farmerjohn

would you not be better off getting a biomass boiler, i think that the RHI payments are better, but not 100% sure. Is your house well insulated with underfloor heating? that will give best efficiency for heat pumps, i have looked at a few installs with a renewable's company i work with in ireland and they will not touch a big old house ran off radiators as it will be not much better than 1 to 1 electric heating!!

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Hi All, i have the same old question........ a friend has offered me some big sections of cherry, please see photos attached. I am after some advice on a fair price to pay for the cherry, i dont want to under pay for the timber, but at the same time i do not want to pay over the odds. the 2 pictures of the single log taken from each end is the biggest stick, the main stem and measures 80" around the mid point and is 15 foot long. the 2 photos of the 3 small lumps are from branches, they measure as follows: 47" mid point circumference X 10' long 42" mid point circumference X 10' long 30" mid point circumference X 7' long thanks in advance, John

Hi, sawmill looks amazing. I know a fellow who had a 3ph genny running off a 4 pot kubota engine, not sure what the output was, he had it until he got mains to his (yes cumbria is a little behind the times!!!) he is connected up so it was for sale. do you want me to ask him if he still has it, cost and output?

eye, she shy on heartwood, is all the rest sapwood that is alive or does it die off and take a long time to darken to the sought after heartwood? a bit off topic from original post, just wondered

just to add another 2p worth, larch moves a fair bit if green and in central heated room, i fitted a 6X8 larch lintel in a not very warm house just before christmas and theres a 5mm wide X 75mm long shake so think it would easily open up if less than 50mm thick all round

if you look on my profile there is one album on it with photos of how i covered some crappy softwood lintels with elm, each with 2 bits of timber, far more stable as it does not matter about cracking etc. you need a bit of width but it works out really well. Regarding fire regs you can get around it 2 ways, one get a suitably qualified person to calculate the amount of 'sacrificial char wood' needed to give you your fire protection or buy a fireproof varnish, last time we did it you buy and tin, follow instructions and fill in a certificate, its expensive but gets around the problem.

there is one in the same hedgerow about 5m away that is as dead as a doornail

if i can get some going i'm going to plant them all over the place, my dads, farther in laws farm, my place and anywhere that will have em, i love elm as a timber, if cuttings sprout and are not resilient and get DED iv not lost a lot apart form a little time and i think its well worth a go!!! I love elm as a timber and think its such a shame its mostly gone

sorry to sound thick alec but what do you mean my softwood and hardwood cuttings? when u say put in a clear plastic bag, do you mean seal it? if so will this not isolate the cutting from co2 etc?

out of interest, how would you fix the miter joints? biscuit joint? domino? dowel? or any of above?

Hi All, I am putting this post in the milling forum as that is where 90% of my posts have been and in the tree identification forum too. I am after some more advice from everyone…. Again!!! I have these 3 trees on my drive and I am not sure of the species, I am hoping they are elm, but not sure, can anyone help identify please? As you can see from the photos some of the small limbs have died, but there is certainly new growth too. My next question is, if they are Elm, could it be that they are pretty resilient to Dutch Elm disease? If so I would like to take as many cuttings as I can and see if I can get some going but have absolutely no experience of doing this what so ever, so any advice on that too would be appreciated. Regards, John

Hi All, I am putting this post in the milling forum as that is where 90% of my posts have been (which is prob the wrong place so i apologies for this) and in the tree identification forum too. I am after some more advice from everyone…. Again!!! I have these 3 trees on my drive and I am not sure of the species, I am hoping they are elm, but not sure, can anyone help identify please? As you can see from the photos some of the small limbs have died, but there is certainly new growth too. My next question is, if they are Elm, could it be that they are pretty resilient to Dutch Elm disease? If so I would like to take as many cuttings as I can and see if I can get some going but have absolutely no experience of doing this what so ever, so any advice on that too would be appreciated. Regards, John

Has anyone milled much cherry? is so any advice would be appreciated, is it as temperamental to dry as oak? or a bit more forgiving? Regards, John

I have a lathe for sale, am i allowed to post details and photos on here in case anyone is interested, not really arboriculture but timber related. Regards, John

hi Clinton can i ask what model and spec TK you went for and a idea of the cost if its not too cheeky. If you get time i'd like to see some photos of it too. Regards, John

what thickness is that big slab o'oak

I totally understand where you are coming from rob. The main of my jobs are of a value starting about 8k but mostly over 40k so I am more than happy spending a day or two with a potential client. (Obviously I have to make a judgment if the client will be going ahead with the project) if they do, most builders in my area charge similar labour costs and there are not that many supplies so materials costs are pretty much the same too. So most of the time it comes down to service and quality. If I had to sell timber in my area I would look at doing the following: For planked and dried timber take a few days and visit all joinery shops, cabinet makers and workshops in your area. By workshops opposed to joinery shops I mean around us we have Hartley’s Brewery that has its own maintance team for their pubs, also places like national park depots who have their own skilled team but most likely will buy in all materials (some areas do have their own mills)Most joinery manufactures will work in iroko, maranti sapele etc but will need other hardwoods from time to time, that’s what I find anyway, obviously depends on the clients requirements / specification Also speak to architects and builders (maybe initially by email as this might be fruitless as you cant tell just from yellow pages or web directory if they will use hardwoods or not.) both for supplying planked timber and beams. with architects prob best with small practices 1 or 2 man bands, you will find they keep a close nit group of regular contact for trades and materials they will specify or recommend that they can rely on to give a good service etc. if you show some of them how much character and visual enhancement a nice piece of timber can add to a room, sometimes the architects need a new way of looking at what the end feel of a room is going to be like, inspire them. (I always show photos of our finishes’ with our chainsaw adzed oak beams and timber window boards / skirting’s we make they always seem to impress.) One thing is most builders might not be able to plane the timber, can you do this, or get it done for them. I think it will be difficult at first as most people will already have their suppliers but of someone sounds keen but cannot place an order keep in contact with them, maybe make up a email flyer you can send out every month or so jog peoples memory you are there. At some point they will not be able to get exactly what they need so if you are there to step into the breach and help them out they will almost certainly come back to you, its just getting that initial order (assuming the product is up to scratch.) PS if anyone does know where you can buy 1” thick rough sawn dired oak of about £20/cuft please let me know as it would be handy for my skirtings and architraves, to keep competitive I can only make it work using imported timbers of this as that’s what all competitors will be costing with. IMHO

interesting subject this, Originally i was / am a user not a producer of processed hardwoods. i have struggled to get locally sourced hardwoods at reasonable prices which is why i have started to get some timbers milled. I was paying about £42/cuft +VAT for kiln dried oak, and the 2 places i was getting it from were 1 hr and 1.5 hrs drive away. the furthest away is the best stocked and the timber is only locally sourced that they fell, cut and dry all in house. the problem i have is 4 hours minimum of my time adds too much cost to the timber to travel that far as i do not work that way. The closer mill is only about half hour from most of the places i work but the final nail in the coffin for not looking at doing something myself was i picked up some oak and asked the guys if they could remember where the oak was from as my clients are very interested in supporting businesses and sourcing materials and trades as locally as possible and i was told it would probably be from France as they can not keep up with demand / struggle for enough locally sourced trees. Although not marketing themselves as exclusively local timber only they are a local saw mill and it is generally (and wrongly presumed) that all the timber is at least form uk. though there is absolutely nothing wrong with this i could order the same oak from an importers or even an importer via my Travis Perkins account for less. and my customs would not mind paying a little more for local timber. A joiner i work with was asked to make a ash table and he could not manage to get some locally sourced KD ash. being from rural area i have managed to get some good contacts for saw logs, i have a man with a mill who is very reasonable for processing my saw logs and he will do it at the weekend so i can work with him doing this and i have access to space to air dry my timber. although i am digressing a lot, i feel that there is a market out there for timber to be sold at a reasonable cost for high quality locally sourced timber, it is mainly finding a route to market and establishing a good relationship with your purchases. in more rural areas word and mouth of good quality reliable trades / products sell themselves and good PR (even if its just taking the time to meet, greet and showcase your products to potential new clients) can make all the difference. I firmly believe that well planned networking is fr more efficient than any advertising. Every job i go to see i am as keen to impress as when i first started being self employed. I think if you are reasonably priced, give a good service, the product is of good quality and you can show a customer how passionate you are it pretty much sells itself over the competition.

i think i'll let alec answer that one

yes alec, have replyed to nadia, and am very intrested still. i did notice your email was not included in the group so was going to email you to see if you were still involved. When i ordered my first on it was recommended not to put it on a saw bigger than 40cc, but that was not mentioned in the paperwork of the new one.

cheers alec, did the new toy arrive? had you had chance to press it into service yet? regards, John

i have the chance of 1 or 2 more trees of the burr oak type photoed in my recent post 'first weekend milling' the problem is the land is to change hands in 3 months or so and it is doubtful the new owner will sell me any, do i fell now or leave it a month due to comment about trees 'biology' its too nice a timber to miss out on, but at same time if its going to be ruined i dont want to take down a good tree if the timber will be sub-standard. the others were very well behaved timber, boards did not curl up when being cut, no shakes or rot at all

I presume that it is to late in the year to be felling trees for planking? i'm in cumbria, so its now really warm yet, but been a really mild winter. I have the opportunity of going to look at some ash and oak, and getting them down this weekend, would it be left till next. if i did 'gather them up' i would not be milling the oak till winter' thanks, John

regarding the hessian i saw a youtube vid on an American mill and they did that, i have half a roll of debris netting knocking about here so was going to use that as theirs plenty of air flow through it.