farmerjohn

i'm hoping to power through it on the jobs i got lined up this year so need to get a good stock on, plus furniture i want to have a go at making

i'm hoping to power through it on the jobs i got lined up this year so need to get a good stock on, plus furniture i want to have a go at making

CHEERS ROB, out of interest, if oak was stored inside out of sunlight would it be OK to mill for another month? how come thiner oak is less susceptible to checking than thicker peices? i though it would be the other way around as thinner stuff has a greater surface area per cubic foot and would dry quicker.... or not!!! Also BigJ i have been talking to alec a bit recently and he mentioned a way of quarter sawing without turning the log each time by quartering and propping on the angle, do you know about this? does it work ok? if so any chance you could describe the process to me? last thing, do you still have any of that elm left for sale?

out of interest when do others stop planking and air drying temperamental timber to dry such as oak?

quick follow on thread from last weekend being my first milling, had another bash yesterday with some more oak from the same tree as the photos from last post, but a bit further up the trunk and a lump of beach that looked moldy and heavily spalted. I thought i was in for some more top quality 700mm wide oak boards and some rotten beach, Please see pictures below to see how wrong i was on both counts!!!

Hi All, i have been wanting to get some oak milled up for some time (over a year since it was off-rooted) but various factors, mainly time and somewhere descent to store air drying timer (time again to get area set up) have slowed me down. Last saturday i finally got my timber to the mill and had a awesome day getting through most of it. It was very hard work, not so much the milling but the re-stacking of the planks off my trailer into stickered piles the following day. The 65mm thick oak 650mm side and 8ft long nearly beat me, i could only just about lift them about. That said, after all the hard work i am feeling very chuffed with my timber, and are rearing to get back to it this weekend (finger crossed that the weather will be as good again) to get some more ready, just a waiting game before i can get it into the workshop and start making things from it. I plan to put another pallet on top and stack same height again, get some weight on, tin sheets and maybe scaffold / derbies netting over the front to help shield from sunlight. I need to put soom bearers from the ground under the overhangig oak on the left hand side of the left stack and sticker the unsupported ends too. Regards, John

prob way off with this suggestion........., but you can easily get Eucalyptus marginata (jarrah) in the from of railway sleepers, i got some from a massive yard in yorkshire, i am going to re-saw it down with pto saw as bandsaw would not look at it, once you get 1 1/2 to 2 inch in colour of the treatment is gone and its really nice red, just a idea as it should be a long way to being dry.

Very nice looking deere too

Has anyone come accross this make before, Portable Sawmill TTP-600 | eBay is looks very good value for money, not the biggest capacity, any comments welcome

its an interesting subject this, I am doing quite a lot of work with a biomass boiler install company at the moment, I am looking at making a kiln for drying both firewood for myself and milled timber for jobs. I am having a biomass boiler fitted to heat my house and a bungalow behind, if i put the kiln on i will also be able to claim RHI payments for that too My kiln plan (which is in my head) is based on a woodmizer modular kiln system, but instead of using 3 phase electric heaters i am going to try and use heat exchangers run from the gasifiation boiler. a clever but cost effective electrics system to control temperature and humidity. will make post on here when i get a bit further on with the project PS if anyone is interested in a cost for a log gasification / chip / pellet boiler PM me.

yeh, just saws (uk Hudson distributor) quoted me £6500 for the saw, Hudson in America would do the saw delivered to Liverpool docks (same CE saw and shipping) for $7771 USD which according to Google works out at £4708. both exclude vat and delivery in UK.

what about this Portable Sawmills > H 360 | HUD-SON Forest Equipment works out about £11k i got a quote from them to ship me a hudson oscar 230 and it was $1000 usd ($300 carting which i presume is to get it from them to docks in usa) and $700 to ship to liverpool docs. i delt with a guy called mark major, they are excellent, i'v bought a few smaller items from them and they dont bat an eyelid when i ask to ship to uk. if you want his email address PM me, Cheers. PS only thing is its not CE marked.

Hi, i have these hollow disks from trees i have removed with rott in them, apart from mirrors anyone got any suggestions of what i can make them into? The 3 ash's are about 600mm diameter and the 2 oak's are 800mm diameter. colours not shown up so well with phone camera!!! Cheers, John

what can i go up with a MS650 (85cc) i was looking for a saw a few months back and ended up with a absolute bargain, pin holding handle to casting was broken off, shtil wanted £250 for new casting but i got my local fabricator to drill out broken pin, tap and fit a new one, MS650 for £280

Hi agg, can i ask, do you have a kiln? if so what sort of size is it? i can get hold of roofing sheets, would it be best to sticker all timber and cover all with sheets? or would you get the ash and silver birch in a open building to prevent any water getting on it? also, any tips on getting the beach dry quickly? regards John. PS off topic for this forum but if you PM me your email i can send you some photos of the insulated lime render we use, got some good photos of us using it if you are still interested. Thanks again

does anyone have photos / details of smaller scale kiln setups?

bluddy hell, what temperature was the kiln at? did they case harden or just open up massive shakes? or is that the same thing? i wonder if i would be better with a lot smaller kiln setup and do as you say, maybe just 6m3 or simlar as i wont use my stock that quickly

Hi All. I am getting the following species of timber milled up at the weekend, probably at 1.5 - 4" thickness, not many will be at 4". I have read a lot of posts on here, and also bought the books 'the conversion & seasoning of wood' and wood and 'how to dry it' Can I please ask of peoples opinion / experiences. I have already asked about oak and read a lot of posts on here and from advice plan to have anything 18" and under cut through and through, anything above this will be quarter sawn, this will be air dired 6 months (max thickness 2.5") before kilning, is this long enough? trees were all felled last feb in the frost. other species are as follows, I have not really seen much info about them on here so advice about how long to air dry for before kilning and any cutting advice would be very much appreciated sweet chestnut, about 20" diameter Spalted beach, 30" diameter Silver Birch, 18" diameter Ash about 20" diameter SOFTWOODS: Yew, Larch Many thanks in advance, John

cheers bigJ, do u have a ballpark for a LM15?

i take it the LM1 is manual push through down the track, or is it on a winding system? any idea how much the LM15 would be, i am not bothered about the trailer package if they do it without if it makes it easier to ship. just out of interest really, i wont be doing anything regarding buying one in the next few months at least.

Hi All, i have just made a purchase of some Dakin Flathers 'Ripper 37s' to cut some oak, yew, silver birch and sweet chestnut, by the sounds of the reports on here they will be pretty good. (i cant wait to get on the mill, i'v waited all autumn for this) I shopped around a bit and the best price i got was from a company called appleby woodturnings Appleby Woodturnings - Homepage i have found them unbeatable on sharpening, spindle profiles etc. There ripper 37's are not on the website but i saw he stocked Dakin Flathers, made the inquiry and jeremy came back with a very good price, try em out guys

I dont, i think if you choose the correct apprentice, and treat them correctly and are transparent with them about how much it actually costs to employ someone, risks of pricing jobs and running costs (and i mean have a conversation about this not winge at them constantly about how much they cost you) and heven forbid you make a bit on a job because they have 'pulled there pan out' and done you proud give em a few quid extra for a beer or two and you might find you end up with a hard working loyal workforce. I think the college is there to teach them the theory but the real learning is done on site, and not just the practical learning. dont get me wrong it is a nightmare being a employee, i have had some excellent staff and a few bad ones too.

How many times have you heard,well there's a bit more than we thought many times, although not arb trade i hear that all the time and i can think of 3 jobs in the last few years when clients have told me they are on a tight budget at the start, we have completed original quoted works and ended up doing extras for more than the original cost. i quote jobs for what i think we can do them for with a FAIR profit margin, got a greedy one and i still get asked "is that the best price you can do it for?" and my reply is always, "we do a good job for the price we quote, you are welcome to speak to my past clients for piece of mind and providing the job does not change neither will the price. The job will be finished when stated where possible and the site will be left tidy. Let me know in due course if you would like us to do your job"

PS we are rarely the cheapest, but also not the most expensive and still win the work