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Hi Mark, The unexpected opportunity was a guy saying " you work with wood ,- would you like to be a cooper for my distillery ?" I had no knowledge of casks and barrels other than having seen the cooperages on a agricultural study tour to the cognac region of France back in the mid 1980s.! He arranged a crash course in cask working from the Jameson distillery here in Cork. Now 2 ½ years later 2100 casks have passed through my hands. I love the job, has some great perks, and I'm expected to taste and comment almost daily. Producing top shelf whiskeys , gin and soon to start vodka. Employed, 3days/week, not in the mud,shit and rain, but not as fit as I used to be, what a lucky turn. Most of the time the ankle is great, being fused it doesn't move in the same way anymore, doesn't bend or rotate, so all movements come from toes or knees which has its fatigueing downsides. Downhill slopes / stairs are painfull, could walk uphill all day long. Could not have carried on milling with it. Mine was simple wear and tear, I remember yours was a considerable smash, so I guess way more troublesome. Clonakilty distillery Facebook, twitter and Instagram has some pics /vids of me at work [emoji4]

Ah, your roads are well looked after then. The politicians on this side of the border don't give a shite about our local roads!

Christ you've got some work ahead of you. Poor Fred.

If the change happened suddenly and wasn't cured with a blade change, have you smacked into one of the blade guides to push it offline? Or a track bed support has loosened, allowing the track to flex as the sawhead passes over it, effectively changing the logs height? Shaun

Bonane then I guess. That's a place name for those not in the locality ,reading this wondering what I'm ctapping on about

Love the cat's paw details in some of those, and never worked with elm - gorgeous colouring.

How's the ankle doing overall mark ? After my fusion op I carried on for a while commercial mobile milling, but the pain would be beyond unbearable. 3 days work would lead to 2 more unable to walk. After a year an opportunity unlooked for popped up out the blue to make me change direction. 2 years later I've sold my lucas mill, but still kept my woodlands126 as a hobby/ one day retirement mill. The damage to my ankle was nothing as extreme as yours, so I don't know how you do it. Shaun

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Before you go making adjustments on band wheel angles, are you truly sure it's not tension coming out of the timber? Or that one edge ( of the lower teeth) hasn't been minutely damaged by grit, steel or as we all do ,more than once, in my case, cutting too close to the log stops.Looking at your sawlog pile in one of your pics, you have some less than perfect lengths with crooks and twists. Timber from leaning or woodland edge trees will often have wild grain, with lots of tension/ compression issues that will deflect the saw blade a surprising amount if there is any slight damage or lack of sharpness and set. Similarly when tension is released each time you remove a board the fibres can expand causing movement in the log by several mm. If tension is suspected, flip the cant over frequently to keep the movement in the fibres of the wood equalised. Where abouts in SW are you? I'm near Drimoleague, West Cork

That isn't a slur on you Steve, please don't misread it that way. Over the years I've loved and respected what you created, for the tree, landscape and wood working community. A superb resource to share amongst us all. - For people who care by people who care ! Shaun

There are unfortunately too many instances when I wish we had a dislike button as well as the like one. Perhaps our magnificent Mr Bullman could facilitate this ?

Oops sorry,

Hey mark, here's one to try. The grooves look like a resonance is building in the frame of the saw, (assuming your tracks are mounted securely and evenly over their whole length). Try slackening off all frame mounting bolts - the same ones you tightened when building the saw, then push it up and down the rails a few times, shaking and twisting the frame as much as you can frequently. Then retighten everything. Doing this should ensure that all track rollers and frame posts carry the weight evenly with no single roller being even imperceptibly lighter than any other,and no cross frame twists or tensions being present . Do this with no tension on the blade. Worked for my hm126, as did finding the sweet spot of forward speed , and slightly overtensioning blade. Shaun

Better still get them at least 2 sizes smaller, so that you will never wear them, then find ,like Cinderella, the lucky groundy they will fit

Size 13......chainsaw wellies......you poor saint of endurance. You will go to heaven, your purgatory has been completed. Corpses have been secured to river bottoms with things that must weigh less ! - I can't think of anything less torturous that didn't involve cackling, smells of burning flesh, and men in pointy hats, that could be worse than the sheer misery of chainsaw wellies

Yeah all good with me, life as employee, in the dry, as a distillery cooper is damned good. Has some very tasty advantages too, though I do miss the fantastic people and places I worked in. [emoji106]

Sorry to read and hear of your dads passing. My very belated thoughts to all the family. A very good ,kind and interesting man who lived life to the full. I heard towards the end of last year that he was suddenly and unexpectedly diagnosed, but expected him as always to simply shrug it off and bounce back. Now that I'm out of timber and milling news takes a long time to get to me. - I'm sorry. I used to break down with my lucas mill ,huge, oversize, ugly sawlogs that were too large to process, ready for him to run through the Baker. Anyway regarding this saw, I can vouch for its condition and completeness. He was a good man for the maintenance and had a lifetime of skill to get the best out of both timber and saw. Best of luck to you, hope it sells soon, there's nothing worse than machinery standing idle. Shaun

Gosh I'm even more stupid than I imagined. ... read it several times and didn't get it, then even more stupider, googled the Budgie association. I think I need to go and lie down for a bit. ! [emoji85] [emoji85]

It's taken me 4 attempts,so definitely a bit slower in the brain. Half tempted to try it again to see if I get a different answer! [emoji85]

Just googled it, it is less dense than air, so up it goes

Ready to give it a try anyway. Love flames and bangs !!

Isn't acetylene denser than air, therefore don't float/rise or am I wrong? Got 2 acet cylinders here so looking forward to some bangs [emoji12]

Mounted ?

Try the other end... body not log [emoji12]