agg221

Younger daughter then wanted one too, but she didn't want a heart on the end, she wanted a butterfly:

Elder daughter then wanted one so I made this:

I have fancied having a go at spoon carving for a while and got the chance to have a play at the spoon workshop at Wierd & Wonderful Wood. Made this:

Bark can be a useful part of the whole but elm morphology is complex. Richens' papers of the '50s to '70s provide the best guide to consistent features and how to interpret them but he eventually concluded that in regions where different strains are present you end up with a continuum of features. This supports the view of strains of a common species (U.minor) rather than distinct species. Hence the need for multiple feature analysis. I don't fancy trying to measure Ra on an elm leaf - I don't fancy trying to get a baseline! Alec

We went on Saturday. Really good as always - the daughters did a lot of the activities while I whittled a spoon (that is one seriously addictive hobby!). Daughters went for mint choc chip. Alec

You could try starting by identifying a school which runs a Forest School. They are usually very keen to have extra help, you would be under their insurance and they will do the CRB check. Other option would be the local Scouts which will do the same thing. Alec

Corky wings are standard on the English Elm strain. Leaves can vary depending on local growing conditions but it may be a hybrid with another U.minor. Less likely to be a hybrid with U.glabra as the leaves do not look as big as this usually produces. Alec

My elder daughter got invested into Beavers on Monday. They would love something like that. Should make for a very rewarding evening. Alec

Dimensions would be useful to assess how long it will take and hence cost. Location would also be useful. Milling will create lots of sawdust and however careful you are some will blow around and be left. You will minimise damage to the ground if you mill fully where it lies with an Alaskan and carry sections out. If you want fairly thick section (2" or more) I wouldn't worry about trying to use some chainsaw/some bandsaw but if if you want thin boards eg floorboards I would break it down with the Alaskan and then band mill the sections to reduce waste. Alec

Any idea on lengths on these? I have to head that way at some point soon so may be able to do it if nobody closer does - just trying to size up how much of a day it would take. Alec

Is this the post you are referring to? http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/tree-health-care/78411-anyway-dodge-elm-disease-2.html Interesting that the tree which failed was Z.carpinifolia - would explain why it had previously been mis-identified as a hornbeam. Alec

I will try to find some holes Welding thin 316 is not difficult. I am not the world's best welder, but I am pretty good at it - I have run a whole load of seams in 1mm 316, both in butt and corner lap configuration. Some of the butt welds were unsupported freehand across about a foot and I managed not to burn holes and where I did, to fill them in again. Finding a nuclear coded welder is harder, but you don't need one for this. If you just want a fabricator I can find you one who is very reasonable if you want me to drop you a number (they're near Newmarket but if this is to be trailable it shouldn't be a problem). Dished ends are good, but the fundamental problem here is that the heating in a horizontal barrel design is non-uniform. This creates differential stresses, it has to go somewhere and so it warps it. Extra strength does not help you enough as the material is too thin to resist the stresses. Graham, I would be very happy to come over and see your set-up. I can even try to explain what I am on about in English! Alec

Check the clamps on your uprights. I suspect you will find that on one the scale on the upright is against the wedge behind the U of the U-bolt, the other against the cross-brace. These are at different heights, hence even if you keep the mill flat to the log you will get a wedge. If so, you need to turn one of the uprights round (if you still have the instructions you can see this marked up, but it will probably be the outboard one, since the inboard one has the skid on and is harder to get wrong). Alec edit: just noticed this is the small log mill, so a single upright. Suggests you are pushing down too hard on the powerhead, causing the bar nose to lift.

That's bigger than even I can do - I'm limited to just over 80" throat! Need some pictures when you do that one. Alec

OK, 97cm width determines the mill size you will need. A 36" mill is actually 34" throat, so won't quite go through. You would need a 42" bar minimum to get full capacity. You could skim a couple of inches off each side at the widest point, losing only bark and sapwood, but rolling it several times to do this with a mill will be painful unless you have access to a teleporter or a tractor and chains. Personally, I would skim this off with a side axe in less time than it would take to fiddle about rolling it, but it depends on whether you have one/can use it. The alternative is a 48" mill which, with a 46" bar will just about clear, although you might need to knock off a bit of bark here and there. Either way, to mill this you need over 100cc. You could do it with an 070, 076, 084, 088 (880) or 090. I would only bother with the smaller top sections if they grew pretty much vertically - otherwise there will be a lot of reaction wood in them. That said, if you are making the owners a rustic type picnic bench then these would be ideal for making the legs and seat boards from, as it doesn't matter if they move around a bit and it will save more of the better grade timber for larger boards. The longer, straighter ones (e.g. Section 2 if it's straight) could be used to make 6"x6" or 8"x8" gateposts. As to what to make - it depends on who is selling it and for what. With an Alaskan, I wouldn't bother with less than 2" or you will be making a lot of sawdust. You could mill at 2" which will plane up for tables, 2.5" which, if removed to someone with a bandsaw and rapidly re-sawn to half thickness will make 1" finished size floorboards. You could mill some 3" slabs too. I wouldn't bother with thicker than this unless you are making a beam, and I would only do this if I knew someone who wanted the exact size I was making, otherwise the risk is that you make the wrong section relative to length for building regs. As your first go at milling, I wouldn't try quartering it, just go through and through. Also bear in mind that there is a lot of work here and to make the best use of the tree is an art. Just because you don't need a ticket for milling doesn't mean there isn't a lot to learn and the difference between good and bad is both in yield and quality. A good miller will charge more but this will be more than paid for in extra timber. One option would be to get someone in and work with them to see how it's done. Whereabouts are you? Alec

It won't be chain oil in the casing, otherwise it would be the down stroke that was difficult and taking the plug out wouldn't help. I wonder whether it is mix having leaked past from the crankcase into the top end, which is a risk with the horizontal design. If so, pouring a bit of neat petrol down the plug hole, swilling around and tipping out should clear it out. If you let it evaporate off for 10mins or so afterwards then it should be clear. I had something similar once - after quite a few pulls the problem went away and I never did figure out what the problem had been as the saw was then stolen. If you pull it over really hard, as in grab the handle and go for it, can you get it to pull over or does it just try to wrench your arm off? If you can do it, that's how I started mine in the end and once it was running it was fine from then on. Yes there is a tapped hole for a decompression button. If you look in the end of the barrel where the plug goes you will see three holes. One will have a bolt head showing, which is what can be taken out and a button fitted. It is interchangeable with the one for the 051. Alec

I hadn't viewed this thread since TVI's original comments on his kiln. There are some materials questions which have come up where I can offer some thoughts. There are several different failure mechanisms here, the key ones being creep, corrosion and differential thermal stress. Ideally you would use a thin section so the more corrosion and creep resistant it is, the better as you can then afford to go thinner. Thermal conductivity is also important since it will lead to better efficiency. Creep is the simplest. This is a temperature/service stress related mechanism. Stress here is minimal (it isn't a pressure vessel) so the ultimate service temperature probably applies. For continuous service, mild steel only takes 425degC (540degC excursions) so is not strong enough, whereas 316 stainless steel takes 815degC. Even this isn't high enough for the hot side, so higher strength materials such as 9% chromium steels with molybdenum and other alloying additions, as used in state of the art high pressure steam piping at 650degC might be better. Corrosion here is not straightforward. The inside of the retort is a reducing atmosphere. The outside could be anywhere from moderately oxidising to moderately reducing, depending on the fuel/air mix. This is fairly benign, so a highly oxidation resistant alloy would not be needed. The outer wall of the firebox is the most oxidising part of the system. Loss of section would therefore probably be fairly low even in an unalloyed steel (as evidenced by the reasonable service life in mild steel ring kilns) but a higher alloy would increase durability. However, there will be some acidic corrosion between firings, due to byproducts from the wood. This suggests a corrosion resistant surface would be useful, potentially coated. The environment is fairly similar to a bio-fired power station so thermally sprayed corrosion resistant coatings over a high alloy steel may be suitable, or alternatively the use of an iron/chromium/aluminium alloy may be an option as it also gives very good high temperature strength. Differential thermal expansion is the hardest to overcome. As the material heats up, it expands. If one part is heated more than another, the expansion causes stress which usually results in distortion of both the heated and unheated part. When it cools down, it doesn't go back to the original shape. These stresses can be enormous - we have looked at heat exchanger designs which can literally blow themselves apart with an internal temperature differential as low as 100degC. How much is determined by its coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Different materials will expand to different extents; the higher the CTE, the greater the expansion. This depends on the internal microstructure of the material - mild steel and other alloy steels are ferritic with a CTE of 12, whereas ordinary stainless steels are austenitic with a CTE of 17, which makes the problem worse. Coincidentally, most ceramics, including brick and concrete, have a much lower CTE (between 4 and 10) which is why they don't blow themselves apart in kilns. Overcoming differential thermal expansion is a combination of material selection and design. If you heat a kiln such as the Exeter from below you will get significant temperature differences between the top and bottom of the retort. More even heating, and design of supports to enable movement could help. The Hookway retort has a lot going for it in terms of minimising the above effects, although I am not sure whether this is by luck or design. The upright design makes heating around the structure more uniform; heating through the centre means the hoop stresses are minimised as the hottest 'tube' is the smallest diameter, and the use of a single heated tube means only one part needs to be made of a material with good high temperature strength - the outer wall can probably be mild steel as it won't typically exceed its stress limits, potentially with a high temperature coating to limit corrosion. I'm not sure how well it would scale up on diameter, but some Masters students at Sheffield did some thermal modelling on a horizontal version to increase efficiency. This should also make it modular, to allow heat from one unit to initiate the next. I have spotted some suitable tube which I am trying to scrounge and I then intend to give it a go. Alec

You haven't said how big it is. For the furniture to look in proportion the thickness and area should tie up. Rob D has posted a very good 'how to' for picnic benches made from 3" slabs but if it's smaller then scaling down to 2" will look better. You say it's for outdoor use. Be aware that a lot of the attraction of yew is the colour and the contrast between sapwood and heartwood, but the colour will quickly go and the sapwood isn't durable, so indoor furniture is a better bet if these matter. Alec

I have applied the principle once - was probably about 40ft, two pieces for use on a barn, done with an Alaskan. In practice, I suspect the section you would need when building regs are involved may be extremely large, making it impractical, but if I am wrong I suspect the best bet would be to make some of the local independent architects aware of the capability, as the challenge is probably raising awareness of the capability, such that people specify them. Alec

If you are prepared to put in a bit of time, the railways sleepers would definitely find a new home. What species are the tree trunks, how big and in what condition? From the picture, it looks like some could be a decent diameter so these may be worth someone's effort to mill if the species is useful (oak for example would still probably be in good condition). Alec

What does it smell like? If the last one smells vinegary I would guess iroko. Alec

A lot depends on personal taste. Ash would be lighter coloured than oak, beech more red-toned etc. All the suggestions made so far will be hard wearing and durable. If you still have that milled ash it would come out quite well by now I reckon Alec

For a 3ft bar you definitely want over 100cc or it will be very slow going. Do you want new or old? If new, the MS880 is probably the best option (some people like the Husqvarna 3120 but it less popular for this in general). If old, the 070 and 076 are good options - good parts availability. The 084 has some obsolete parts and I wouldn't go for an 090 unless you want to go for a bigger mill as you get very little increase in cutting speed on 3ft but it is a lot more thirsty. The MS660 is excellent for up to 18" width (25" bar) - not noticeably slower cutting and a lot more economical on fuel. You can always break down the log with the big saw and bar, then swap over for taking boards. Alec

This works well in principle but I am just old enough to remember it not working well in practice when tried in the 1980s recession, but I can't remember why it failed. The irony is though that, if you run the activity on the equivalent of minimum wage, paid by the state, it is directly equivalent to a public sector job...! Alec

Agreed, it can only be this way around, however what has typically happened previously is that the public sector has had neither the peaks nor the troughs of the private sector - typical settlements were 2.5% from 2002-2008, compared with nearer 5% in the private sector. Historically, this would have been countered by continuing modest rises during the recession, outstripping the private sector and it would have closed the gap and all come right in the end. In practice, the 2009 rise (2.3%) at the same time as the private sector was contracting was seized on in 2010 with a lot of aggressive manipulation, designed to turn private sector workers against public sector workers. With the Conservatives, it goes well beyond the necessary into the ideological, as evidenced by the raising of pension contributions without reviewing the value of the pension pot first. Alec