Squaredy

Obsolete in my opinion. Equal results can be achieved with a modern narrow blade at a vastly cheaper cost. Even handling 4" wide blades is a nightmare, never mind replacement and sharpening cost. A whole batch of ten of the Ripper 37 blades (that I use) will cost about the same as two blades for this machine. Imagine hitting a nail and writing off £200 worth of blade. And in this case the OP has stated he needs a static saw and has three phase electricity. An electrically powered Woodmizer LT40 hydraulic is about £28,000 plus VAT new.

Woodmizer. Good quality. Well designed. Very reasonably priced parts. Good support. And these days some of them are not that expensive. I used to own a Norwood, and in every way it was the opposite of the above. And yet it only cost a few hundred pounds less. But as has been said, give some more detail of your plans and the advice may get more specific. For instance, do you need log loading facilities, or will this be achieved by a yard loader?

No different Les. All the schools around here are full of delinquent children pretty much out of control. Any kid who wants to get his or her head down and work hard is up against it. So fair play to your daughter. In fact Newport may well be worse than Ebbw Vale. When I lived in Ebbw Vale it had many decent people in as well as the chaveratti.

Great subject! Well done her, it must be challenging studying hard in an area like Ebbw Vale.

What is she going to study les?

I can get a load of plums to you no problem. So long as you can get the elm logs to me. I think I’d rather be your postman than mine…

I am an enthusiastic but inexperienced plum grower. I thought it was about time I mined the Arbtalk knowledge base to get some tips! I planted four plum trees in my garden about twelve years ago. Two Czar and two Victoria. I don’t exactly lavish them with care but I do what I have time to do. This year the crop has been amazing. The one Czar always has many hundreds of plums; but this year the Victorias have many hundreds also. And boy I love Victoria plums. The sheer amount of fruit has been a problem this year. I did remove many of them weeks ago, but still branches have been snapping under the weight. Also what can you do with so many plums? I have made plum gin, stewed plums, and even added some to my North Dakota Bean Bake. I am tempted to make plum wine, any thoughts on this? I do have most of the kit as I used to make wine many years ago. Meanwhile true to the thread title, here are my plums.

Somehow Andy always seems to get very good value sawlogs! I have not paid less than £80 or so per ton, and often more. Hardwoods are often cheaper these days, especially ash.

I would say the key is to get contacts in small forestry firms, or even timber hauliers. Unless you mean you want to buy less than a full lorry load at a time, in which case you will have to try and find a different type of forestry worker. One of my contacts is a guy who does forestry in the winter and fencing in the summer. He has a tractor and timber trailer so can deliver loads up to about ten tons. I get way better value buying direct from larger outfits, but that will always be 25 tons at a time. I used to get a few loads from a guy called Eddie trading as Valley Timber who was based near cross hands. It might be worth trying to track him down.

Oooohh what is the plan for the exposed stone?

Seems amazing now that such a beautiful timber could go for firewood. I wish I could get hold of elm logs for milling these days. I realise I could get them from Scotland but that does make the transport cost high!

Oh. I would try Stephen Cull again, he knows more than most about blades and problems with them.

You say the blade was a ripper 37 (same as I use) but was it new or sharpened? If the latter then I would question how well the blade is sharpened. I have found that very few people sharpen them properly, including saw doctors.

This world is full of things that grow wild that can be eaten. I admit not many are as prolific as Jap Knotweed is in the UK. But as well as the problems already mentioned, culture has much to do with it. I don't see UK supermarkets selling many crickets or much horse meat either. In the developed world we have mainly grown up with a very narrow set of tastes. It must have been so different when we had to hunt and forage to survive. Indeed scientists now say we became much shorter and didn't live as long when we switched from hunter gathering to farming.

I regard milling logs in larch or DF or WRC to be maybe 12" diameter up to about 21". As for value of standing larch £50 per ton sounds very generous. It all depends on how you value your time in felling and extracting of course, but unless you are using a harvester and a forwarder (which clearly you are not) then £25 per ton for felling, tidying up and extraction sounds way too low. If you enjoy doing the work, and won't cost out your time then go ahead. If you want to look at the hours it takes and feel it is justified financially then just buy a load from elsewhere once all the hard work is done.

That is not a great photo, but it seems to have the right features for oak. Ideally get a super clean end on a piece like the picture below, then take a photo. You can achieve this type of finish with a scalpel of razor blade with a little care. I think I can see oak's bold medullary rays in your picture but need a cleaner face if possible.

Maybe this should be flipped on its head. Perhaps you should be paid to fell and extract. The value of decent milling larch is around £75 per ton roadside. Infected larch that may be too small and bendy for milling I would say will only have a value for chip. Given the location this will be very low as transport costs to Kent or Yorkshire would be high. This may not help you much, but the actual value of what you describe may be next to nothing even when felled and taken to roadside. It is also worth asking if NRW have served a notice on the landowner to fell.

My immediate reaction was bog oak. A close-up of the end grain may help.

Yes. As it happens I watched it yesterday.

Ah nice one! I get mushrooms in exchange for some of my sawdust!

Looking at the machine it is difficult to see where the extraction pipes will go. As it is a surface planer and a thicknesser it will need two extraction hoses, and I would say they will need to be re-arranged when you go from surface planing to thicknessing. This will be the most difficult aspect of setup I would say. Is it currently used without extraction?

We have a Kia e-Niro and luckily it is just one button to switch off the lane assist. Sadly though if you are using cruise control it is always on, but I am used to ignoring it. For me the worst thing is trying to change radio station while driving. Touch screens should not be allowed in cars. Not for the driver anyway. I much prefer my little van with its actual preset buttons.

Oh my goodness, there could be a whole forum about the incompetence of the Welsh government. The only organisations that could rival them are local authorities.

Probably about right if you know it is good. Large old three phase machinery has quite a low value as it is too big for most DIY types and too old for many professionals.

Probably something like that. I believe formula one motorsport claims to be carbon neutral as well. I like @Stubby s oxometer line; I might just borrow that, as I have my doubts about F1 being an eco sport…