agg221

This I think is the problem - it's the unavailability of the handful of parts which aren't interchangeable, most notably the coil. Also, for some reason which I'm not sure of, despite the fact that you can buy a good quality non-OEM pot and piston for an 076, 070 or 090 you can't get one for the 084/088, so it's genuine every time which makes them more expensive to run for milling on average. Don't forget, this is running the saw hard for whole days, as compared to getting it out for the big fell/ringing up every now and again, so it gets a lot more wear. Conveniently, the bar mount pattern is interchangeable across all the big (100cc+) Stihl models, even the Contra. Alec

14" width, 9" depth, which is big enough for most things. I have used it for milling a lot of boards, and dimensioned timber for the extension, both of which it does with ease. I reckon it does a 12" width x 20' long cut in oak in about 2mins, with a kerf of about 1mm. It will do about 6 boards like that to a tank of fuel in the 044 that powers it. It's a lot more temperamental than a chainsaw mill though and on a bad day it will eat saw bands. Alec

Yes - not exactly its most pleasant feature! Alec

Funnily enough, there is a well priced 088 up at the moment on Arbtrader..... Of your list, personally I would go with the 076. All will do the job though. The Husky is fine, and will pull a big bar, but people generally seem to prefer Stihls for milling (don't really know why). The Dolmar would worry me on parts availability. The 084 has certain parts which I believe are NLA. The 076 still has full parts availability, both OEM and aftermarket decent quality, which on a working saw is significant. I run one for most milling, although I did stick the 090 on Burrell's 4' bar for quartering the big lump of oak this weekend and it chewed through it in a more determined and unstoppable way! Alec

I like stickers about an inch wide by say 5/8" thick. I place them every 2' or thereabouts and place the first set about 1' in from the end. I wouldn't worry about painting the ends at this point - if you were going to do this it would be better while it was still in the round. Alec ps - we need pictures!

Green or dry? Alec

Good to see the pics, although I'm not sure I wanted reminding just yet of some of it, particularly being coated in sawdust from the mini-mill - my wrists ache too but at least the cramping up has stopped. Only thing I think isn't shown in the pics is running the 090 on the 4ft bar straight up the middle of that bottom section. Only fitted with 1/2" to spare. The winch would have been good on that one, just haven't got round to fitting it yet. Did you get any pics/video of the Ripsaw in action (or video of the mini-mill)? Alec

Aspen from the dealer is now more like £18 if you're just buying 5l. For context, yesterday's milling (oak tapering from 4' to 3' x 20' long, taken into a mix of 2", 2.5" and a couple of 3") was done on about 15l of fuel in the end. The idifference between Aspen and pump fuel would have been about £30, but with no risk of damaging big saws from dodgy pump fuel, and I don't have a bad headache or feel ill the day after. Alec

Excellent detailing. Wish you were closer as I need something doing in that sort of style. Alec

Hi Neil, If your oak logs are under about 28" then I would start by buying a 48" mill, ripping chain to fit your 36" bar and the grinder. This will get you going and let you try it out. You will find a lot of threads on here in the milling section which give good advice on different ways of cutting up a log to get the most out of it, so it's worth using the search function or browsing through. If you haven't already decided what to do with your oak once you've milled it, it's worth doing this before cutting it up, as it determines what thickness to go for. You will also need something to act as a rail to run your first cut down - most people use a ladder which works fine if you want to go to 10-12' or so. There are also rail systems available, but these can wait until you have made a start. Alec

As per RHS, but I prefer to do it once the leaves are off as I can see the structure more clearly. I don't prune in heavy frost (or snow) and tend to do the trees which I want more vigorous structural growth from earlier, the ones where I want more even bud break (ie more aiming for fruiting) later. Alec

You need an Alaskan Mark III mill - with an 880 I would go for the 48" model as you can run them with a shorter bar, which is easier than extending the mill late. What bars do you have? To try it out, the standard Stihl 47" Duromatic will work OK but if you buy bars for milling go for a roller or sprocket nose as it takes less power from the saw and the hard nose heats up more easily which also messes up chain tension. Bolting the mill to the bar you lose the length of the dogs, the sprocket and an inch for the clamp at each end, so typically your maximum cut is 7-8" less than your bar length. You need a ripping chain. Opinions vary but the Granberg chain is reckoned by many to cut slightly faster and leave a slightly better finish. It is however more expensive. For milling you need all teeth to be identical and dead sharp, which you can't do by hand. The Granberg precision grinder is good for this and can be used without taking the chain off. You can find all the above at Chainsawbars ? chainsaw chains, chainsaw bars and chainsaw accessories - run by Rob D who is the same seller as you've found on eBay and is also on this forum. Alec

Agreed. Elm is also good underwater, as is pitch pine. The best at the waterline, ie your posts, would be greenheart or purpleheart. Rob D had some greenheart - not sure if he has any left though. British Waterways use both for lock gates, so I would start with them and find out if you can get hold of some reclaimed sections - they will be well oversize so you would need to get them resawn. I would use oak for the bridge itself as it will last well and be suitably native. I wouldn't worry too much if it was green or seasoned, just design to cope. Alternatives would be robinia (which would also be OK for the posts) or sweet chestnut, but I would want to reduce the span for either of these. A 15ft span sounds OK, but I would want to design the structural members carefully. It either needs to be a structural deck with side rails applied, or structural side frames with a deck, forming effectively a U-channel. The latter would allow you to use smaller, lighter timbers but would require more care in the design. Alec

OK, can you see a row of yellow boxes near the top of the page - the first one is 'Home'? If so, the last one should be 'Quick Links'. Click on this and 'private messages' should be an option. I don't know on the issues you're having with the box on the top right I'm afraid. Alec

OK, scroll to the very top of the screen. Against the red background on the right hand side is some text which starts 'Welcome, Gazunited.' On the fourth line it says 'private messages'. Alec

I'm with Landrover 101 on this - the symptoms are very similar to those I had earlier this year on the Volvo. In my case it got really bad and would stall if you tried to pull more fuel through - limping it to the garage down busy A-roads at no more than 40 with it randomly stalling when you tried to go up longer hills was memorably unpleasant. It could be the filter itself, but I would also check the fuel lines and the housing - anywhere that could have got constricted over time. Alec

Yes, that is what I mean. If you go to the top right hand corner of the screen and click on 'private messages' you will have an option down the right hand side menu of 'send new message'. If you start entering their username in the 'to' box then it gives you auto-complete options. Big J (Jonathan) runs a small milling operation in Scotland and has some very nice stuff. Charles Hey happens to have a rather nice stock of ash and oak which he may be looking to sell - I know because someone else on here (Burrell) and I milled it for him! Alec

THE book is Chainsaw Lumbermaking by Will Malloff. A classic, but really useful. Alec

You could try dropping Charles Hey or Big J a PM. Neither are close but sending on a pallet by courier works out OK. Alec

I think it's the 'must be kilned' bit which will limit your supply a little. Not many of the people on here have kilns - with exceptions such as Big J who is on a rather larger scale than most of us. For example - I'll shortly have some 6'x7' stuff with really interesting grain, but there is no chance of kilning it - I'll be lucky just to lift it! Alec

Yes, on both the topics which are running in parallel on this thread. On the more recent topic - which is effectively the motivation of those for whom benefits form their whole source of income. I don't think there is a simple answer. It's pretty apparent that there are those who view it as a lifestyle choice. There are others who are willing to work but cannot find employment (the 'deserving poor'?). The latter undoubtedly has a geographical skew - coincidentally I have a few people based at a subsidiary site in Middlesbrough, where the study was performed and go up once every month or so. It is nothing like the run down area it once was, but it is also not the most economically secure either. There are, however, a whole load of other categories. There are those who are physically unable to work, and conversely those who society, and certainly any potential employer, would be better off if they didn't show up to 'work'. There is also an economic argument - for example if you have two children under 5 who would need childcare you are better off not working if your salary would be under about £22k, or higher if you have transport costs to consider, even if you don't claim any benefits. There is also a whole emerging economic sub-class as a consequence of the combination of the extended poor economic climate (rising inflation, static wages), tax changes and societal change in respect of family units. This has, to a large extent, been concealed by the unprecedented low in interest rates. It relates to the issue of making calculations based on income rather than disposable income. What were perfectly reasonable commitments when made can rapidly become otherwise. For example, as credible case (which isn't real, but is drawn from elements of some people I know), consider the circumstances of a man who got divorced leaving his wife caring for two children in, say, 2006. He moved in with a new partner with two children from a previous relationship. She works in the public sector as a senior nurse on £25k per annum, he now earns £60k per annum. He pays maintenance to his ex-wife at £8k per annum. He and his new partner have bought a house together with a mortgage of 2.5x joint income (after deductions) - so call it £180k, which gives repayments of £900 per month. All the above is sensible and modest. However, tax changes and pensions changes will have cut their total household income by about £3k per annum, whilst their costs will have gone up 3.5% per annum on average. They are therefore now likely to be struggling. If mortgage rates double, to a modest 7% (we got 7.2% when we bought in 2000) they will be sunk. They could of course sell up in theory, but in many parts of the country they could not buy anything 3bed for much less. They also may have negative equity and hence have no choice. The above does not excuse theft, but it is designed to illustrate that pressure is felt across the spectrum and people genuinely do end up in circumstances where on the face of it they should be 'well off' but in reality they are not when it comes to disposable income. It therefore may go some way to explaining the causes of the behaviour. On the original point of the thread, everything belongs to someone. Some things are, in the eyes of their owner, rubbish. These things can often be taken away with the permission of the owner being gratefully given. Other things are wanted by their owner, it just isn't immediately obvious that this is the case. The only way to find out is to ask - you might be surprised who says yes. Alec

I wouldn't take my figures as typical - I'm not in a rush so I wait until something suitably priced shows up. I paid £98 for the saw and stuck a cheap (£45) pot and piston on - the cheapest I could find on ebay. I think I even stuck the original plug back in, it fired up and ran, so I left it alone! It was before I had stripped a carb and to be honest before I had a good understanding of where air leaks came from. These days my approach would be a little more thorough, including the carb kit and a new plug. In my case, the pot was unequivocally shot, due to lumps of piston ring being embedded in it. In your case, I would take the piston out and see if the plating is damaged in the bore. If so, replace; if not, clean it up and put a rather better quality piston in, such as a Meteor. Since I did mine, I have picked up two secondhand OEM pot and piston sets for 044s. Both have one lug of the pot cracked off, but I can weld this back together. I think I paid about £15 each inc. p&p, but I took a chance there was nothing else wrong, and am able to carry out the repair. I think Spud is away at the moment, but he's still very much in business so far as I'm aware. Probably worth dropping him a PM. Alec

I bought a seized 044 from ebay - fortunately found the cause was a failed piston ring so after a few evenings making sure I had fished all the bits out of the crank case I put it back together with a cheap chinese pot and piston and it's been running as my bandsaw mill powerhead for the past three years. At one point when the 066 wasn't working I stuck it on the Alaskan on a 36" bar and it did it, albeit slowly. A really solid workhorse of a saw in my opinion, and well worth fixing. If it was mine, I'd get it clean, including service kit for the carb (from Rowena), buy the missing bits (wait until they come up cheap on ebay) and put it back together, then get it pressure and vacuum checked and the carb set up. In my case I would ask Spud to do this - posting it works fine if you're too far off to do it in person. You then find out whether the cause of failure was an air leak and get the tricky bits dealt with. If it's not an air leak, you can reasonably assume someone used neat fuel in it and carry on and use it. Alec

I haven't posted on this thread, just watched the debate unfold. However, in the interests of good analysis (note I am a research scientist/engineer by training so I am reverting to type) I post the following from the bottom of the article, which indicates that it is not the work of the LSE. Nothing against its correct attribution: Note: This article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the British Politics and Policy blog, nor of the London School of Economics. Please read our comments policy before posting. About the author Kayleigh Garthwaite is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Geography, Durham University. She is currently working on various projects related to health inequalities, health and wellbeing and employment for County Durham and Darlington Primary Care Trust.

If you take the plug out, does it pull over easily? If you then take the coil off too, does it pull over easily? If you then put the plug back in, how much harder does it get? If it doesn't spin freely with the plug and coil off then I suspect crankshaft alignment/bent, associated with when the crank seals were done. Alec