Mr. Ed

Where are you Peds? I’m down in Kerry and have a big thinning coming up which will produce lots of reasonable spruce that would plank up well. I did a bedroom in our own alder (over OSB) that came out quite well. 

10 hours ago, topchippyles said:

Locks it in place 

How?

Great video - I especially enjoyed the insouciance with which he reaches for the next one without looking. 
 

I’m not seeing the tapering. Or is that the alternating long and short ratchets, so the top advances over the bottom and then vice versa?

On 24/02/2023 at 15:25, Johnsond said:

Open and driven through the mud/rock until resistance then a toe pin will be put in. Yeah much deeper than the originals. 

OK - I give in.
 

What’s a toe pin? 

Why dont you make some yourself and tell us about it. I’ve got a wood shed to make this summer and would love to roof it in something other than zinc  …. I’d saw not rive I’m afraid. 

https://www.hortonsgroup.com/log-cabins/cabin-extras-amp-roof-options/roofing-options/cedar-shingles-per-square-metre
 

these chaps in Horsham say they’ll do it for you. A bit of a ghost website but maybe that’s because they’re busy riving. 

From Maple Ridge Canada. 

Thanks HillBill. Round our parts Briar means Bramble - I should have made clear. In any case they’re so entrenched that we’re not going to be able to eliminate them but do need to stop them swamping the new little fellas. Great work with the thistles …

We’ve got our first volunteer arriving next week for a workaway experience trampling and trimming so we’ll either be on the way to resolving this, or will be dead in our beds. 

Thanks HillBill. Round our parts Briar means Bramble - I should have made clear. In any case they’re so entrenched that we’re not going to be able to eliminate them but do need to stop them swamping the new little fellas. Great work with the thistles …

4 hours ago, ucoulddoit said:

 

Realised the last few posts are veering further and further off the thread title of ‘Today’s Milling’. But I guess Steve will sort that out if necessary? Anyway, here’s another.

 

Following on from the last post, the photos below are the nearest I came to having a traditionally built and rigged wooden boat. Various models made over 40 years ago. All of which looked great sailing on a boating pond in a light breeze, apart from the clinker built longboat which is just a static model. All these were made or finished while away from home studying, without access to a workshop, so they were a way of satisfying the urge to be making things with minimal tools. And a way of day dreaming of larger projects for the future.

 

First two photos are the best model and last to be made, 18 inches hull length carved out of jelutong. Very detailed, even the pulley blocks were carved out of small pieces of boxwood and the mast hoops for the mainsail were laminated from veneer. Gave that to my dad as thanks for all his support with boat building, education, etc.

 

 

 

Then the clinker longboat, just 12 inches long with planks made from veneer over a simple mould, exactly how a full size boat would be built. Anyone following the YouTube channel 'The art of boat building' which is making the dinghy for Acorn to Arabella?

 

 

 

Then a Pearling Lugger carved out of pine. About 30 inches long including the bowsprit.

 

And finally the largest at 30 inches long and first one made. A schooner with the hull carved out of balsa wood and sheathed in fiberglass. That one sailed superbly in a reasonable breeze. Sadly it's sails and rigging were destroyed years ago by our cat! One of my retirement jobs is to get it re-rigged so it can be sailed again once my grand children are a bit older.

 

Would very happily have full sized versions of the first two models.

 

Andrew

wonderful. You definitely need to get to sea again! Great models. 

That’s an island called Inishmurray in Donegal Bay. Magic place with an old monastery. 

We don’t over use them and maintenance isn’t a nightmare. The big boat is a different matter and we’ve neglected it while housebuilding. It’s quite a boat and is wooden but glued and screwed rather than fully traditional so not as big a deal as it might be. Still a big thing. 
 

1 hour ago, peds said:

Great stuff. Very jealous of your homegrown cladding. How chunky were the leylandii? What m² did they cover?

thanks. I’ve spent four grand to save three. My sort of economics!  And I forget what the metrage is - not least because I’ve run out and have to do some more !  This one is on the mill now )from a neighbour). I have to narrow this end off with a chainsaw - it’s too fat for my wee saw  

I think this was the chunkiest. Probably no more than 45 cm diameter? 
 

Oh and Dad didn’t build me a Mirror but did lovingly build me a pretty nasty little boat called a Puffin. Designed by the “DIY king” Barry Bucknell as I remember. How I envied the boys with a mirror - but it was done with love. 

My parents’ first boat with a lid on was a Silhouette Mark III. The first time I took it out on my own the mast fell off - that was a test of a 12 year old I can tell you. Then we nearly sank it under St John’s Wood (in the Regents Canal Tunnel).  Both events would have been in the early 1970s. Here’s a couple of nice wee woodies we have now

Mostly Leyland from four big trees that had been leaning on each other like drunken sailors - just at the site. They’ve travelled 100 metres down to my shed then 100 metres back again. And some Douglas but not so much of that. Also ours. 

There was a T24 by Guy Thompson as well, but yours is very Tucker. 

Lovely boat Andrew. No boat builder I -

I can barely make a sandwich, but I have owned various wooden boats. Yours looks like a big Silhouette - do you remember who designed her?

Dyou still have the boat Andrew?

that heliotrope does look very happy there. We have something like a himalayan balsam, but that's not quite it. Not too difficult to deal with - crushing it or digging it up dissuades it no end. And a wee bit of rhododenron.

Look at me! Look at me! We’re on the last leg of milling and cladding our rebuilt extension (cover boards not installed on the long side yet. I’ve always wanted to live in a packing case. We are putting a post and beam balcony on the gable end. Being a complete newbie I’m as excited as Liz Truss was when she became PM - is that a good sign? 
 

We’re trying to do it without spraying. We’re not militantly organic but if we’re arranging the woodland for diversity and nature it would be a bit perverse to start it with a load of herbicide. And no, I don’t have the appetite for a fundamental row about it - we get enough of that in the real world.
We have a small problem of invasive species in the older part of the woods so there’d be no end of work for Wwoofers.  

Yes I have a mulching head for the brush cutter - a great thing indeed. I need to make a big inspection next week and work out how much we have to do it’s gonna be to make it work. Probably a combination of brush cutting and hand and foot care. As to manpower we were thinking of a Workaway sort of thing. We’re in a popular holiday area and are hospitable people. 

No guards - we're behind deer fences and there's no bunnies to speak of. It's hard to imagine even a wee tractor running a flail being happy in there to be honest - the rows (which do look a bit irregular) are basically in between the old having-been-knocked ash planting, so we have lots of stumpy bits as well as drainage ditches everywhere.

Coppice Cutter - that's the sort of advice we were looking for - thanks. We have no illusions of getting rid of it all (time will do that as they grown. It's just the first few years we're concerned with, to let these poor runtish fellows have a chance of growing.