Turbo Saw Mill - Making an oak gate post

A couple of days ago I joined my friend Rich to help out with his new Turbo Saw Mill, and make a video of it in operation. It's a serious piece of kit to be working with!

Here's the video, showing several of the stages in the production of a gate post measuring 8'x8"x8" from an oak log:

As you can see from this picture, it can actually handle much longer pieces of wood than this though - the back end is behind where Rod is stood in the picture below:

The saw is mounted on a carriage which rolls along this aluminium beam:

There's an electric version, but Rich has one powered by a chainsaw engine, so it can be used in the woods. It's a Husqvarna 3120xp, with this small modification to the throttle so it can be operated remotely:

Rather than driving a chain, the saw engine drives a belt, a bit like a car fanbelt:

In turn this drives the circular saw mounted at the other end of the axle:

The saw Rich has is about 20" across, allowing it to make cuts up to 8" deep. The teeth are tungsten carbide.

When in action, a water tank uses a gravity feed to cool the saw, which can run vertically or horizontally, with the weight of the saw blade and the chainsaw engine counter-balancing each other:

By being able to swing through 90 degrees (hence the other name, 'swing arm' saw mill), it means the mill can take chunks out of a log without having to cut all the way across:

This was only the second use of this saw mill - there should be lots more coming up, and I'll be posting some more videos...

Mike

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CS32 Medium Tree Felling chainsaw course - felling oaks

I've had some time off work this week to do the CS32 Felling Medium Trees (380-760mm) chainsaw course. Our instructor is David Rossney of Esus Forestry Training - Tracy and I did the coppice harvesting efficiency course with him a few years ago too. Basically, after this course, and exam, I'll be qualified to fell trees up to 30" diameter.

There's some felling videos to come in a moment, but first a few pictures. We've been learning about properly removing the buttresses of the trees:

How to make an accurate gob cut when the tree is wider than the chainsaw bar:

and also about high-lift felling wedges:

and how to use them:

OK, here's a quick video showing just the highlights (i.e. trees falling) from day 1:

If you'd like to see the whole process, and what happens on the CS32 course, here's me felling a tree:

More videos in a new post here...

Mike

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Close up experience with an Adder!

Well, look what we saw in the woods this weekend!

We have of course seen Adders before, but this was the closest I've been able to get to one, and it wasn't in a hurry so I got plenty of pictures. Here's some more:

I especially like that last one. It's not as sharp as I'd have liked, but I'm very pleased to have captured the forked tongue. The amazing thing was that as we stood there quietly watching, the snake appeared to be unaware of our presence, and it was only when I took some steps closer (after taking the photos), that it started to hurry out of our way.

Anyway, it was great to see the snake, not least because with the leaves coming out the time for photos of birds is past - this was the best I could manage this weekend - the back end of a Blue Tit!

Talking of leaves, here's the top of an oak tree:

The Sweet Chestnut coppiced last winter is also growing like crazy now:

and the Wild Service leaves are coming on too:

Here's a view down the public footpath, where we coppiced the edges a couple of years ago. We've not yet decided when to cut again along this strip, but we don't want to let it grow up again, as we want to keep the light coming in as it's brought some real benefits for the flora and fauna.

Talking of which, along the path we saw this Common Violet growing.

Nothing special in itself, but before this year there were none of these along the path, so clearly the extra light we let in has made a difference.

Back near our camp, the fruit trees are all doing well. Here's the blossom on the wild Apple:

and here's some on one of the other trees we planted:

Some of them have finished, so we're picking off the flower heads to stop fruit growing (again), so the tree can devote its energy to growing bigger. This year we might leave just one or two to grow into fruit though.

OK, the next lot of pictures are all from the area of Sweep Wood where we've been working the last two winters.

It's the busiest part of the wood for flowers. Let's start with Bluebells, which are further on here than anywhere else in the wood, though still not quite at their peak:

A few weeks ago a couple of people identified a plant for me as Yellow Archangel. Well, they were right, as these pictures now prove:

I'd assumed this was a garden escapee, but on further research I've discovered it's often found in woodland, though not as common as it used to be, so nice to see it here.

We've also seen some Purple Dead Nettle (or Purple Archangel as it is sometimes known). This is more of a wasteland plant than a woodland one, but it's growing in a scrubby area right at the top of Sweep Wood, so maybe that's not surprising. Apparently it's a great nectar source for insects at this time of year, so again a nice one to see.

Nearby are various other plants you'd expect in scrub land, such as Goose Grass and Dandelion:

and not far away are genuine garden escapees, such as Forget-me-not, and one I don't know:

Anyway, that's the end of the flower show. We could actually do with some rain now, but there's none forecast for weeks yet...

Mike

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Back to the woods...

After five days in London, it's been great to get back into the woods with Tracy this weekend. The young coppice is growing like crazy now:
We did do a couple of jobs while we were there, mainly trimming back trees along the edges of the track up the wayleave, and also clearing the public footpath where it crosses the wayleave, which did look like this:
and now looks like this:
I was also pleased to see the young oak we pollarded is growing some better shoots now, and has avoided the attentions of grazing animals:
We've left some bracken growing around it to try to keep it somewhat hidden from them...

We saw our first Red Admiral butterfly this year today, though it wouldn't open its wings nicely for a photo.
There was also this moth(?) that I've not been able to identify yet:
and here's a random weird insect to finish:
Mike

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