Mike Dempsey

The older Sedgwick MB has short tables and is a pain in the arse to change the blades over. Access to the cap head bolts is very limited and the infeed table has to be screwed out till it almost falls off. I couldn't wait to get rid of mine and bought a newer one with 4 tersa blades from ebay. The difference is amazing and would never go back to normal blades again.

I have been selling my wooden Christmas tree decorations since the middle of August. I don't know which is crazier, me selling them in August or the public buying them in August!

If its a wee spring or two popping up in the garden why cant you bottle it and make a few quid. Silly money for it these days when the same bloody stuff comes out of a tap!

It wouldnt be heading off to the Highland Park distillery by any chance?

We have mice in our house and I have bought one of these electronic mouse repellants. Seems to have cleared them from the attic but they are still running around the void between my daughter's bedroom floor and the living room ceiling. I want lift some floor boards and chuck in some poison so does anyone have a recommendation and a supplier please. Mike

I have tried hard but I cant just figure out who is the biggest liar! Both of them own massive cupboards with more skeletons in them than a graveyard. Whichever one loses they had better watch out as I think there might be a bit of a witch hunt into their various issues that they have tried to cover up during the campaign. As for the entertainment factor, it sure as hell beats our boring elections on this side of the pond by a huge mile. Just when you think it cant get any worse for either candidate, up pops something else for the media to get stuck into. It would make a fantastic hollywood movie when its all finished.

Every couple of months or so I pass a house in the countryside on my way to visit a mate. There is a big garden with a 3' plus dia beech which was windblown about 5 years ago. Lovely straight beech, sitting on the deck, rotting away. We did offer to plank it up and leave the branches for firewood for him. He wanted £1500 for it and our response was no chance as we get loads of trees for free and we would be doing him a favour as he didnt have the capabilities to cut it up himself. I wouldnt even touch it for nothing now as there will be lots of rot in it and way past spalting stage. It would have been nice to mill up when it came down but I have better things to do now and a long list of trees to attack with my alaskan mill. Bet his wife is giving him a right ear bashing every time she is in the garden as apart from the beech tree it looks like a Chelsea flower show exhibit!

and it was up to its usual brilliant high standards. Anyone down in Englandshire who enjoys decent comedy should watch it on I Player. Assistance with translation will be provided by Arbtalk Scottish Members!

If a member of the public were to make a complaint to the police, would they have to investigate it? That would be a rather interesting scenario!

Should make Wayne Rooney next manager. He could be a player manager for the next 20 years as he is desperate to keep wearing the England shirt regardless of the fact he is making an arse of himself. Could even get a zimmer frame painted up with some union flags.

Wouldn't half need some chunky legs to support that table top

I managed to straighten out a 20" husqvarna bar by putting it on 2 blocks with a gap in between and the bend pointing up the way. I put a block of beech on it to widen the area I was hitting and used a club hammer to smack the beech. Worked for me and I'm not a big bloke. I had only used the bar for about an hour prior to bending it so I was determined I wasnt going to bin it. It would be pretty difficult to tell it had been bent in the first place and works ok.

I live up in central Scotland and on Christmas day my rhubard was growing pretty well. I am also sure my grass was growing for about 11 months last year. I havent seen any decent snow around here for about 5 years at least.

Ebay is the place to go. A couple of years ago I got my Sedgwick MB, 4 tersa knives and 12" width. A steal at £1250 and in good nick. Just had to clean it up as it had only been used for pine and was covered in resin. Well pleased.

I think for such a tight spec and regarding quality, cleanliness etc you will not only be paying well above firewood specs but also well above normal timber prices. There are going to be a limited number of suppliers for this product and even fewer that want the hassle of supplying you. You may have to drop your requirements regarding cleanliness etc, after all trees growing in woodlands etc grow in soil and its impossible to get not to get any on a tree whether its felled or windblown. If you are further processing the timber its all removed anyway during machining etc. Mike

I brought the Mosanto and GM issue up last year, and in particular that video, in a discussion and was criticised by some members from the States. Good to see there are others who agree with my view now. That video is well worth a watch if you havent seen it before. This new company will be one of the biggest in the world and will dominate and control the worldwide seed and pesticide market and will stop at nothing to continue that. Bayer are paying way over the odds for Monsanto and in order to recoup this money prices will rise. The other interesting point is that if the deal is eventually blocked by regulators Bayer has to pay 2 billion dollars for the 'aggravation', so that must mean it is surely financially worthwhile trying to get a deal.

The worst I have milled in was about -12C. Its the fastest planking job I have done with no hanging around. Just as well it was doug fir and it didnt take too long to fill the van.

If you thin it a bit, the pva will get absorbed into the wood and seal it better. Its also cheaper doing it this way. I normally get my pva from builders merchants as 5L of pva for floor sealing rather than expensive wood glue. Also if you are doing planks that have been cut a few days or more and the ends of the timber has dried out, I normally wet the ends first and the apply the sealer.

I think there might be quite a few alaskan mills that get one outing and are never used again when the owner realises just how hard going it can be.

Get her to be your brash monkey for a day. She might change her tune and even offer you a massage later on! thats only if she has any energy left though:biggrin:

The wood is sycamore. About 320 wide by 440 high from memory. Will get its first outing at Stoneleigh at an outdoor clothing show. The engraving is filled in with black paint to make it really stand out.

As part of an order for a local outdoor clothing company, I made this plinth on Friday. Its slightly different as its colour filled to make the laser engraved areas really stand out.

Aberfeldy is a fair distance from Darvel. How do you make that work!

I fail to understand why 50 or 60% of the kids leaving school today need a degree, and even worse need in degree in media studies (switching on the telly or doing facebook), fashion (putting on matching shoes and a shirt), tourism (knowing the difference between a castle and a theme park), hospitality (making a cup of tea) and some other silly ones. The trouble is that Universities are all businesses now instead of seats of learning and have to maximise their income. Selling silly degrees to kids who can barely tie their shoes brings in good money. At least in Scotland they dont need to pay nine grand a year for the privilige. Hundreds of thousands of kids a year getting into massive debt to fund their education isnt a good way for our society to invest in the future. Proper apprenticeships, with day or block release will give any young person a good grounding in what ever subject they wish to pursue. Least my first 2 have picked subjects with good employment prospects, web coding and social work. Both them by the way have funded their own way by working part time during term and full time during the holidays and I havent had to put my hand in my pocket apart from maybe transport duties when there has been some awkward shift times. Proud of them both.

Vat is a tax on sales. Corporation tax is a tax on profit. Vat is collected by the seller on behalf of the taxman if they are registered for vat. Whilst it is hard to dodge vat if you are physically based and selling in this country, like Starbucks etc, it is easy to be creative with your accounts in order to minimise your profits and thereby your corporation tax. In the case of Apple they were saying that all their sales in Europe were going through Ireland who were setting a very low rate of corporation tax in order to attract businesses to the country. The Irish Govt dont want to collect this enormous sum of money as it like them admitting to this practice which is illegal under EU taxation rules and will force them to set the proper rate. When this happens all these companies will move to some other tax haven. The Irish people will then realise that they actually dont have a sustainable economy and will rapidly go bust. There are strong rumours now going around about an Irish referendum on EU membership, which if they werent part of Europe they could set their own rates of corporation tax and stick two fingers up to Merkel et al. The funny thing about this is that all these thousands of people who have applied for joint Irish /UK citizenship will have wasted their money and time because if the Irish wish to leave the EU they will need to be very quick about it in order to keep Apple and the other tax parasites.