Big J

I have a Navara. It's settled down now (thank God, as it's out of warranty) but during the first three years it was into the garage 29 times for various faults including, but not limited to (I honestly can't remember them all now): * Intermittent power loss/limp home mode. This left me stranded twice. Never properly diagnosed. * Loud knocking from front right wheel when under heavy throttle load, particularly when weight on that wheel (when turning left, for instance). Present for last 55000 miles. Nissan can't find the fault. * New wheel bearing * New front section of exhaust * New transfer box sensor/bearings * Heater matrix (huge job, 4 days in garage) * New fuel rail * New fuel pump * New glow plugs three times (to try to fix power loss) * Front propshaft * Master window control (twice really, as it broke again just out of warranty and Nissan refused to honour the warranty on the spare part. Not paying over £300 for not having to lean over the car to put up the passenger window) There will be more. I just can't remember. The words Bargepole, Don't, With, Touch, 10 foot and A spring to mind.

Not been down that long, but I'll email some pictures now

I've only got 3ft diameter elm, and then bigger as well. Any use?

Our fuel consumption was pretty uniform when hardwood thinning. Two tanks Breakfast Two tanks Lunch Two tanks Bite to eat and cup of tea One or two tanks then home. Depending on whether we did a final one or two tanks, this was an 0800 to 1630-1730 day and production rates were always good. Hell of a lot less snedding on hardwoods though, and with a 550xp, you generally always used about 5l of fuel.

That is not including overlap, so aye, £7 a cubic foot. I can get reasonable European Larch into the yard at less than £2 a cube and quite easily cut over a hundred cube a day, so the figures add up. It's not going to make me a millionaire, but it keeps the mill ticking over, and gives me something to do whilst I'm waiting around for customers purchasing hardwoods (which are more profitable).

They most likely need to be reset. I've had mixed experiences with having bands sharpened. When everything is done correctly, it's great, but if they grind off too much of the tooth, or forget to set the bands, or over set them, you can have all sorts of issues.

Very good, thanks for the update

Hi Mark, You do get anomalous trees like that sometimes. I had a couple of brick hard elms this year - no idea why they were so tough. First thing to do when the chain comes out the box is take a reasonable amount of each depth gauge - at least 5 strokes. After that, keep nibbling at them until it's just the right side of grabby. You want the saw to pull itself along, but not constantly stall. It's a balancing act, and one that comes with practice. On 4ft wide cuts on a single powerhead, I'd expect a 1ft/minute cut rate. Also, sharpen (as in a tiny tickle on each tooth) after every cut. It will save you a lot of effort and fuel.

Anyone?

Alec has covered everything, but I would only say that you would be better off having the timber milled at a static mill rather than mobile. 60 trees equates to at least a couple of lorry loads, and haulage by artic is not very much at all. A static mill (like a big Stenner) will cut at approximately 5 times the rate of a Woodmizer type mill, and do so without any worry of deviation. Larch can be an abrasive and hard timber to cut sometimes, and very narrow bands (like those found on mobile bandsaws) can struggle to cut true. Additionally, your cost per cubic foot to mill will be markedly less.

Mill them both - nice butts

Good effort on the milling - it's certainly a nice bit of Oak. It shouldn't take you nearly an hour per cut though. With a single powerhead it should still be no more than 15 minutes per cut. The snapped chain is most likely an indicator of it being too blunt/depth gauges too high.

My wife just got back from Aviemore (I'm still here) and went to empty the fire of ash (I stoked it last at 1100 yesterday) and there were still a lot of embers. So that's 34 hrs. Bloody fire won't go out!

Can do you waney edged 25mm larch cladding for £6.13 a square metre, plus VAT and delivery

I have a 20kw stove from: http://thechampionstovecompany.co.uk/ It's not listed on the site yet. £425, stays lit on hardwood for 24hrs, very economical (2-3 cube a month on full tilt), whole house (127 sq m) heated at 18-21c very easily. Spend the rest of your £1500 budget on going towards a log splitter!

Thread revival. Just about to get to the bottom of a huge box of Wykabor that has lasted me over three years. This thread discusses some of the alternatives, and I was wondering if anyone had had any positive experiences with timber treatments that were not borax/boron based?

Good mate! Enjoying a day off (first in nearly three weeks). It's just a bloody thick bed of embers. It needs a minimum of 24hrs to go out, and I really think that this stove is better suited to a more softwood biased mix. Perhaps hardwoods are better suited to grated stoves?

Really struggle to get our stove to go out. Stuck with rather more hardwood than I'd like (usual ash, sycamore, cherry, hawthorne etc) which leaves more ash than softwoods or lighter hardwoods like poplar. Consequently, you have to leave the fire at least 24hrs before the embers burn off. 24hrs on hardwoods, about 10-12 on softwoods, but more heat.

Good post Andy, did see the bit on your website on the walnut grove - looked like a fascinating job. I think in the context of the original post, the log that was ringed up was certainly worth milling and was converted to firewood before finer uses were considered. All I'd ask is that if a walnut (or indeed any other good quality timber) is to be felled, that consideration be given for milling and that firewood is regarded as a last resort.

You are right - timber does indeed grow considerably more slowly up here. I had some nice flooring grade beech through earlier in the year which was on average about 25" DBH and 95 years old, so 7.6 rings to an inch. Nevertheless, I still feel that the first port of call for any batch of reasonable timber should be a sawmill. If it's deemed to be unsuitable, then firewood options could be explored. At the end of the day, it's you (the seller of the timber) that has the most to gain should the timber be of higher value. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.

Nice dark heart on that - lovely.

That is pretty sad regarding the beams. I've had difficulty shifting more unusual timbers when sawn (I tried milling up about a 100 cubic foot of poplar a couple of years ago for rough joinery, and whilst I've sold enough to cover my costs, it's only trickling out) but run of the mill species like Oak, Elm, Ash etc always go eventually. You just have to market them hard and price accordingly.

I couldn't see the faces of the boards from the video or the pictures, but they might be a bit too good for garden furniture. Obviously, you have to sell it one way or another, but they look like good quality boards and I'd certainly be looking to sell them as cabinet grade (if I had them up here). Is there a barn you can dry them in? They'll dry in literally half the time.

I wouldn't though. If I were quoting to fell it, I'd quote assuming minimal heartwood. Assume worst case scenario and sometimes you'll have to firewood it and other times you'd cash in. You ascertain heartwood content, shake and colour before approaching any sawmills.

I've milled walnut of that size with plenty of heartwood.