Squaredy

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?

You didn't mention what area you are in. I could recommend someone in my neck of the woods (South East Wales).

No idea about the slime sorry, but if you are near South East Wales I could maybe buy the stem from you...if it is for sale.... Always after Elm and not so much of it around sadly.

I agree I don't think they care. I have also reported loads of stuff to them. Sometimes they get taken down, but you are right nothing really changes. If the criminals are in a developing country where poor policing and illegal activity are rife I guess there is not much they can do, but if the perpetrator is in the UK, or Europe surely the details should be passed to the police and action should be taken. There must be people getting robbed every day, and it just goes on and on. In fact in the UK I think I heard that cyber crime now exceeds bricks and mortar crime.

Yes I did wonder. Hey what do you know - I didn't even bid and yet the seller has now emailed me saying the winning bidder is a timewaster and offering it to me at a reduced price with his email address. Funny he didn't respond to my question whilst the auction was running, when I asked if he was OK with cash on collection.....

I was very curious about the mobile dimension saw which ended on ebay this afternoon. I would have bid, but I believe it was probably a scam. I am interested to know if anyone on Arbtalk knows the answer. If it does exist someone has got themselves a bargain, and good luck to them. If it is a scam, I hope the winning bidder is being cautious. Is everyone aware how awash with scams ebay is at the moment? Come to think of it this has been the case in my experience for at least 5 years. Luckily they are usually really easy to spot.

Most bulk bags are 800mm X 800mm X 800mm, so without bulging they hold half a cubic metre. An IBC cage is 1.2 cubic metre. So taking into account the bulging of the bag two bags will fill one cage. But remember there are lots of different size bags available.

The most prolific firewood seller in the UK is Certainly Wood. They probably have more customers than all the firewood sellers on here put together and they don't do it by being the cheapest.

1990 Ford F250 pickup 7.3 V8 diesel automatic. 14mpg short runs, 22 mpg on a cruise (actual consumption figures not on-board computer).

Ooooohhhhh that is a lot of firewood you burn. Maybe you should try some of my top quality kiln dried firewood when you move down this way....

I can send you some more details if you are interested Richard. Feel free to PM me. My system does depend on having a site which is manned of course, so customers can just turn up during opening hours.

To answer the questions no I am not VAT registered - my business is not big so is under the threshold to register. And I am quite fussy about species, and logs are well kilned so I do pick up a lot of customers who have had bad experiences with logs not really as dry as they want. And I bag it up differently from most people so customers come to me and go away with anything from 1 to 10 small bags. There is some effort and time in bagging, but it makes it a really easy product for customers to collect. Even a Smart car can fit two bags, and a medium hatchback with rear seats down can fit about 8. The point is the customer can buy as much or as little as they want, when they want. There are just over twelve bags in an IBC cage in case you are wondering.

Good thread. We have all been on courses highlighting risks and dangers and safe practises to avoid accidents, but sometimes it is silly things like your incident where no training course would help. I had a very silly incident last week. I needed to syphon diesel from my backup diesel tank to my main one and to cut a long story short after racking my brain I tried sucking. I got a mouthful of diesel (didn't swallow any) and it didn't work anyway. It was at least 36 hours before the taste of diesel was gone, and trust me if you have never done this - it was disgusting. I sometimes get a meal repeating on me but red diesel repeating on you is something else. On reading up on it if you do swallow, and especially if any gets in your lungs it can be serious. The moral of the story....have one of those syphon bulbs handy. I own one but it is so rarely used I couldn't find it.

I charge £144 for 1.2 cu m hardwood (kiln dried) and it is collection only. And I cannot even come close to keeping up with demand.

I needed a new carburettor for my Lucas MIll just before Christmas 2016. I phoned the local agent for the Kohler engine and they said they couldn't even order it until the second week in Jan. I rang a company in America and a very helpful man identified exactly the right part on the shelf, and he shipped it the same day. It took a day or two to cross America, and was flown to the UK on Christmas Day. It was in the UK within three days. Then sadly Parcel Force faffed over the import duty, but even with their delay it arrived a week quicker and was about £90 cheaper (even with shipping costs and import duty) than the local UK agent would have been. I also order occasionally ebay items from the USA - normally really quick.

Ah yes sorry I pictured lovely straight clean stems being turned into firewood...!! I am a dipstick.

This doesn't address your dilemma at all but what a shame those logs are being turned into firewood! I am always looking to buy good diameter Ash, Beech and Sycamore. Of course you didn't say they were good quality....maybe they are only good for firewood?

Selling timber is hard. At least, like selling most things it takes time, marketing and space. And if you have a small stock of timber to sell you will invariably find the customer wants something a bit thicker/wider/longer/cleaner/more characterful/drier/wetter than what you have. Firewood of course also takes time and space to sell, and also needs marketing at first, but at least you know you will find customers so long as you have dry logs. They won't complain that a log is not quite straight, or is too knotty. My specialism is milling, drying and then selling timber and I may even stop selling firewood altogether, but it has taken me eight hard years of accumulating debts to make it work. I purchase other people's air dried stock by the way occasionally, but at wholesale prices of course. So if you are sitting on a pile of decent wood that you cannot find customers for (and if you are near South East Wales) I might give you a lump sum price for a large amount.

My newest Logging dog..... Cherry. I think she needs to beef up a bit yet, but the salesman assured me when she is fully grown she will be able to haul logs up to nearly 2 kilos, and if we can team her up with her big sister the sky will be the limit.

Well my setup is maybe a little less organised and professional than yours....we run a Jappa 700 and usually can't afford more than one person processing firewood, so we achieve a maximum of about 5 or 6 IBC cages per day (1.2 cu m each) or if a lot of the stock is too large or bendy or too long that can drop to 2 cages in a day. I don't think Certainly Wood feel threatened by us!!

Wood carvers (not so much turners) would like almost any part. Small chunks will be what they want. Small boards maybe 3 or 4 inches thick, and thicker chunks. As firewood it does dry quickly, but it doesn't have much density and so won't last long on your fire. But it will still burn.

I bought one of these about 6 years ago (not from Withams) and it was in excellent condition, and drove faultlessly. I fitted an Atlas 4 ton crane and log grab etc, but my needs changed before I registered it for road use. The biggest limitation from my point of view was the fact that the payload was only 4 tons, and by the time I fitted the crane this was down to 2 tons. And yet it would still have needed downrating to drive on a car licence as a 7.5 ton truck. Also the offroad capabilities were mediocre.

Hi Jason, Lime is not great firewood, but there may be demand from wood carvers. You might have more luck finding a woodcarving club or just advertising on ebay or gumtree. There are lots of hobby woodworkers who would like Lime, but the trouble is it might be more hassle than it is worth as each person might only want a few little bits. If I was closer I might have had it for milling.

Hi Sandpiper, I can't help you now as I am out also, but we will get more stock as the year progresses and then we should have stock right through the year. Ours is nice and dry (air dried then kilned) but is collection only from Wentwood Forest. Price is around £120 per loose cubic metre hardwood and £90 per loose cubic metre Larch, and we bag it so it is easy to fit almost a cubic metre in most cars. If this helps PM me.