Ilnumero

I have to sell my mill. It's a Norwood Lumbermate 2000 with lots of expensive extras including extended bed, trailer package, log winching kit, quick clamps, the largest motor available, about 20 bands for various timbers. It's all in perfect working order and good condition. Priced new, it's about at least 16k worth of gear. I'm thinking about 6500. What do you guys think? Yes, I know the buyers amongst you are going to say it's too dear, but I think my price is about right for what it is.

Just a guess, based on the fact that four of us blokes had difficulty lifting each board. They certainly felt like we were lifting much more than 50kg each. I also have a pressure guage on the Hiab that gives a kind of indication of the load on the cylinder. Please bear in mind, John, that they were soaking wet too, just milled 3 months after felling.

The stem was milled 3 months after the tree was taken down, so still soaking wet. I milled through-and-through with a natural edge for table tops. I got 7 really well-figured ones from around the centre of the tree. Sold 6, just one left.

Just my opinion, but that's not worth £5 hoppus, it has too many branches. Add in the issue of brown rot and it's down to £100 for firewood. As an example, I bought a stem 24' by 30" top, paid £50 for it and ended up getting very little out of it. There was rot and a lot of metal that wasn't apparent until I started milling it. The rot was the worst bit, wasted about 1/4 in total. Spent ages digging metal out, which wasted a good plank.

It's usually down to tracking. Are you able to track both wheels independently? I find on mine that the tracking is quite sensitive and alters with tension ,so with half tension it looks miles out but when the band is fully tensioned, everything falls into line. Both wheels have to be adjusted. There looks to be a lot of weights on your wheel but that shouldn't affect the band being thrown off. They are just for balancing the cast wheel. I assume you have rubber tyres on the wheels, these should be slightly crowned, I think. Flat wheels will allow the band to wander.

Those are going to be very heavy boards. I milled some, 3'6" wide by 10' long, 2 1/2" thick. They weighed 350kg each, took five of us to get them into the workshop. Plane is a really dense timber so you might need some lifting gear for that job.

Steve, I'll send you some, just need an address. Do you want a turning blank, plank, or whatever?

Thanks for that, but I'm not sure. The heartwood on mine is quite dark brown, like walnut but with medulary rays visible. The cherry looks too golden. I have looked through several books but don't seem to get the bark, sapwood, heartwood just right.

I can only guess at your emotions right now. To spend such a part of your life building something so sublime, only to see it go up in smoke must have been so harrowing. I have rebuilt our own wooden house here, almost single-handedly and know what a toll it takes on you. I took about a year to recover mentally from it. Your positive attitude is to be greatly admired. To take seven years to achieve something so beautiful, have it destroyed, and then to decide so swiftly to start again is so unbelievably inspiring to anyone. I wish you so much success for whatever you build next. You deserve it.

Oh, not sweet chestnut, I mill a lot of that. That has just reminded me, there is no scent at all from the cut timber. Mick Dempsey, I would he happy with a good guess!

It's definitely a hardwood. I was leaning towards a young walnut but the grain structure isn't right. My pal, who is fairly experienced at id-ing stuff, is stumped.

Hello you knowledgeable lot, I picked up some small logs of this timber but have no idea what it is. It is quite dense. I have included some pics of fresh cut and some planed timber.

I was asked by a local timber merchant if I would supply their oak sleepers in packs of 50. I worked out it would cost me £10 to produce one, which includes materials, time, transport, band sharpening etc. They were offering £14.50 each so it wasn't worth my time to work for £4.50 a sleeper. In the end, I found a supplier for them who charged £17 each. The sweet part was seeing them in the yard, waney-edged, twisted, full of sapwood and shake. I certainly wouldn't supply them like that, they got what they paid for.

Another job last week - two 8x8x8 feet oak posts. Took just an hour to mill them from some scruffy looking logs I had in stock. Came out really well, charged £180 for the pair. Easy money for an hour's work. That's the sort of jobs I like.

I run a mobile Lumbermate . Just as an example. I did a job onsite recently. As it was fairly local, I set the mill up the evening before. Started at 8.30, had three men on hand and a Manitou for handling. The job was milling oak 6x6, 6x2 and random 65mm boards for wind braces. Total at the end of the day was 36, 6x6s, 34 6x2s and a huge pile of random 65mm boards. To be fair, all the logs were bent, tapered, generally poor quality. One of the guys who builds oak buildings was complaining about not getting enough yield from each log, but he is used to buying dead-straight french oak, not hedgerow stuff and odd logs they got hold of. We never stopped all day, worked our socks off and finished at 8pm - long day. Used about 3 gallons of petrol so very economical to run. Did use 7 bands that cost £9 each to sharpen and they gave me £40 for the bands, which I was fine with. They have since delivered 8 ton of milling timber to me (sold a small part of that for £500 so far), so it's not always about getting the last penny out of the customer It was still better than buying in the finished product, although I couldn't give you any figures for that job.