Big J

Excellent! Starting out on any instrument has a period of excruciating pain for all who live the would-be musician. Your wee lad seems to be well past that!

Lots of interesting input! Regarding hydraulics, it's simply something that I cannot afford at present. It's the difference between a £8000 mill and a £22000 mill. For the lowish volume of timber that I am going to be milling (5000 to 8000 cubic foot a year), a non-hydraulic mill will have to suffice. I am aware of the presence of the Lucas mill, but my key product is wide boards. I don't do any fencing or posts, and the furniture makers that I supply are keen to have as wide a board as possible (within reason). I've got a Woodmizer in on Sunday to fill the kiln, so it will be interesting to see it at work for the day. Complete with loadall, we should be able to get the required 300 cubic foot out of it! Jonathan

The 1997 P reg 110 TDI Audi A4 I had didn't have the computer displaying fuel consumption, so calculations were based just on refills at the pumps. One of the most notable journeys was from Edinburgh to Somerset and back again, fairly heavily loaded, definitely not doing 95mph but returning 48mpg. Jonathan

Had a '96 850 tdi last last year too. Lovely car, but started to show it's age at 215k. Again, unfeasibly economical for a car of it's size. We averaged 44mpg including a fair bit of town driving, and got 53mpg coming back up from Derby to Edinburgh on the M1/A1, heavily loaded. Pretty respectable for a 2.5 litre 5 cyclinder engine (an Audi lump actually). Speaking of, the Audi 100/A6 2.5tdi is also another to look out for. We have the 100 2.8E Quattro, so economy isn't fantastic, but the diesels are great. Quite sought after these days though, as the subsequent A6's that replaced them were thirstier and slower.

Stunning piece of kit! Imagine that your cordwood is perfectly seasoned - you can have the bobcat hanging the splitter straight above your tipper for delivery. You never have to handle the timber!

Audi A4 1.9TDI 110 Estate. Beautiful ride and quality, very, very very economical (will return 60mpg at 80mph on the motorway, and over 50mpg combined) and you can get a good example for about £1500. Avoid the 90bhp version though as it's too slow and actually thirstier (had both, so talking from experience). Jonathan

All good - I was getting a bit panicky though after 12 hours of no Arbtalk! There seem to be a few threads that have gone walkies - I can't find the thread about the violinist Joshua Bell playing incognito in Washington for love nor money.

I just got an excellent quote from Lycetts for my Public liability and stock/tool cover. Much cheaper than the NFU, though I have yet to try Trust. Jonathan

I'll be on the lookout for an MS200 later in the year for smaller diameter thinning, but just out of curiosity, what are the vibrations like? The figures seem fairly high, which is a damn shame as there seems to a bit of gap in the market now for small pro saws (as the MS261 has gained weight compared to the MS260). Jonathan

There's one on German ebay finishing today for about 200 Euro.

I don't know about those Husqvarna stoves - I've only heard bad things about them. What you want is a Stihl burner - nothing finer!

Leylandii is pretty good firewood actually, if you can put up with the resin. If I weren't 350 miles away, I would take it!

I don't know mate - looking at your avatar, it looks like you don't have anything more than your small trees cert.....

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!

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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