Big J

It's not, but it's also not democratic for the English to pull the Scots out either. It's a damned if you do, damned if you don't sort of situation.

Semantics. You can use the figures to prove either point of view. Of the electorate that voted, a larger proportion voted to remain in the EU. Or alternatively, to support your view, a larger number voted to stay in the UK. As a Unionist, in both senses of the word, it's depressing but not surprising that polls are putting support for Scottish independence over 50% now. There should have been the four country lock. It would have been more democratic.

I don't actually think that the UK will survive Brexit. Not one to ever agree with Nicola Sturgeon, she apparently did broach the topic of a four country lock for the EU referendum with Cameron. All four countries of the Union would have to vote to Leave. He rejected this call. Seems foolish now. The fact of the matter is that whilst the majority of people in Scotland do not wish to leave the UK, a larger majority do not wish to leave the EU. Between siding with an England that has proven itself rather intolerant of foreigners and the Scots, I'm surprised to say I'd side with the Scots now. It might be economic suicide given that Scotland does far more trade with the rest of the UK, but frankly, I honestly believe that the UK is fooked now anyway.

You packing it in? Thought I saw your mill on ebay.

I am well aware of that, and I am fastidious with my trailer loading. The longer beams were a one off, and in the end we ended up nudging them up the trailer with the forklift as far as possible, which resulted in a neutrally weighted trailer. What I was trying to illustrate is that the secondary shocks seem to near enough eliminate snaking. I had two leaf sprung Ifors before this one and they were awful to tow.

Even the head mechanic at Nissan in Edinburgh said that they weren't well built. If you are one of the lucky ones who has not had major issues, it is more a case of good fortune than them being fit for purpose. Had I had to pay for all of the warranty work undertaken with my Navara, I'd be out of pocket upwards of £10k.

Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Very Cack!

I do not rate pick ups for towing. Too short a wheel base and too long an overhang on the back. Since getting the van, I have barely noticed the movement from any trailer (though I have noticed the weight as I only have 130bhp).

Glad you are OK. Looked nasty and amazing you weren't hurt. I've not had a trailer snake on me for a year (I'll come to that in a minute) but on the occasions I did (which were often enough - I used to have 12ft trailers and transporting sawn timber means having a load that was often too long for the bed, or just tail heavy) I found the best recovery was achieved by removing hands from the wheel and removing feet from the pedals. Any steering correction would only exacerbate the issue and braking or accelerating did not help either. Now, for the past 13 months I've been running a German trailer (Unsinn Web 28) with secondary gas strut stabilisation on the suspension. It is a requirement for towing at 100km/h in Germany and I thought why not, so specced it. Since then, I've towed a lot (17k miles) with on some occasions badly loaded trailers. Sometimes so little nose weight that you have to stand on the drawbar to get it to sit on the tow hitch (not advising this, but 20ft beams are frankly too long for a 14ft trailer). Since getting the new trailer, I've not had so much as a whiff of snaking, whether that was towing with the van or the Landrover. I'm not sure if it's definite proof, but the gas struts seem to have made the difference and for that reason I'd not buy a trailer without them again. Once again, very glad you are OK

I did have an industrial type dehumidifier (Ebac) which was unreliable. I don't know about the air conditioning system. The reason I like the set up that I have is that it is absolutely reliable. I can go on holiday without worrying that it will fail or damage the timber. The absolute reliability and consistency is worth a slightly higher running cost. That and it costs nothing to set up. I wouldn't bother with the extra insulation. That is only worth while on a closed system, which with the heat vent it is not.

I use Trak Met's sharpener: Trak-Met : Pilarki, Owijarki, Traki : Sawmill machines - Sawmill machines - BAND SAW SHARPENER It's quite a bit more expensive at about £1300 plus delivery, but it's much much quicker and I'm generally quite impressed. The setter was about £450. The set refers to the angle that the tooth is spread out. So, if looking at the blade from above (as it's sat on the sharpening machine), one blade is straight, the next bent out right, the next bent out left and then it's all repeated. A narrow set will result in easier progress for a machine with less power, but less accuracy as the blade is more prone to deviate. The sharpener from Woodland Mills looks OK for the money, but there is not much to it.

Sharpen them yourself. I sharpen and set every time. The reason for this is that the sharpener takes 9 minutes and the setting 4 minutes. So, I sharpen 6 blades an hour comfortably, saving me £72 an hour. Also, I've found far fewer issues with blades I've done than any saw doctor. I think that this is because I am using them, I can detect slight issues on set up and rectify them.

Fell it and run a tape along it. It's the only way to be certain.

Correct! Martin Champion is a top bloke and builds very good quality stoves. The Dominator range (all his stoves are named after classic British motorbikes) is because I asked if he could build a larger stove. I have the 700mm version of it (circa 20kw - heats most of the house).

All I can say is get a stove with a long firebox. Short stoves are a PITA and cutting firewood short doubly so. My stove takes 68cm but everything is cut at about 50cm as that's the longest the processor will do. Total time to process 28 cube - 4 hours. Cut at 25cm would also double the wastage (with sawdust). There are lower output, long stoves available. A friend of mine has the 7kw Lightning from the Champion Stove Company. Cheap, British made and reliable. Also takes a 50cm log.

We ran one for three years here. A cabinet maker owned and operated it. It was great for some things, but a pain in the arse for most. Had the capacity to massively bugger up timber.

Just scale it down. It will work well

I posted an article on how to build your own - might be worth a read

It might produce some decent timber, but I've never heard of there being much demand for yew stumps. The grit and stones that you cannot see (ie, those that are embedded) will be very destructive. Once you've factored in your time for preparing the bits of the stump for sale, I doubt that there would be much profit in it. Not when you compare that you can run a piece of yew of similar volume through a mill in just a couple of minutes.

More hassle than it's worth. I wouldn't bother with it if you paid me.

That is a fair point. I should qualify my statement by saying that in striving for greater efficiency and output, it's in an effort to eventually make a lot of money and retire early!

It would seem unwise to draw a salary of that size from the business. If I didn't keep buying new kit then I could, but each new machine I buy improves my efficiency and increases my output. There are so many tax deductible perks of self employment, I'm not sure why you would put yourself in a position to have a substantial tax bill. That being said, if I start making millions, I'll happily pay the tax bill and take my holiday in the Maldives!

The chainsaw mills are invaluable for breaking down those larger logs as the Woodmizers have quite a limited throat. I fully concede that I cannot take my oversized mill into the woods though!

The roof looks extraordinary Jeremy. I've fairly recently planted a wild flower mix around my pond and I hope it looks half as good as yours. I see you're using the chainsaw mill for halving larger logs What you need now is an edger my good man!

Like any timber, it's best milled green. I started a thread some weeks ago struggling with larch and resin. I've had reasonable success with water with a lot of fairy liquid in it. Enough so that it forms a bit of a froth as it is deposited onto the blade. You need to massively up your drip rate too. Mine pretty much just flows onto the blade when cutting larch. Will use 10 litres in about an hour of cutting. Cedar on the other hand (which we are cutting a lot of at the moment) is just a joy to cut. No issues at all.