Squaredy

If i was near you i would offer. How about a neighbour with a small trailer like a camping trailer. Even the tiniest one will take 200kg and they are very low so should be possible to manhandle it in. 

9 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

Would imagine it would be a brave SE to pass standing dead wood for structural purposes. You dont know what killed it and how it may have affected the timbers strength.

I agree a structural engineer might be wary. In reality any skilled chippy should be able to judge timber strength and integrity. After all the mighty oak can have all manner of structural weaknesses. Whatever the species someone has to judge the strength of each beam which will be quite easy when milled. 

12 minutes ago, Big J said:

Yep, had lime with coloured heartwood. Quite common once it gets to a certain size. Hard to sell though

Ah yes it was a large tree.  Got a lovely slab from this one 4ft wide and 8ft long with the lovely heartwood dark streak running up the middle.  Was a near perfect table top.  Dried really nicely with no splits.

2 hours ago, Big J said:

Hybrid poplar. Often planted as shelter belts as they grow at a tremendous rate. It's not a bad timber when milled. Moves a lot if used as cladding and shrinks more than any timber I've ever seen. I used a whole load of it to build a mezzanine within my largest barn (used as blade sharpening area). I put 30cm wide planks down as floorboards (green, and fitted flush) and by the time they dried, there were 15mm gaps between each board. 

 

Use it for unexposed, rough structural stuff, but I wouldn't bother planking it for any kind of decorative or furniture type purpose. It is very fibrous, won't take a fine finish and discolours easily when drying. 

.  Any

Otherwise, I rate it as an outstanding firewood. Perfect compromise between hard and softwood. Lights easily, with a bright flame and good heat, but puts down a decent bed of embers too. It also dries very quickly, and would be sub 20% by July if split now.

Thanks Big J that is interesting.  I have found a pic of the Lime with the coloured heart.  Anyone come across this?

Well it isn't rot in the logs I just bought, and in Ash it is usually just lovely olive colour timber.  

I had some Alder logs a while back with some crazy colours in - picture below.  Very pretty.

I even had a large Lime which had a really dark lovely colour through the whole heart - a gorgeous chestnut colour.  Usually of course Lime is so white it is almost featureless.

13 minutes ago, wills-mill said:

The electrons are not pleased. We must make a blood sacrifice to the great Cloud.

 (bloody technology)

 

In fairness and as a counter argument, I have a Trekkasaw and am thinking of heading the slabbing bar route, driven by a firewood processor motor or harvester bar motor, as the band head is hydraulically driven from a 3 cylinder diesel powerpack. They are still a pretty physical beast to operate (and need 2 people as standard to push), and I think that a Lucas is a more user friendly and better thought out package overall.
The head is sturdy but a little bit crude and the bands are expensive too. The advertised cutting width is our old favourite where it's counting log diameter rather than cutting width. Trekka's will cut about a metre wide board edge to edge.

 

 

I agree the Lucas Mill is a good option for converting large logs so long as you are OK with 9" wide boards (or 8.5" or whatever depending on the model).  I would offer to swap my Lucas for your Trekkasaw, but as you say the width of cut is in fact 1m or so which actually is not wide enough for me.  I have started the plans for building an add-on to my Lucas to get it to power a bandsaw blade.  The plan is to use the existing track and engine and raising and lowering mechanism, so I just need to build a frame for the wheels and get it driven off the existing pulley.  Simples.....  

Wasn't in a wet area at all.  School ground - well drained.  I will post some pics when milled.

I bought a few tons of Poplar logs from a local tree surgeon a few days ago.  Each log had a clear dark area in the middle (like you often get in Ash) which I assume is going to stay darker and will hopefully make for a more attractive board when slabbed.

However I have little experience of milling Poplar, does anyone know more about this?  Is it certain species which have this or all Poplars once they are mature?  They weren't especially large for Poplar (2ft diameter or so) and the tree surgeon had no idea which Poplar they were.  In case it helps I have attached a photo.  Any thoughts?  

I wish my shed looked like that...

You haven't stated that the shed is for running a business from.  If like most people's sheds it is used for storing loads of stuff, no-one is likely to come round asking exactly what each piece of kit is used for, unless you have really made your home look like a business.

All the council are likely to be interested in is whether you should have applied for planning permission.  If they feel you should have done, then they will make you apply for retrospective planning.  If the building is reasonably good looking and not out of place or out of proportion, and assuming you are not in an AONB or conservation area or the premises is listed they are unlikely to refuse.  Of course there are costs involved.

Bear in mind that most of the sheds and outbuildings people erect to the rear of their homes have no planning permission.

My guess is he won't ring the council, and if he does they won't be that interested.

You could try Roger at Mendip Forestry.  I only have experience of buying sawlogs from them, but I imagine they must sell plenty of firewood.  They are not always easy to get hold of but usually ring you back eventually!  The number will come up if you google it.

Maybe the owner should simply list it on ebay.  Good photographs and as much description as possible and let the market decide - a no reserve auction will show what people are really willing to spend.

1 hour ago, Rough Hewn said:

You can cut a 3m slab 3feet wide with an Alaskan mill in about 4 minutes.
Ms 880.

That also impresses me.  But could you do that all day?  Maybe I am just not as fit as some people but I am not sure I would want to use a chainsaw mill for more than an hour or so, if that.  Using a full travel keyboard is quite tiring at my age...  

8 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi I thought you were going to sell me your Lucas , I know Newport very well I am from Barry originally . 

I may still sell it, I really haven't decided which way I am going yet.  If you are seriously interested feel free to PM me and we can discuss.  Although it is still in daily use it has a few battle scars so would be fairly cheap for a Lucas Mill.

I am seriously thinking of modifying my Lucas mill to run a bandsaw blade rather than the circular blade.  I don't think it would involve that much engineering.  I know such ventures are always more complicated than they appear, but I think it is totally doable.

15 minutes ago, muttley9050 said:

This is a surprise to me. I love my lucas slabber. It's pretty effortless for me. Just park my bum against it and give a gentle lean to push it along.
I timed myself cutting a 4ft plane tree last week and a 4m x 1.2 m cut was taking around 3.5 to 4 minutes.
Chain sharpening is easy with a granberg precision grinder. If I'm slabbing clean wood all day I change chains once or twice and always sharpen in workshop.
Took me quite a while to get my slabber set up to cut like this but it is possible .
I accept the kerf is big but the portability and ease of setting up on a 5ft log negates this for me.
Takes me 15 mins to change between the two blades.
I guess it depends how you cut. Most of my contract milling is mobile so the lucas is easy.
Most if my personal milling is dimensional for construction so the lucas wins here too.
Horses for courses I suppose but I love my lucas slabber.

Hi Muttley, I am impressed with your results.  4 minutes for a 4m slab 4ft wide is very good.  Have you replaced the Kohler engine with a V8?  Or maybe you don't know your own strength?   

7 minutes ago, Big J said:

It's the TTS 800 Standard, with a wide cutting head. You'll get 115cm between the blade guides, 126cm between the vertical posts and the blade will rise 120cm above the cutting deck (with a circa 33cm throat above the blade when the board drag back is installed). It's a big capacity, but obviously there are larger logs. 

 

It's a good mill. Solidly built and excellent value. If ordering with the extra large capacity, I'd ask them to uprate the hydraulics. Past about 3000kg, the turners (and I have two) struggle to rotate the log. If it's especially gnarly and quite heavy, same issue. 

 

They aren't the most precisely built mills on the market, but what they lack in attention to detail they make up for in quantity of steel. I would buy one again. 

 

The blades that are offered with it from Poland are awful. Flimsy and cheap. Buy something better there. Ripper 37 from Dakin Flathers is always a good bet. I've just bought a dozen Hakansson M42 blades (which at 6204mm long, 54mm wide and 1.64mm thick cost an eye watering £90 each) but they perform superbly. I love a thick blade and if you are going to routinely do wide cuts, I'd recommend them. Remember that you are asking a lot of a 50-60mm wide blade to cut perfectly true when unsupported for over a meter between the guides.

Thank you very much Big J for the details.  That gives me another option to look into.

1 hour ago, muttley9050 said:

10 hours ago, Squaredy said:

Has anyone got experience or knowledge of these sawmills?  Scott and Sargeant in Sussex sell them and they seem good value.  I am in need of a wide bandmill (4ft width milling capacity) and even a 40 year old machine of this type can cost £12,000+.  They currently have a basic 4ft capacity mill brand new for £15,942 (plus VAT I guess).
 
They are made in the Czech republic, but I won't let that put me off.  My last major purchase was Canadian built (Norwood sawmill) and the quality of that was very disappointing.
 
I do not need log handling, loading and turning capabilities, I just need to be able to slab wide logs.  I currently use a Lucas mill which converts the logs fine, but of course it doesn't slab.  Well, I do have the slabbing attachment for it but I do not rate that for professional milling.
 
Anyone got any useful thoughts?

Read more  

Can't really help with your question, but would be interested in why don't rate the lucas slabber. Is it just the kerf or something else?

Sorry I forgot to quote you.  Please see my reply above.

2 hours ago, Big J said:

My Trakmet with the widened head cuts 1.15m. I've Frankensteined the guide on the idle side a bit (sandwich block and roller together, like on an LT70) which has probably reduced that to 1.08m, but that's plenty wide enough. 

 

I've cut boards to 1.7m wide with chainsaw mills, but I honestly cannot see the point in wide boards. They are impossible to handle, the accuracy of the cut reduces, they rarely dry properly and did I mention the moving and handling issues!?!? Best to just shave them down and produce boards where they don't weigh over 100kg. 

Sorry I forgot to quote you.  Please see my reply above.

And in response re the Lucas Mill slabber, my problem with it is firstly speed, secondly exhaustive effort of pushing for anything more than a few minutes, maintaining the sharpness of the chain (and of course fettling the bar), time it takes to swap over from the blade and back again and lastly kerf.

It has its place I know but I currently have maybe 18 or 20 logs in my yard of 1m diameter or more which need milling as slabs....the thought of slabbing these with the Lucas Mill makes me feel old!

Thank you Big J that is very interesting.  What model Trak Met is that?  And how would you rate it?

And yes I agree in principle with you about wide slabs, but there are species of course that are more stable and work well as a wide slab.  On the occasions I have used my slabbing attachment for my Lucas Mill to produce slabs of 1.2m or so I find customers almost fight over them, and I usuaully end up selling them unseasoned for a good price.

I did indeed have a chat with the guys at Loglogic this afternoon.  The Autotrek is even more than I thought (£60,000 or so) and the other one they used to make (Trekkasaw) they haven't done for years and the guy said he didn't think they would be likely to make any more as the safety specs have moved on a lot since they made them.  He suggested I might be better off trying to find a second hand one.  So, anyone selling their Trekkasaw???

Thanks for the suggestion.  I am aware of the Trak Met range, but as far as I can see they do not have a very wide cut.  I already have a Norwood with a 710mm cut, and I really need a 1.2M cut.  The largest Trak Met seems to be only about a 900mm wide cut.

Thanks Mark.  I am aware of Loglogic, and I know the Autotrek is £30,000 plus, and isn't wide enough.  But I had overlooked the Trekkasaw, which their website says cuts 1.4m wide.  I will have to find out the price.  Thank you.  When I get one I will be selling my Lucas mill cheapish if you are interested!

Has anyone got experience or knowledge of these sawmills?  Scott and Sargeant in Sussex sell them and they seem good value.  I am in need of a wide bandmill (4ft width milling capacity) and even a 40 year old machine of this type can cost £12,000+.  They currently have a basic 4ft capacity mill brand new for £15,942 (plus VAT I guess).

They are made in the Czech republic, but I won't let that put me off.  My last major purchase was Canadian built (Norwood sawmill) and the quality of that was very disappointing.

I do not need log handling, loading and turning capabilities, I just need to be able to slab wide logs.  I currently use a Lucas mill which converts the logs fine, but of course it doesn't slab.  Well, I do have the slabbing attachment for it but I do not rate that for professional milling.

Anyone got any useful thoughts?