Big J

I appreciate that, and would suggest using just about any species bar oak. If the oak in question was of good to excellent quality, you'd be paying £12 to £15 a hoppus foot (delivered in) for it up here from Scotts or Chantlers. That's £324 to £405 a tonne. The hollow elm went out as firewood a while back, but I do have a couple of other butts that are hollow. What length do you need?

Pop a couple of photos up - saves you having to send them individually. If it's of any quality, chainsaw carving it would be a complete waste. I don't mind chainsaw carving (when done well) but it should be reserved for very poor quality pieces of timber as most of it ends up as sawdust and far better use of the tree comes from milling it.

Bloody useful again. You imput is much appreciated Realistically, due to the lack of a capacious burn chamber or buffer tank, the kiln will be on in 10 hour blocks. It doesn't take long to get to temperature (about 20 minutes) and would be pumping hot air at around 100c for all that time. There is no heat exchanger - it's a simple case of hot air pumped into one end and vented out the other. Efficiency is not an issue for me as the whole set up only cost a couple of grand, and one day's cutting on the sawmill produces enough offcuts to fuel the biomass boiler for several days. Thank you for the figures on what saturation point would be. Late last night I just couldn't find the tables I needed! Do you reckon I'm going to be at risk of spontaneous combustion with an internal temperature of 80-90c?

Ash is one of the heaviest timbers once kiln dried to 8%. Up there with oak and yew. For roundwood, I work on the basis of 700-900kg per cubic metre, depending on species.

Useful information! I'm confident in drying sawn timber, but firewood is new to me. The boiler is rated to 233kw though I'm not sure it will realistically reach that. Observation was that the average air output temperature was around 100 celcius with hourly stoking of the boiler (small firebox of around 0.8 cubic metres and forced airflow). Using fairly fresh offcuts from the sawmill as I have tonnes of the stuff and it burns well. I'd be putting 20 crates into the kiln, which would occupy around 30 cubic metres (albeit only about 20 once airspace is accounted for). So that leaves 54 cubic metres of airspace and an air change every 13.6 seconds. On the basis that the air is effectively coming in at a humidity of 0%, the air would only have to pick up a tiny amount of moisture (relatively speaking) to dry the timber very rapidly. Very rough calculations indicate that a cubic metre of air at 95c can carry 1160ml of water. Assuming it reaches 5% RH, it strips 58ml with every cubic metre of air, which is 835 litres an hour (14400 cubic metres an hour). 30 cube of firewood has at least 4500 litres of moisture to lose, so theoretically it's 5hrs, which it won't be in practice, but does a day sound possible?

Should be doing a test run next week so let's see how it goes. I've got a couple of loads ready to go in. Actually had 160 celcius for a while coming out the vents, but that was a bit too hot.

As has been already mentioned, it won't stand up to any kind of wear and tear. If timber were cheese, sequoia is brie compared to oak as cheddar. It's immensely soft. Outstanding cladding though.

Just about to get started with having a punt at this. This is what we have: 40ft shipping container, insulated on all sides (bar the door and floor) with an average of 6 inches of kingspan. 233kw rated (though not sure it will actually pump this much out) biomass boiler. Pumps out 4 cubic metres of hot air per second, tested and producing hot air at a steady 120 degrees celcius. Burns sawmill offcuts. 20 potato crates of western red cedar firewood, cut to 25cm. I realise that potato crates are a bit crap for drying, but I'll see how it does. If it works well, I'll maybe get some steel crates or IBCs. If it doesn't, I'll sell the constituent bits and write it off as a failed experiment!

It takes years to build up a customer base, but it does seem to keep growing and it's hard to keep up sometimes. We used to have quiet periods - now almost never. It's either steady or busy or very busy. Haha! I'm not adverse to coming down to train folk - I'm English originally anyway, so have family and friends scattered about. Where abouts are you? I'd describe myself as a professional amateur sawmiller, which might put me in a good position to teach the uninitiated as I mostly taught myself.

That's maybe a bit high on the genset cost. Mine wasn't quite that and it's 50kva. Mill at £15k get's you fully hydraulic and wide cutting head, as well as some extra hydraulics/tools. Dedicated transport would be required for a mill that size (might squeeze something else on) and would be about £2500. Was about £2000, but migrant issues in Calais build cost. Installation cost was a tough higher for me as I put a £2800 concrete pad in. You are very close to reality though. Pays off quickly enough though - in the next month I have the value of the mill and generator in orders waiting to be cut. Mostly softwood with a lorry load of elm thrown in for good measure.

I have a 50kva generator. It was going to be a new one, but a delivery delay meant I cancelled it and bought a very low hours used genset. There are advantages with electric - it's extremely quiet and the torque is very impressive. The little mill has a 7.5kw main motor, which would need a 12-15kva genset (a guess).

For that size of mill, diesel might be prohibitively expensive. Petrol would be a better bet. Sadly, with an electric mill it's not just a simple case of switching the electric motor for a petrol one - all the motors for head movement, hydrualics etc are electric and 380v. They need to do it to crack into the UK market, but it's a significant undertaking.

About £3500 plus VAT and UK delivery. That is on the basis that I can get 5 people to buy one of the basic mills. The haulage from Poland is around £2600 and it's obviously much more economical to put 5 mills on a wagon. Having seen or used a lot of small manual sawmills, there is a lot more steel in these than any other. It's standard with a 7.5kw three phase motor, but I can speak to them about a small petrol or diesel power plant if there is enough interest.

If a small band saw mill could be considered, I'd highly recommend Trak-met's TTP600 standard. Built like a tank and very inexpensive.

We flew into Warsaw, but the mill was made in a town called Biskupiec, about 120 miles north. I'll get some video up in the next week or so - still learning to use the beast! I feel like a novice again though as it's completely different to the Logmaster. This one is electric and electronic, whereas the Logmaster was all hydraulic. I actually prefer all hydraulic, but there is no affordable option for me in this size category. We've had about 20 odd larch logs and an elm log through the mill and the impressions are very good. It's effortlessly quick. 30kw is much, much more than I had before and it shows. It did a particularly good job on the elm, even though I had a softwood blade on. Comments so far are: * Much quicker in cut than the Logmaster. That's the extra power and band width I reckon. * Slower on log handling at the moment as I'm still getting used to the functions. The chain turners are much quicker than the hook turner. The clamps are hydraulic motor and chain driven, rather than hydraulic cylinder. The upshot is they are much quicker, but not as powerful. The driven toe boards are awesome, as is the board drag back. The back stops are all hydraulic (11 of them) but because they are on a single piston, they aren't terribly powerful. I do prefer the vertical hydraulic cylinder back stops, but it would have been daft to have 11 of them and the hydraulic system wouldn't have done 11 at a time (plus extra expense). * It's built like a brick outhouse. It weighs 4100kg and feels incredibly solid. * The set works are a pain in the backside. Much like any electric set works on a mill, they are tricky to navigate. I will learn how to use it, but I expect I'll mostly use the mill manually. Overall, very good, but a learning curve. Looking foward to getting into some oversized logs. Have mostly softwood orders on at the moment, but with at least 50 tonnes to cut in the next month, I should get the chance to stretch the mill's legs.

Well I'm burning larch that was processed in March/April. It's not sub 20%, it burns beautifully and I have no chimney issues! No sooting anywhere really - it's just a case of keeping the fire at the right temperature. Stove thermometer Stove thermometer Stove thermometer.

But what about the owner of the tree making some money? Money for replanting? £45 a tonne is the value of lowish grade larch saw logs up here. Honestly, I'll take a load at £45 if that's all it's going for.

Just seems quite labour intensive and slow to me. I appreciate that the finish is good, but a well sharpened band leaves much the same finish. For the money, I just reckoned a small, well thought out bandmill would be more productive. The 6mm kerf seriously limits cut speed as with 5kw being the maximum motor size (I presume), you've three times as much sawdust to remove for each cut, with a motor that is as small as anything you'd find on a bandmill. Either way, I enjoy your videos Teed, and it's nice to see a different perspective.

And it is now in my yard: And with 2m + of me infront of it for scale: It barely fits in the barn! About an inch of clearance all round - no exageration! It will be fired up tomorrow, but probably won't be used until Tuesday.

That is perhaps why it's easier to be a sawmill up here than in most other parts of the country. AJ Scotts are charging £135 a tonne delivered in for crappy quality. Good quality is double that, top quality triple. At £45 a tonne, I'd haul it up here for that. No estate/contractor is going to make money at £45 a tonne - what's the point in felling it?

Would that be 14 to the US gallon as well? If so, that's 16.8 to the imperial gallon.

Yep. I've discussed it quite extensively with them. Frankly, I'm not in it for the money. I think they make good machines (which is why I've bought one) and would like to see a bit more competition in the UK sawmill market. It shouldn't cost as much as it does for a good solid mill. Clive, I'll give you a buzz in the morning.

Really enjoy your videos and admire the camera work, but I must ask - why did you go for an M8 rather than a small bandmill? With all the different heads/attachments, you must be up to bandmill money, and it's a good deal slower and more limited. Just a question, not a criticism!

I have a Citroen Relay, long wheel base and high roof (not extra long or extra high I should say) 2.2HDI, 14 plate. Wonderful to drive - most comfortable driving position for me yet. With a mixture of unloaded, loaded and towing (in equal amounts), I've averaged 32.7mpg over the last 10000 miles I've had it. Mostly extra urban - I avoid cities. It will do 40mpg unloaded on a run as well. With bluetooth, sat nav and a good stereo it's a nice place to be. Much better than the bloody Navara.

Trak Met produce nearly all of their own parts (bearing blocks, band wheels and quite a lot of other stuff you'd expect them to buy in) so product support is excellent. 12 month warranty, and I'd need to hammer out the details of how that would be administered. I'm happy for it to go through me, and given that I'd have both a bandmill and processor, I should be in a good position to help.