Wendelspanswick

The Woodlands is made in China and distributed from Sweden to the rest of Europe, that's why it's so cheap. The bits that wear out on the HMB, belts and bearings etc, are all off the shelf components available from any engineering supplies company. The sawhead and frame components are all fabricated so any fabricator or engineering company could sort you out with replacement bits. The only specific parts are the bandwheels and I am sure you could source those direct from China if Woodlands went under as there are various other Chinese built mills on the market now with identical components (Harbour Freight being one).

Flex is the enemy on a bandmill and there is not much difference on the lower end Woodmizers and Logosols compared to the Woodlands apart from the first two are twice the price of the Woodlands. The TrakMet is much more heavily built and ridgid but has to be powered by mains 3 phase or a large generator. My background is as a welder/fabricator and I was pleasantly surprised by the Woodlands, it's well thought out and constructed. At the end of the day the important bit is the saw head, the rails just guide the saw head onto the log, and the Woodlands has a well thought out saw head. It's certainly not an industrial sawhead in the Stenner/ Forestor class but as a trade machine it's adequate. The log diameter limit on the HM126 26" which is a size you can manage manually to roll on the bed, I used to work in a mill that had a Forestor Tom Sawyer and the log sizes that could handle meant you needed hydraulic handling. How will you be loading the logs onto the mill? It's no point having a big capacity mill if you have to manually load logs onto the bed.

I spent ages studying which mill to buy, going to view all the major players in use, my favourite was the TrakMet but there is no petrol engine option, only an electric motor. In the end I've dipped my toe in by buying a Woodlands HM126 and so far I'm happy. It's very capable but it's very much a manual machine, if you want to add hydraulics/power feed etc. you will need to engineer it yourself. The problem with the established players is you don't get a vast improvement for a product that costs twice as much as the new players.

I bought a Stihl moisture meter about 6 weeks ago, put the supplied batteries in and was good to go, roll on a week and the meter is dead. I checked the button cells with a meter and 1 cell is dead (0.2v), I guessed it was just duff cells so bought a blister pack of button cells, replaced all 4 in the meter and was good to go again. Tried the meter again today and again it's dead! I haven't checked the cells yet but I suspect another has failed. Have I a faulty meter that is draining the cells or could it be the cells don't like the heat of being left in the cab of the van?

Could be the frost hit it at the wrong time killing off the blossom, we did have a late frost this year. We have an apricot tree that has fruited really well every year till this year, not a single fruit on it. On the other hand we have had a huge crop of greengages this year.

I have a couple of SCM machines and they are the dogs danglies! The are so heavily built and well engineered I never have any worries about what I put through them. The machine that gets the most use is is a L'invicible Universal Woodworking machine, a 12" saw with sliding tables, a 1 1/4" spindle moulder and a 16" planer thicknesser with 3 separate 5.5kw 3 phase motors, it's a real beast of a machine, cast iron tops and it must weigh about 750kg. The infeed and out feed tables on the planer are each 1000mm long!

Cheers for that, I've downloaded the Android app and it looks good.

That's weird because mine is a 2016 version and that has fixed guides.

Has he added an adjustable blade guide?

I may be interested in the track extensions if he wants to separate them?

I'm a great fan of the Nobel folding squares, I have 3 in varying sizes: Nobex Octo Folding Square - Carpenter's Squares - Squares, Bevels & Angle Measuring - Marking, Measuring & Levels - Hand Tools | Axminster Tools & Machinery They fold up so you can slide it into a pocket and they don't go out of square if you drop it.

I have the entire OS mapping for the UK in 25k that I obtained from a one legged man with a parrot on his shoulder, ahem! It's about 28Gb in total and opens with Memory Map and Alpine Quest amongst others, the files are .qct. It's really useful although the maps are dated from about 2008, I have them all loaded on my Android phone, you can overlay tracks etc. on them and print and email as well.

It looks a heavy casting to me, I imagine it's dowelled and bolted to the rear casting and it will have a recess for a bearing and external seal. Pulling the cover plate off may bring the PTO shaft with it if it's the floating type but it would only need to be pushed back in. What tractor is it, you should be able to find an exploded diagram on the net.

To save draining the oil park it nose down on a steep slope.

More info needed, size/age of tree, how close to the house, what aspect etc. photos would help.

Planning on setting up my new mill this weekend and want to order some blades for it. What blades are you using and where did you get them from? I was chatting to the guy from Dakins Flathers at last year's CONFOR show and he suggested using 38mm blades for a smoother cut? Someone else also suggested changing the blades regularly rather than hammering each blade till it was knackered, so use a blade for an hour, change it, then after another hour put the original back on. Apparently it helps stop the blade work hardening and cracking?

As an example I have a GYS 200 amp inverter stick welder, it needs a 16 amp supply on full chat but so long as I don't go above 160 amps I can get away with using it on a 13 amp plug. This means I can use it wherever there is a 13 amp socket. It has a 16 amp commando plug on it and I use it with a small fly lead, basically a 16 amp socket connected to a 13 amp plug. If i do turn up the amps too much all that happens is the fuse in the plug blows. I have a similar fly lead for my 235 amp MIG, a 32 amp commando socket connected to a 13 amp plug so I can use it on its lower settings.

If Stoke Wood Project is not interested I would be.

I have a JD 2130 with a loader and forks and one of the problems I found is that because of all the weight on the front the drive wheels slip, this can be solved by sticking a weight block on the 3 point linkage but that then means you can't use the pickup hitch!

This link to the PDF works: https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://vk.com/doc4696850_329843449%3Fhash%3D13fa7ae385aa5038d5%26dl%3De51bf296c4bafa1b6e&ved=0ahUKEwj3ktyX_JbOAhVkCMAKHSmIAyMQFggoMAI&usg=AFQjCNF0qRay2bhEkHpz_fPaXujefl0I7A Will Mallof Chainsaw Lumber Making

The farmer might have been talking about seasoning timber with PEG, Polyethylene Glycol is added to water to make a solution, the green timber is immersed in it and the PEG stabilises the timber to reduce shakes and warping. https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://owic.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/pubs/peg.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwiY-qWSuIXOAhWFF8AKHafoBWYQFggmMAA&usg=AFQjCNEKhOOoo4T2Rc8BWAEGCa4G1dhM6w

I could have been a bit clearer, my job involves driving around Somerset with a Renault Trafic van which has a bed length of 96" (8') with the doors closed. I could collect and hold for you or drop off elsewhere in Somerset but I wouldn't like to drive too far with the rear doors open as the exhaust fumes get sucked back in.

Mine arrived about 12:30 so a similar time to yours, I guess not the same truck then. 2 pallets? What else have you bought or did you go for the track extensions.

Yandles by any chance? I pass Merriott frequently with my job but 109" is 13" too long to carry without having to have the doors open for any distance.

Well according to the wife the mill has arrived, bit of a palaver getting it off the lorry apparently, they sent it on a curtain sider with a tail lift but loaded the lorry so that you couldn't use the pallet trucks to move the crate onto the tail lift. Luckily we are next to a farm who unloaded it with a forklift from the curtain side.