Big J

Good feedback, and really like the look of the Kinetic T8 - like an Alstor on steroids. Would certainly be interested in seeing prices and lift capacity close in. TCD - my calculation was done entirely hypothetically. What would be a realistic output, would you reckon? The advantage these have is being able to work in small, otherwise uneconomic stands. You could run them to site on your trailer, work them for a couple of days and leave without ever incurring haulage costs.

This is a good video to illustrate the idea: [ame] [/ame]

Latest crazy plan to get me out of the sawmill is to look at micro harvesting. Small scale forestry has always been something I've been passionate about, and having done about 840 tonnes of mostly elm in the past four months, I've been enjoying being in the woods. I've worked repeatedly over the years with Alstors (have one on a site at the moment) and whilst I like them, I'm wanting something just a bit bigger. This is the front runner at the moment: Bison 10000 6WD - Kranman With all bells and whistles it's about £45,000. That's just about every upgrade and extra bit of kit relating to forestry (tipper body not included). My argument for it is that it's a bit bigger than an Alstor, has most of a cab (not sure about the extra £4k for a cab) and lifts a fair bit more. It's also cheaper. Then on the harvesting front, I came across Usewood a few years ago, and their 8x8 Harvester is very sexy: Forest Master Takes up to 22cm diameter timber and goes just about anywhere. Price from online rummaging seems to be about £51,000, which seems like bloody good value. Provisional calcs suggest 40-50 tonne a day is feasible, which matches it to the forwarder perfectly. The idea is first thinning softwood, specifically spruce (with enough other work thrown in to keep us sane, as well as a rotation of operators. I don't think 5 days a week in a Sitka stand is good for anyone!). Spruce thinning is done too late in the cycle in the UK, resulting in overdrawn and wind vulnerable trees. If you could get in and delicately thin the trees when they were circa 15cm dbh, you'd produce a stand with greater wind resistance and ultimately a better final crop. Couple that with idea that I imagine most land owners expect to make nothing from a first thin (ie, you might get the wood for free, or near enough free) then perhaps it's worth pursuing. 40 tonnes of chipwood grade spruce is worth about £1280 locally, which in my mind is a reasonable day rate for two machines and two operators. Couple that with a 40% SRDP grant, negligible running costs and no haulage costs (both machines are under 2.5t), am I right in thinking it might make reasonable business sense? J

I can top that. Had a mostly loaded artic stuck to the axles on a construction site last month. Loaded up with logs no problem, went to turn, the ground was solid solid solid then suddenly soft. Left side bogged to axles. 36 tonnes to get unstuck. Fortunately I had a winch tractor nearby, but it took the 8 tonne winch doubled up with a snatch block to shift it. Great post though - really made me chuckle

I can supply any quantity, dimension or length from the end of May onwards. A double pallet can't really be longer than 3m, but obviously timber transported by dedicated lorry can be any length. J

I will have more than you would be able to use in a decade later in the month. Western red - how much do you want?

Plenty, yes. Please email me on rstw at hotmail dot co dot uk with details and we can go from there. J

I have an Alstor working for me at the moment on a site in Elgin. It isn't able to move the first lengths of the elm we are working with, but it will do everything else. The first lengths are being moved by forestry tractor, but due to the access issues, many of them will have to be winched to points where it can reach. The Alstor has no such access problems. After a bit of a break from forestry, I'm back at it again and have been for three months. Really enjoying it too and towards the end of the year will be purchasing a JCB 8025 ZTS (or similar - still researching) with forwarding trailer (which will double as the plant trailer to tow it to site). The only major disadvantage an excavator has over an Alstor or similar is speed of tracking (which limits it to sites with a shorter extraction route). It however has much faster, stronger hydrualics and I'm confident I could load a 1500kg log with a 2.8t machine. It might not make much money, but I really do love smaller scale forestry!

Cool! I've moved away from planed timber recently due to the faff and that the Logosol 4 side planer is built of Swiss cheese. Look forward to hearing how you get on. J

Not taking anything away from the (lovely) beech bowls, the columns are outstanding. I love the interplay between the modern and the traditional building methods.

Nearly at the end of the first job and much elm roadside. Most of the round wood elm is likely to have a home, but happy to offer sawn elm in any quantity and grade. Have at least 100 tonnes I can mill at fairly short notice. Prices vary according to quantity and grade, but I'm very cheap, or at least so I'm told!

Milled about 10 tonnes of elm yesterday for a customer - they will end up as whisky boxes. Here is a nice book match. This log was difficult to mill - the wild grain and wide cuts (up to 39") meant it was constantly trying to deviate. Managed though.

Nice table sir! Looks like you had bother with metal, judging by the blue stain! I had the pleasure of cutting a Victorian screw in half yesterday in an old elm. Must have been 6mm in diameter.

Just quickly Andrew - home owner chainsaw required for cutting firewood. Budget £200-300. What are the options? It's elm mostly, which means more power would be useful (ie, it doesn't need to be a light saw). J

The tree was courtesy of JimM here on Arbtalk, and came from Rafford in Morayshire. I do believe he has photos/videos to add to this thread

Brought the ash down today and it's a stunning olive colour. Exceptional figure I expect.

Saw them quite vividly on the way up the A9 this evening. Strong green strips going vertically into the sky around Blair Atholl. Will be popping my head out the door before bed to see if the clouds have dissipated.

Well if you can organise a lorry load, we can certainly worth with that. The distance is not an issue. Almost all my timber this year will come from 150-180 miles north of me, or 210 miles south.

Looks lovely Tom. Glad you are pleased!

Walnut you are extremely unlikely to find and it will most likely be crap if you do. Such is the nature of Scottish Walnut. Cherry is a pain in the arse as it has more tension than a middle east peace summit. I avoid it. I have plenty of elm in Dufftown/Elgin that I can offer. Also, one large bit of ash as well.

We've run one for a few years and I'd say that whilst it can be reasonable in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing, it's a delicate and underbuilt machine that won't stand any abuse or any timber that isn't perfectly straight. Worth considering certainly, but know it's limitations.

About that, yes.

It's easy to start (I have the blue version), though get the Dolmar version through Shavey here on Arbtalk as it can come with a nice shiney Sugihara bar which has a roller nose on it and consequently doesn't suck power.

I use red diesel, and have done for over 2 years. In that time I have used less than 100 litres, having cut over 1000 tonnes of timber in that time.

To get the best out of it, it wants to go onto a bandmill. The log cut on chainsawmill at say 1.5" versus a bandmill means you would lose at least two boards to sawdust. If you want to hold onto the timber, bring it up here and I'll run it through the mill for free.