agg221

You might struggle with poplar. It is probably less popular than it deserves to be - no particular grain or colour unless you get some ripple in there but it is a nice general purpose wood, similar hardness to spruce but much lighter and either takes preservative well (good for shed cladding) or is good for indoor use including rough floors as it doesn't splinter. Someone had a board from me recently to use as a worktop in a van they are converting - it will hardly add anything to the weight! If you can't find any other takers you could try Helmdon Sawmill - they use a fair bit. Alec

Felix - have you seen this one? https://www.onthemarket.com/details/1305459/ Alec

If you set up your notifications to notify you of a PM through your normal email address, you get a copy of the content of the message in the notification. This means you don't have to move it - just don't delete it from your email folder. So long as your email is fully text searchable (e.g. Outlook) then you can find things again so long as you can remember a keyword. It doesn't deal with messages you send, but they are probably less important to keep long term? Alec

Yes, it does, but then this is the fourth time we have had things stolen since we have lived here and we know people sneak round and look at what they might be able to take. There isn't anything here now that anyone would be likely to want - it has all gone elsewhere if it isn't in daily use. I will increase security (again) but there is only so much you can do. I'm sure the driver was trying to be helpful, but unfortunately it isn't safe to do that here - in reality the fault lies with the thief, and they are the person who is going to get away with it (again). Alec

An update. The driver has admitted that he forged the signature and just left the parcel. Not sure how the cycle of reimbursement now works, but at least I should now get my money back. Alec

Thanks for the thoughts - to address the questions above: Parcelforce have a 'signature' on a screen (we have a screenshot) and it looks nothing like either of ours. We can get statements from independent people (colleagues) to say where we were at the time - no CCTV in place there though. A passing neighbour or similar would have resulted in a note saying 'with neighbour', not a note saying 'side door'. We did not leave instructions as to what to do if we were out, so my understanding is the default position is that they try our neighbours (they usually do) or take it back to the depot (annoying as it's 20 miles away, but better than not having it. Unfortunately I am in Essex and the seller is in Bristol, so it would probably cost me more to hire some rough men for the day and take them down there than I am going to recover (unless they fancy a day out to the seaside at Weston Supermare of course). Alec

I bought a metal detector on Ebay last week. The seller packed and sent it by Parcelforce - I have a tracking number. I got home yesterday and found a card through the door with 'Side door' written on it. There was no sign of a parcel by the side door. Checking with Parcelforce, they say that delivery was made at 13.33 and signed for by M.Gunner - there is a screenshot of a signature. They gave me a tracking number and I have confirmed that this is for the metal detector. I am A.Gunner, my wife is M.Gunner. We were both at work at the time. I was 15 miles away, my wife was 40 miles away. Coincidentally we were both in meetings with colleagues who could confirm this. The seller is suspicious that I have received it and am trying it on. I am significantly out of pocket. It is the Parcelforce driver's fault. So far as Parcelforce and the seller are concerned, they have proof of delivery so it is not their problem. Having checked a few forums, it appears unlikely that Paypal will award in my favour as they won't review the evidence deeply enough and will simply accept that 'there is a signature'. How do I take this forward? Alec

Looks like The Village Idiot has switched over to his summer gear then... Alec

Yep - I have one of those, sat in the shed, with about half a day's work lined up (would equate to about two days with an Alaskan) and when I figure out why it is not working (throwing bands) and fix it, it will be great again, as it is whenever it is working. In the meantime it is sitting there waiting..... Alec

I wouldn't want to drawbore in something that fine. Have you cut all slots yet? If you have only cut the slots one way (for the long stretchers) I would be inclined to take them right through and then locate the slots for the short stretchers above them, again right through. That way, you can put your pegs pretty much in the middle of the face and use a couple of 16mm pegs in each joint. If you cut the tenons slightly long, you can trim the ends off once pegged. If you have already cut the stretcher mortices both ways, or your stretchers are too short to do as above, I would go with 10mm pegs but not drawbore them in. 10mm will be quite fragile so I would do as Andrew suggests and make a plate with 13mm to 10mm holes in 0.5mm increments. When making pegs through a dowel plate, don't worry if a bit rips off the face of the peg every now and again - they will work fine and it won't show at all so long as most of the material is still there around the full circle at the end points. If you are drawboring, you will need to taper the peg quite heavily on one side to get it in - you may need to be as much as 3" over length - 2" extra to drive in and 1" to get chewed up by the mallet and sawn off neatly. Alec

Yes - that would help a lot - I would imagine even more so for smaller pegs where it is easy to snap them if you are off line. With 1" or 3/4" though I don't think I could face drilling that many holes in steel plate - it would probably cost more more in drill bits than was worth it Alec

Do you happen to know the sizes? The early 044 had a 10mm pin, the later one was 12mm, so it is possible that if you fit an early type piston you wouldn't need the bush? Alec

I drill a hole the size I want in a piece of steel plate. I then choose a straight grained piece of wood and cut it a couple of inches longer than I want the dowels and split it into blocks with the grain, sort of square-ish and the size I want. I use a froe, but before I had one I used to use a blunt chisel (I think I found a scrap one and ground it from the back to make more of a taper point than a bevel). I then trim a point on the end of a blank, to give a lead in to the hole and bang it into the hole to mark the circle. I then trim some of the excess off, trying to 'peel' it up the grain away from the marked end, to make it close-ish to round and to size. I then bang it right through the hole. The sharp edge peels off the remainder of the excess and it sort of compresses the fibres. If you use the peg pretty much straight after it will then swell back up again and lock even tighter. Unless what you are doing is particularly small, I would look at whether you can use 12mm pegs - they are a lot stronger, easier to make and less prone to snapping off when banging them in, just before you get them properly home.... Alec

Do you have them to hand? If so, what are the codes stamped on the bar and the chain drive links? Alec

One option is to find someone local who is the equivalent of me (or my mum near Dartford) who will always take chip, as much as there is, and doesn't mind what it is. I can handle around 100 tons a year and if there was ever more than I could take, my neighbours would have it. Mum can use about 40 tons a year, which she moves with a shovel and a wheelbarrow! I'm using it to improve moisture retention on an arable field, Mum is using it as mulch around trees. You could well find that local allotment societies will take it for the same reason. Alec

Cheers! Yes Paul, it is the sycamore. The photo doesn't really do it justice with all the pinks, greens and browns that are in there but I will try to get some better pictures when I Wykabor it - I just grabbed that one this morning as the surface was wet. Alec

A productive few hours over the weekend:

I think the new saying may go something like "oak before ash, Chalara fraxinea". Alec

I use the Gransfors file and diamond stone on my axes. They should be touched up little and often (like a chainsaw) so you don't need to remove lots of material. Alec

I would do it now. It is the later end of the season but if stacked out of the sun it should be fine. The worst you might get is a few surface checks which won't matter for outdoor furniture. Leave it longer and there is more risk of deeper shakes developing which are more likely to go where you don't want them. Alec

I used to use a 47" Duromatic on my mill (before that particular bar and powerhead were stolen). This was with an 076. I think it depends to an extent on the saw - more modern saws with higher revs suffer more as the chain passes faster so there is more friction and more heat build-up, whereas older saws with lower revs and more torque result in less heat build-up. That said, with the 076 I found it beneficial to add a bit of oil to the bar nose when the saw was resting in the cut and an auxiliary oiler would have been a good idea. Alec

Assuming these are not grafted trees, about 4-5yrs old is when they are likely to start to flower. Alec

How large are the biggest bits? Alec

Hi David - I read the thread which was interesting but also confirmed that I know very little about mycology Bearing in mind this was over 25yrs ago, my recollection is as follows: On the Annie Elizabeth shown, the fruiting bodies were concentrated at the base of the trunk, on the tension side. The branch shown currently supported would have been around 2' lower at the time. The presence of dysfunctional roots is therefore a possibility. On the Newton Wonder the fruiting bodies were also adjacent to the trunk. This tree showed no sign of movement due to wind, but may have experienced a ground level change at some point - if so the soil would have been raised around a foot about 40yrs earlier when a Nissen hut was erected. There was some significant decay in the trunk at the then ground level, so there was material available. Vigour in both trees was poor. There was a lot of blossom but almost zero extension growth. That said, up until 1988 there was effectively no extension growth on any of the trees, no pruning having taken place for many years and the crowns having become a twiggy mass. However by the time they were being treated they would have had some pruning undertaken, probably over a couple of years. From what I recall the Newton Wonder was showing some extension growth but the Annie Elizabeth was not, specifically compared to the adjacent Annie Elizabeth (shown in the other pictures) which was making modest extension growth. After treatment, the trees made good extension growth. I can be fairly confident that this was not arising from the remains of adjacent dead/removed trees. The Newton Wonder had Comice pears on both sides, and a Worcester Pearmain nearby. The whole line was complete so no trees would have been removed since the Nissen Hut was erected. There would have been a tree at some point about 20ft to one side of the Annie Elizabeth but we have re-planted in that area and found no remains, so it is reasonable to presume that it had gone a long time previously. Also the fruiting bodies were only present right against the trunks of the affected trees and treatment was only applied adjacent to the affected trees, which eradicated the Armillaria, all indicating that the source had been treated. I don't think there is enough to go on to be definitive, but looking back my view is that, in an orchard with many trees on weak rooted dwarf stock, they would have been very vulnerable had Armillaria spread, unless it happened to be a purely saprophytic species. Even gallica is regarded as a weak pathogen which in this case may be strong enough to kill trees on dwarf stock, or sufficiently weaken the root system that they fail. As such, I would still be inclined on balance to eradicate it (were a suitable treatment still available) and risk local damage to the soil ecosystem, on the grounds that recolonisation with beneficial agents from the surrounding soil should be fairly rapid, whereas negative spread would be equally rapid and probably far more damaging. Alec

Afraid I don't have a magic solution - I'm aware of the pros and cons but in this case it was the combination of saving this tree and also not having it run rampant through the orchard. Also worth noting that 25yrs ago thinking was rather different, particularly in our case. I would have been around 16 and neither Dad or I had any experience to draw on. There was no internet so basically you read the fruit books to work out what problem you had, saw the dire warnings around honey fungus, walked into the local agricultural merchants (this is pre- PA1) and asked what they had that you could dose it with David - no idea which Armillaria it was - the ID books I had available at the time just said 'honey fungus, very bad!' As I recall, the Armillatox was quite expensive at the time and we did wonder if it was worth it, but it seems to have paid off Alec