Mike Dempsey

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:

I have finally got round to fixing it and it is now working pretty well with a 10" bar for cutting small branches and bits of firewood. The manual for it says 25:1 for 2 stroke oil/fuel ratio. I asked around, as it is and old saw, to see whether I should still use this ratio or just treat it like my stihl and huskie saws and go with 50:1. Opinion is divided with some saying that todays more modern 2 stroke oils 50:1 should be ok. I use stihl 2 stroke oil. What do you guys think? Mike

Whilst checking out a couple of felled oaks for milling a few days ago I came across this ringbarked sycamore. The tree is about a metre diameter and is also TPO'd. I reported this one to the local parks manager as it is on council land and didnt want to be accused of doing it myself. He is sending his tree officer to have a look at it and I await his comments. It will very difficult to prove who has attempted the ringbarking, but the sycamore has survived this criminal damage as it looks like a pretty amateurish attempt. The two oak trees were near some very expensive houses which were recently built and the owner of one of the houses got in touch with her insurance company to have a tree report compiled in order to have them removed. The insurance company took the council to court to force them to fell the trees. Unfortunately the Sherrif agreed with the tree report and ordered the council to fell the trees. These were two magnificent oaks and were beautiful specimens. It makes me mad as there was nothing wrong with these trees and I blame the council's planning department for letting the housebuilder to build so close to the trees. All the trees in this area are mature hardwoods and have TPO's. It is happening all over our area, I suppose the council is looking at it from the viewpiont of more houses- more council tax.

Thanks guys. I forgot I had the parts manual. I will phone my local husky dealer in the morning. Mike

Anyone know where the best place to get above. I know its not a stihl or husky but since my wee Stihl was nicked a few months ago its my only wee saw now. Cheers Mike

Thanks mate Just as I needed. Mike

Hi does anyone know where I can get a manual for above saw. Have phoned Countax but it is an answering machine for brochures so I dont hold out much luck. Its an old saw I was given and I am trying to get it to work so I may have a few questions later on but it would be nice to start with the manual. if some one has a copy the could email it to me at [email protected] Cheers Mike

Hi does anyone know where I can get a manual for above saw. Have phoned Countax but it is an answering machine for brochures so I dont hold out much luck. Its an old saw I was given and I am trying to get it to work so I may have a few questions later on but it would be nice to start with the manual. if some one has a copy the could email it to me at [email protected]. Cheers Mike

Forget the horse chesnut for wood working. It is crap and not worth the effort. Cut it for firewood. I have been using the alaskan mill now for 10 years and I am a cabinet maker so I only mill timber for myself. HC is not a timber I would use for cabinet making and as yet I have not seen it in any sawmill for cabinet making. Mike

Evening all I have just listed a Mattson incremental tree borer No. 3 on ebay, item no 120646643091 if any one might be looing for one. Thanks Mike

Hi I have been using an alskan mill for about 8 years or so. I used to air dry all my timber for about 2 years or so outside until I moved workshops and lost my free outdoor storage area. I came across the Sauno kiln about 18 months ago and bought the smaller one. Building it out of the foam sheets was a bit of a nightmare because it is so fragile and crumbly and we ended up encasing it with fibreglass to a depth of about 5mm or so and strengthening the roof because this is where the door is chucked when the kiln is open. Drying is a fine art in itself, but with a bit of practice, and careful monitoring I can dry up to 60mm beech in about 5 weeks or so down to 10%mc which isnt bad at all. Most of my timber is now cut to 100/1500mm square edged planks as you can get more in a kiln this way and it is easier to stack. The kiln has been designed to allow up to 8' planks to be put in and about 1m wide boards at the most. It is a bit of a bugger to fill especially on my own and can be a bit back breaking at the thicker sizes of timber. The only steaming done is at the start when I add extra water and turn the temp up to 70 deg centegrade for five days and the turn it down to 40 deg and open up both vents to allow the moisture to escape. I have thought about putting a vent in the outside wall and running a pipe directly to that from the kiln vent so any moisture will vent outside. At the moment I run a dehumidifier for a few hours a day. As a cabinet-maker with about 15 years experience I know when I am using crap timber and I can testify to the quality of my timber and so can the other cabinet makers who I have sold some to. So far I have kiln dried yew, oak, beech, silver birch, ash, sycamore, douglas fir, plum, and probably a few others. I purchased mine from Classic Hand Tools and have good service from them. They were going to start a forum for users of the Sauno but havent started it. This would have been handy for all the questions that needed answered! So, in my opinion, you only have to steam if you are on a tight schedule and trying to dry your timber as quick as possible as you would be in a commercial yard. Ps. I know the big softwood timber yards dry their timber in 4 days. Thats probably why there is so much stress and warping in it when you buy it as well as the fact they only dry it down to 15%

The horsey people dont like walnut sawdust/shavings as I believe it is poisonous for horses, according to my sister in law who is one of those horsey people! Mike

Hi Although I dont post here often I have been a lurker for a couple of years. I mainly use my big saw for milling and I managed to persuade my 15 year old son today to leave his beloved computer behind and come out logging. I an wanting to build a fence from DF and started on a log about 8' long by 2' dia. I was half way down the first top plank when I heard a loud bang and the ignition lead was loose on the spark plug. I reattached it making sure it was tightly on and carried on milling. This bang happened again about another 12" down the plank with the ignition lead being loose again. Not sure of why this was happening or what caused it I gave up and thought I would post a question here. I dont want to damage the saw as they are expensive enough without bashing on and perhaps having an expensive repair job. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks Mike

Hi runnach I am based in Glenrothes and have a chainsaw with milling attachment. I also have a kiln and dry my own timber. I am a cabinet maker/woodturner and use mainly beech, oak, elm, ash and silver birch. If you dont have any luck on your side of the Forth you could give me a phone on 07769703520 any time. Mike