agg221

OK, some more info. I've changed the two guide bearings, had the wheels off and checked the bearings, which are perfect. I put it back together, first five feet of 12" wide oak like a hot knife through butter, then jumped the band off forward again. Second band, set up and did about 20', then jumped at the very end of the board, but I caught it doing it. It's very odd - the band is rolling off at the top of the drive wheel where it feeds in. Either it's coming in slightly too far forward, or the wheel is tipping slightly forward. I tried rotating the wheel by hand, backwards and forwards, and with the band starting from properly on the wheel to starting to come off was 1/4 turn. Then after about 15 or 20 times doing this, suddenly it started tracking in the middle of the wheel. Of course it was dull by then but I checked it for true running and it did about another 8'. I then changed over to another band, which did about 20' and then snapped (it was an old band, so this doesn't worry me as such). Fourth band on and it would only track at the front of the wheel. After about 15' it jumped again and it is currently back to running right off the wheel again as above. Any ideas where to look for this intermittent fault? Fortunately I can resharpen the bands because otherwise I would have got through four bands for about 4cu.ft of timber, which is rather unrealistic! Alec

"Highly valuable black walnut tree" only applies if the figure anticipated is unrealistic. Very roughly, assuming the fence panels are 8' wide, it looks like there is room to drop about a 24' stick. This, conveniently, appears to be the height to where the branches spring, so the best bit. I doubt there is a good way to take a second length out, which would be inferior anyway. There is a bit of taper, but mid-girth looks like it would still be around 8'. This is convenient, as it suggests around 100 Hoppus feet. Price-wise, what counts for it is that it's a good size, clean and straight. What counts against is is that there is a single stick (not a full load) and there is a bit of spiral growth to it, although not too bad. No idea on local prices, but £4-6/Hoppus would seem realistic. There may be something going on under that depression in the bark, but it won't be shake (that's a crack which arises either during or after felling. It could be some localised decay, but I wouldn't expect it to spread very far. Alec

You get a pair of parallel faces pretty easily - rather than getting one perfect and then doing the other it seems to work better to take one face down to flat enough that it will always be in contact as it goes through, then flip the piece over and get the opposite face trued up against this. You can then choose which face to take defects out of until you reach the desired dimension. Getting the other pair of faces is similar, but getting the two pairs to come out with a decent 90deg corner is slightly fiddly if they don't start out that way. You are better off either running the corner to a good square through a saw, or you end up manually twisting the piece as it goes through, which is possible but a lot of work by eye. If I really wanted to I could make up a fence which slotted in over the two table ends (I have done this to make jig for planed feather-edge from sawn wedges and it works fine). You can't do a 6" x 6" as that is the biggest capacity of the thicknesser, so it couldn't be thicker to start with. The largest section I did where all faces were planed and I had to get a good square was 4"x3" x 13'. I did these by eye as I wanted to take out some gentle curves at the same time, which were longer than the table. They came out pretty straight. Alec

Trouble with that plan is that if you are providing the beer it will cost you more than a whole new stove, chimney and liner put together Alec

I only have the DW733 so I use it as a planer and a thicknesser. Obviously it doesn't have a fence for doing the sides of thin boards, but it has a long enough table to straighten things out against the knives so long as you don't try to take too deep a cut on a springy bit. No problems so far in about 10yrs. Capacity is 6" deep by 12.5" wide. Alec

I buy mine from here: Woodwork Projects shop I have given up buying western saws completely - the Huntley will deal with fully seasoned oak beams and the one which goes in the saw guide cuts perfect tenons. I bought three saws to do the extension - one heavy, one with the saw guide and one flush cut. After all the timber cutting, including a fully jointed roof, cutting 9off 6"x3" joists at each end and three large beams I have finally changed the blade on the one in the saw guide. The heavy one is getting near the end of its life but unfortunately this model is no longer available and I only have one blade left, so I am getting the most out of it. Still out-performs a standard hardpoint even now. Alec

Do you know the threads (pitch, diameter and form)? Alec

This. Now is a good time for milling as it will dry slowly through the winter and be less prone to surface cracking. Don't use a tarp as you want to leave the sides open to let the air through. Alec

Now cleared

Most beams from commercial suppliers seem to be cut from trees pretty close to the size of the biggest possible section achievable throughout the length. The curved offcuts are mainly sapwood and bark and the wastage is pretty minimal. When milling your own (as I did) you don't have so much choice over your timber. I did as you are suggesting, but cut the beam out first. Where possible, I then cut timbers with the bigger dimension radially from the tree. So, say I had a 2' top end diameter butt and wanted to get an 8" square beam out, this would mean I had a further 8" either side. Slabbing this off, then rotating it by 90deg and cutting into widths I would get either an 8" x 3", 2off 5" x 3" and 2off 4" x 3" or a 6" square and 2off 4" x 3". The deeper sections would be near quartersawn so more stable. You can see from above that the key thing is to get a full cutting list first (in my case I had to push my architect and engineer to complete this before they had even completed the detail drawings). I then copied out the sizes I needed (depth x width x length and number of each size) and wrote them out in a numbered list, in decreasing order of size. For each piece of timber I measured it and scanned down the list to the biggest section I could get out of it, cut it out and inspected it. When I found a defect which meant that it failed visual grading, I reassessed it to the biggest I could still get. I then numbered it on both ends, ticking it off of the list. This kept waste to an absolute minimum. I hung on to all the really outer sections too, even the ones which would have cupped badly. My design needed a lot of batten so I just batched up all these offcuts and ripped them down to size with a circular saw against the fence. So much better quality than the softwood cheese you get from the builders' merchants (although you do then need to use stainless nails). Hope these thoughts help. Alec

Not convinced that both halves of the top cover are original - I can't think of a good reason why the air filter cover would have lost that much more paint and suffered that much more corrosion than the front half (none of mine have). However they are both red so probably one or the other is. It looks like the front handle is painted white? If so, that's another sign that it's early, although I don't have any specific dates for this. Alec

Nope, Newmarket (Haverhole is CB9). Alec

The 090G was indeed similar to the Homelite gear drive. It was actually a 106cc saw (the 070) with the gear drive at the front, reducing the revs and increasing the torque to drive outsize bars, mostly 1/2" pitch (although there was a .404" option). There was also an unofficial 090G Super. This was an 090 (137cc saw) with the same thing done to it. They appear to have been converted by dealers in the US as all the labelling looks 'proper'. I would imagine there weren't many occasions where you really needed one though! Oh and there was also a 164cc 090, made in minute quantities as a test model. That one would have made milling interesting. Alec

Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?

By workbench do you mean general purpose tools and oily stuff etc? I have some cheap poplar which makes good tops as it is very stable and doesn't splinter but no idea how I would get it to you. I suggest you need a bandsaw mill for those butts - I think Delabodge hired one not far from you. Alec

Hi James, what sort of timber are you looking for and how much? Re. Milling, an idea on number, size and access would establish whether you need a band mill or chainsaw mill? Alec

It was the back of the blade which wore the groove. I think once it started it must have had a tendency to catch and jam - it looks like the band wheel also caught the ridge brought up on the surface so plenty of opportunities to create friction, slackening the band on the lead in. My experience is also that heavier bands make for smoother cutting on the wood, but it's a three-way thing between wood, band and wheels. With a light band and some thin wedges the machine drives, pulling the band under control at the cost of a bit of accuracy once the band has lost its initial perfect edge. With a heavier band, the cut is more accurate but the machine can't pull out any slight deviations so if it is thrown then it's scrap. I have both, but tend to run light bands when I am trying to figure out problems, heavy ones when the machine is working well as this is more cost-effective. Note, these are much lighter than Norwood or Woodmizer bands - they are 3/4" and the light ones are 0.6mm, heavy ones are 0.9mm cobalt steel. Alec

Did you hear about the report into HMRC published today? It was pretty damning of their current operation. Apparently they have well over six months backlog of unopened letters so I wouldn't hold out much hope yet - a written complaint appears to be the only way to get any action at the moment (it worked in my case). Alec

Well I stripped it down this evening. The bearings are sealed units and the main wheel bearings feel smooth with absolutely no play, however the guide wheel bearings may be the issue. They should be sealed units - first picture shows the back face (how they should look), second shows the front face which the band has been running on... Alec

Yes, that's Morus. You can see it in the slightly lobed leaves - very clear in the leaf at the bottom of the trunk in the second picture. Alec

Thanks for the thoughts. The wheel scrapers are set well and the wheels are free of sawdust and resin - they are also true (can check this against the scrapers). Set up is as good as I can get it - there isn't a manual as such. It is also very forgiving about working well with bands which have been thrown (so long as they are re sharpened), probably because they are so light. Bearings look like a strong candidate - I'll strip it down and take a look. Alec

Hi Steve, no it doesn't have rubber tyres - never has had though so this isn't a change. Alec

As per title - my Ripsaw bandmill has developed a nasty habit of throwing its bands forwards in the cut, grinding them into the casing. The bands are 3/4" wide - some light, some stiff. They are good quality (Tuffsaws) and run true. The saw is tracking fine, slightly to the rear of the pulleys. I have tried setting the tension on the correct setting or cranking it up as hard as I can with the saw still able to pull it - doesn't seem to make a difference. The pulleys are aluminium with rims on the front face - to throw the band forwards it is jumping the rim. The saw has started throwing the bands whilst milling. It does it intermittently, with new or old bands. Put the band back on, resharpen it and carry on and it may not do it again, or it may do it in six inches time. Anyone encountered this (maybe on a vertical bandsaw?) and more importantly does anyone have any ideas what might cause it and how to fix it? Yesterday was quite frustrating. Alec

If you had a way of milling it yourself then poplar makes good cladding for sheds, bases for trailers and other general purpose timber. It is not naturally durable when exposed to water but it lasts pretty well if it isn't left damp (there are poplar blades in cruck frames of over 800yrs old) and it takes up preservative very well. It also doesn't splinter and the grain and colour, whilst subtle, are quite pleasant. However, from a commercial perspective it is not a high value timber and there is unlikely to be demand for it, so you are not likely to sell either the log or the milled timber. As such, if you have a use for it yourself to do something from the above list, it would be cheaper to get this milled and use it than to buy in the timber - it would save you a good few hundred pounds over buying in some cheap softwood and do the same job just as well. If not, log it up for firewood. Alec

441 and 444 are ferritic grades. These have much lower expansion than the more 'normal' 304 or 316 (A2 or A4) austenitic grades. Expansion is comparable to mild steel. Specifically, coefficients of thermal expansion are (approximately, as they are non-linear): Grey cast iron: 11-15 Mild steel (and other carbon steels): 12-14 Ferritic stainless (400 series): 9-12 Austenitic stainless (300 series): 16-18 This is why I suggested the ferritic grades. Note, they are also usually a lot cheaper than the austenitics as they don't contain nickel. There are large quantities of them used in steam pipes and boiler parts in power stations (although these are usually 9-Cr, but I haven't previously been able to find a stockholder who carries this). The chromium gives corrosion resistance and good high temperature strength, niobium and titanium give creep resistance. Alec