agg221

I use strips of old bicycle inner tube as tree ties. There's enough give to allow a bit of expansion, and if you tie round the stake first, then you can put a series of half-hitches in if you need a spacer between the stake and the tree. Alec

All this is good advice, but if you're doing it on the cheap, you can get away with a hand held circular saw for ripping to oversize width, either to chalkline if you've got a good eye, or held against a clamped rail if not. I tend to use a rail for more accurate stuff - a length of aluminium angle or I-channel is good. You can use a router for a lot of the edging and profiling, again run against a clamped rail where a straight line is needed. I would buy Trend cutters and a secondhand decent router and saw on Ebay - you'd be amazed how good a deal can be had on such things (I bought a Makita circular saw with a 4" depth cut for £30 inc shipping). You can get away with cutting mortices and tenons by hand, but using decent chisels and a mallet (if I needed these my local market has a secondhand tool stall and I'd buy Sorby or Marples and get the lot for under £20). If you've planed up accurately, hand sanding is possible, if slow, but a cheap belt sander and random orbit sander will see you through one job (and a bit more). Cost for the above - under £300. Undeniably the above approach will take a -lot- longer, and requires a good eye and a steady hand, but if you're not working to a timeframe it can be done. I haven't done a kitchen (yet) but I've done various other things using the above. For me, the biggest win was the thicknesser. I bought a secondhand DeWalt DW733 on ebay and have worked it hard. With sharp knives, the surface comes out looking almost polished and it's a perfect match from part to part. This is the really tedious bit to get right by hand (I've done it on a couple of boards that were too wide for the thicknesser, using hand planes - quicker than you might think but still too slow if the aim is to use the wood, not to make it). Sticks - you want well seasoned so making your own slows the process down even more while they dry. I use old bits of pallet. Alec

I know what you mean about drilling - but my reckoning was that unless you're certain that it will be regularly checked any form of rope/strap will eventually cause girdling constriction, which would ultimately be worse. Small branches drop anyway, so pegs would be no different. I'm on the Essex side of Haverhill (Sturmer). Alec

Practical - yes. Slow - yes. Frustrating - yes. You're trying to do something where finish is important. The hardest thing to learn when milling is how to get even, uniform boards. This isn't insurmountable, but I would consider: What type of mill - if you're only doing this as a one-off for your own enjoyment, I'd go for a Granberg Alaskan Mark III chainsaw mill - Rob D on here is your man. Chainsaw milling is very wasteful for thin boards, but it's the only realistically priced option for something on this scale. You will also need a big enough chainsaw powerhead to run it - realistically you need at least an 18" capacity, so a 2ft bar, so a 70cc+ saw and mill to suit. If you can, go bigger. If you need to buy this lot, you've just spent around £750-800 or more depending on size. Timber - what can you get, from where? It's much easier with reasonable lengths, particularly for worktops. You ideally want a source of 8ft+ lengths. I would suggest that if you are wanting to use something between 19 and 25mm finished size you mill at between 30 and 35mm to start with. This may seem like a lot of waste, but you will then be sure of useful boards whereas otherwise you may be scrapping a lot. Where are you going to mill? A chainsaw mill is portable but you still need to move the timber back. If you're milling at home or a yard, what do the neighbours think (do you care)? Stacking and sticking - you need space to build a stack, and enough sticks for one every couple of feet on every board. These need to be dry, so you can't just use offcuts. You will then need to leave it for six months per inch of thickness to air dry. This won't get it fully dry in the UK, so you will then need somewhere really dry (e.g. indoors) to finish it off. Alternatively you need a kiln. Finishing.How are you going to get sawn, slightly twisted/cupped and random/variable thickness (partly due to seasoning variations, partly due to learning to mill) boards to a uniform thickness? I would suggest getting the use of a thicknesser is your best bet, ideally with a jointer to do the edges too. As to species - your choice really depending on the look you want. Oak is traditional but you would really want a grain filling finish. Beech is very traditional for kitchens and easily had as it's out of fashion. Sweet chestnut has a really nice golden look to it once fully dry. Sycamore gives you something paler. Poplar is also very pale and looks really good, but too soft for worktops (good for fronts). The only thing I personally would avoid is ash, as the open grain tends to make it look dirty very quickly, unless use a heavily grain filling finish, but that's just my opinion! Alec

Have you tried TNT, cheaper through Interparcel? I've shipped some ridiculous stuff with them, including a 3m long lintel from the northern end of the Forth Bridge to Essex for under £30. Being TNT, I've found them a much more professional outfit than the 'man and van' type sites, some of which can take some of your money as an upfront booking fee and if the courier doesn't show, it's almost impossible to retrieve. TNT does a lot of business-to-business and hence maintains a decent reputation and has suitable insurance. Alec

That's an interesting thought. Can you dowel them on, like peg joints in timber framing? If you make oak (or robinia) pegs, say 6" buried in the tree, the rest of the length needed to drive through an oak block (say 3"x4") fixed top and bottom of the box, you will have enormous loadbearing capacity and it won't leave metal in the tree. It would be a bit like a residual knot. I'd probably go for 25mm if you can get four pegs in, 30mm if it's only 2. If you've never made dowels, it's very easy. You want a bit of straight grained oak of the right length plus a bit, then shave it round-ish and drive it with a mallet through a hole the right size drilled in a bit of steel plate. taper the tip to a bit of a lead and away you go. If you make them this way, you want to do it just before fitting as they slightly compress when you drive them through the plate and then gradually swell up again in the hole, forming an even more secure fit. Actually, having seen where you are relative to me, if you do decide to do it this way and need a few dowels give me a shout if you like. Alec

Yes, I saw that 070 too. This one was also on ebay, and a lot more realistically priced (possibly underpriced). It's in really nice original condition and runs perfectly. Alec

Not made it to my bench yet, but this is what's heading in that direction (and a much better view than what's on television behind it). Likewise, nice to meet you Martin. Alec

Veritas stuff is supposed to be excellent quality, and I like the look of some of those. I've found Rutlands before for Japanese tools. Alec

I have an Aldi US cleaner - bit small and only runs for 3mins at a go, but I'm very happy with it for the price:thumbup: Alec

Hi James, yes I've seen the plug cutters. I went the way I did because I had access to the kit. I then used offcuts from the ends of boards (hence colour matched) and ran them straight through the cutter, effectively making a 6" stick of plug diameter material each time, which did a lot of plugs. Its not so easy though if you haven't got the kit available. Alec

Hi James, you've done a lot more floors than me then (one so far!) but one thing about milling single, freestanding trees is that they tend to have a lot more stresses in them than a nice, clean forest-grown butt. This means the boards can move around a fair bit, which either means a lot of waste planing it out, or a lot of force to straighten it back up. 18mm will of course mean you don't need as much force as for inch boards, but the edge-bending was the thing I found needed the most force. I used clamps and it came out nicely, but it was hard work. I used brass slot-head countersunk screws, holes drilled to a stringlined mark and all slots lined up - which I quite liked as a finish. I could have plugged them - do you have access to a metal turning lathe, as I've made up a cutter before which worked like a milling cutter with a centre hole. This let me mount up rough cut oversize sticks in the tailstock and run them through the cutter mounted in the headstock, into the clearance in the mandrel hole. I could make lengths so fast that cutting loads more than needed was no longer an issue, which made the job relatively quick. I half-lapped my boards - a compromise between the unremovable secret nailing and the annoyance of dropping something through the gap between plain boards (this followed the experience of dropping a credit card between the original Victorian pine boards upstairs). The allowance isn't much to do with the bandsaw vs. swingmill. It's much more to do with 20% shrinkage (so your 22mm board would shrink to 18mm) and then some to take the surface marks out (say 1mm if you only face one side) and an allowance for cupping (another 2mm) hence about 7mm in total. I was trying to squeeze the absolute maximum out of one tree which had a mix of brown, streaked and plain boards. It came out really well, but the person doing the milling was not initially convinced (he conceded it had worked when I took the boards over to him for planing up). It also helped that I left the boards full width as sawn, so I could choose where to take my final boards from, taking into account both defects and subsequent cupping. If you do end up stacking on blocks, I wouldn't cover with a tarp - you want the sides open so it dries. Best I've found is to stick some big, heavy lumps of timber on first, stickered off the decent boards, then some corrugated iron or ply, well weighted down and slightly angled so the rain runs off. You only want to cover the sides if you mill at the wrong time of year and need to slow everything down. Alec

I'd agree with your timeframes - but would be inclined to bring the boards indoors before jointing and planing as they will move at this point. I would ideally have the 3-month drying period while the central heating is on, on full boards, then plane, joint and fit as quickly as possible since they will be as true as possible at this point. You could go slightly thicker than this - I did 25mm boards which were milled at 32mm and it worked nicely, but there was pretty much no movement. I stacked high and narrow - so built two stacks of boards only, side by side and braced to one another (long stickers that went right through), to keep everything squashed flat and stop it twisting. Do you have any plans for how to support your boards at close spacing? I can't see an easy way to do this in your roof space. I would also be concerned if it gets hot up there as this may cause shrinkage cracks. Laying out standard concrete blocks on the floor, then stickering up off these may well be easier and more reliable. Another general point with oak - the timber doesn't become unusable very quickly. I've pretty much used dead oaks only, some of which have been standing dead for a decade or more, and there's no real change. When you get to it, I would suggest screws rather than nails as you end up having to force things back into place a bit, which is easier when there's a positive tightening action. Stainless or brass are needed if you don't want the wood to stain black. Alec

One of the big issues at the moment is how to effectively retro-fit the UK's existing housing stock, particularly the enormous number of Victorian houses which are expected to be retained for at least another century. The main issues are cost of materials (which can be tolerated in some cases) and the fact that insulation takes up space if applied internally. With lower cost materials you're talking about 6" or so, so making each room smaller all round by about a foot. Not very popular! Alec

Fusion is a potentially interesting option, but it's a long way off. JET was built in the 1970s, using 1960s technology, and is still the most advanced fusion experiment in Europe. It's very impressive (I've been round it - including some bits I probably shouldn't have been taken to) but it can only run up for a few seconds. The follow-on project, ITER, is underway (we've just made some specialist bits of it) but even if it is completed on time it will be tested in 2020. The reality of course is that the whole energy issue is a mixture of inseparable factors, such as the balance between whole-life cost of large plant vs. distributed generation, availability of the materials needed for advanced generation, storage and supply solutions and the palatability of change in lifestyle to the consumer in a relatively free society. The EU factor is interesting, and again more complex than is often taken into account in the superficial 'we don't want to be part of Europe' view. Britain is in reality small, with limited natural resources. It makes sense to make the most of what we've got but beyond this, if you accept that current technology doesn't provide suitable solutions, the leverage obtained by accessing European expertise and collaborative investment is more likely to address the issues than Britain working alone. If we're not part of developing the technology, we will become a consumer and access fees will be dictated to us. Alec

:lol: This is not one of -those- threads. For 'did' read 'milled' Alec

Hi Scottie, Do you know the diameter, even roughly? This would help with working out what sort of mill is needed. Also, can it be extracted in lengths, or does it need to be milled where it falls? Alec p.s. I did your cherry today

The last three 090 AVs sold on ebay (UK) made £322, £460 and £560 respectively. The last one did come with a 53" bar. All three were sold as runners, cash on collection, so could be verified by the purchaser. Alec

Some good ones mentioned. I would add Desperado (but don't bother with Once Upon a Time in Mexico), Clint westerns (particularly the early ones) and, for something different, Dead Man. Of course there's always Pirates of the Caribbean. Alec

Very nice. What are you going to use the offcuts from the tealight holders for? Alec

You might find this useful: Forestry Commission - Felling licences exemptions You'll see that a lot depends on size of tree - both for exemptions and for what falls below the allowance (5m3/calendar quarter if you're using it yourself). You may also find this useful for working out how many trees that is: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/TimberVolumeCalculator.pdf/$FILE/TimberVolumeCalculator.pdf It's hard to tell from the photo, but for argument's sake, if they're 200mm mid-diameter, in 6m lengths, you could take the lot down over four calendar quarters, so just over a year. I have no idea on replanting requirements though - so if it was mine I'd check that too. Alec p.s. they don't look like larch to me, and if that's a recent photo they're definitely not (larch is deciduous). They also look rather older than 20yrs.

I would second Gnome on the Hammerlin. Last year I wore one out after 10yrs of hard use, including using it to mix concrete in, carrying bricks, barrowloads of earth, large, heavy bits of wood lashed to the top etc. I finally wore through the skip where the shovel digs. Bought a new one from Travis Perkins. Old one now consigned to carrying larger solids, which I'm sure it will manage for a few more years. Never had a puncture, still holds air for about a year at a time. Alec

Today's Jakcure is copper carbonate/boric acid/propiconazole Health and Safety Executive - Biocides Database - HSE COPR registered products It's about the best that is currently on the market and I certainly wouldn't knock it, but it is unlikely to last as long as your 30yr old posts, which would almost certainly have been treated with CCA, which was withdrawn (for very good reasons) in December 1999. The reason it is likely to be less durable is that the arsenate chemically bonded very securely to the wood, so it didn't leach. Boric acid will leach and proiconazole will degrade with time. The copper carbonate is also slightly soluble, and there are some fungi which are not affected by copper salts (they are affected by chromium or zinc). I certainly wouldn't dispute the guarantee period being achieved - but to the best of my understanding it's based on accelerated testing at the moment, rather than achieved lifetimes. Alec

Penetration depends a lot on species. In some species you do get full penetration - usually the ones which would last least well if untreated (which is obvious if you think about it, since where the penetrant can go, so can the water/fungi). The main problem is that Copper Chrome Arsenate (CCA) which was the highly effective preservative was banned a few years back. Commercially treated timber is still sometimes done with copper salts, but they aren't as well chemically fixed and tend to leach. Others are now using organic (as opposed to inorganic) chemicals which really don't last well at all. Alec

I would mill straight away - it won't season at all quickly in the round or with the bark on (could be decades). You want to remove all the sapwood as it doesn't last. It could be quite a wide band as in several inches, no need to remove it by hand or anything, just reckon on milling it off when you're working out your sizes. The alternative if you're not in a rush is to fell the tree and leave it lying on the ground where it falls for a year or two, after which the sapwood will have rotted away. Use them straight away or dry them for a bit - your choice. They will move around a bit as they dry, but this isn't precision stuff. Just watch whether the grain spirals as if it does they will twist with it, which could be a pain on close fitting gates. You could use the sweet chestnut, but at that size there's a risk of ring shake, so you may get nothing out of it. Sweet chestnut has the advantage of only about 3mm of sapwood and fairly thin bark so very little waste. It's about equally durable. Alec