Big J

You have to take the depth gauges down a reasonable amount below normal. I did hundreds of hours of milling with an 088/50" bar combo (single ended, no auxiliary oiler as I didn't find it helped that much). Standard milling rate at nearly full throat width (full width was 42", near full would be 36-40") was 18 inches a minute and never slower than 12 inches a minute. If it's slower than that, somethings wrong - depth gauges, teeth not sharp or air filter. One of those three. Now double ended milling (whilst it does break components of the Alaskan fairly easily) is a different kettle of fish. Much much quicker - 65" width of cut on sequoia at 3ft/minute. 50-55" width of cut with sweet chestnut, nearly 3ft a minute.

Excellent start to your chainsaw milling. It looks like you have access to some top notch wood, and your technique seems to be refined. One thing though: This is a bit too long for an 8ft by average 36" cut. Best guess is depth gauges are too high, or you're not resharpening your chain every three cuts (it does need to be as frequent as that). Could be a combination of the two. I'd expect a cut of that length in oak to take 5-8 minutes, depending on how hard/dry the individual tree is. I'm just trying to save your wrists! I've got a 5ft 6" diameter elm but (about 8ft at it's widest across the fork) in the yard at the moment that I have to mill but I'm frankly quite scared of. It's going to require putting a straight edge on one side, and that's with a 67" cutting throat!

Welcome Dave!

The 3120s are no doubt good saws, but I don't know anyone that uses them for milling. Lower power and torque I believe. As they say, for small saws Husqvarna, medium saws anyone's guess, big saws, Stihl.

I've done hundreds of hours of milling with 088s/880s. Never anything more than consumables failing. Excellent saw. Crap air filter though.

North sea oil and gas Tom - don't you remember the white paper?!

That's slower grown than the stuff we were milling, and we're hundred of miles north! Can't recommend a pressure washer enough. You quite often have complete days milling on one band. Last year I did 185 hoppus foot of beech for floor boards, cut at 32mm, on one band.

I don't actually really object to the Green's environmental policies really! I think they are pushing things a bit far, I don't agree with them on nuclear and I disagree with their stance on cars/public transport, but on the whole, I think their heart is in the right place. It's the social policies I find difficult to deal with. They really do want to level the playing field. Achievement would not be rewarded under the Greens - all wealth would be equally split between the workers (proletariat?), all workers would have jobs provided by the state somehow there would be some magical pot of gold to pay for it all. I understand why someone would support a party that supports the environment. The Greens used to be that party. However, their other policies are so left wing they make Nicola Sturgeon look like Maggie and the Greens playing any part in government would be a disaster.

Exactly. The world would be a much happier place if everyone adopted such a simple mantra for life.

Idealism has it's place, but in order to get to a stage where you're able to afford the luxury of thinking about things other than keeping afloat and supporting your family, one has to have a chance at succeeding in business. I operate on the principle of no harm - do unto others as you wish for them to do onto you. Operate on the basis that you avoid causing harm or suffering to other people. The Green party is insisting that the way we can achieve UK-topia is to effectively punish success in business. Such policy results in an exodus of the rich, intelligent and successful.

15% of a sample population - it's a reasonable cross section. Regarding employment, most folk on here are either self employed or work in small firms and understand the massive economic damage Green economic policy would have. What befuddles me is how an uncosted manifesto that effectively turns the UK in the UK-SSR could persuade anyone. They are a fantasist party, with a leader who lacks any kind of authority, recall or confidence. In principle, I believe that environmental policy should be stricter, but there will be no money to take climate issues if you drive all business abroad/into the ground.

It must be an incredibly tough situation for Sean and his family to be in. I've been reading his recounts of hospital life with interest and empathy. Just donated.

Separately to the continuing theme in this thread, I'm pretty staggered that nearly 15% of Arbtalkers would even consider voting green. As a forum of mostly self employed folk, the Greens are essentially opposed to business, and believe that an economy best functions as a state run enterprise, and somehow, despite the fact that almost everyone seems to work for the state, the income tax from the super rich will pay for it. They've offered no explanations on how it's all to be paid for and essentially are espousing communism. Of all parties, I think the Green's manifesto is the most unrealistic. I'd rather see UKIP in power, and that's saying something!

Yep. Some ideal bowl shaped burrs on it too.

One of the reasons for that is that every country has people that cannot work for reasons of physical or mental disability, or that they are just too stupid. And then you've got the people that refuse to work. It has nothing to do with immigrant labour.

Not defending his point of view (I would sooner ship off the useless British dole scroungers than export the mostly hard working immigrants we have), there is a big difference between someone making a public a viewpoint that (rightly or wrongly) is held by a significant proportion of the population and telling someone to personally F off. I'm advising you don't do that here as you will not do yourself any favours. It's also quite unpleasant and contrary to forum rules.

As the child of an immigrant, I'd urge you to consider your attitude towards other Arbtalk members. It's fine to disagree, it's entirely wrong to insult.

I'm not in the running for it, much too far north, but more details (species, size, access) would probably help sell it.

I suppose I would just look at it differently if I were the customer. Something along the lines of: "It's a damned shame we have to take down these spectacular cedar, but seeing as we have to, how can we make best use of the timber without it costing us too much?" I just hate seeing good timber cut short - it happens all the time, but it's still annoying! Those big butts would be ideal for someone with a Lucas mill to produce cladding/boarding with.

Fair enough, but a shame given a tree's age and stature that it's use after it's demise is severely limited due to an inadequate crane being used. The few hundred extra pounds for a larger crane might well have been realised in the timber sale had it been longer lengths.

I do! A couple of second length very well burred lengths, about 7-8ft long, 18-24" diameter. Very high quality (patch, not complete) burr. J

Why was it cut so short? Really reduces the value.

Very nice indeed Si!

All the main parties point fingers at each other, blaming a whole raft of different reasons for failing economies, failing services and everything else. The fact of the matter is that compared to any other time in history we are/have: * A better standard of living * We're better educated * We have access to better public services * We are better looked after by the state * We have more technology available to us And we still aren't productive. The issue is quite simply that we've become lazy as a nation. A man day at work isn't worth what it used to be - we're just not getting as much done. Consequently, we have all the same burdens on society without the taxation income to support it. So we put ourselves in debt, and then further into debt. Much of the immigration issue stems from this. Figures show that whilst the native British public are a drain on the British public purse (taking approximately 10% more in benefits/services than paying in tax), immigrants are a net gain (EU migrants especially, who contribute much more than they take). It's no wonder so many people want a stop to EU migration when better motivated, harder working people come here, willing to work for less money. I say this as a reformed lazy employee. When I was employed (social care before tree work/sawmilling), I hated my job and didn't work hard if I didn't have to. I've never worked harder than when I've worked for myself and many of the guys who work for me really graft too. I just think that the British economy really needs some serious streamlining - like with the NHS and their many managers, there are too many useless people doing 'non-jobs'. We need to get back to manufacturing base, focus on actually making things and leading the world in high technology rather than a pointless and largely forgettable service industry touting products like Wonga.com and No Win, No Fee lawyers. Rant over!

Hybrid poplar by the looks of it. The only thing you'll struggle with is getting a fine finish once sanded - it's quite a coarse grain.