Stompy

A few pictures of a piece I designed and made a long time ago, around 10 years I think. Just been digging through old photo's and found loads of old work..... English Sycamore and American Black Walnut. Solid Sycamore carcass, laminated and Sycamore veneered curved drawer and door fronts. Solid walnut 'rib' trims that form the door and drawer handles. Another of my old favourites, good fun to design, a challenge to make and a piece that always sticks in the memory. Not the best quality photo's....sorry. Loads more of what we do can be found on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/oaktreemill

Hey Codlasher The area we are working in has thousands of these buildings and further south nearly every other building is in this form. There are plenty preserved and restored and we would certainly never take one down that wasn't restorable. This particular house had rotten rafters, ceiling beams and wall plates. The base beams are shot also and it has some fairly drastic spread occuring at the base. We are just salvaging what we can before it falls down on it's own or gets burnt. The locals don't see the value in the timber and so thousands of these houses are taken down every year to supply fire wood for the coming winter. It's criminal but the young inherit these old houses out in the villages (where life is still very simple) and don't want to live there, they would rather be in the cities so the houses just sit and rot. As soon as the roof goes it is only a matter of time before the house crumbles. A real shame but if we can get in there before then or before it gets turned into firewood then we can either restore or recycle the timbers.

Hey guys Wasn't quite sure where to post this but as the timber is going to be milled down this seems a good a place as any...... thought it might be of interest to some. We have just started taking down an old solid Oak house out here in Croatia. These are quite amazing buildings showing some incredible craftsmanship and use of timber with stunning compound dovetailed corner joints and intricate carvings.... all done by hand. Along with the fantastic timber that it has so far yielded we also found a lot of interesting bits and pieces from old farm tools, oil lamps and newspapers to munitions from the Balkans war some 20 years ago. It also turns out the house is a lot older than we thought. We estimated around 60 - 80 years but from the way the timbers were formed, all hand hewn, it is more likely 100 - 120 years old. There was some beautiful hand carved detailing on the face beams and some of the timbers were so large it needed 4 of us to shift them..... They certainly don't build houses like this anymore. All of the timber is destined to be given a new life and although a shame to take down such a beautiful building it is far better than seeing it left to rot away...... you can see more on our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/oaktreemill

I second that, top bloke. I'm not sure he'll be interested in Yew though. I used to buy bits and bobs for bow making but apart from me he couldn't shift the stuff. Worth a try though

I second that, top bloke. I'm not sure he'll be interested in Yew though. I used to buy bits and bobs for bow making but apart from me he couldn't shift the stuff. Worth a try though

You don't want to know the price...... I was looking at a second hand Kuphermuhle vuin 605 (605mm wide) 4 heads, 26 years old, good nic.... £12,000 . Saw one here for £1600, only 2 sided (top and bottom) still kick myself I didn't buy it. They are made for beam planning and laminated beam production. Good machines in their place but as you say wouldn't get a lot of use anywhere out of that field. Great for single slab table tops..... or table tops in general.

Not quite true....... Mormac Machinery - 2 or 4-side planer moulder Kupfermühle Doma-g 2050 Used 1 Kupfermuhle Doma-g 2050, Heavy Industrial 2- And 4-Side Planer - Wood Working Equipment - Second hand machinery - Wotol.com Seen the 1050mm version in action, 2 or 4 sided planing/moulding.... amazing bit of kit

There is always a way to move the about, just need to think about it rollers, wedges, winches, lots of hands and some amount of swearing should get it in. You only have to do it once. Guarding hasn't changed much in 20 years. If anything guards now are aluminium and plastic, not as good as a lump of cast iron. That axminster machine looks ok, got a sliding table which is a plus for doing tenons and angled end work but nothing you can't do with an old machine with sleds and jigs. But it does look a little tinny.... Lighter to move about at the cost of stability. A ring fence is usefull for curved work but as said above you need experience and confidence to use it, it can rip the workpiece out of your hands if you don't know what you are doing. You can get bearing guides to stack on top of the cutter head which is a better bet. A infeed pin is useful here to give you something to pivot of to control the initial cut.

15 - 18% MC would be fine, as above they are not likely to move much. Half the surface area of an external door or window would be internal facing and almost all joiners would use air dried timber, unless they wanted to be back trimming down to allow them to close.

To be honest big old cast iron would be miles better than any new Axminster tin. Spindles need to be solid and limit vibration to a minimum. Less vibration, not matter how small, equals a better cut. Spindles moulders are one of the most dangerous tools in the workshop so a crash course would be a good idea. You really need to think about guarding and if you can, and a strong suggestion on my part, get a powerfeed. A powerfeed will give a lot more accuracy, make the job easier and will be 10x safer as you hands need not be anywhere near the cutters or the workpiece except to feed and remove. Some of the old Wadkins or other old British Iron on ebay (or old SCM's) can be had for a lot less then a new Axminster job, powerfeed included. To be honest the tooling costs more than the machine so if you can find one that comes with some (safe - stay away from French cutters and pinless tooling, Euro and serrated good). My SCM T20 spindle cost just under £1300 with a powerfeed, my tooling over £3000. I've worked around these machines for years so if you want any advice just message me, happy to help

Cheers for all the comments guys, much appreciated The doors took a couple of days to make up, maybe another day finishing. Carcasses a day, maybe a day finishing them. Half a day fitting. Doors were 22mm thick, 15mm panels raised and fielded on the back to fit 6mm grooves. Beading was 3mm radius, 6mm deep (I think)

Occasionally take commissions from the UK if the job is worth it or for friends & family. These were from a while back in the pre escape the UK days .....

Some fitted cabinets we constructed for a newly built extension. These were built using solid 'Pippy' English Oak. A stunning timber but sometimes troublesome to work with due to the swirly grain and....well....the pip. Framed and panelled doors with scribed beading hung on blacked butt hinges. Carcasses were also solid Oak although just the regular kind. All hand finished with a blended low sheen furniture oil. Another fun job, albeit very simple, and a great showcase for English grown timber. You can see more of what we do at http://www.facebook.com/oaktreemill feel free to like our page, it makes us feel special

All above liked, Likes back appreciated

Nope, not good....... And yep, been here 2 years, beats the pants off the UK :-)

Just got this message from Arbtalk.... Dear Stompy, Someone has tried to log into your account on Arbtalk.co.uk | Discussion Forum for Arborists with an incorrect password at least 5 times. This person has been prevented from attempting to login to your account for the next 15 minutes. The person trying to log into your account had the following IP address: 183.207.224.51 Searched the IP and it's somewhere in China. What is that all about?? What could they achieve apart from posting nasty things in my name?

Doesn't come up with anything in the search...... I'll keep trying, it's a challenge now

can't find you mate, whats your Facebook page name?

Yep, says page not available........ I'll try searching for you, gimme a minute

Indeed mate, very small world How is the lovely Kent these days? been a while since I have been down that way

All 'liked' back, cheers guys Where in Kent are you from James? Spent my Teenage years around Cranbrook, Hawkhurst, Staplehurst...... Born and breed on the coast though

Thanks buddy, much appreciated..... Yeh that dovetail is something special. Your link doesn't work send me it over again and I will like back. Cheers

Hey guys As shameless as it is I'm trying to spread the word about the great things we are doing in the world of wood and was wondering if any of you would like to help spread the word by liking our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/oaktreemill Of course all likes will be returned in kind and although I don't live in the UK now I have plenty of contacts back there so will hook you guys up with anything I hear of. Cheers all

Far too often the most talented go unnoticed, so good on you for sharing. He certainly has some amount of skill, beautiful work What is his website address? Or did I miss that up there....

Liked Feel free to return the favour.....