lux

I’m guessing you burn at least 3 ‘faces’ of the boards to allow for shrinkage/movement, so there isn’t a disparity in colour?

Yes. Ours came with one face and edges done. Obviously everything you cut / trim then has to be burned as best it can to match in and hide cut surfaces. Just a simple plumbers torch up on the scaffolding was used for this.

Does water running off it stain surfaces below out of interest? 

No.
It had a coat of oil when it went up as well. 0 bleed.

I have looked at that but.. its expensive and when I have a load of wood sitting there and the space to do it it seems daft to buy it. It looks labour intensive, but then I'd have the satisfaction of having done it myself, I'm going to do some timber cladding for inside too..

I can always dig out the link for the company we used. They sent a big selection of burn samples to help choose what we wanted.
We actually got a surprisingly good deal on our timber at the time.
Don’t forget you’ll be getting 20% back too as it’s a new build.

For small projects like a small barn / office garden type thing i would 100% say doing yourself is worthy and achievable

On house / larger project I would go down the bought in route. I do appreciate budget is a big factor. As is time.
Variations in charring will show up dramatically and could give a patchy look.
The depth of burn and consistency of colour is very good on our boards tbf.

I would say the sugi is on about 60% of our walls.

The tyvec and battening was done by the builder. ( which the carpenters had to adjust [emoji57])

Just to fit the boards took a team of 4 to 5 guys about 8 days.

2 /3 guys on the deck cutting boards and 2 guys up on the scaffold fitting.
They worked at a decent pace too.

If you are having a shadow gap we found a great tyvec style product in black with no writing which was a fair bit cheaper than tyvec
Exactly the same thing but essential not to have print on it if shadow gapping.

Lost head screws. I bought the screws from the cladding supplier, got screwed on that. Paid £950 for the screws.
Carpenter said we could of got them for £400 ish.
Classic of being given the spiel from the supplier about specific screws blah blah.

Anyway. The gist of all that Tom is if you want any advice from our experiences or general questions how we did the cladding etc feel free to drop me a message.
If any of it saves you time money or both then great [emoji106]

Not the video I went looking for but a low input way of charring a few boards, worth looking up yakisugi too.

That looks a terrible method for controlling depth of burn….
Seen it done with flat roofing torch which offers better control. I think it was on an old grand designs episode.

Has anyone ever made any? I am building a house soon if we ever get the planning through and we are thinking of this as the weatherboarding. I have collected quite a lot of black pine from the recent storms so I'm hoping to use that. Any ideas or suggestions welcome in terms of techniques or tools...

My advice is buy it.

We are nearing the end of our house build. We have a lot of it cladding the exterior.

We used Siberian larch. You pick the the level of finish you want. In that I mean in terms of the depth of burn and how charred you want the surface to be be. From a fairly smooth finish to a more crickled charcoal like appearance.

The burn is controlled by machine / computer doing loads of boards in large batches ensuring you get an even finish for the exterior.

I found a contractor who had done 3 or 4 houses in it before.

I suppose it's just very hard to get this sort of weather right - certainly there are some vicious gusts - last night it was saying 80mph now but seems less now.
 

And large variation between forecasts.

Bit of an anticlimax so far …

 
See theres a new red area now in the SE and saying could be mill0ins of trees down?
 

At the moment it’s looking like the opposite of a Michael fish …
Bit of rain and some strong gusts but certainly no storm in the SE red zone.
Main winds supposed to start about 10 am so I won’t say it’s not going to happen but so far this morning the forecast has not been accurate

 
Access is poor and the butt is actually over a ditch then into the field. I may see if I can roll it out with the Eder winch  until it is parallel with the public footpath and carve a seat it the farmer allows. I had not realised how popular the path was until I worked there this afternoon.
 
The main thing is to get it off the rye for the farmer.

I think I’d just cut it back to the Ditch and call it quits. Off the field then. Let the farmer pick the butt up when its dry with a telehandler. Or if it’s not blocking the ditch just leave it as nice habitat.
Winching it sounds like more effort than it’s worth

It may have been from the bridge over the roundabout  before it went over, about a kilometre though.
 
I have been watching it for several years now so when I noticed it down I asked the farmer and he is allowing me to have the logs. The butt will be too much work though.

Looks like they are coming pre-seasoned. [emoji23].

Before I start dismantling things can anyone tell me if a Stihl 084 .404 bar will adapt to a Husky 2100 and oil holes match up. I have a bit of windblow to cut and the 084 is a bit heavy to lug around.

Is that tree visible from the A3 ? Sure I passed one like that earlier this week on my way up that neck of the woods.

Thanks for the reply, yeah I get what you mean about comfort... I was looking at the isuzu grafters aswell but not sure they would be great in terms of comfort 

Your right there. Deeply unpleasant to drive.
Very bouncy. Tippy feeling in corners. Nasty gearbox.
I’m not sold on the 1.9 engine

What they do score very well on is a narrow wheel base , excellent turning circle and no overhang at the front so manoeuvring on small driveways etc etc makes them handy for a lot of domestic arb work where getting kit into a drive is tight.

Try Artur Rodak. Heard positive things about his porting work.

 
What do they do to the clutch cover?

I think they increase the room it has to clear sawdust/chip to cope with increased cutting performance
Avoids it clogging up.
Externally there is a flap/guard to keep the dust away from the user.

I’d have to dig out the quote he sent for more specifics.

There is a video on YouTube of buckin billy ray visiting the shop testing out the tuned saws husky 572 stihl 462 maybe and echo 7310

He’s as mad as a box of frogs as usual but the saws are impressive.
The 572 in that clip was what I enquired to buy.

On the 572 note a while back I emailed an enquiry to Walker saws for the cost to build and ship a fully ‘walkerized’ 572. Ported, muffler mod, clutch cover mods etc etc
Having watched their saws on YouTube the porting is hugely impressive.
About 1200 dollars shipped. With fingers crossed it slips under the import duty radar.
Pretty reasonable

Had it for 10 yrs mind.
Little Kubota as well B6100, with snow plough £1500.
Both very useful.

That’s rubbing salt in[emoji23]. £120 quid a year for a mini loader. Decent.

Those little kubota compact tractors are ace. Bomb proof.
I used to use an 8200 hst in the mid nineties. It punched well above its weight and never ever went wrong. I don’t think the modern ones are too shabby either.

Mine cost me £1200 even more of a bargain.

That almost constitutes theft [emoji23]. Nice one. Gotta get lucky sometimes [emoji106]

Everyone's take on life is different what you enjoy is maybe not what the next man does ! Does this mean his life is crap ? I can't stand someone who thinks they no what I should like or be doing how about do your thing and keep your opinions on other people to your self

That’s the trouble with media platforms / text
The emoji was added as it was said in jest at micks comment.
Obviously it’s ok to comment that someone is crap at business if they work on a Sunday as you personally take no offence at someone saying another member is crap at business.

Cheers for that, I'll get in touch. 

No probs.
Steve Homewood is the guy to ask for.

He’s a good chap.

The groundie seems to be the common scapegoat …..
Technology moves on but the blame stays the same [emoji23][emoji23]

My Spud ported 390 is for sale . 28" Sugi pro bar full chiz chain . 

Not without a hint of sadness I bet. !

Should of sold it years ago you old dinosaur [emoji39].

I've had an Opico Skidster for about 18 months - bought it on ebay on a whim for 4.5k which seemed a lot (to me), but I wouldn't sell it for twice that now!
 
With regards to attachments, by far my favourite is the rotating grab (knockaround type, no hydraulic rotator) that I got from Ian at Pons Medda engineering for a really good price, and then chopped it about a bit to make it better. It takes a bit of getting used to compared to a grapple bucket or fixed grab but is more versatile than a fixed grab in my opinion, especially on a tiny machine. Took some pics of the different ways you can handle stuff with it - pick stuff up at right angles to the machine for max lift, crowd the butt(s) against the headstock to lift it in line with the machine, or just grab the end and drag which works so well with brash as it follows you round corners/through gaps etc. 
 
I've got pallet forks with the awesome Extendo beak for bigger diameter lumps of wood, and a rake which slides on the forks which is very much a mark 1 prototype but very useful in the right setting. Fun to try and squeeze every last bit of productivity out of such a tiny thing.
 
Also got a removable towhitch welded on the back for dragging chipper round site/shunting trailers at the yard.
 
 
 
 

£4.5 k for it was a bargain. That’ll earn its keep in no time. Good find.

Available for felling work in the East Hants and West Sussex areas. 
 
07450 470787
 
Cheers
 
Colin

Just to be clear .. forestry / coppicing work ?
J E Homewood in Haslemere have been struggling to find guys to coppice chestnut for fencing.

I watched it and was suprised at the end - without wanting to give away thr end of the episode - he's spent a day or so with a gypsy family and I guess had explained what he was doing. trying to portray them in a fair way, time to move on and found out his caravan had been broken into, a dump on his transit windscreen. dented roof and front bodywork trashed... For a Gypsy PR exercise they didn't come out of it very well.

Let’s hope they carry on that way and broadcast their true colours to the nation on TV.
Our lives are generally impacted by their crime, mess and shoddy workmanship tainting industries like tree surgery
If you have absolutely no experience / knowledge of them people can tend to be sympathetic to them and look at them through rose tinted lenses romanticised by the ‘old ways’ of tinker / gypsy lifestyle and wax lyrical about them having their rights to roam blah blah blah.
I hope they shoot themselves in the foot on national TV and lose some of these sympathy votes.

I haven’t watched it but these programmes are all the same. I’ll wager it starts off exposing some dreadful behaviour ( which it sounds like it has ) then there will be a shift showing their struggles in living their way portraying them as victims and then something showing how tight knit they are, the ‘values’ of their culture and Ed will walk away with a different but undecided view posing a few questions both good and bad.

I accept within their Race/culture there are genuine old school travellers.
Rightly or wrongly I differentiate them by terminology. They are travellers.
Those recidivists out there committing scams and theft are termed pikies ( or worse ) and looked at differently
That’s mirrored in every culture though

Or take your family out for a walk, followed by a big dinner, turn the phone off and watch a film in the afternoon with a bit too much wine.
 
If you have to work Sunday (apart from emergencies and highway) you’re crap at business.

Or crap at life and only have business [emoji23]

Hi, looking to start my Own business and have around £8000 for a truck/van etc, what am I best to look at for the money I’ve got? Cheers

Best to stick it as a deposit on financing something newer. 8k for an arb tipper and you’ll be looking at something pretty tired I should think.