Big J
-
Posts
9,232 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
46
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Classifieds
Tip Site Directory
Blogs
Articles
News
Arborist Reviews
Arbtalk Knot Guide
Gallery
Store
Calendar
Freelancers directory
Everything posted by Big J
-
That is generally the best idea - some timbers discolour or stain extremely quickly. Any white wood for example, oak's terrible for ferrous metal staining (particularly the sapwood). It's lovely ash, but I would get a few more stickers on it. One every 18 inches is a good rule of thumb for anything down to inch thickness, one every 12 inches for thinner stock.
-
All stunning - great work!
-
Forgot to say, scrape your sawdust off as well, as it's a breeding ground for bacteria/fungus. Nice boards Gerbutt - the flaming almost appears spalted.
-
Beech is sadly the lowest value of all hardwoods in the UK unless it's quite spectacularly spalted. You did incredibly well to get £150 a board for them green (4 cube a board). I'd personally be selling them off the saw for about £48 a board, kiln dried for no more than about £100. As a point aside, for drying, you want to have at least twice as many stickers, with sticks right on the ends as well. I'd think about getting some weight on the stack as well as beech is prone to movement whilst drying.
-
Yep, thought as much. With a 20kw stove, it doesn't often run under 300c, and quite frequently hits 400c. The purchase of the stove fan was an experiment really. If it works well enough, I'll get one of the ones with the stirling engine at some point.
-
Do you reckon they'd take it back though? It's probably because it's too hot. Surface temp on the stove at this moment is 382 celcius......
-
MS880. You'll spend a long time chainsaw milling - it's a time consuming activity. With any other chainsaw you'll spend all that time thinking about how much quicker it would be with an 880. That being said, chainsaw milling with an 880 is still time consuming enough, and you'll probably spend that time wishing you had the bandmill back again! I found that an MS880 on a 42" bar was ideal for one man chainsaw milling operations. A 48" bar is unnecessary in most situations (remember you still have to move the boards you produce) and requires an auxiliary oiler. On a 42", it's not necessary.
-
I've got an Ecofan (had it for a few months) and I don't think it spins as quickly now as it did when it was new. The difficulty is that it's only rated to about 340 celcius, which on a big stove is a surface temperature that is often exceeded. Quite often, mine will run at 360-400 for long periods of time, sitting exactly at the top of the zone of best operation according to the flue thermometer. What is the point in having a big stove if you aren't going to run it hotter? The only fan I've seen that is rated to a higher temperature is the Stirling engined fan, which can run at up to 450c.
-
Green oak into any kiln is very difficult. We have heat vent, vacuum and steam (ie Logosol) kilns and they are all crap at drying green oak. You can dry almost any other timber from green, just not oak.
-
Yep, lime. Lovely firewood. Splits easily, seasons extremely quickly, bright, strong flame. Won't last as long as oak or ash on the fire, but split now, it would be under 20% MC by June.
-
I've got a fair bit in the yard, but it's all unsawn. Fresh OK?
-
Extraordinary! Will command top dollar in a few years time when it's ready for sale!
-
For fresh sawn, about £18 a cube. Nice big burrs on it.
-
What he says! Also, good European larch is half the price and functionally very similar. Can do fresh sawn, box hearted 200x200x4.9m larch beams by the way, £85 plus VAT a beam plus delivery
-
I can supply elm in any quantity. The burr elm used for the tables is fairly low grade, which I cut quite often. Had some come into the yard yesterday infact.
-
I ran out over the Christmas period, so I got some from APC pure. It's about 1/5 of the price, doesn't dissolve quite as well and I can't comment on how well it performs yet as it's too cold for mould to form anyway. I apply it with a paint roller, as aerosol borate isn't too clever. I clean the sawdust with a floor scraper, apply the borate and then stack.
-
Not tempted by doing a bit of rustic speed fencing like at my yard Ian? That's as cheap as chips!
-
Yep. Rise in demand for high end cladding mainly. £3 a hoppus (£90 a tonne) delivered in in England (I'm told).
-
Very nice! Not something I've ever had the opportunity to mill. I was offered one when I first started out, but declined to take it. I imagine it's like cutting concrete.
-
I'd be asking £90 a tonne, or thereabouts. WRC commands a slight premium over douglas fir.
-
Remember that cutting new sleepers will render any pressure treatment useless.
-
Reasonably certain that is lime. It cuts incredibly easily when felling (the usual giveaway).
-
That was our experience on the kilning and the air drying. We were also warned of more drying defects, but didn't find that to be the case. Maybe it's just different logs.
-
It's one of my single biggest labour saving devices. An MS880 on a 50" bar will do almost anything that is still small enough to fit on a Woodmizer type mill when halved. Lovely brown oak though. It takes longer than normal oak to dry btw.
-
This is the end result of chainsawmill halving:
