Squaredy

This is all very harsh on the original poster. I think he should buy the equipment to mill the logs; then he just had to build a good stack with spacers neatly positioned between every board and some roofing sheets on top with a large weight on; then wait for them to dry for a year or two; then advertise on Facebook or similar; then spend many hours showing customers the boards; and he could make maybe a couple of hundred pounds. When he has done this if it goes well I would suggest digging some earth in his garden and sieving it and sterilising it to sell it as top quality topsoil. Not only is there money to be made here as well, but if he digs up any large stones these could be sold as building stone and it is a double whammy. Come to think of it this might be even more lucrative than milling the birch. Actually maybe the best bet is to buy the right equipment and extract oxygen from the air. Buying oxygen in cylinders is really pricey these days, yet I have been breathing it in for over fifty years and it hasn’t cost me a penny. Serious money to be made here I am quite sure.

I seem to remember that when petrol prices were going up a few months ago a customer was actually filmed trying to fill a carrier bag with petrol....

I have for many years been under the impression that the rules on filling cans with diesel are rather more lax than those about petrol. But today I was told at a Tesco petrol station that my diesel containers are not legal. To be honest they may well be right, but I want to get to the bottom of it so I know I am doing the right thing. Since the new rules came in a year or two ago I no longer have red diesel delivered, and the easiest and cheapest way is now to buy it at the forecourt. I only fill two 25 litre containers at a time, and only about once or twice a month. Do they have to be metal? Do they have to be marked as made to a certain standard? Or is this only for petrol?

I remember seeing years ago a google review for Usk prison. Apparently the prisoner wasn't too impressed. Why google allow you to leave a review of a prison (or indeed a mountain) I have no idea. As far as I am aware if you are inside you don't get to choose your favourite prison! Oh no. Someone is going to tell me that a new scheme is being proposed to give inmates more choice....

Aha! Now we have a picture. Looks very odd to me, but I am sure someone will have some good suggestions.

Frustrating. And what is the bet they just ringed it up for firewood? And the final irony will be that they won’t dry it properly and will moan that it isn’t burning very well. I feel your frustration.

This one has to be real. If it were a bot it would surely make some sense.

Clearly there has been a leak, so this needs to be repaired if not already done. Then secondly as has been said check for soft parts in those beams. Remember that dry rot and wet rot both need moisture, so as long as the leak is only historic then no new rot will take place. Just find out if the timber is still strong. I would use a hammer to hit the beams. If they are sound you will leave slight marks. If rotten they will get severely damaged by the hammer.

The first Coyote Ugly bar in the UK had an alder top. I suspect that it has since been replaced with something a bit more hardwearing! I am guessing Steve’s little shop won’t allow dancing on the counter so I am sure it will be fine.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Well very likely - 30HP rotary inverter powered by a split phase supply 60A per phase. Transwave 30 hp Rotary Phase Converter WWW.SCOSARG.COM 22kw / 30hp Rotary phase convertor - Max Single motor load 15kW/20.0hp Our TRANSWAVE single to three phase converter provides an artificial means by which a 3 phase motor can be... 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.....!

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?

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.

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!