Squaredy

A dehumidifier will work but for any decent amount of logs it will need to be very large and therefore cost a fortune to run. A poly tunnel is hard to beat. Ends partly open. That way you get lots of free heat. I would strongly suggest trying to use solar energy. If you google solar kiln you will find loads of good info.

You are right of course, but isn't the law crazy? It may never happen, but in theory a young woman could be taken on for arb work, and within a few months of starting she could go on sick leave (bearing in mind a pregnant woman cannot safely lift brash or logs, or anything really physical) and then after maybe 7 months of sick leave have six or nine months maternity leave, and this may well be repeated a year or two later. With the best will in the world if you are a very small business maybe taking on your only employee or perhaps your second you would be a fool not to consider the possibilities. And as has just been pointed out, the obvious alternative of treating her as a subbie has now been made effectively impossible. Of course for slightly larger firms it is different, there may be other duties that could be offered and they may be better placed to take the hit, but for a tiny business existing on a knife-edge it could be very scary.

I would say Alder is quite a bit lighter than Birch. And remember the weight per cubic metre for measured logs is for individual logs not stacks. Stacks of logs are full of air gaps, so it is a whole different scenario.

Correct me if I am wrong but any employer can lay off any employee - as long as they pay the appropriate redundancy.

Yes it is difficult isn't it? I don't know how small employers manage these days since the government stopped re-imbursing SSP. It is no wonder zero hours contracts and sub-contracting is popular. I only employ one person full time PAYE and he is a great worker. Hopefully he will never have a lot of sick days, but I couldn't keep him on for too long if he did start having a lot of sick. I was going to take another (much older) person on full time next year, but I realised I couldn't as he does have health problems and I simply couldn't afford to pay him for weeks in hospital etc. Shame as he would have probably been a great asset and he really wanted the job.

Agreed. No-one is going to make money buying land and then just harvesting the timber, unless it is a lot of land and then the price is much more realistic. The people who do well from owning forestry are the people who have land they bought or inherited many years ago. Even then there are millions of acres of wooded parcels on farms in the UK which are totally neglected because the parcels are small and maybe steep so the cost of felling and extraction would be higher than the value of the timber. There is an estate near here with many hundreds of acres of conifer plantation and mixed deciduous and yet they just do the bare minimum of maintenance to keep it safe, or to cash in on the odd grant. The owner takes the view that it is just not viable, even though he owns all the land outright.

Other costs can be very substantial of course. Vehicles, machinery, loans, insurance, premises, training and supervision. I run a very small sawmill and if one of my guys does a job for a customer it gets charged out at £30 per hour and it is barely worth it.

If you are new to this you should probably take advice from the Forestry Commission or a Forestry company or if in Wales (which it can't be as it looks flat) Coed Cymru. There are many rules about felling and thinning woodland which you will need to be aware of. I apologise if you are already aware of this. Are you planning on doing the work yourself? By the way I think looking at the pictures you posted the woodland is in need of thinning, but may indeed be many years before the final crop will be mature

I think this just proves my long held belief that many tree surgeons have no idea how to calculate weight. I estimate it at 660Kg. If it has been off the ground in a windy spot since felling it will be even less. I am not surprised the vehicle handled OK. I have learned that when buying sawlogs from tree surgeons to price by volume...

Yes it is not easy calculating weight but it is worth remembering if you had a stack of fresh felled Oak where there were no gaps at all (completely impossible of course) and no bark then a cubic metre would weigh nearly a ton. Actual real Oak logs with bark, a few bends etc and you will be down to maybe 750 or 800 kilos. Add into the equation the lower weight of Alder compared to Oak and you are left with maybe 600 kilos. If the stack is gappy, logs are bendy and different lengths it will be a lot less.

So you mean a cubic metre of stacked logs. In which case there are many variables like how straight they are, but as a rough guide I would say a cubic metre will weigh no more than 600 kilos maybe even less. Or to put it the other way a ton of logs will be about 1.66 cubic metres.

Yes if you let us know what you are measuring. Logs I assume but fresh cut?

Thank you that is indeed much better than I was quoted from the dealer I bought the mill from. These prices include VAT? I am sorted now but next time I need bits I will try you first.

Or here is another spin on the situation. If the tree is left there perhaps it could cause subsidence? As has been already said a modern house should have good deep foundations, and if it is not clay soil probably nothing to worry about. Did the soil in the garden dry and crack over the summer? I live in a clay area and my front garden was full of fissures until the recent rain. And yes my house did subside due (in part) to a close tree.

Awesome, thank you.

Actually I don't think this thread is bashing young people. It is bashing people who cannot or will not work hard and are only interested in what they can get. Yes we all want to earn more and get home early sometimes and have an easy life, but a lot of people now just expect the easy life will be handed to them on a plate. Something has changed over the last few decades. And as another poster said, the foreign workers are cashing in. Fruit farmers in the UK are almost totally dependent on foreign workers. They simply cannot get British nationals to do the work.

Any joy with the prices?

You have my sympathy, and so does anyone trying to employ people these days. I think we have largely lost our work ethic in this country - we have become decadent. There are many exceptions of course, but most of the good workers are already taken or have their own business. So when you are trying to recruit you are left with the dregs. And to make it worse if they are over 25 you have to pay them around £14,000 per year minimum wage, give them 28 days paid holiday, pay them sick pay (which can no-longer be reclaimed) pay another £2000 or so per year for NI and compulsory pension, possibly pay them statutory paternity pay and so on. Then if they are useless and you sack them they may well take you to an industrial tribunal, so God help you if you haven't followed all the correct procedures. If they are a commited hard worker who wants to learn this may all be fine, but when all they do is try and skive off and finish early it is just not going to stack up. Sorry I wish I had a useful suggestion but I think you are correct - employing people is a nightmare.

Hi and no I have not. The parts I need are a pair of blade guide rollers and a set of four carriage wheels complete with bearings - I mean the wheels that run on the tracks. The machine is a HD36 purchased early 2015. A price would be appreciated. Thank you.

Anyone know where I can buy new sawmill blade roller guides from? They are for a Norwood but I am pretty certain they are the same as Woodmizer and others. The original set I bought direct from the USA, but is there someone who is selling them in the UK apart from the crazy price main dealers? Mine are not yet worn out but I need to replace the bearings so it makes sense to have a spare set here.

I think you have hit the nail on the head. Wives. They go to the gym. Mine goes two or three times a week. This costs money in membership fees and petrol, and she expends loads of energy for absolutely no purpose. How about we all train up our wives in chainsaws, splitters, etc; they cancel their gym memberships and we put the saved cash in a beer fund. It is just a win win situation. Maybe we should even sell our hydraulic splitters and give the wives an axe - after all, that would burn far more calories and be a much more effective cardio workout. I have made a start training my wife as you can in the pic.

Or maybe the author of the article was simply not being very precise with language. Maybe he or she meant to type "Smoke Control Area". Is it possible a journalist wasn't quite 100% accurate......? I find it amazing that there is not a simple map available somewhere on the internet that shows you if you live in a smoke control area. The gov website suggests you simply contact your local authority. How many people will bother to do that? How many people illegally use their woodburner in blissful ignorance?

Hi Kevin, I will help you by replying and getting your post back up in the 'today's posts' list. I also have a serious (and nosey) question, as an interested sawmill owner in your area. Why do Cardiff Council require such a large capacity machine? I understand the advantages of being able to pick up a large stem and hence the need for a large grab, but can't a large diameter tree be cross-cut to make it manageable? And surely a smaller setup is much easier to maneuver? Also are you really saying you want a trailer capacity of 14 tons? Giving a total trailer weight of around 22 tons and a train weight of maybe 30 tons???!!! I know plenty of timber trailers with a capacity of 8 or 9 tons which are available off-the-shelf but the size you are specifying is likely to bump the price up from maybe £15,000 to nearer £80,000. Hope you don't mind my observations.

You scoundrel.....say what you will about Poplar, but do not sully cricket...... Alder was used for clogs, so I am guessing it has some flexibility, and it is fairly soft. I like lots of the products on your website by the way, very nice.

Thank you that is interesting. Thank goodness for cricket. Looks like you will get your willow. I guess you have tried Alder and Poplar? Black Poplar is meant to be very resistant to abrasion. I will browse your website with interest.