Big J

Palletised transport doesn't cost that much for slabs, if you are interested in buying any. I really do have some very wide and clear boards.

Funny thing is that I milled a couple of beautiful yew trees about 9 months back. Stunning boards, up to 24 inches wide. I've been sat on the bulk of them since then, despite selling them for not a huge amount of money. Seems that there isn't a huge demand for yew, which is a shame given it's stunning beauty.

Some excellent quality timber in there, for both milling and firewood. Hard to get an exact idea of scale, but there looks to be a little more than 100 tonne in that stack? Curious as to what the reason was for a complete clearfell rather than thin?

I might well be alone in this, but has anyone found that running a saw on bio oil makes you hungry? Smells like a chip shop! I'm already on 16 slices of bread per working day - I'm going to have to get shares in Hovis if I eat any more! Seriously though, has anyone found there to be any significant drawbacks to running bio? I ask as it's the same price through Clarks, and if given the choice, I'll always err on the side of the environment if I can. So far I've put about 10 tanks through my MS260 with no ill effects...... Jonathan

Thanks for the replies folks! I've got a lot of research to do (and grant applications too!) before anything is decided, but I think that it most likely to be between the Timberking and Lumbermate. I've all but discounted the woodmizer as numerous people have highlighted flaws with them (not running on two rails but one causing weaving of the band for example). Speaking to a miller yesterday who's just invested in the LT70, he said that they've had a lot of problems with it. Unfortunately at the moment, I think a mill with hydraulics is going to be out of my price range. The difference, for example, with the Timberkings between the manual mill and the basic hydraulic mill is £5k + vat or £20k + vat. For a low volume producer such as myself, it's too much of an expense. Would a good forklift not be able to easily reposition a log? Glad to hear positive reviews of the Lumbermate. Given the fact that the LM pro comes trailered and with a 23hp motor for £6,300 + vat, it's looking like the best contender. I do need to speak to Willie Dobie down at Logosol about them. Thanks for the advice - keep it coming! Jonathan

It might be a little late, but I have my Mitsubishi Shogun (or I should say had, as I've just sold it) insured with Lycetts, who were the cheapest by far. Only third party, but was around £350 and I'm only 26 with a years no claims. That's a full business policy too.

I'm at the start of the process of applying for a rural development grant that will hopefully see me with a band sawmill, JCB type loader, additional kilns and storage and a few other bits and bobs. It's going to be a long process, and I think that the choice of sawmill is going to be one that needs a lot of thought. I won't be able to afford a large mill, so I'm essentially looking for a good quality, and ideally portable manual mill. The two that I've narrowed it down to are the Timberking 1220 and the Lumbermate LM Pro. The Timberking is around £5,000 plus Vat and the Lumbermate £6300 (but I think that you get a trailer package as standard with it). I'm not considering Woodmizer as there is no longer a distributor for them here in Scotland, and all accounts seem to suggest that they aren't up to the specification of Timberking. The Lumbermate I know less about, but a bit of research suggests that it could be a consideration. So, I was hoping to glean a little information from folk who've had experience with these specific machines, and things to look out for from those who run band mills, but don't have those models. Here is a link to the Timberking 1220: Welcome to Frank Gamwell Mobile Sawmill Blades And the Lumbermate: Bandsaw Mills | Bandsaw Mill LM Pro | LOGOSOL Thanks in advance for any input! Jonathan

Completely depends on the stand you are working in. I find in 8-12 inch hardwoods I get roughly 12-15 trees to a tank. In similarly sized softwoods I get 2-3 trees. So around 3 tonne a tank in hardwoods and maybe 0.8 tonne in soft? Tanks half a litre, so 6/1.6 tonnes a litre, at my estimate. You will never get a standard figure though as all trees are different. Working in a stand of 4 inch dbh, 30-40ft ash the other day, I got about 70 trees down before needing to refuel. Jonathan

Haha! Busted!

PM sent

The trees are probably averaging 6 to a maximum of 12 inches at breast height. To compound the issue, there are areas that are very steep and other areas where the ground is like a rabbit warren. I found the going in there brutal, with tonnage rates at about a quarter of what you could get in a similarly sized hardwood stand.

We love the Highlands, particularly the North West coast above Ullapool. If I were you, going to visit the Highlands for the first time, I would have to recommend that area. For it's stunning, desolate beauty and unrivalled isolation there is nowhere finer. For instance, Sutherland is 3 1/2 times the size of Greater London, but with only 13k people living there. If you work your way up the west coast from Ullapool, you'll come across such places Assynt. The mountains there are technically known as Inselbergen (Island mountains) as they spring from the landscape like islands in the sea. Suilven is actually my favourite mountain in Scotland: If you continue right on all the way up to Durness, you'll find yourself in the most North Westerly village in Britain. There is a real stunner of a beach 3 miles east of Durness called Ceannabeinne: There is a cottage at the top of the beach that you could maybe try: Ceannabeinne Cottage - Ceannabeinne cottage Don't worry about crowds - we've been there in the middle of summer and the most people we've ever seen you could count on one hand! Jonathan

You're too close to the ground to significantly feel the effects of any wind anyway you midget!

Apparently we have a piffling 26mph here in Edinburgh Iain, but according to Cairngorm ski centre, it's gusting 140mph there!

Excellent work there! What I really like about the video are the shots that show the shadow of the tree, and the progress of the dismantle.

I get that you had intended to take January off, but we are into February now you slack git! As regards my excuse, my potential working hours are Monday-Sunday, 6am to 10pm - I've got to have a break at some point!

Coming back from working off the estate yesterday and had to stop at a reasonably large lime (2ft dbh) that had snapped off like a matchstick at about 3ft next to the road. Responsibly though, it had felled itself in the only available slot so as not to cause a nuisance!

The main problem it seems is the power that the banks have over Britain. In reality, as a country, there is little that we actually produce anymore, and much of our GDP is tied in with the banks. They continually threaten to up sticks and leave each time the government tries to make them pay their fair share, so the state tend to leave them alone, for fear that they bugger off elsewhere, leaving Britain up a creek without a paddle, economically speaking.

Thanks again for the continuing help. Got up ontop of the box today to have another look at the engine and it's a Yanmar. I think that it's around 8 years old (came off a 52 plate truck) so it should be pretty much as new. It was last serviced about 12 months before I got the box too. I spoke to the estate mechanic as well, and he knows a fair bit about hydraulics, so should be sorted there too. My friend who's the engineer is quite keen on the project, so it looks like it's going ahead (with cash funding the parts, and firewood funding the labour!). I'll keep you posted. Jonathan

Look Stephen, I'm sick of explaining it to you Scots, but England didn't take Scotland by force - it was a union! Some people never let things go!

That's just staggering! £300 a cube for Christmas day isn't it?

I didn't work this Sunday, but really only because I had family visiting. I did have a chap wanting to come over for timber, but I had to ask him to come through the week. I must admit that I'm really starting to struggle with my workload - did around 65 hours last week. I think it's going to come to a point pretty quickly where I have to decide what it is I want to do and pass on the rest!

Customers reactive log purchasing is so daft. Speaking to a colleague the other day, he put it well when saying that if you wait until the very last minute to buy logs, you deserve to be fleeced. I'm sure on the continent they would laugh at you if you ordered a load in the middle of a cold snap, complaining that you need it yesterday as you've run out! Jonathan

I'm looking for about 5-10 tonnes of Sitka (or other spruce). Must be completely straight, 10-15 inch diameter and ideally seasoned or semi seasoned. It's not for firewood, but for building a few different bits of weightlifting kit that I sell. I suppose in numerical quantity, 40 logs, 12ft in length would be about ideal. Thanks in advance! Jonathan

Hehe! The geek in me loves the numbers side of things. It's sad, but I enjoy working out the extraction rates on my kiln based on the relative humidities. I'll get my coat....