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Squaredy

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Everything posted by Squaredy

  1. Which area are you in? If you are in or near Brighton it is very different from most parts of the UK.
  2. Not much old timber left in her these days!
  3. Remember, that even assuming you manage to find the landowner, and that they are happy to talk to you; they may not agree that the tree is a problem. I am not an expert but I do know that pinning down the cause of subsidence to a single cause may well be a fool’s errand. Perhaps the oak is a factor, but also the foundations might be a bit shallow. Or some other factors may come into play. My house suffered slight subsidence in the hot summer of 2018, and the insurance company said I should remove an apple tree and 2 metres of hedge. But the main reason is almost certainly the fact that the foundations were only 300mm deep. New builds in my area have 1000mm foundations. These things are very rarely black and white, and often the only winners are solicitors.
  4. Yes they do have a value. Not huge but I find burrs always sell quick regardless of species. Poplar is a hardwood anyway.... I had some horse chestnut burrs years ago - sold in a flash. I would probably ask £15 each for the ones in the photo, though it is difficult to judge without handling them. But I have many different sorts of woodworkers visiting me and I know someone would spot them. This is the challenge - getting them in front of the right person.
  5. This is what people sometimes forget when negotiating. If you don’t make it worthwhile for the other party then your great bargain may be your last.
  6. My 14 year old finds it frustrating. It may be just him, but when he shows me how it works I can see some of his points. It takes him way too long to complete sometimes, and the help videos are not always helpful. Maybe the most annoying thing is that you have to get 100% so if he struggles on one part he can spend ages trying to work it out. Party of me wishes that homework was on bits of paper like it was when I was at school.
  7. Now I do realise this is an arb forum not an education forum; but I am pretty certain I am not the only parent with kids in secondary school. So my question is very simple: does anyone have experience of and views on an IT based system called Sparx Maths? My eldest has been using it for a year or two now.
  8. Perhaps a photograph or two would help. And a bit more information. This could be a very complicated job for a highly skilled team with a lot of kit, or it could be a simple morning for a competent tree surgeon who will leave you to clear it all up.
  9. Do you know my wife?!
  10. Yes of course and you did indeed say that in the nicest possible way. Trust me, we do not push him, if anything we hold him back. I think it is a huge mistake of modern life to underestimate children’s ability. My son loves learning. His school recently reduced the number of lessons each day from six to five, and he is not happy.
  11. Yes that might be an option, thank you for the suggestion.
  12. Yes he is doing 11 subjects in total, and to do Latin and Computer Science he would have to drop History (due to blocks of subjects as someone else suggested). The logic is that he can very successfully study History on his own, whereas the other subjects he will really benefit from the classroom environment. But to ensure he gets a good GCSE grade I think he should study a proper course and at the end do a proper GCSE. I know there are plenty of options for this, but I would like a personal recommendation of a provider if possible. And yes he goes to a private school, but actually there has been a surge of interest in studying Latin recently, in fact hundreds of state primary schools are now doing Latin.
  13. Got it all connected temporarily yesterday and pressed the button. It ran sweet as a nut. Thank goodness. I never doubted that it had enough power (well not much anyway) but there are many other complications with a fake three phase system such as I now have. I won’t go into detail here but the generator produced actual three phase electricity which is what all the machines are designed for. The inverter produces a sort of near simulation of three phase electricity which will not work for everything. Anyway, we will give it a week or two and if it is all looking good we will properly wire it all in.
  14. Yes that may be a possibility, but he would miss out on having his work assessed during the course, and being coached on exam technique.
  15. Have you considered offering a sharpening service? Very few places currently do this properly, especially now Stephen Cull has retired. I guess you would have to clean and set them also.
  16. Yeah we have spoken to the school and they use WJEC. They clearly will help us, but I am attracted to an online course as I know this will work well for my son. A grand spent on a GCSE is fine by me. I place a high value on education.
  17. I haven’t managed to find one sadly.
  18. I think a lot depends on how much milling you do. If you do it only occasionally the easiest solution might be just to throw the blades away when blunt. Getting blades properly sharpened is a challenge.
  19. My son has just chosen his GCSE options and although initially thought he could do history, has now been told that to do history he must give up Latin and Computer Science (both of which he really wants to continue). So instead he is not doing history, and I have told him he can do it online. He is highly motivated and has a deep love of history so I have no doubt he will do well. Can anyone recommend a good online provider? He is very good at researching history in books and YouTube etc, but of course he will need to learn exam technique and how to phrase his answers and essays in an appropriate way. Any suggestions very welcome.
  20. And finally I have connected my inverter to the new mains grid connection. Rome wasn't built in a day, remember. The last major step is to connect the Woodmizer to the inverter and see if it will run it! Hope to do a temporary job on this tomorrow and if it all runs good I will do it properly next week.
  21. Certainly growth rate will affect timber density. Usually leylandii grows incredibly fast. But, there are many varieties of dwarf conifer which may or may not be a type of leylandii, so maybe.
  22. Ideally to kiln dry timber for interior joinery you air dry it fist, and then finish it off in a kiln. Now it is possible to kiln dry straight from freshly sawn, and a lot depends on the species and thickness. I have never tried it with beech, but maybe some Arbtalkers have. The risk is if you dry it slowly (say three months) the cost of kilning may be so high it is just not worth it. Or if you try and dry it quickly the timber will distort and crack badly and even honeycomb inside. Softwoods usually are a lot easier to dry quickly. The denser really hard timbers (especially oak) take a long time to dry.
  23. Good to see some pictures. Personally I price by the cubic foot, but many people do not. My prices vary from about £30 per cubic foot to £60 plus VAT. You are correct about value being higher if dried. Or to be more accurate you will struggle to find buyers if not dried. All the slabs I sell are dry. After all, not many people want to buy a slab for use in two or three years. Also if they know what they are doing they will understand that a slab may well look lovely when freshly cut, but when dry it is likely to cup, distort and split, so may end up as firewood. So my advice (as someone who has sold many slabs over many years) is put them to dry thoroughly and then advertise them with good photos. Ideally when they are dry get at least one side planed or sanded to show the grain and clean it; otherwise they just look mucky and you can't see the grain.
  24. Why don’t you share some photos so people can see what you have?
  25. I don’t wish to seem negative, but: 1) the oak in the photos has not been standing dead 15 years. Maybe one year. 2) It is not normal oak by the looks of it. Possibly turkey oak or red oak. 3) The value if it were a good oak stem would be minimal. Especially as it will have to be milled in situ. If I am right about the species, value is even lower. 4) I think most people capable of removing it would want paying for a day’s labour at least.

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