Forest2Furniture

How thick are the stickers and where have you stacked them to dry?

You're welcome, it's always better to ask then to damage the machine or worse yourself

If they turn that's fine, they are there to stop you pushing the band off. If you think about it, the band is a flexible piece of thin metal and the gap between the back edge of the band and the guide bearing is the thickness of a business card, it's not going to take a great amount of pressure to bend the band enough to touch the bearing. What you don't want is the bearing to seize up, that is when you'll have a problem.

I've got about 20 Sweet Chestnuts that look similar to that in my woodland. I felled and milled a couple last year, fantastic grain.

That's some going, there's 90 trunks in that pile

I've started the Larch! I know it's not particularly exciting but one does what one can in these restricted times!

The problem is and I found this out once people find out you have a mill you'll be offered all sorts of deals which is how I ended up with 40 ton of Larch (2 different sites). I've got plans when we extended the barn to have a static mill that will take lengths up to 18' but due to current economic climate that little plan has been put on hold. I've had my Woodlands 3.5yrs, always kept undercover and is just beginning to show her age.

When I was off over christmas and new year with a ruptured achilles tendon I started to re learn to play the fiddle/violin. Think I might continue with that now I'm past the sounding like a cat being strangled stage!

That would be a no! I've had interest from local landscapers but everyone is in the same boat now. But I'm ever hopefull and given that all my booked milling jobs have been postponed, milling this lot will give something to do over the next few weeks/months of lockdown.

I've got me some Larch to mill during the self isolating period!

Wood dust doesn't just dissolve in the lungs it rots down first and can cause respiratory problems as well as tumors in the sinuses. The biggest culprit in recent times for this is MDF, many wood workers suffer from cancer of the sinuses and throat. I have my sinuses checked every 5 years, it does involve having a camera passed through them to the back of the throat but a little discomfort is worth the reassurance that all is well. It's for these reasons I made and posted the list, I've worked for 40yrs in the wood trade, started long before ppe was the norm.

I served a four year apprenticeship in furniture restoration, ran a restoration and french polishing business for 30yrs and my advice for anyone thinking of taking it up as a new venture is DON'T BOTHER. It's not for the amateur, fine repairing modern furniture but when you get to the high end antiques with old veneers and marquetry then you're into a whole new ball game and a world of pain and stress if/when it goes t*ts up. Then there's the finishes,different finishes were used for various timbers and uses. Use the incorrect finish on an antique and you'll ruin its value at the stroke of a brush. Then there's french polishing which is a skill in itself to get it right. I could go on but I think you get the idea. A lot of my work involved dealing with pieces that others had had their fingers in, repairing someones c**kup before starting the repair is a costly business. You may be very good at it but unless you are absolutely sure and confident that you can take on the challenges that restoration will throw at you I suggest you stick to what you know and are good at. p.s. The guy on Salvage Hunters is a t**t, there's no way he can spend the amount of time he reckons he spends on a piece and charge what he does and don't get me started on his workmanship and way of doing things. My wife has banned me from watching the program!!

I'm surprised many of you find the idea of breathing in wood dust so amusing and non threatening, form personal experience I know this not to be the case. The thread was aimed more at the newer ones who have come to this industry from a safer environment, the hobbiest who think playing with wood is a lucrative enterprise and those who dip into this forum for help and advice.

This is a list I compiled from info gleaned from the internet, I may have missed the odd one out, I'm not perfect I went for mostly native UK trees.

It's been recognised for years that our job working with trees is one of the most dangerous jobs mainly due to the machinery we use. Well for those who now mill their timber that danger has possibly unknowingly increased. All wood has a toxicity of some sort or another but knowing which ones and what is a minefield, so I've compiled a list (pdf attached)for the most common trees we have here in the UK. I realise some of you will think wearing a facemask is uncool but no worse then carrying an oxygen tank with you when you suffer from emphysema UK Wood species.pdf

My work place is in a barn in the middle of a field 2 miles from civilisation so I'm going in every day, got 150 lengths of Ash and Larch to mill. I'm not seeing customers and have cancelled all collections/deliveries.

The easiest way for the government to provide the SE's with SSP would be to go by their tax code, I believe that some SE's may have been a bit creative with their SA in the past but no situation is ideal and something is better then nothing.

Nice as those wide planks are I think I would have split the trunk and cut some quarter sawn planks, not everyone can handle a 6' wide plank of Oak.

How are you loading your logs then, it takes me about 10 minutes to get anything up to a 24" diameter log on the mill and ready to go.

Not straight away no, I leave them for a few weeks to let the sap dry off then seal them 50/50 mix water and pva. Normally takes a couple of coats to fully sealed.

Finished milling a couple of Oak trees I bought at the back end of last year that had to wait until my ankle was strong again.

Yeah, but you didn't make such a sweeping statement nor had you seen the tree first hand.

With a solar kiln, the kiln itself doesn't get hot. The timber sits in a chamber below the collecter that warms the air that's what the fans are for to circulate thewarn air. Solar kilns a fairly straight forward, heat the air up, circulate the warm air, open the top vents to draw cool air in, open the bottom vents to let cold moisture laiden air out, turn fans off at night and close all vents. Repeat until wood is dry.

The guy told me that as he had worked with trees all his life if it wasn't a walnut then his training had been a waste of time. I really did try to keep the smugness hidden when I told him it was a Lime tree!

All of them, I use parcel2go and they are all saying the item has to be in a cardboard box, I sent some blades back last year in the box but secured it with pallet wrap and was charged an extra £8 once it was delivered. Check the t&c's