Rhob the Log

Ta, Spud. Chain catcher's a bolt through and holes are aligned, so will leave it on & cut the one down, all squiggly no doubt! As for taking the dogs off, gotta have something to pass the time when milling - Oooo! Rotating chain catcher.....prreeetty..

That speaking from experience? Cheers Geoff

Anyone know where I could go to get dogging spikes trimmed down? Got a replacement spike through mister solutions for my 088 (a 2nd one, came with one) that's a helluva lot larger than the existing spike. Wasn't happy at night thinking of the lack of chain catcher, basically. Seems there's various standards on the parts list, one's probably north american. Anyhow, are they hardened in any way? Could I just take it to a farmer or am I looking at steel/SS quality cut? Just thinking of the extra length on the Alaskan

That is lush mister, lovely finish! The kind of item that doesn't need to have a use, it's just nice having it lying around.

I'm taking it out this weekend for a run-in, finish off some Larch. Easy job first! But yes, lots of laquer on the rails and in the groove - run your finger over it and it's knobbly in places. Comes off with a file edge ok, though a fair amount of bar groove cleaner scraping was necessary - took half an hour? I'll take that for ~£20 off a Sugihara! Was probably sprayed after a final rail dressing without a good shot of compressed air...

Did my CS32 in a local woodland on chestnut coppice. That's large trees off larger stools! We've left some long straight lengths but the guy who owns the wood has got in touch and asked if I'd like to help bandsaw it up for posts/rails. Gonna do it, learn a new skill, but it sounds like they'd be better split Doobin. You talking about the ray cells when you say cross grain? What effect does that have, other than an entry point for detritivores? So splitting with a froe? Would a splitting axe do a decent job also?

Haha! Just looked up the spec. Your saw's is heavier and all! Bill's Saw Shop - Stihl chain saw specifications Check it - 22.3 lbs MS880 to 22.2 lbs on the 088 Will do more lifting then...

That's such a beautiful area - my Ma started out woodland surveying up there. Lady Park wood. Nice, exclosure now, full of wild garlic. Good bit of ancient woodland above the river.

Mill in situ or do you want it removed from site before milling ....and is it still available

Welcome to the backwoods world! Lots of questions there so my thoughts are: Buy from chainsawbars.co.uk, Rob D's the sole importer of Granberg mills so go through him for kit. You also get 10% discount when you mention (pre-sale) you're an arbtalker. Dolmar 123? Am I reading 70cc, right? Should be fine on smaller logs, green as possible when milling remember. You'll want custom rip chain for that bar too. You'll probably not get much more length out of a lower powered saw, most alaskans over 30" use a 084/088 MS880 powerhead, but get a 30" mill anyhow if you're doing a lot of softwood (you meant larch, right? Otherwise I wanna see this latch tree!) - it's more of a buttery cut. That way you may be able to squeeze a 30-32" bar out of your Dolmar. If you take your dogging spikes off you'll get a little more length out of the bar, but you still lose 4" or so clamping the mill onto the bar. As for Leylandii...not a scooby I'm afraid! Pretty fibrous if I recall. Try 'em! Best of luck mate!

Funnily enough the guy who does a lot of the contract felling on the reserve, Paul Fulford, is a charcoal burner. Think he's moving house soon though so may not have the time on his hands, otherwise I'm sure he would've been interested. Can always ask though...

Doing a retest soon as I failed the first time round with 4 minors and a serious fault on the exercise. They don't train you to reverse your wingmirrors through the posts in the cones, or mine didn't, so when they tack on extra wingmirrors for the examiner and you clang 'em....not a huge amount of clearance. Best of luck, I had 4 sessions of lessons at £35 an hour (good rate, total idiot though), about 9 hrs total, plus the £115 test fee and loan of his vehicle and trailer. Retesting with a horse box and the 4x4. The main trouble with the test is it's LGV so twice as long as your car driving test i.e. 1 and a half hours. Keep looking in your mirror every 6 - 8 seconds that's...too many times to count easily!

Thanks Rob, will try out the Stihl when the Carlton chisel chain I'm using runs down a bit. Seems to give a nice board on the Ash we did. As regards the Carlton bar - great buy! So nice to pick up the 088 with one hand! Really nice and light and thin like a Husky bar. Did have to rip a lot of paint out the bar groove before the chain would go round - my only concern with the construction. Cheers again.

Definitely DJB! Seems we'll get a good return on 10 days felling and traipsing through mud, with the buyers picking up the manual handling. Did I see someone say weight can be arrived at by calculating stack dimensions divided by 2? Seems a lot like calculating volume minus air space (x0.5 or 0.4) and should be different for different species. Suppose a weighbridge is your best bet, but how do you do it in the field? What's the volume per ton of Alder? e.g Birch is around 800 Kg per cm3, Oak is over 1 ton per cube, right?

Cheers guys. Doesn't include extraction so I guess £33+ a cube is reasonable. Got any better forest mensuration measurements off the top of your head? Will let my mate know and we'll haul it out when it dries up if we win at auction. Cheers again!

Here we are, some pictures. Felled another 40 trees today so should bump up the total. Re-measured the large stack pictured - 8 x 3.10 x 1.70m. Current plans are for an auction to homeowners, summer extraction by 4x4. Stances change quickly when next years' budget is revealed... Make up 4 stacks into equal sizes. Around 3 artic loads by then I should think though we're stopping when the Alder comes into bud. Anywho, would still appreciate advice on price as a friend of mine would like to buy a woodlot from it.

Minimal cost mate, we're all volunteers. What's a few days quad hire...?

Looking for a little help on the pricing of an Alder copse we're felling. Got about 10 cube so far (no air, calculation was length x height x depth, all x 0.4) so far in 2 1/2m lengths 600 yards away from roadside...in an SSSI we're not allowed large 4x4 access to...with a 1 ton hiab as our only forwarding stategy. Once roadside it can be trailered out. Trees range from 15 - 45cm dbh. Will be selling in the round mostly as we don't have a processor. Now I know alder's not the greatest firewood, dries to lighter than a feather, plus doesn't have a long burn but it's a by-product that would make us a little money which would further the woods' conservation aims. Should we mix loads with birch and larch if possible? New to this so any help would be good. The voluntary warden keeps on that 'the going rate is £33 a cube' though where he gets that from I don't know. Maybe without air gaps. Can upload a few pics if that helps tomorrow evening. Cheers for your brainwaves.

Haha! Good points and info on tides but you've gotta wonder with this head trip if that's why biodynamic gardeners went all fruity and started burying ram's skulls...

Dalton trees: Not sure if this is any help, but in Belize they cut palm frond roofs and structural timber at full moon to ensure high concentrations of anti-insecticide compounds in the leaf. It has obvious longevity over the same species in different moon phases. This is thought to be because the sap is rising, but the tree could be pushing phloem to the roots and leaving higher concentrations of secondary compounds in the leaves, changing %age mass of defence compounds. Tides I know nothing about but if I had to guess I'd go with the El Salvadorean and aim to prune at low tide and go for a waxing crescent moon...

Cheers Alec, have numbered the boards and will check the end grain as they go up. Remember a good diagram put up on here with cupping convex to the middle of the log. Didn't see Grand designs but a friend told me about the technique the other day. The builder a bit put out as it wasn't an approved/tested method. Got any info on technique/tools Paul? Got a soldering iron and a zippo...

I wasn't going to treat it, actually. It's gonna cup a fair amount if it keeps warming up. Supposed to clad in autumn or winter to reduce drying speed. Hopefully I'm not too late. That said, could always treat it with a box of chocolates and some frilly underwear...

Made my day, thanks!

Took down a Larix decidua midweek to mill up for some cladding on our new double garage roof. (5m70 x 5m80) Just an afternoon of it with the small log mill. Was milling 3m10cm lengths, 15" bar with granberg ripping chain. Lovely stuff. Made a 2 sided cant using 2x4" offcuts as batons. Worked a treat on the first cut though the other had a natural twist so ended up being bowed upwards in the middle. Used the 1st of the 2 cuts as mill side. Gonna place like so: Fixing Waney Edge Cladding | Vastern Timber - what do you reckon, dimension the timber to the same width first? There's that bow to take into account... Came out with 7 boards at 6/8" thick which we'll put in place tomorrow. Moisture riding around 20% already - fast drying, though with the fine weather today Got 2 larger logs to do to finish it off what I need. Will doubtless have spare wood...sure I'll find a use for it...

Great! No brainer then, Carlton bar it is. One quick question...the Stihl ripping chain I bought last summer for the 47" is chipper chain. Not tested it yet, but by all accounts not a recommended milling cutter for board quality. Fine on softwood I expect. Think it was called Rapid Comfort X? Is the Stihl ripping chain on chainsawbars the same, or is it chisel cutter? Would prefer a chisel as I'll mostly be doing hardwood. Cheers!