hangtags on the Throwpods.

total scam!

A 75Kw oil-fired kiln wont half be expensive to run I think. Might have difficulty selling this unless it can be converted to another fuel source, preferably logs.

My nephew is in the Bomb Squad. Maybe they could do it as a training exercise in return for a few beers. Don't know if they are allowed to do homers though!

Big mistake mate. I do my own accounts with Sage and I am self employed. Its not very difficult and a local college may even have some one day courses on it. £350 pcm is far too much for what will amount to not more than 5 or 6 hours work a month. You have to be dispassionate about this and think with your head and not your heart. Your main priority is you and your family, and their future. Your sil will always outearn you as an accountant and in time you will regret this decision and it will knaw away at you till you really resent her. As other posters have said here there is no business now. You are back at being a self employed worker with some assets which were jointly owned by you and your late brother. Have them independently valued and offer her half the value, maybe you could pay her out of your earnings over a 5 year period. The money could go into a trust for your niece and earn her some interest. Get this agreement written up by a solicitor so it is legally binding and she cant change her mind about it. This will allow you to continue to earn money and have all the equipment and plant to do it with. She wont have any control over you and if you want to pack it all in sometime , sell all the gear and pay of the money to your niece with some of the proceeds. I am sorry if this sounds a little harsh but money/finance has ruined lots of relationships in families and it is better to get independent legal advice at the cost of a few quid than follow her proposals and regret it for years. Mike

I actually asked in the bank last week about this and Bacs transfers can reversed only on the day they are made so if you wait a day you will be safe. They can only put money into your account and not take it out. For big invoices myself all my business customers pay me by Bacs. You can even do a same day transfer. Whilst cash is good how do you know you aren't getting dodgy money?

very interesting Dave. Thanks for the link. There's some amazing ingenuity out there. Think I will start with a one briquette at a time press. The ones who do quite a few at a time seem to mix their sawdust/paper with water which is easier to press and then have to dry them out. I don't really want to be messing about with water in the workshop as I am trying to keep the atmosphere as dry as possible as I have stacks of dried timber in there and I don't want to redry them again.

That's the way I am looking at it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

I've used an arbotech for years. Get the chains from my local Husky dealer instead of Arbotech suppliers. Far cheaper. Brilliant bit of kit when attached to an angle grinder.

There isn't anyone local to me who makes briquettes. The whole point of the exercise is to use up waste already in the workshop and instead of storing it in bags, to minimise the amount of space it takes up by converting it to briquettes. This is going to be done it the true spirit of British bodging by converting a machine into using it for another purpose. The press isn't going to cost me anything apart from 30 minutes of my time in going to pick it up. The steel plate I can get free or for pennies. I have 2 good metal chop saws and a mig welder. My hero is Fred Dibnah and I admired his skills , knowledge and ability to make anything from scrap. I don't know how long it would take to make briquettes with the press but I am not going into this to sell them, just use them in my stove myself and give some to a couple of mates who will help me churn them out. If it works quite well I may investigate how to automise the process but that is not for the first stage. Its all experimental at this stage and it may not work, who knows. If it doesn't work I can always flog the bearing press!

I was thinking of about 3'' square and about 4 inches long for a finished briquette. The box would be fabricated from 6mm thick steel and would have a sliding plate at the bottom which could be slid out and the briquette could just be pushed out by hand when the plate was removed. I think I will make the box about 10'' deep and fill it to the top and try and compact it before I put it in the press. I wont get the press for a few weeks so I have a little time to play about with ideas. Thanks for everyones input so far

I thought that the lignin in the timber would bind it together. The press is rated at 25 tons which would probably be more than enough to compress it I would have thought.