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What condition are they in, and whereabouts are you? The Cambridge Vintage Sale was yesterday - a lot of Fergies, early MFs and Fordsons. Prices were a bit funny - sometimes there would be strong competition over something between three or four people, then a near-identical lot a few further on would get almost no interest. The sale report is up, so it might give an indication at least. Tractors were in Sale 5 - Lot 2540 upwards Vintage Catalogue - CAMBRIDGE VINTAGE SALE

Hi Jon, they do turn up on Ebay from time to time and normally make £400-450 if they're in reasonable condition, a bit more if they have a really long bar. If you wait your time though they sometimes show up for nearer £300. Alec

Yep, that's crowned, and as such it will always want to run in a single place - you can't actually make the belt long enough to counter this as it will want to run 'straight' so will run at a fixed point at the other end. The simplest option would be to align it with the 'fast' on the saw and leave it there, but if the MF pulley is as wide as the pair of pulleys on the saw, ie there is enough width to allow the belt to run in either location, you could get it skimmed down flat so it would let the belt slide. Alec

Stihl Contra is pretty iconic, but probably wouldn't see much use these days. Alec

Yes, it makes sense. Is the MF65 pulley crowned? If so, you may have to think around this one. A crowned pulley will try to run the belt in a single place, whereas flat pulleys will will run anywhere. If you run crowned one end, flat the other, and want to use the fast and loose arrangement, you will end up rubbing the belt sides a lot as the crowned pulley tries to pull it back - you can set it for one or the other, or for a compromise which will rub in either case. The reason we had to run off the flywheel was because we were running a 19" blade on a 24" saw. The original pulley was still in place, and was an uncrowned, double width pulley, which I think is what you would need. The other option would be to align it with the 'fast' side and use the PTO to engage/disengage. Of course, if the pulley is uncrowned then you don't have a problem in the first place:001_smile: Alec

Crowned pulleys will take quite a lot of misalignment - you can pretty much just set up by eye and it will run fine, maybe with a bit of slight twisting so I wouldn't have anything locked in place until I had pulled it over a few times. The only problem is if you have uncrowned pulleys for a 'fast and loose' arrangement, which uses a cage around the belt to slide it, and at the same time stops it jumping. Dad and I used to run an old Denning sawbench with uncrowned fast and loose pulleys, using a Lister B. The bench had lost its cage for sliding the belt across and to get the running speed right for the blade we had to run off the flywheel on the engine, so everything was uncrowned. We used old fire hose as a flat belt, with a wire lacing, so it was about as crude as you can get. We didn't have any problems with it jumping off. Alec

You might want to consider giving Jem Bates of Bates' Boatyard a ring. He won't be cheap but he may have something in where there are parts of it that are too damaged for him to use. He's just down the road from you. Bates Boatyard, Wooden Narrowboat Restoration Alec

They had just ended unfortunately, both from the same seller: Stihl 070 chainsaw with 25" bar. | eBay Sets the benchmark price quite nicely though - I would say that is reasonable, although if you hit really lucky you might get £50 off that Alec

Not wishing to start a 'mine's bigger than yours' argument, but I can confirm that re-grinding a crosscut chain to ripping for an 88" bar is a good way to use up half a day.... Yes, for running long bars for milling you really need a grinder, to keep all the teeth the same length and angle. Andrew - I would suggest you might as well go for a 36" mill. There is no down side really to the longer rails and you can use it with a 25" bar, but then if you ever do upgrade to a larger saw (which from your post sounds like it's eventually inevitable ) you will already have the mill. The price difference is trivial. Alec

Useful heads up, thanks, as I need to re-dig the ditches on the field we're buying. Looks like you need exemptions U1 (using soil for the purposes of landscaping), U10 and D1 to cover anything you might want to do with dredgings. Takes less than 5mins to register them too - details here: Environment Agency - Farm exemptions video here: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBeoqD3jqGc&list=UU8XLubOua8P9B1hT0Qb5Tbg]Registering online for your agricultural waste exemptions as a Sole Trader/Individual - YouTube[/ame]

If you're buying bigger, buy the biggest you can afford. There are a couple decent 070s on Ebay at the moment for example, which would perfectly decent on almost anything you are likely to run across - unless you really are only milling foot diameter stuff with a small log mill. Alec

This is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but in general terms, what you would want to do with an 026 would be very limited. It would bolt to the mill, and you would get just over 13" of cut out of it. If milling small, relatively soft timber (under a foot) you could probably live with it for a while, but really it is pushing it. It won't do the saw any harm, so long as you rest it up every few minutes, but you will suffer a fair bit. I would look for something in the 60-70cc range to get the most out of a small log mill. The bigger you go, the more power you have to play with so the faster it gets. If you have 70cc then a 24" mill will also run OK if you don't push it, 90cc will run 30", or 36" at a push, but really for big stuff you are looking at the 100cc+ saws. Worth noting that older saws, without chainbrakes, can make good milling saws. The 041 might be worth considering as a cheap option for a small log mill, or an 038. You would want a ripping chain anyway, and a precision filing jig or grinder to keep all the teeth absolutely the same length and angle to make cutting smoother. If you are running a smaller saw then the Granberg ripping chain is worth considering as it takes a bit less power to drive it. It's more expensive though, and really needs sharpening with a grinder rather than a file. Alec

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Thanks - the land does attract single payment so that will be worth bearing in mind. Alec

Cheers! Well I found out today that our bid has been accepted, so I anticipate a visit from my neighbour soon

May be unconventional, but I like to have the stakes in place before I bring anything big down, as I'd rather weave it in as I lay it than weave it afterwards. Alec

For a small forge, bottom blown is quite good. Nigel Barnett over at Fransham forge makes a really good one with a dished top and bottom and a tube up the middle between them, with a side branch to stick the blower on. The tube is both the support and the air input. I have one of his and it works really well - for small stuff I just heap it up a bit but you can put a ring around the top if you need more depth. The whole thing is portable and knocks down flat for storage. Much better than the very overpriced folding ones. Alec

I've put a sealed bid in on the field next to us as it's the land between us and the river, so would allow me to sort our drainage out. It's 4.75 acres of grade II agricultural land, currently arable. No idea if I'll get it yet, but my next door neighbour has asked if I might sell him an acre for use as short rotation coppice, probably willow, to run his log burner on. I'm not inclined to sell it, as the obvious bit to let him have is the bit by the road, which doesn't flood and I want to make sure there is no development at some point in the future, but I might be inclined to lease it to him for as long as he and his wife live there, on reasonable terms. Does anyone know what the land use implications of doing this might be? I'm particularly interested in whether short rotation coppice would count as agriculture or forestry, and hence whether a change of use would be needed, either to do it or to potentially revert it to arable. Also, does anyone know what the effects might be on the quality of the ground from doing this? I'm aware that there would be stumps to be extracted or ground out (which I would take account of in the tenancy agreement) but any views on general soil fertility? Anything else I should think about (over 50m from the nearest building which is his house anyway, so no problems on that one). Just trying to sort out the implications in advance of hearing whether our bid has been successful, as I anticipate him asking fairly quickly once the bids are opened. Cheers Alec

That could be relevant - I suggest googling Radiata pine. Alec

Judging by the rounded off board (top I presume) that should come out looking really nice when finished - are you going for oil or varnish? Have you done much to the board surfaces between milling and the close-ups in the workshop? If not the finish on your milled boards looks excellent, which would suggest you have got the knack of holding it level and stopping any digging in, and that your chain is really sharp and even - out of interest which chain are you using? Look forward to seeing the finished result. The scale of your ladder to log does amuse me though:001_smile: Alec

Entirely agree Rob. There are things I have decided not to post - not because I am 'timid' but because there just isn't any point as the likelihood is that the aspect I think may be interesting to people will be drowned out by the pointless noise. I can see exactly why some people would decide it just wasn't worth the time and effort. The brilliant thing about this forum is that it manages to combine 'ask the expert', be that on fungi, chainsaws or 'my tree is doing something odd', with high level technical discussion between experts in their field, as well as being a place for relaxed chat between people with shared interests who know one another, sometimes in person as well as through the forum, and probably some other positive things as well. The relaxed chat, ie entertainment, inherently includes an element of friendly banter, but you can spot this easily - it's the running jokes, lots of emoticons and general good humour. As a newcomer, you may not get the joke, but you can see it is around you, not aimed 'at' you, and maybe you even feel more involved by it - it suggests that this is a friendly community to be part of. There are also some pretty heated debates from time to time, based on strongly held but differing views, but again quite legitimate. The trouble seems to be that a small number of members seem determined to pick holes or make personal attacks on the slightest weakness. This is not done in jest, but seems to be solely for their entertainment. At best this is unpleasant and a negative reflection on the individual and, as Steve recently pointed out in closing the ppe thread, by association, the forum. At worst it is bullying, aggressive and, recently, could be taken as sexual harrassment. There is absolutely no need for this and I for one would rather see fewer of these individuals remaining on the forum, hopefully to be replaced by more of the people Rob refers to above (and I have met others) coming back out of the woodwork and deciding that it is worthwhile to post, since I am sure they would add infinitely more value than the pointless posts of the current irritating minority do. Alec

Just had a look, Clark Forest do a Bahco spud for £23 inc. handle. Not as elegant as the various Oshenkopf models, but should do the job. Debarking Iron | Logging Hooks and Tongs | Clark Forest Alec

Hi Steve, you're welcome:001_smile: A barking spud is a thing like a giant slick type socket chisel with a 6" wide blade. Oschenkopf make them and they can still be bought new in the UK, without the handle - there are several videos on youtube of people using them but basically it's about scraping along the line of the bark to peel it off in big strips. When the bark is loose you can peel over a foot width in a pass, which could reduce it to a few minutes on your logs. You would have to see whether it is quicker to do this beforehand, or to pick the bits of bark out afterwards when they fall off. It should also significantly increase band life. Alec

I wouldn't worry about strapping. I would just set everything up nice and level, and bung a few lumps on the top to weight it down. I would agree with your sizing, but unless you have already decided on the style of furniture you are aiming at, I might be inclined to skim the tip to give 3" width (i.e. little more than the bark) and then take a 3" slice off. You don't lose much on your boards as it is curved in this bit anyway, but it gives you something to make 3" squares out of later if you want table legs etc. What sort of mill do you have? I would try to avoid a chainsaw mill for that job, as you will waste a lot on the thin boards. Alec