Badgerland

Thanks 54gka. Think I'm going to have to start clearing a space at the back of the workshop!

Thanks 54gka. That all sounds very promising. What sort of moisture content are you drying that down to and what meter do you use to measure it? I assume that you're just put the water in the bottom of the cabinet for the steaming process then? The one I saw up at Logosol recently had a shallow galvanised tray for holding the water. Out of pure bloody nosiness what are your plans for the dried timber?

I'm thinking of investing in one so I can kiln dry my own timber. Anybody got one of these? If so what are your thoughts on them? Any feedback, tips etc would be gratefully received. (If anybody's got one for sale I might be interested in a second hand one!) I think I'd have to make a custom cabinet rather than the pre-cut ones that Logosol supply as I'd want to put 11 foot lengths of sweet chestnut in them for the gates I make. I have heard that it's best not to put green oak in them as it will corrode the workings. It's better to air dry it for 6 months then put it in. I assume the same for chestnut?

Thats what I was afraid somebody would say! On the sweet chestnut or and oak I use it's not a problem to remove the bark, but with this particular field maple the bark is very tight and removing it could be a real bugger. For most species I use the drawknife or barking iron but I don't want to risk damaging the wood with this timber as I'll probably want to use the live edge for furniture. With straight clean timber it's not a problem but as this is very burred and gnarly it's not so easy. Anybody any thoughts on best (read easy!) way to remove the bark? The make of longhorn beetle I get here is a plain brown sort and also the 3-banded buggers. These are only about an inch long including their antennae so thank god not as bad as the ones Rough Hewn mentions. All the same they are a right royal PITA and will go about 3/4 inch into most timber. Thinking laterally, does anybody think if I painted the bark with varnish it might deter the little sods?

Thanks for that Macpherson. Do you use it as a one-off treatment, or do you just keep reapplying it every so often a until the risk is minimised? If the latter how long do you leave between treatments? In the case of woodwasps, do they only lay their eggs while the bark is still green or will they keep trying even after the bark has dried out totally? Are there any safety issues with using the timber afterwards that you know of? It's unlikely that the wood will come into contact with food but wondered if there are any issues with the dust etc apart from the usual ones associated with working with wood dust?

I've some pippy field maple headwood that I milled through and through last weekend and have the heavily burred stem yet to do. My issue is I want to prevent wood borers laying their eggs on the bark. I have problems with longhorn beetle in the yard that tend to hit anything with bark left on, but I don't want to have to debark the maple. Apart from anything else, I've stickered and stacked it under cover already. As far as I can tell they only lay their eggs in the bark so what I really want is something that I can paint on the bark. (I would much prefer painting it on rather than spraying it as I can control it better.) I've heard various products mentioned, such as boric acid, wykabor etc, but what do other people use? I've got some Boric acid powder but have no idea of dilution rates. With any of these treatments are there any safety issue with working the timber post treatment? Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks for the heads up on the plastic guides agrimog. Will keep an eye on that when I get the m8 carrier. I've already got a gransberg grinder that I use with the alaskan so will be using that anyway.

54gka Yeah, I contacted Logosol and they suggested getting the M8 carrier and fix a nose steering to it which is pretty much the solution I was thinking of before I asked around. Anybody heard of this or gone down this route? Thanks for that agrimog. It's good to hear the realities of setting one of these up. How long it really takes and what the pitfalls are. I bought the 24 inch GB lo-pro bar from Rob D primarily to use with my alaskan so that's why I have it on the Farmers Mill. I've a lot of burr slabs to cut as well which are getting on for 2 foot wide at their widest, (allowing for the curve of the slabs I reckon I can just about get away with the 24 inch bar). I was hoping to at least slab these up using the logosol rather than the alaskan. Other than that I'm mostly planning on cutting chestnut poles up to about 18–20 inch diameter for gates and furniture Agrimog. Do you mind me asking what your set up is, bar length, saw etc? Do you normally half or quarter logs before putting them on the logosol?

Yes, the bar is straight. I've even set the whole mill up on a concrete floor inside the workshop, rebuilt one end section and checked everything with spirit levels.

From what I can see it's the bar bending under it's own weight.

I bought a Logosol Farmers Mill back in December and have been setting it up over the past few weekends. However, I've hit a bit of a snag and wondered if anybody out there had encountered the same problem. I'm running a ms661 with a 24 inch lo-pro bar and when I set it up in the mill I'm getting about a 1/4 inch droop on the nose of the bar as I try to align the bar with the top of the log supports. I've considered packing out the fixing nuts on the side of the saw before attaching the mounting plate, but am not convinced this will be accurate enough. The other option was to make a supporting arm that fixes to the mounting plate and attaches to the nose of the bar via a strong magnet, but obviously this is more work, and as I'm not a fabricator will take time and money. Anybody got any thoughts on this, or other solutions I'd be glad to hear about them.

As title says, I'm trying to source some sweet chestnut poles for a post n rail fencing job as soon as possible. Looking for 7–8 inch top diameter, 7 foot long, clean and straight as possible. Initially I need about 20-25 in total, but if material is good and price is right I may well be ordering considerably more over the coming months. (I was expecting a lorry load a month ago that never materialised so am having to buy small quantities until next cutting season.) I'm mid-wilts, about 7 miles from Devizes. Willing (well, accepting more like!) to travel up to a couple of hours max to collect, but ideally want to find a source as close as possible. Anybody got owt?

Thanks for all the suggestions chaps. Just thought I'd give an update. Spoke to a fella today in the know who suggested that as it was a factory fitted light socket that it was most likely down to a fuse. Not one in the main fuse box but a separate one coming straight off the battery. Didn't even know of such a fuse, but low and behold there it was where he suggested. Quick replacement and all is now working perfectly.

Same thing happens with the hazards as the indicators. As soon as I plug in trailer lights I lose the indicators and hazards on the truck. Unplug it and all returns to normal.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'll have another look in the morning and see what I can find. (or should I have said unearth?)

As far as I can tell no water's got in. In fact for a trailer socket it's remarkably cleaner inside than previous vehicles I've owned.

No, Oldwoodcutter, they're not LED's.

Title says it all really. Hitched up the trailer earlier today, plugged in the light board and checked to see all was well (or not). My right indicator on the trailer wasn't working, so changed the bulb assuming it was blown. Nowt! But now I noticed that the indicators on the truck were off as well. If I unhook the trailer lights the truck lights all work fine. Thing is it's only the truck indicators that are effected all the other lights work ok. Hooked the truck up to a mate's trailer which we know the lights are all working and same issues again. Anybody come across this before? Not particularly savvy with electrics or vehicle stuff so any sensible advice very welcome. The truck's a 2010 L200 Barbarian if that makes any difference.

Can't really see too clearly from the pic, but they look a lot like a longhorn beetle grub to me. Was the bark left on the boards? I get a the little buggers in my yard in the chestnut or oak. Tends to only be in stuff with the bark left on though. I assume the beetle lays the eggs in the bark and the larvae then burrow further in. Usually only effects the sapwood. My yard's on a organic farm so I can't be using any nasties, – just have to live with it. Not sure what's best to prevent it apart from as I said, remove the bark asap.

Thanks Sandy2210. Thats the one! I'll drop 'em an email tomorrow.

Hello all. A few years back I looked into hiring an iron horse to extract some chestnut coppice from a SSSI and found a company in Scotland that hired them out by the week. For the life of me I can't find their details anywhere so I guess they no longer exist. Does anybody know of a firm, hopefully down south that hires them out? Cheers!

Apologies for going off on a tangent chaps, but I hate not understanding stuff. Steve, in your pics it looks like you've sealed those rough shaped bowls. I'm assuming it's to slow do the drying and make it more even, but why do you only seal them in parts and not all over?

Like the others above, I use hand-tools most days so would be keen to have a look and see what you've got. Any chance you could send me some pictures? Where abouts exactly are you? pm sent

Not really thought about it to be honest. I started off using ash and sweet chestnut because that's what I had to hand (the original devon splints used pine I believe). But they're not the easiest to use and I finally settled on cricket bat willow cos it was most definitely much easier to use and I could source it. Might have to look into doing a few experiments over the summer with poplar and see what it's like.

Thanks for that Alec. pm sent