Stompy

Yep, heard a lot of bad things about Woodmizers... expensive parts, reliability issues.

Just wondering what else is worth looking at?

Trak Met is where Big J got his from I believe...... Look like good mills but still narrow band in my budget.

Hi Guys

After a bit of advice from those far more knowledgable than myself.....

My business out here in Croatia is mainly joinery and furniture making but we also export a lot of reclaimed and new sawn timbers. These are either in their raw form or further processed.

Now, we will be getting a stationary wide band sawmill next year (Wravor 1000) but first we need a mobile mill to mill on site and for our suppliers.

We never mill anything over 600mm wide or over 8 metres long. Mostly old Oak but also reclaimed Elm and Pine.

Have been looking at second hand as haven't a huge budget (around £5000 - 6000) and seen a lot of Woodmizer LT40's but just wandering what else I should be looking at and the limitations of a narrow band sawmill.

So........

Will the narrow band (40mm) cope with hard 100 year old Oak without diving and producing a wavey cut?

What sort of diesel engine power should I be looking for?

Any add ons a must have?

Views on Woodmizers?

Anything other than a Woodmizer I should look at?

Anything in particular to look for on a used mill?

Basically I know my woodworking machines and so have a healthy knowledge of cutting tools and how timber behaves but know little more than I have read on here and on the internet.

You guys are the pros so any help would be muchly appreciated.

Thanks in advance chaps

I've got some Croatian Bog Oak and Russian Elm, any good?

Following on from our previous post of the reclaimed Oak flooring here is a few pics of the matching staircase.

Again all designed, produced, fitted and finished by us.

The timber was taken from the same old house that we dismantled to produce the flooring.

The house was 120 years old and yielded stunning Oak, full of character and history.

This was fitted onto a (very uneven and out of square!!) cast concrete base staircase. Solid reclaimed Oak throughout with inset brushed stainless steel trims and a flash stainless steel cable system.

We are pretty pleased with the end result, a nice blend of old and new.

You can see more of what we do at http://www.facebook.com/oaktreemill

Give us a 'like', it lets you keep up to date with what we are up to and makes us feel special

So....... We have been pretty busy over the last month. Lots of new projects, big orders and a very busy workshop.

Here's a few pics of one of those projects...... 90 m2 of reclaimed Oak flooring fitted in a new build house on the coast near Zadar.

The timber was reclaimed from a 120 year old house on the banks Sava river near Ivanic Grad. We dismantled the house, sorted, kiln dried the timber then machined it down to produce these stunning and pretty unique boards.

The flooring is 22mm thick with a 165mm face and in random lengths. Square edged and sanded flat once installed to produce a perfectly flat, uniform floor.

Finished with Osmo PolyX satin hard wax oil, a stunning natural finish that really highlights the reclaimed character without the usual obvious and heavy finished look.

We also produced and fitted bespoke skirting to match.

We are pretty pleased with it..... it was pretty hard work fitting in the 38 degree heatwave though!

You can see more of what we do at http://www.facebook.com/oaktreemill

How about a second hand Wravor for 10,000 euro

PILANA WRAUOR

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

Nelson Butler Timber

 

They are pretty local to you and Carl Butler is a good chap to deal with.

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

Nelson Butler Timber

 

They are pretty local to you and Carl Butler is a good chap to deal with.

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 stand corrected. I never new you could get a machine that could plane that wide. Let alone 4 sides at once. Can see everything on the description except the price? Can't be a busting lot of use for a machine like that in the average joinery shop. That said, I want one.

Never seen a 4 sider in action, and can never really get me head round how they manage to line everything up no matter what width your working with.

As much as I want one of them I think the lucas planer head would take a little less space In my workshop.

Think I might get myself it for crimbo this year.

Anyone ever actually seen a Lucas planer in action?

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.

But what you can do with it is unmatched by other machines. Planes somewhere around 70" wide. That's a lot more than the biggest thicknesser out there.

.

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

Thanks. Do have 3 phase on site, but not in my workshop, I could Re route it quite easily. Problem is the entrance to my workshop is not great, a 1m wide door, round a corner, up a step, so not sure how I'd get a big cast thing In.

Kind of assumed the modern ones would be safer with better guarding etc?

There's this one on the eBay at the moment which is tempting depending on hammer price.

 

Axminster Trade Series WS1000TA Spindle Moulder | eBay

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)

Do you come to the UK to work Stompy?

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

Thats not good.... Are in actually in Croatia?

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?

Its Arbmark Tree Care - appreciate your efforts but dont spend ages if its tricky !

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?

here it is again stompy - its probably the same though

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Arbmark-Tree-Care/256747557671396

all above liked cheers people!

M

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