Woodworks

A ring of any species is almost certain to crack badly as it dries. Found this that looks like it explains it better than I can. You say it's well seasoned but is it dry inside? If it really is you should be OK Wood shrinks by different amounts in different directions. There is almost no shrinkage in the direction of the wood's grain (lengthwise). There is some shrinkage radially (perpendicular to the growth rings), and a greater amount of shrinkage tangentially (along the curvature of the growth rings). The cracks in the end grain of this partially dried firewood at left illustrate this concept. The firewood had only dried at the ends when the photo was taken. Shrinkage is thus only at the ends, while the middle of the wood has not shrunk as much. Cracks have opened up at the ends to make up the difference. The cracks are mostly perpendicular to the growth rings, because there is more shrinkage along the direction of the rings (tangential shrinkage) than there is perpendicular to them (radial shrinkage) Once the wood has fully dried throughout, the whole piece will have shrunk by the same amount. With the center of the wood as shrunken as the wood near the ends, the cracks will mostly close up again. The different rates of radial and tangential shrinkage can cause distortion in wood, such as cupping of boards. It can also cause radial cracks from the center of the wood to the edge, as shown in the photo at left. This is because the circumference of the wood shrinks more than it's radius, and the big radial crack essentially allows the remaining circumference to shorten. It's generally best not to have the center of the tree trunk as part of the board because of this. Beams used in timber frame construction usually include the center of the tree, and usually have cracks along the flat sides because of this. However, that is considered an acceptable defect.

That would be my concern. Can sell logs that size Tom?

Sorry Matt but you have to get in line Got a few friends who have had their eye on it for many years. To be honest I think Will is spot on and I would always rather have something that had done some miles than the life this one has had of pottering around the Devon lanes at 20mph. Looked underneath and I think it may well need a new chassis to get it on the road . It's getting taken down to Mark Kelly to see what it would need to be made roadworthy. Are you seriously interested if my mate passes? Dont think it's going to go for much anyway if it's a new chassis job.

Some friends of ours have an old 90 that's been sitting in a field for some years. They have now come around to the idea it should be sold before it completely rusts away. The thing is its ridiculously low miles for it's age so they have no idea how to work out a price. Are there any good landrover forums or groups where they could get advise on how to work out a fair price? Thanks

Could you use small bags filled with wood chip? Need a bit of plastic for the bags but the wood chip would offer the bulking and protection without being able to escape.

Probably not as overloaded as you might think though. Had our old LM105 loaded up with 9' lengths and weighed it all and only had 1600kg on there. Not oak though and not stacked up like that

Dont think you need to get any better at filming. That could be a promotional video from Logosol it's so good.

From that list I would take Sikens every day of the week. It's streets ahead of Sadolin IME. They used to be sold by the same firm with Sikens being the premium option. Colours are less natural with Sikens though. Oils might work but my experience with Osmo is great at advertising and hype but pretty average products but not tried their outside offerings. Upside to an oil is it should be easy to reapply but will need it more often.

I am no techno kid but find Android a darn site easier to navigate than the Iphone. The Apple was pain in the backside with it always trying to do things I did not want. Android seems to wait for a command instead of second guessing you.

Not very clued up on bandmills but have to say if I were in the market the Trakmet seemed good value having seen them at the Confor show. They sell them on Ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/old_station_yard_sawmill/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Yes I got it from Flexosprings http://www.flexosprings.com/search-products?sku=343716+ It's not identical but works perfectly

Looking at the picture I would hazard a guess that it's not taken in the UK. The style of the barn and beanpole trees dont look very native somehow.

I think it's good to try to use it all. Yes small wood is slow but be shame to waste it and at least the Farmi is probably the fastest machine on the market with the small stuff.

Yep this is our reality. They both eat time but as a small buyer beggars cant be choosers and we take what we can get.

Yes a large mid hight table is a boon. I made a much bigger one for mine for just that reason but you can also use the trailer/teleporter bucket to hold the resplits

Yes it is slow and low down, powerful though. Can you fit a mid hight table? Cut the rings onto a trailer and slide them off onto the table so no lifting

Fair enough. Didn't know your age but I would love to be 35 again just approaching 50

Not tried it as it would blunt very quickly but I would imagine it would cut like hell for a short while

Agreed but just knock them down to manageable sized lumps with a chainsaw. Get the rings on edge and use the chainsaw ripping with the grain (noodling) you cut very quickly like this. I do this day in day out on site. I do contract firewood processing and almost never leave site with any oversized rejects. Customers are hesitant for me start breaking large pieces down with the saw but when they see home many logs they end up with putting rings or broken down rings through the processor there are no complaints. Very tempting to over complicate things but sometime the kiss principle fits best IME

Hope someone takes over the Tavi branch. Never liked it much and found it like B&Q in that it was big store that never had what I wanted in it. Still we did use it occasionally and our only alternative is Bridgmans but they have a small depot that wont cope with influx of customers as is.

Sorry the tonne thing is Mark Bolam joke that keeps coming around

Yep too big and too complicated for anyone to efficiently manage. Not sure I want it broken up though as in spite of it's failings has served my family very well in recent problematic times.

Can the Pallax take larger rings than it can cut? With stuff like that I often bring the lengths over to processor ring them while it's suspended and put the rings though the splitter on our processor. May even be worth noodling the rings in half to get them through the processor splitter if your stand alone splitter is that slow. Messing around with the Lucas sounds slow.

Surely they dont end up everywhere now. We put it in a bin and it then goes to a council depot that either recycles it or burry it in a clay lined hole. The later is clearly not ideal but neither should end up with plastics everywhere. Have massive fines for litter louts to stop plastics being disposed of incorrectly. What goes on internationally my well be a different matter.

So how big a problem are plastics? It's all over the news at the moment and RobD has his thread going about environmentally friendly packaging. Yes I have seen the pictures of plastics in the seas and yes it's a disgusting mess but are UK residents contributing to this much? I presume we have good disposal system here and if we chuck some plastic in the bin it does not end in the sea. Looked up how much oil is used in the production of plastics and it's not a big percentage and only a small part of the percentage is packaging. I am all for being environmentally friendly but think plastics are a smokescreen for our real long term problems. Great I used 200g less plastic today but drove 150 miles in a truck doing 25 MPG and sit in a centrally heated home at 21C The graph below shows the distribution of oil use