Mike Dempsey

The trains in the uk are in a mess due to the way they were all privatised by Maggie Thatcher a few years ago. The should never have been split up into operating companies and infrastructure. This has led to situations such as do we spend money on improving safety or give it to the shareholders! There is no discernible national train strategy and the train companies all receive massive subsidies from the tax payer and give it to their shareholders. What should have happened was it should have been kept as one company and turned into an agency/quango or something similar. That way the government would still have had control and it would have been easier to steer it in the direction of a national transport strategy. Any profits made would be used to keep the price of fares down thereby encouraging people to use the trains instead of clogging up the road system. Not sure if we need HS2 but as I am in Scotland I very much doubt it is ever going to effect me. If there is a way that politicians can make an arse of things, rest assured they will persevere and find it. Mike

Hi Stephen Have a look at this website. Linn Lumber Mills (sorry cant post link). If I remember they can cut up to 36'' dia log. If you can weld and are handy with mechanics etc then this is much better than a woodmizer etc on both price and capacity. Dont know if if it is CE marked but if you are working on your own then it doesnt need to be. Mike

Its a building developer who owns the land. The large house which sits in the grounds wont be ready for seling for at least 7 or more years. The trees cant be seen from the house and I suppose we are doing him a favour. The trees came down like a pile of dominos so its not as straight forward as we would like it to be but as they are free. It might be worth getting some heavy gear in to take some of the logs out and to a woodmizer but as I dont have any experience of that kind of operation I have to wait and get some advice. Meanwhile I have a 4' dia oak with a trunk length of 60' to plank which came down 6 months ago to plank first. this oak took out 6 large sycamore as it came down. one of them will be planked and the others are already firewood. Normally we plank in January and February because my other business interests are a bit quiet but this year I am already flat out and I am struggling to find the time. It will be better when the lighter nights come in and we can cut for longer. Its a lovely problem to have though! Mike

Ive just been given a late pressie in the form of 10 oaks, 1 beech, 1 ash and a pile of other trees that came down in yesterdays storm. All of them are really big and the branches will keep me and my 2 mates going in firewood for probably 5 years! Most of the oak are at least 3' in dia and are about 50' long. Going to be hard work and take a few months but I'm not complaining Mike

I thought that elm was the traditional wood for cogs etc in windmills. Very hard wearing and lasts for decades. Thats what we use up our way in Fife anyway.

Hi Tom I went for the smaller vt3 model as it is sited in my workshop. The internal measurements were calculated to that we dry 8 1/2" long planks (you need 6 inches or so for the mechanism) and its about 3' wide by about 4' high. I worked out the total overall cubage that the smaller mechanism would work with and then calculated it up. There is a plan for it on the classic hand tools site. I did build it out of the insulating foam but as my mate worked in a fibre glass factory I clad it all over in fibreglass mainly to protect it from getting knocks. If I was doing it again I would change the front door design. It works quite well and sure beats waiting 2 or three years for timber to dry. If you want to see some photos I can post some up next week. Cheers Mike

Hi Tom I was looking into this a few years ago as well. The company folded a few years ago after the the inventor died. I went with the sauno kiln system a couple of years ago instead. Mike

just had a text from Fife Council - all schools shut at lunchtime. Guess thats me on a half day then as I have three kids. I have never heard of schools being shut due to possible high winds. I told the kids to put some weights in their schoolbags and they would be ok. Middle daughter has geography this afternoon. What a missed opportunity to study the effects of extreme weather with their teacher!

My wife passed a car lying in a ditch on the turn off for Motherwell just off the M8 yesterday morning as she was taking our youngest daughter to a twirling competition. Turns out it was their instructor and she had spun her car around three times, went off the road and hit a tree. (sorry, dont know what kind of tree it was or if its ok or not) The car is a total write off and all she had was a cut lip from where she bit it! One of the coppers attending the scene gathered up all the costumes etc in the back and and transferred them into a friends car who had been driving behind her. She made the comp on time - a real proffesional as no one would have complained if she had just gone home. We have more snow this morning and I have had my workshop stove on now for a few weeks. I have had several requests from people to sell them firewood but as I dont sell any they dont get any. I have about 10 times as much firewood neatly stacked away after nearly running out last year. I dont know if this winter is going to be as cold and as long as last year but at least I am prepared better. Mike

Good advert. I love the stuff :-)

Came across this company selling British made stoves Woodburning stove Anyone got any opinions on them? The 20kw might be good for my workshop and its cheap! Mike.

I dont normally leave it the car overnight. This was a one-off as I had to pack up things quickly after cutting firewood and had to pick up my daughter from ballet. It was covered up and you couldnt see it. I totally forgot it was there and I know I should have taken it back to the workshop. Mike

just found out soco found some blond hairs in the van that was done about 100m from my car. I spoke to the van owner who, despite having a van full of expensive tools, only had a £200 digi camera nicked. He is the only one using the van and he has black hair so its off to the labs with them and with a bit of luck might get some dna evidence. There is a suspect for both thefts and I think the police have already visited him. My mate is a copper but is away just now so I have to get the official story from the pc investigating the thefts. When my mate comes back I will get hopefully an update from him. I have checked all the free selling sites and it hasnt appeared yet. Thanks big J for keeping an eye out for me. They would have to be pretty stupid to try and sell it locally so Edinburgh/Dundee areas are a good place to get shot of the saw. Mike

Had my 268 xp stolen from my car last night. I dont have the serial no but thats easily removed anyway. The saw has just been rebuilt and working beautifully and I only had the chance to use it for an hour. It is recognisable by the fact that the top cover is melted a bit near the exhaust. The police only took an hour and a half to come out and the soco was out a little later but didnt get any prints. I am in Glenrothes so if anyone gets offered a 268xp in Fife/Edinburgh/Dundee let me know. I will check on Adtrader/Gumtree and my local Cash convertors in the morning. I am now away to cut a bit of acrylic to replace my rear quarterlight. cheers Mike

There's a lot more to making a table than just attaching a large slice of a tree to some legs, slapping some oil/varnish on it and hoping it will be ok! Some of the factors to be taken into account include following, but it is not an exhaustive list. Timber type; colour, hardness, stability design; what are the customer's preferences or do they have any size; how many people is it to accommodate, does the customer want it to be extending for special occasions such as Christmas day? finish; does the customer want a bombproof finish or are they happy to give it a coat of oil every 6 months (its amazing the damage that can be caused to an oil type finish by a plate of spaghetti!) does the table have to match in with or furniture in the house ie timber type, design or finish. Is the customer willing to give the designer/maker a free reign or will they insist on certain aspects to be included? what kind of warranty will be given, after all it is a big item purchase and has to be 'fit for purpose' as well as look nice. As someone who deals with these kind of issues on a day to day basis as a furniture designer/maker you have to be prepared to 'educate' your clients and be ready to back up your claims with evidence. Whilst I dont want to be a devil's advocate, I wouldn't be happy spending well over £1000 plus on a piece of furniture which I would want to be the centre piece of my house with an unqualified and untested person who called themself a furniture maker. (anyone can, it's not against the law) There's a massive chasm between knocking up a coffee table with a nice plank for your own house where everyone will say that its nice regardless, and designing and making a centre piece for someone paying hard earned cash who wont be afraid to say that they dont like it or coming back to you in 3 months time complaining that it has warped and split of fallen apart! just my penny's worth Mike

To answer some questions My mate told me that the lightbox plank is a hybrid betweeb the oak and sweet chesnut. As he is the local parks manager for the council with a good qualification from Auchencreuve (I dont know if I've spelt that right) he is very knowlegeable on his subjects with a wealth of experienced colleagues to call upon for further info. Hi Holty, you can certainly give me a shout next time you are in the area. Call me on my mobile first to check where and when I'll be around first though. I havent engraved a fungus before, but I am willing to give a try. Probably wont smell as much as leather does when its being engraved. The Oor Wullie and The Broons gifts are being well received, mainly by adults I must admit as most kids dont seem to know who they are! Mike

Hi guys Glad you like the business cards. I've been doing them for a couple of years and they definetly get you a good reaction from customers/potential customers. The prices for them are as folloews 1 - 200 50p each 201 - 500 40p each 501 + 30p each. All prices exclude VAT Extra info can be engraved on the back for an extra 20p each. P&P extra All company logos must be original artwork ie not scanned. Any more info please phone 07769703520 Cheers Mike

Hi Tom The business cards are just over 2mm thick (give or take a tad or 2) Mike

Hi Rob My laser engraver is an American one made by Synrad. Cost £18K new and is a brilliant tool. It paid for itself in a year. It can engrave wood, slate, acrylic, paper/card, leather and chocolate digestives. One of the best things it does is my business cards - these rarely get chucked away! These are a brilliant way of promotinf a wood related business. Everything I make is from locally milled timber from windblown trees. The branches I use to make coasters, fridge magnets and keyrings. Anything unusable gets saved for the woodburning stove. Mike

I am probably a bit different to most members here in that I am a cabinet maker/engraver first and a logger/miller second. I thought it was about time that I let you see some of my things that I make, all of which has been made from local wind blown trees. The first one was at the request by one of the guys in the workshop next door. Might stick a few on ebay as I have favourable comments on them These signs were made to mark a joint project between local schools, Community Services and The Woodland Trust Scotland This was a sample for a client in Nottingham. I cant remember what the wood is as it had been lying around the workshop for a couple of years. This award is about 6'' in diameter Oor Wullie is a well known character in the Sunday Post. I have an exclusive licence from DC Thomson the publisher for all wooden gifts for The Broons and Oor Wullie in the UK and Ireland. The photo is of a wall plaque. This is a single plank of a hybrid of oak and sweet chesnut. It is 2500mm long and with all the light box fittings etc attached weighed a ton. This was installed with some other bits and pieces in the Marrying and Blending room at the Famous Grouse Visitor Experience in Crieff. I started the job before Christmas last year and finished it off in the New Year. The warmest it got was -15c and we took twice as long to do it as we had planned for. Just as well there was free coffee all day long!

Thought I would upload my latest design. Made at the request of a mate in a nearby workshop, the engraving is done by laser. The beech was milled with an alaskan mill a couple of years ago and kiln dried in my workshop.

I'm in Glenrothes and my wife has just filled her car up at the local BP station. She says that you can fill up a can between 7am and 7pm! Obviously the wee neds are sleeping during the day after a hard night's looting. Mike

My brother is a lorry driver and went to fill up in Perth at a BP garage on Tuesday night. He told me that they had a ban on cans being filled up there. These are English riots (not as the BBC stated UK riots) so I cant understand why in Scotland we cant buy our petrol in cans. I will be needing petrol by next week and if th ban is still in place will ask a mate who is a copper to get me some. I am hoping he is still around as he has done his public order training and might be sent south if you guys down there are still not behaving! Might even ask him to wear his protective gear and with a bit of luck the daft staff in the BP station might even be able to tell the difference between a rioter and a copper. Mike

The guy in the workshop next to mine is an auto electrician. He charges a tenner for a lost code which I think is reasonable. His gear for all the codes/ecu faultfinding etc comes to about 20k. Its a hell of a lot of money as he has to buy 3 or 4 different machines as one will not cover all makes of cars and every few years has to upgrade his kit. Mike

Thanks guys. My gut feeling was to go 50:1 but its nice to get some knowledgable input to reassure me. Cheers Mike: thumbup1: