Big J

I'd say it's not worth it. I'm just getting my teeth stuck into some nice poplar from Tom D, which has been forwarded rather than skidded. Consequently, it's very clean, but I'm still giving it a once over with the pressure washer as it only takes a bad strike on one pebble to ruin a band. Also, it would appear I can easily do an entire day on one band (180 odd cube of sleepers and posts, lots of firewood!). The larger mills have debarkers - like a massive lathe which strips all the bark from the log. Still wouldn't be really worth it for kindling grade wood. Are there any other forwarding options? The seller is going to struggle to sell it to anyone if it's plastered in mud and grit. Jonathan

Would have been just as easy to get chainsaw milled boards out. I realise that the market might be different over there, but a butt like that is worth thousands milled here, and I hate to see good timber wasted.

Crying shame to have ringed up that butt. Really.

Very little design in it really - I just worked from the specification that I should be able to get a 25ft log through the front and went from there. My brother did engineering calcs on the roof, and apparently it can take a long term load of about 48 tonnes, provided it's evenly distributed. That's about 6ft of wet snow!

Nice main stem! Hope it was milled.

I could do with some sycamore next month, and I'm just the other side of the water. Depends of quality though - has to be very good with sycamore.

Thanks chaps! I didn't think it possible, but it is something that makes the Logmaster look a little on the small side. Anyway, I've got an extractor lined up now, just need to get it wire. Nick, there is every chance that the extractor pipe will go over the fence too, provided the farmer is OK with that!

Actually not mobile with it yet (need to sort out the tow hitch and lights) but will be in spring. The fence is being moved up anyway (slight expansion of yard) but as it stands it's quite easy to thread in through the front with the forklift. I left myself plenty of space. The shed will be wired up shortly with lights and a socket, as well as an extractor to draw the sawdust away from the mill and into a easy to deal with pile. Jonathan

Forgot to say, all beams cut on the Logmaster except the two main beams. The uprights are 12x12 and sunk 3.5ft in with 0.75 cubic metres of concrete at the foot of each one. The main beams are different sizes (according to what I could get out of the log). The front one (facing the prevailing wind) is 12x9 by 40ft, and the rear one is 11x7, also 40ft. They were chainsaw milled, which was tremendously dull (320ft of chainsawmilling spruce is purgatory!). All cross beams are 6x3.5 and 20ft long, and the roof is box profile galvenised sheet.

We've finally got the roof over the mill. It's staggering how difficult one of Scotland's main forestry management companies found it to delivery a load with half 4.9m half 6.2 with two 12.2m lengths in addition to that. It took a month and the 40 footers were still undersized! Anyway, the massively over sized and over built barn is complete and I'm very chuffed with it. 4 days including all the milling and ground works for me and a helper. I promise to get some action shots later this week! Jonathan

What did the buffalo say to his son when he left for college? Bison

There are only really two things that it can be - either the alignment is out or there is something wrong with the bands. You've eliminated bands (unless they are not new, you might have a resharpening issue) so it's alignment. Have you dunted the guide rollers on anything? They are very delicate on the Woodmizers and even a slight knock can put them out. For the band to track up an inch over 6 inches sounds severe. Could be that the tracking on the band wheels requires adjustment too. Part of the problem with cutting without regard for accuracy (which I know is irrelevant to your needs) is that you will accept a bad cut. A bad cut, due to a blunt band or indeed poor alignment only exacerbates the underlying cause of the bad cut and I think you would end up with a situation where it was cutting very badly indeed. Also Woodmizers and their tiny bands do struggle on non-straight grained timber. Jonathan

Many people do that. My uncle has heating pipes running through one of his. Either way, the pipes work using convection and the heat output is comparatively much higher and the heat seems to distribute further. We use no more wood than we used to with our 7kw Villager stove, but stay far warmer.

I'd forgotten that the video at the bottom also starts at my yard (complete with cameo from my idiot dog, Katie). The box on the front page is made from some really stunning brown oak from Althorpe, fumed to darken it.

A good customer of ours recently sent me a photo montage of a project they did using timber sourced from us. It's very interesting to see it all, stage by stage, especially having seen it in person at various points along the way. Outstanding level of craftmanship from Callum Robinson (no relation). A story from the workshop, from Method Studio

Get a Bullerjan Type 00 - order it from Germany. Stunningly unique and efficient stoves - we have a Type 01 and so far we've put about 2.5 cubic metres through ours in the past two months (it's on all the time) and we've yet to put the heating on. It's a fair sized detached 250 year old house too. Jonathan

Makes sense. I do like quarter sawn, but there is plenty of demand here for crown cut boards, especially when pippy. I like to have a variety of stock.

Oh, I don't do that! Looks like hard work! In my opinion the set up is ideal, but you would be simplest to slap a rail on the top and mill the log as you usually would. You will always have a flat edge to run on (which really does speed up the cut) and it gives you a variety of cuts. Not everyone wants quartersawn (less figure in most woods) and once the heart is removed, provided there is a bit of weight on the stack, you will get very little movement in the crown cut boards. The key is good stickering and huge, heavy stacks piled on top of each other. I think it would be difficult for most of us to have a stack that was too heavy. Jonathan

I can attest to this method producing far better quality boards. I do exactly as Rob does and halve large logs with the chainsaw mill. I then stand then up on the band mill and cut the boards off in exactly the same way. End result is much flatter boards without heart shake to worry about. Probably 80% of my stock is produced this way. Good post Rob! Jonathan

Looks lovely Nick! Still on the look out for more sequoia, but it just doesn't come up much.

Sweeney Kincaid Industrial Auctioneering Could be a bargain for someone

I would not ever rent out my mill. I've only ever let one person take the helm for a few cuts and that was after a huge amount of time with him watching. A mill's accuracy is all dependent on set up and careful operation. It only takes one clout of the guide arm to at best knock the alignment way out or worst, bend the guide arm or twist the head rig. It only takes one roughly loaded log to at best bend the back stops or worst bend the frame. Anyone can cut timber on a bandsaw mill, but if you want to provide the best quality, best cut timber, you have to be very protective of your mill. A day's tutorial is not going to make someone a competent saw miller, and the risk of them damaging the cornerstone of your livelihood is not worth risking. Jonathan

I've come to the conclusion that most people just can't effectively operate stoves. Our friends very kindly housesat (and dog looked after) whilst we were away and despite careful instruction, struggled to keep the house warm with our stove. Within a few hours of us being home, the temperature was up 5 celcius and the stove was happy again. Interestingly though, there was noticeable 'soot fall' from the flue when I got it back up to temperature again (towards the top of the ideal operating temperature range - always use the flue thermometer and don't know how people operate stoves without them). This indicated that it was running quite cold for much of the time. Similarly, another friend popped over the other week and popped a few logs on the fire. Failed to open any vents or check the fire and put it out, which was quite incredible considering she has been operating fires for about 60 years. She's unable to use her stove without coal though, which I've determined acts as a sort of fail safe in case of poor operation. Education on correct stove operation seems to be lacking. I do think that with education we'd use half as much wood and be twice as warm. Jonathan

Chamfluerie Estate: Logs and Woodfuel