Squaredy

I am wondering about replacing my Husqy 181 which is about 33 years old. As it is only used at a sawmill we are never far from electricity and we only do a few cuts a day. But sometimes we need to cut a large log - maybe four feet diameter. Is there a battery saw out there yet which would be capable of handling a 24 inch bar? I can't find one.

That is pricey for less than a cubic foot of Oak. But prices have gone up a lot recently and when you want such a short piece you will always end up paying over the odds. Also it is thick - so has been four years or so drying. Better to buy a whole slab maybe 3 metres long and find another use for the rest, but in the short term that will cost you more.

Elm used to be the traditional coffin timber.

Forester 150 may come up every now and then. Will cost you probably £10,000 plus, and in my experience no better than a woodmizer except in theory it can cut up to 1.2m wide. And this will be a 40 year old machine, with all the possible wear and damage that entails. Each blade will set you back £200 to £300 and £60 to sharpen. I saw one of these in action a few years ago and it couldn't cut 2 foot wide larch straight. The highly experienced sawyer changed blades after every other cut - it was ridiculous. A few people in the USA do wide mills - look up Cooks and even wider is Hudson Oscar. The latter do one which will apparently cut five foot wide. You won't get to see one in this country though, so you would be ordering it from the USA and hoping that it would perform as you would expect. Unless you need to cut hundreds of tons per year I would save your cash and use a chainsaw mill. Yes it is slow and creates lots of sawdust; but it is simple, cheap and portable. It will be many years before you get your money back in saved sawdust from a narrow kerf bandsaw...

I filled up this afternoon at a totally unmanned petrol station (Asda). As it happens I only filled up one 10 litre and one 6 litre can, but the pump didn't know if my containers were legal!

I am no fungi expert but looking on Google this appears to be Turkey Tail. Anyone disagree? Also my question is that as this is growing on a fibreglass flat roof on my house does this indicate that there are small holes allowing moisture into the wood below? Or could this exist on a fibreglass surface with little on it except some moss and algae?

Yes exactly that. Might need to rub in with clean cloth.

Coconut oil is an option - easily available in supermarket in solid form and heat a little to make it liquid to apply. And of course it is a food so is edible, but unlike veg oil will not go rancid.

You are kidding I hope? Not.always in tune with your Scottish humour.....

I have noticed that in recent years email delivery has become quite unreliable and with no clear pattern. As the OP said even from the same sender one minute they go into inbox the next into junk. Last year I submitted an email bid for logs to a forestry management company, and they rang me to say they had received no bids at all from me or anyone else. I told them I definitely had bid and suggested they look in Junk. It turned out they had received several bids and they all had gone into junk. Things like that could lead to very expensive errors.

Yes I am sure other taxes will rise otherwise transport will become too cheap. Road charging has been talked about for years, and would have the advantage of being able to tweak it to reduce congestion etc. High prices for journeys at peak times on busy roads, low prices for off peak or quiet roads etc. Certainly the huge fuel duties currently raised will have to be replaced. As it is now, road users do not pay the full cost of road use - it is subsidised by general taxation despite the general myth that road users pay loads of tax.

Well yes possibly one day, but fuel saving much more than saving one driver's wage. London Underground have had capability to run driverless trains for over 50 years, but politics has largely blocked it.

I do think it may be a while before electric vans are practical for heavy towing. Most electric cars cannot tow at all....no idea why I must admit. When I say they cannot tow at all I mean legally. Tesla have previewed their electric full size HGV lorry, so it is improving fast all the time. Can you imagine doing 0 to 60 in 20 seconds with a full 35 ton load...? It looks awful mind, but cost in fuel around £0.30 per mile. This is the future, even without subsidy or any financial incentive. I think saving 70% of fuel cost will be very attractive to haulage firms, never mind lower maintenance costs.

Beech may be a lot easier to obtain.

Would beech or sycamore not be suitable? They both have very fine tight grain.

It's an interesting shape, but I don't think it is a proper burr. It all depends what you plan to do with it but I would say £50 was a very generous offer.

Very useful looking setup I must say.

Very stable and beautiful timber Sycamore. Can spalt and marble, but often most sought after when kept clean which means drying in a good summer, or kilning. Not good outside of course, but perfect for endless indoor projects, kitchen worksurfaces, doors, all manner of furniture, mirror frames, indeed any indoor furniture you care to mention. Sycamore is of course a Maple which is used loads in USA/Canada, so very useful timber indeed. Certainly more suitable for furniture than Oak!

Has the thread title always been REWOOD....? Can't believe I didn't notice earlier!

The value of the trees as firewood will certainly be a lot less than the cost of felling.

I had your furrows recently on Western Red Cedar. It was unseasoned pieces that were left by my woodburner so they went from fresh sawn to dry very quickly. So that does seem to be the answer. Drying too quick.

Well it certainly isn't harming the rainforests... I hope we in the UK plant lots of Elm of the disease resistant varieties.....although I somehow doubt it.

Very jealous Andy. I know I can get it shipped down to me for about a grand extra, but my business is all about local and sustainable, so I don't tend to buy in from foreign lands like Scotland...!

Well yes it certainly is worth far more when converted to planks. You have to find multiple customers for it though and selling may take years. Depends what you want to spend your time doing!

In fact I have just remembered that the load I am buying is Coastal Redwood (Sequoia Sempervirens) which is far superior timber so you could argue that Giant Redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) is worth less.