Squaredy

6 hours ago, Steve Bullman said:

That’s a lovely tree 

The OP should have come to you in the first instance.... 

13 hours ago, Steve Bullman said:

Just made this for our new shop that’s opening this weekend. No finesse in the carpentry, just a massive amount of wood with about 20kg of screws holding it all together. Looks passable on the outside though, weighs an absolute ton and will probably survive a nuclear war. Timber is western red cedar.  Used a couple of very useful tips I picked up from here last time, including screwing a piece of wood to a waney edge plank to cut a straight edge, and drilling a pilot hole larger than the screw to help cinch 2 pieces of wood together nice and tight. I forget the users who suggested this but thanks, it made all the difference.

 

 

 

 

I bet you are chuffed with that?  What does the shop sell?

22 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

Look a bit like alternating buds to me though? Which would count ash and hc out, hc being my guess with those curving ends to the branches.

 

Good point: if the OP can check for the remnants of huge sticky buds that would confirm Horse Chestnut.

10 minutes ago, treevolution said:

Can anyone please help with identifying this tree. 

 

Thanks in advance 

Ash isn't it?  As soon as those leaves open properly it will be as clear as day.

9 hours ago, Boot said:

Howdy,

 

New to the site and chainsaw milling. Air drying Oak, Beach, Scots pine and Ash. Should I be applying an insecticide to prevent woodworm etc?

 

Boot

Don’t worry about putting chemicals on the boards.  Just don’t lose track of your stock too much.  Ideally have a decent turnover of stock - some timber like beech and elm are a bit more prone to woodworm so have a little check of your stock every couple of years.

Active worm will be given away by little piles of dust on the boards below the infected one.  Most species of larvae will give up once the timber dries.

12 minutes ago, Ty Korrigan said:

Here in Brittany it can be pretty warm and wet with 70cm of rainfall in our area.

Today I cleared up yew branches removed not by me but an agricultural contractor (another story)

One small yew was also felled and from this I cut a disk which is sitting on my table having had it's rings counted, 42 of them.

The diameter is 48cm having taken the circumference and divided by pi = 1.143

 

There is another yew, much larger whose DBH is 95cm and is still standing despite the neighbours complaints.

So I am trying to calculate the age of this yew based on the growth of the younger felled tree.

If I take the 95cm and divide by 1.143 = 80.5 years

Is this a reasonable way to estimate the age?

Seems very low for such a large yew but the climate here really is much warmer than say Sussex where yews are abundant.

    Stuart

 

 

Don’t most trees slow their rate of growth as they age?  In which case it is likely to be older than your estimate.

8 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi yeah it used to work fine but now the timber gets kinda stuck and I have to lower the depth of cut to hardly anything before it will carry on feeding through .

Also does your machine have rollers in the planer bed?  If so you need to check if these are disengaged, or stuck.

8 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi yeah it used to work fine but now the timber gets kinda stuck and I have to lower the depth of cut to hardly anything before it will carry on feeding through .

Do you lubricate the beds?  Also is there a sawdust build-up somewhere which is stopping the feed rollers from pressing down on the boards?

 With it switched off try and use a lever like a piece of three by two and maybe a fulcrum to see if the springs on the feed rollers are working properly.  If one or both of the feed rollers are sticking this will cause exactly the symptoms you describe.

6 minutes ago, lux said:

It’s great timber.  And the offcuts are one of the best firewood’s. I love the stuff. Give a crack. 👍

I very rarely get offered robinia.  I guess it is not a forest tree in the uk?

10 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi does anybody know much about big old Wadkin planers my 24 inch wide one just isnt right and sadly the mobile engineer who helped me with it before killed himself , I have just changed the blades ,renewed the funny clutch plate thing but its just not planing I tried to put a short Apple wood board through it and it woudlnt take hardly anything off it I had to drop the table as it got stuck and its the same with other timbers when I first had it ,no worries and nothings changed so a bit baffled any ideas ?

    Thanks. Mark

Did it used to work well?  And is the timber feeding through well just not being planed?  Or is it getting stuck?

7 minutes ago, lux said:

Robinia that one.  Very durable. Not widely used over here but other countries like it for decking etc. 

Ah, well I have only milled one robinia log.  Next time I do I will have to note how similar it is to chestnut.  Thank you for enlightening me.

8 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

That's going to be the biggest inverter I've ever seen!

Well very likely - 30HP rotary inverter powered by a split phase supply 60A per phase. 

Transwave 30 hp Rotary Phase Converter

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But to be fair even that will only occupy a little corner of the shed.  Just didn't see any point in erecting a tiny shed when there was the space for a decent size one which can house our sharpening equipment as well.  Or just fill up with random junk that I will eventually get round to sorting out one day.....maybe.....!

48 minutes ago, lux said:

It is. But that isn’t sweet chestnut. 

Well, now I am intrigued!  I would have bet my mum's life on that being sweet chestnut.  Good job she isn't here...

So what is it?

26 minutes ago, lux said:

Satisfying for sure.  Used a fair bit of my own on our house build. 
 

Doing a little commission for a customer atm. Took the tree down for her 4 yrs ago and milled it with the intention or her wanting garden furniture. 
 

Here’s the rustic table top.  I left a waney edge on the bread board ends to leave more of a link to the tree she was sad to see go. 
 

 

 

 

That is lovely.  Sweet chestnut is such a good timber, and I love what you have done with it.

This is the new little shed I am putting up at work to house the inverter so we can run the sawmill on mains instead of the generator.

It is lawson cypress windblow from a shelter bed planted when the A40 was built nearish a stately home.  I made the head woodsman very happy by saying I would actually pay good money for what he thought was just rubbish timber not even worthy of firewood!

It is lovely timber actually - dries super quick, really stable and strong and durable.  What more could you want?

First photo is the ground prepped with four holes.  Second photo is the posts and basic structure.  Purlins to go on tomorrow, then roofing sheets; floorboards after that, and then cladding next week.  All will be lawson cypress.  It is a very crude but quick and durable build.  No concrete pad, just a bit of postcrete and of course relying on the larger structure next door for a lot of strength and stability.

19 hours ago, AJStrees said:

any pictures of the redwood you milled? 

Here is a picture of the porch built with the redwood.  I ended up putting a dye on it because when I treated it all with a clear wood preserver (which was probably unnecessary) it effectively dyed it but unevenly.  So to make it look nice again I dyed the whole lot!

19 minutes ago, Mr. Ed said:

what sizes do you sell it in, what uses are people buying it for, and what sort of prices do you get? Too many questions I know (ans sorry). I’m interested because we have a couple of reasonable areas of planted sycamore in our newly acquired wee woodland. There might be some sawlog size in a decade and I’d be interested to know its market. We’re in the SW of Ireland and you can’t move for craftspeople, but you can get a lot of spoons from one tree …

Mainly 25mm 32mm 38mm and 50mm. Uses are many and varied.  Difficult to pin it down as I have many hundreds of customers, some I see regularly, many only once.  Often it is people simply doing some work in their house.  Sometimes it is someone making furniture.

Sycamore is particularly well suited to making kitchen cupboards (but kitchens these days all seem to be painted) and to other kitchen items like chopping boards.  It is s also ideal for tables and chairs , but no-one bothers with chairs any more - they put up with benches.

Totally agree about satisfaction in using timber you have milled.

I have recently milled several cubic metres of coastal redwood and poplar for projects at my house.  Also milled lots of lawson cypress recently (or white cedar to customers) for various projects.

I just wish I had more time to progress the projects.  Running a small business and a small family gives little real free time.

1 hour ago, AJStrees said:

Nice mate. Are you going to mill into boards or a mix of things?

All will be converted to boards of varying thickness.  This will push me into milling all my yew as I already had half a lorry load in the yard waiting.

1 hour ago, monkeybusiness said:

Big tree that! Any pics?

Not of the tree sorry.  I will take a pic of the logs, but I only saw it after it had been felled.

10 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

Just thinking out loud here. Above the Stove is a register plate. The flexi is hung off of the top hat at the chimney. I doubt think either are gas tight. With the flexi being heated to quite high temps the breast will be getting warmed as well and will naturally vent any moisture. 

I think Andy has it spot on here.  The vent is for disused flues, which often get damp over time.  Any flue in use even if not daily will get a lot of drying and heat and therefore damp is not usually a problem.

Surely the purpose of the vent is to reduce the likelihood of damp in an unused flue by creating a through draft. If the flue is in use the problem is solved naturally.

Bought a single yew tree today from a local tree surgeon.  I estimate around 6 cubic metres of good milling logs, and I paid £750 for it delivered to my yard.

I am happy as they are good logs and I will eventually make money from them, though it may take 6 or 7 years to finally sell the last piece.

And the tree surgeon is happy as he made a bit from the logs (not a lot as he had to hire a telehandler and trailer for the day).

 And the customer is happy as the tree was professionally removed.  Personally I wonder why you would want to remove such a large yew, but there was no TPO so it was their tree to remove; and maybe it was too big to be close to a house.

6 hours ago, Jack0 said:

No I had it fitted , the chimney was lined with 904l liner . Yes it’s a large draughty room 26 x 13 ft with original draughty sash windows and high ish ceilings . There is twin wall coming out of the roof because the chimney stack was removed before we bought the house . Tall 3 storey house . 

Is it possible for you to tell how much heat ends up in your loft void?  Assuming you have a loft void as it looks like the loft is converted.  What I am thinking is that the top of the original brick chimney is inside your roof void somewhere and presumably loads of heated air is coming out effectively doing a brilliant job of cooling your fire and living room!  If the register plate were fitted properly this would not be an issue of course.

1 hour ago, charlieb said:

Damn.  V quick reply from Logosol (Sweden) but even the 4.6kW saw needs three phase.   You'd think they would do a conversion - I can't believe I'm the only person with a desire to mill but no three-phase supply (and who hates four stroke engines)

I also run an electric mill where there is no three phase.  Currently I use a generator, but shortly I will be changing to an inverter.