Big J

I've sent full lorry loads of roundwood timber from Edinburgh to Helmdon for about £700. That's a lorry without a grab though - just bolster sides. Sawn timber is about the same price for that distance. Helmdon are about £1.20-1.50 a cubic foot for sawing, so very good value for money and the cutting is of course perfect. Jonathan

Very nice Stevie. The first time that I saw the beach at Loch Morlich, I honestly thought that it had been artificially created, it's that perfect. Loads to do in Strathspey. Firstly, the Suie Hotel pub in Kincraig is superb. It's actually my local, despite being two hours up the road. Lovely walks at Loch an Eilein and at Uath Lochan. Not sure if the Go Ape place is open at this time of year. Mountain bike hire from lots of places. Make sure to visit the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore - the menu is brilliant, particularly the cake. Don't be surprised if you have to queue though. Excellent fishing too, PM if you are wanting details. Jonathan

Friend of mine is just setting up to distribute them in the Highlands. They seem to be excellent bits of kit. I'll report back once we've had a chance to use one.

I probably don't need them, but the benefit of other buyers, could you post some photos of the stems please?

Lovely walnut particularly! Just to echo Steve, what was the problem with the Woodmizer in the end? Jonathan

That is stunning Steve

I have a screw splitter (home made) powered by a 20hp Briggs and Stratton V-twin. It generally costs about £0.80 per cubic metre in fuel costs (more if splitting tougher timber - I'm on poplar at the moment), based on it taking 30 minutes to split a cubic metre. It can be quicker than that though - with a labourer cutting the discs, loading the table and perhaps axe splitting the odd large round in half, I can do a cubic metre in under 20 minutes. Depends on the wood though. Jonathan

It's a difficult and expensive job because they have to take the entire dash out to get to it. It was around Christmas 2011 that it just stopped clearing the windscreen. It got to the point where it was actually blowing steam - massive coolant leak into the heater matrix. I'd told them when it first started that I was getting flakes of what appeared to be egg shell blue paint coming out of the heater vents. It turns out it was dessicated coolant.

That's heater matrix. Almost certain of it. My Navara got sent back to me, nothing wrong, before they realised that the heater matrix was kaput. Also occurred with the local farm managers truck. It's a very expensive job.

Whilst I appreciate that I have been unlucky, I would argue that you and your friend have been lucky. I know three farmers locally who've had major work done (and quite frequently too) and a friend in the Highlands (with a Hilux, purchased at the same time, 10k more mileage, no issues) has heard the same. I don't know what else to say really. I realise that the choice is tricky now, and Navaras are very cheap. I'd just think about something else.

Don't do it - everyone I've personally spoken to has had no end of issues with the Navara. If you work it properly (heavy towing/off road/both), it's not a case of if it will let you down, it's when.

Very true - I wouldn't have another. Though I did get a comedy phone call on Sunday from the marketing department of the local Nissan garage. He'd seen that it was nearly 3 years old with 57k on the clock thought that he'd give me a call to see if I wanted a new one. He clearly hadn't look at the other 27 jobs in the service history. In brief: * It's left me stranded three times in limp home mode. Towing a trailer means that you effectively can't move. * It's been to the garage 28 times for defects. * It has had replaced or faults with: All glow plugs (3 times), fuel rail, fuel pump, heater matrix (4 day job), front prop shaft, transfer box sensors, wheel bearing, door seal, screen wash filler spout, had engine control unit reprogrammed, it's run on three cylinders, the temperature gauge works only sometimes, it clunks heavily from the front right and rattles from the front left but the garage can't find the fault. There will be more, I just can't remember it at the moment! Personally, I'd get a Hilux. Bit more cramped (I'm 6ft 8" too), but I'm sure something could be done with the seat rails. J

That's a bit rough for Oak (which usually takes a reasonably fine finish from a chainsaw mill) but it might be down to practice, or rather lack thereof. Really focus on minimising and small movements or jerks with the mill, maintaining smooth progress through the log. Here is a picture of Oak I've chainsawmilled:

1) Not really, other than rails. 2) No. I'd stick with lorry backs as they are much cheaper. As well as over £600 in insulation, you have all your time in insulating it. 3) Put rails in. You will need something fairly industrial to push the stack in and out. 4) I wouldn't go to 40ft. Better with two 20ft kilns. Consistent airflow would be very tricky to achieve over that length, and you'd need a lot of rails!

I agree a counterbalance would be useful in some instances. 10kg powerhead weight versus no weight on the other end of the bar can result in squint boards. I have always run an 088. I used to have two when I did more chainsaw milling but just have a 2000 model one from my uncle in Germany. It is an excellent milling saw, however once you start using other types of sawmills you realise that it's desperately slow. So I'd say, if you are considering starting chainsaw milling, don't bother with anything smaller. I personally don't have experience of the older milling saws (090/070/076/051) and would like to see them in action. I now run a 50" bar Cannon Superbar (or Woodland Pro, I forget which). I started out with a 36" Stihl bar, which didn't last long. I then did a good while on a 42" bar, but it was slightly too short. I hopped up to a 60" bar, but the flex meant I couldn't cut as accurately as I would have liked, so I opted for 50". I now only use the chainsaw mill if I need to break down large logs for the band mill (like a 15ft long, 40" diameter elm I chainsawmilled on site in Nairn last week - one half on one trailer, the other half on the other trailer. 4 tonnes) or for custom orders (wide boards required) or if the tree cannot be moved or is inaccessible. I've not given up on the idea of a hydraulic chainsawmill, though I've recently been steered towards compact 72V electric motors.

Wimmer are the best, as best as I can tell (and from what I have heard from other people too). They are not cheap though, and a mobile BN110 will set you back £60k. They are just stunning though: Wimmer Sawmills - Zenz Landtechnik GmbH No import duty as far as I'm aware from European sources, and the American imports on sawmills come in at 2.7%. Regarding American mills, there are quite a number of manufacturers of mobile hydraulic mills, though not many run up to the £47k mark. Those that do are usually far too massive to tow on a 3.5t licence, so would require a larger vehicle. An absolutely stunning mill (and I have no idea how much it costs) is the mobile Select Sawmill. I challenge anyone to find a quicker cutting mobile mill! I'd be really intrigued about the price of them. http://www.selectsawmill.com/en/bandsawmill.htm Otherwise I would have recommended a Logmaster LM6 with it's 85hp Cummins diesel and hydraulic drive, but they only exist used now

For the money, it's pretty good value (they are £47k new) but for that money you'd get a pretty good mill imported from the States. The thing about massive throat bandsawmills is that it is indeed very useful for cutting oversized logs, but you have to deal with the massive boards too. Personally, I much prefer halving large logs with the chainsawmill and then resawing on the bandmill. More stability, less back injuries!

I seem to have a very good accountant. Open until 2200 every night this week, able to make a last minute adjustment to the tax return, reasonable on fees and has saved me a lot of money.

Second hand mills are a bit of nightmare unless you have a comprehensive service history, you know the owner very well, or alternatively the mill is very simple and any defects would be apparent. In my mind, that doesn't look like a mill that has done 106 hours. My Logmaster is about up to that now, and it looks pretty much as new. It only takes one momentary lapse of concentration or lack of judgement to do serious damage to a mill. Interestingly, I had serious problems with bands not cutting flat straight out of the box (Dakin Flathers). I reckoned that it was the set which was off, which was confirmed on testing. It wasn't that the set was uneven, but that there was too little set (15 thou). It therefor look very little to cause a wobble. Anyway, I was quite impressed when Andrew from Dakin Flathers came up to my yard (from Leeds) with three bands with different sets and spent a few hours testing them. The best band had the highest set (23 thou) and really ripped along. Additionally, he'd been out to the Logmaster factory last year, and said of all the mobile mills in that price range, he thought that it was the best. Just a damned shame they closed down.

Still had the issue of wandering bands, more commonly associated with narrower band mills. My experience of running a 2 inch band (much smaller than an Autotrek, but bigger than WM) is that unless the alignment and band set are perfect, it will cut worse. That said, the alignment isn't hard to get right and the bands should be good from the box (though haven't been for me of late). Get a good band on a good alignment and it just cuts beautifully. I was cutting 15 inch diameter lime (soft, I know) 9 foot in 15 seconds the other day. Jonathan

I believe that You Call That Big has one. Certainly a different size of mill. I did speak to a chap fairly locally who has one and he didn't seem too happy with his. They are £47k new, and at that price I'd probably buy something German.

I have to say that the title of this thread is deeply misleading. I expected something entirely different. My wife even offered to contribute!

Good luck with the sawmill, and indeed the Management! Look forward to hearing how you get on.

Awful firewood, but if it helps you out, I'll take it all for free if you can get it to roadside. I just like to help other Arbtalkers out like that!

Classical/romantic mainly. Nothing earlier than Beethoven though. Love Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninov. Also some punk, ska, funk and indeed any music that is genuinely good. Cannot bear modern pop culture.