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Hi Ed, Of the species you're getting, oak is the best choice for garden furniture - only reckon on the heartwood lasting, so either design for the bark/sapwood to fall off naturally, or remove it artificially. Mill the timber green - as fresh as possible. Firstly, that way it allows you to limit cracks starting from the end; secondly it lets it dry out from a larger surface area so it's quicker; thirdly, milling seasoned timber is much harder on the tools and on you. The rule of thumb for air drying is 1" thickness every six months. Note, air dried is perfect for outdoor use, but it is still too wet for stable indoor use. To use it indoors, either kiln it or cut it roughly to shape and bring it indoors for the same sort of time. Yes, it's very slow. It will dry faster indoors in winter as the central heating tends to keep the air dryer. How long you wait between milling and using depends a lot on what you're trying to do. If it's a rustic look piece of outdoor furniture, making it straight away and letting it naturally twist and move is fine. After all, this is how houses used to be built and many are still standing fine (mine included at a little over 500yrs old). If you want fine furniture, you don't want it moving at all, so get it as dry as possible before you touch it, then rough cut it, let it de-stress and then dry it again. The alaskan as a tool is best for thicker slabs - it's very wasteful on kerf. It's therefore worth keeping an eye out on the maple for burrs as these are worth slabbing thick and selling green for turning etc. There are lots more points on cutting pattern etc. but the above should get you started! Alec

Depends what you're trying to do. If you're running an 880 with a 42" roller-nose bar then you will get about 34" cut width. If it's a bit bigger, you can fit the 47" Duromatic bar and get about 42" cut width. If your butts are bigger than this then yes, being able to trim up the edges first will help, but you've got access to some serious trees if many of them are this size. If you're thinking of edging up after milling, the mini-mill will help if you're making a lot of beams. Alternatively this can be done by rolling the log and re-setting with a set-square to check it's true. It's very fiddly this way though for anything more than occasional use, so the mini-mill would definitely speed it up. If you're making more in the way of slabs/planks, and working near to electricity, a hand-held circular saw and a rail to run it alongside is much easier. I use an aluminium rail and fix it on with a couple of G-cramps. Once I've got everything with one true edge, I set the fence on the saw and rip to width. It's very quick and gives a clean, straight edge. A 9" saw will clear a 4" depth cut - I have a Makita one which has happily ripped down all my joists and rafters. I would recommend having a normal Skil type one as well though, with the 2.5" cut, as this is much lighter and easier to handle for planks. Some people resaw with a bandsaw, but I never have much luck with the smaller domestic ones and I work on my own so I'd rather move the saw than the wood as it's lighter! Alec

I would go with Rob D's suggestion, rather than backing off the trigger. The problem with backing off on the trigger is that the saw is not designed for this - it actually upsets the fuel air mix and makes it lean, which runs the risk of seizure, even though it doesn't overspeed. I know this sounds odd, but it is to do with the carb design sucking in a constant amount of air but varying the amount of fuel. A very expensive thing to find out the wrong way on a big saw. Alec

Definitely interested. It would be good if the site allowed for practical demos - this is an art which is often harder to explain than to show. Logistically this would also need suitable sawlogs. Achievable? Alec

Unless you've only got mixed 2-stroke available, use neat unleaded to swill out with, then tip it in the lawnmower. Alec

Some of the more commonly encountered species, such as oak and sweet chestnut, have carcinogenic sawdust. Shouldn't be a problem with big chips, but worth remembering when finer dust may be generated. Alec

Bad luck - I think it just shows they don't make 'em like they used to. BTW Geoff, if you get a chance, could you see if the air filter for the Allen Scythe is kicking around anywhere. It runs really nicely on Aspen, but less well when it sucks in a whole nettle... Alec

I fear so Geoff. Is now a good time to admit to being able to strip and rebuild the carb on a Vauxhall Nova in under 20mins, or to having set points (points? what are points? etc.....)

Not had problems with a common rail system (yet) - all my experience is drawn from older diesels. Current two are common rail though so I now have some new symptoms to remember. Alec

The thing that made me think it's less likely to be an injector is that it now won't run. If you crank it enough they'll normally fire on three, even when the injector is dodgy. Not advisable to do it for too long as it can burn out the piston crown, which is another possibility, although again I'd expect it to start but just run really badly. Alec

You don't necessarily see it. You only see this if the gasket has gone between water and oil galleries. The running pressure on diesels is so high that you can run for a fair while with only slight seepage. If you could get it started, you could undo the cap on the water bottle (before it gets hot) and watch the bubbles coming through. If you haven't got water level dropping though it's not the gasket. The timing can stretch, but it can't skip. In this case, I reckon Geoff's right and it would be worth investigating the electronic timing, which is a garage job. Alec

Yep, that's where I'm going too. If the water level is down it'll be head gasket, otherwise I reckon it's pump timing. Alec

White is unburnt fuel or water. Is the water level down? Alec

With the 066 they both had the same pot and piston, although early ones had no decomp on the Magnum. Alec

What colour was the smoke? Alec

I never had much luck with scissor traps. I prefer these: mole trap stainless | eBay You need to set them in pairs, one each way into the run, and you need to specify UK moles as they're a slightly different size to US ones, but I find they work really well if you follow the instructions and the moles don't bury under them like they do with the scissor ones. I start by stamping down all the molehills in an area - then wait overnight so I can see which run the mole is currently using. I then open out a bit of the run, working from a hole until I can clearly see it both directions, put in the traps and then cover over the exposed bit with a piece of paving slab, with earth around the edges to make sure it's dark. This is one of the down sides to the scissor traps - harder to cover effectively. If you do use the traps in the link, it's worth tying a bit of bright ribbon through the loop at the back. If they get moved around by the mole shoving earth up the mound, or ants move in, you can find the traps without risking your fingers. Alec

Do you mean MS660? If so, there may or may not still be any differences. The 066 vs. 066 Magnum are slightly different - the Magnum has a different exhaust muffler which is effectively ported (but I think this may now have been banned) and has the heavy duty crankshaft as standard. The 'porting' added an official 0.8hp and the crankshaft was uprated to take it. Alec

Are the posts crossing the waterline? If so, elm will rot out rapidly there. Oak or sweet chestnut would be better, or robinia would be best if you can find any. Alec

You may not have as many moles as you think. One mole can cause an enormous amount of damage - they can do something like 70ft an hour! There's a particular type of trap that I like - have had very good kill rates and took about 10 moles off two acres in a couple of weeks with four traps. I get the odd one coming back, but normally get it within a day or two. If you want details let me know. Alec

Hi Scottie, It wouldn't be surprising if the clamps were over 4ft apart. There are ways of working around this, but they may well not want to for a small one-off job. Did my PM reach you? (not sure if I got logged out in the middle of it). Alec

Some dimensions might help? Alec

I stuck in a few last year on our heavy clay - 1yr old whips which were already 4ft high. They made up to 4ft growth last year, so I think they're happy enough. But, they're not seedling ones, which are always a bit random. I went for selected clones, which also means I should get decent sized nuts and when they ultimately get to coppicing size I can rotate them to make sure I always get some nuts/some timber. The majority of breeding/selection seems to be in France but some varieties were trialled in Ireland, which is a reasonably similar climate to yours. The results are summarised here: Research into walnut and chestnut varieties suitable for cultivation in Ireland Be aware that many of the varieties listed are grafted, which makes them nut-production only as they can't be coppiced. The ones which are grown on their own roots are Marigoule, Marlhac, Maraval and Marsol. I opted for Marigoule and Marlhac. They are very expensive in the UK, but not in France and there were no issues over importing them as bare-root whips in winter. I got mine from Pepinieres Coulie: Pépinières Coulié Tree Nursery - Chestnut Trees - Walnut Trees - Ornamental Plants - Truffle Trees They were very helpful and we managed to communicate in English (fortunately for me!). The trees were well packaged and absolutely top quality. Alec

The only thing I'd add to David and Gollum's comments are the importance of cleanliness and good sealing. Clean everything off with a bit of soap and water before you start (stock and scion) and keep the knife clean too (and very sharp - you want to cut the tissue without bruising it). Sealing over the cuts is important to stop them drying out, and the easiest way usually is to use strips of polythene. It might be a bit tricky with this shape, but probably weaving the strip over/under as you go round will do it. You don't need to buy tape - cut strips off a heavy duty plastic bag, around an inch to an inch and a half wide and lock them by winding over the top of the previous turn, then tuck under the last one. I take it you have rabbit problems? Alec

Yes, but did you fully diagnose what caused the first one to fail? Failure due to poor quality is simple wearing out. Failure due to air leaks, poor fuel, damaged air filter etc. won't be cured by fixing the symptoms. Not meaning to suggest that you didn't check the above, and yes some of the non-genuine parts were previously very poor quality. The ones from gardenhirespares and MisterSolutions have both been pretty decent. Meteor ones are also pretty decent if you can get them. Alec