Mike Dempsey

It would be fair if the Gov paid all self employed people 5 weeks holiday pay (and public holidays as well for that matter) say at an average of their weekly pay, per year and sick pay as well. Health service staff and local and central Gov staff all get 6 months full and 6 months half pay after 5 years of employment. Even after all the cut backs of the last few years there are still tens of thousands chair shiners surplus to requirements. They have no concept with regards to the risks or difficulties and stress of genuine self employed people. I blame the BBC for all this as their dodgy contracts allowed a lot of their high earners to wriggle out of their tax obligations with none of the genuine risks/stress of real self employment. Why it took the tax man so long to discover this we will never know! Mike

I use an Alaskan mill and about 6 years ago planked up a big doug fir for my garden fence. The posts were 5 inches square and the planks were 1.25 inches thick. The fence stands 8' tall and has now turned all silvery. Looks really good and is the only one in the street that doesn't move in the gales. My wife wanted to stain it some kind of blue colour a few years ago but I wouldn't let her because it would then have to be done every couple of years. I am very happy with it and the lack of maintenance that is required. I am sure it will outlast me np problem and I am only 53 years young! Mike

I'm just over the bridge in Glenrothes so if I am available I will come as well. Mike

At this stage of the game its either conjecture to suit a particular agenda or guesswork. Nobody for definite can give you an exact answer.

When I am milling up trees I take away the branches and stuff that's too small to plank. I cut to length on site and split at the workshop. This saves a lot of time and my back in having to chuck big lumps into the van and then offload them at the other end. Best of all is that I don't have a big pile of sawdust at the workshop. Can you not cut to size where you are getting them from. Mike

You would be amazed at what has gone through my bandsaw over the years apart from wood. It would have done the mince in seconds no problem. That's what butchers use anyway although its all stainless steel to meet hygiene regulations !

Bearsden is too posh to have a tip site:001_tt2:

Does it have sub-titles for cinemas south of the border?

Local timber merchants who only sell softwoods and panel products are worth approaching. Sometimes they can source hardwoods but often its a pita if a customer only wants a single board of oak etc. There isn't a lot of profit in it for them to make it worthwhile. If they can send the customer to you and you are happy to deal with them, then it could lead to further orders from them and word gets around. Local woodturning clubs, mens sheds and high schools are also sources of customers. It just takes a bit of creative thinking. There will also be local joiners who also require hardwoods now and again because they will get asked by their customers for additional jobs. The best marketing for a local sawmill is that you are using local trees and customers like the fact that they know exactly where the wood for their shelf, tv unit, door etc came from. Mike

That's been done on a cnc router using a 45 degree cutter using design software such as V Carve Pro. The corners of the letters are crisp and sharp and the cutter is lifted at the corners. Using a router template you would get rounded corners.

and take his mobile off him as well then he will be concentrating on the job in hand rather than texting his mates:thumbup1:

I think a lot of the crime reduction figures with regards to break-ins, theft etc is due to lack of victims reporting it. A lot of people on low wages don't have contents insurance as they cant afford it or see the point of it. If you aren't insured, then why report it as the police don't give a feck and wont investigate it anyway!

This would be the same left wing Marxist mp who bangs on about state education but has her son privately educated. Perhaps she should practice what she preaches and not be the massive lying hypocrite that she is.

Had my annual haggis, tatties and neeps today. No dram but toasted it with a can of Irn Bru. That will do me for another year! Mike

The vote from Scotland has to be "Still Game" without a doubt

I am a big lover of beech because I can get really pin sharp laser engraving on it. For some strange reason there isn't a lot of beech in this area that has windblown and waiting to be planked up by me and my Alaskan mill. I get far more sycamore which is also very good for engraving and a bit easier on the planer blades. Mike

I purchased a Famag Bormax just before Christmas as I needed to drill about 500 holes of 40mm diameter in beech. I have tried many makes before including Clico and the Famag easily is the best by far. They aren't cheap, but there again you pay for quality. I expect this one to last for many thousands of holes. The critical aspect of course is not to knacker the steel by using too fast a speed when drilling and pulling it out now and again to free up any compacted shavings.

Hi Barrie, For a table in a house with 4 kids you are going to need a bomb proof finish which can easily be sorted every couple of years if necessary. Kids will spill all sorts of things on it from fizzy drinks to tomato sauce etc and mum will use all sorts of chemical sprays etc to clean it up and doesn't have time in a busy household to read all the instructions on the side of the spray/bottle etc. For situations like that I would use a yacht varnish. First coat should be diluted with 10% white spirits and allowed to dry in a warm room. A light sanding with 320 grit sandpaper and the dust wiped off and removed. Second coat should be full strength and allowed to dry properly again with a light sanding with preferably a 600 or higher grit wet and dry paper (used dry) Again wiped down to remove the fine dust. Third and final coat should again be allowed to dry properly but should be sanded down. You don't need to give it a wax finish as it should be silky smooth. Its all about giving the end user an easy time in looking after it. I was once asked to make a restaurant 60 tables and they insisted that they wanted an oil finish. I turned the job down as I insisted on a spray lacquer finish as they would be cleaned a dozen or more times a day and within a week they would have looked terrible. I didn't want any comeback and they wouldn't sign a disclaimer. I walked away as I'm not stupid!

There's tons of timber stashed away in workshops all over the country that has lain unseen for decades and has been imported many years before any ban came into force. Whether it is legal or not to sell it today is another point though. A local joiner to me retired and his list of timbers that came to auction was incredible. Most of it was sold to furniture restorers who had travelled many miles to buy it.

I cant be arsed doing this and I would rather benefit my own workshop and business. Also if I gave away or sold all my sawdust/woodshavings I would just have to burn more logs to heat the workshop and that wouldn't make sense!

I burn all my sawdust and woodshavings from my workshop in the stove in the winter. Only trouble there is that in the summer the black bags pile up until I get hacked off with them and take them to the dump. The council have changed the rules and anyone with a van now has to use a commercial tip and will be charged a fortune for dumping. I would love to get a briquetting press but a decent one costs a fortune so I am going to get a 20kw stove and burn it in the summer with all the workshop doors open so the heat disappates quickly.

Here is the way I look at choosing timbers for milling. I normally only do sycamore, oak, beech and douglas fir because I can use these timbers after I have kiln dried them for a variety of projects for customers. If it was a choice between scots pine and any of the above then the pine would be left. I don't even cut it up for firewood unless my mate is running short. I will do other timbers such as walnut, yew and elm if I come across them as I see them as premium timbers because there isn't a lot of it about where I live.

I wouldn't have thought so as it has a large number of big knots in it. That would drive me daft trying to avoid them. Much prefer Doug fir for joinery.

That sounds good and I will investigate that. Thank you for the info. Anything to make life a little easier on my back!

I have been chainsaw milling for about 18 years now and have still got to come up with a suitable system. The Norwood Portamill has a good system and I emailed them earlier on in the year asking if they would sell me it separately. No chance. I have thought of going through the local Norwood dealer who is based in Abbey St Bathans in the Borders but haven't got around to it yet. I have been using my 066 for a while and now have a 088 which I think it would be ideal for. The is a sticky thread on Arborsite.com in the milling sub section which has photographs of BobL's set up which is a remote throttle and it seems to work quite well. I don't have the range of machinery that he has access to, so his set up is pretty good. I prefer the Norwood version though because you can take it off and use on another saw quite easily. By the way I am based in Glenrothes and often up your way as my daughter is at Robert Gordon's Uni and my wife's family are from Portlethen so we could maybe meet up one day and swap notes. Mike