Al.

Many thanks for all the replies; it pretty much echoed my views on it. The issue has now been resolved After a couple more emails, it transpires that I was sent the wrong shipment. It turns out that this was destined for a trade customer to go into a pub or suchlike. A shame, as due to other trades coming in, I had to get a floor down, so ended up going to the builders merchant and just taking whatever they had in stock, so it's now a nice but "meh" floor. The other boards are going back. On the other hand, the company once the mistake was realised couldn't have handled it better. So, if anyone's after a recommendation, I sadly can't give it for the floor, but can thoroughly recommend their customer service.. Al.

So, I'm in the middle of an extension to our cottage, part of which has been demolishing our bedroom and building a new one. I had in mind that we were going to have a feature oak floor in there. Actually, in my mind I was going to go off into the wilderness with my saw, fell and mill an oak, season it for a couple of years, thickness, cut and fit the boards; it was going to be perfect. Filled with words of encouragement from my wife, like "you're a computer programmer you soppy twat", and "if i'm still sleeping in the lounge by this summer I'm divorcing you" I finally succumbed and thought I'll just get ready made boards, and than as I don't have time for it to sit for a couple of months, thought I'll get engineered oak and it'll look just as good. So, I did my homework, selected a company that milled its own boards, and manufactured its own floor, looked at samples, looked at photos and ordered it. When it arrived, I was expecting clean boards, with a few knots; filled or not. What I've got are a lot of boards where the oak has split and there is a lot of filler in them, as per the photo. I think out of the 60 or so boards, there's perhaps half a dozen with no filler in them. I have complained, and been told that I won't even notice. My question is; am I being a bit of a princess, and this is perfectly OK for engineered oak, and as good as it gets? Or should I be sending it back? Cheers.

Hi there, thanks for all the replys; the saw is now full of Husky oil, and all is right with the world. I will definately consider getting an aux oiler if I go any bigger. Al.

I was toying with "really boring question about oil" but felt I needed to bring in the punters....

Just received a 5 litre chain oil from Skyland, cheers guys, and inside was some free porn: Chainsaw porn. Should make tonights shift go quicker, dreaming of all the toys..... Any the reason I bought some bar oil, was that I'm in the middle of milling this little lot: and I'd bought some bar oil from the local garden centre, a 5 litre of stihl, which I opened. It seemed very runny, almost watery, and smelt a bit funny, but I figured this was just how stihl make their oil. Anyway, as the milling is going on, it seems to be getting harder, each cut starts fine (I always manually add a bit of oil to the bar between each cut, figuring that a 36 inch bar on a 395 could do with all the help it can get), but then about 9 inches in, it really drags, and I start to see a few sparks flying out, to which I thought "bugger", but put it down to a nail, having hit a couple earlier on. Odd thing was that the teeth were still fine. Finished up for the day, and was having a good look at the bar, and the links had ground quite a deep grove into the bar, so I'm guessing that the oil was not doing anything, and the sparks were the bar being worn away by the chain. Having a look at the unused oil, still in the container, and it seemed to have bits in it: Is this normal? Do I have to up the flow rate with stihl oil, or is this a duff batch? Cheers, Al.

Dear Stihl, I'd like to thoroughly commend your decision. I've always bought the big H, and now it appears everyone else will too. Keep up the good work, Al.

Here's one of the first test runs; lobbing my 8 year old over it....

I've just done one in our woods, and I got the wire and fasteners from here (8mm wire) Flints Reading on the site, a steel core is better than a fibre core for zip lines. The carriage I got off ebay from a russian company (I'll dig out the details if you want) bit underwhelmed with it, but it was only 30 quid, and does the job fine. I didn't worry about a brake; its over a valley, and with a bit of slack in the wire, the take off speed is good, but than naturally brakes as it goes up the other side. Its about 70 metres. The seat was a log on a rope. Al.

A lot of fun yes, but as has already been mentioned, not cheap. Our RIB could get rid of a hundred quids worth of fuel in a little over an hour!!

Yes it's a cat. Made from marine ply and epoxy/glass/kevlar. Advantages of a cat is that it's really stable (which is great for people not too confident in boats), and really cheap to run. 2* 8hp engines push it along at 10 knots on less than half power. Not nearly as much fun as our 6.5 metre RIB with 120 on the back, but eminently more sensible. Al.

Here's my last boat. Couldn't find exactly what I wanted, so I built it. Didn't do a whole lot of fishing on it, but it was great for having a lazy picnic on with the family whilst drifting down with the tide. Also used it as a support boat, and for shifting building supplies. . Al.

Well, they are as thick as planks....

A fence. Milled (roughly chopped) some posts from some fallen oak branches. Ripped some pieces of dead pine for the rails, all done freehand for that "extra special rustic look". And voila; Dot, Barbara and Marshmellow are happy. Al.

"More sawing, less talking boy" "They put a handle on that saw for a reason" Oh, payback time is so sweet...

Here is where I'd start. Optiplex is pretty much the de facto business standard machine. Not usually as higher spec for graphics or sound, (but unless you're planning on doing video editing, will be fine) but a solid business machine, with a 3 year guarantee. 250 Gb seems to be the smallest hard drive, which is enormous unless you're planning on putting your music library on it. Core I3 and 4 Gb RAM and a DVD writer for under 300 quid. Will be good for several years. Put the rest of your budget on a monitor and you're good to go. Al.