the all aussie dribble thread!

[chippy]

Good point. Being so dense, I can't see large logs seasoning in just a year. Might have to give it a miss. Lacking enough experience with saligna to know how long it would take, how it would react, etc. I heard the dehumidifying kilns prefer the wood as green as possible and tend to have some gentle yet fast drying schedules so if the house building people think it might be a good idea, then I'll call around and see how stoopid an idea the kiln guys think it is.

I have been experimenting with air-drying the 4x1 lumber a wee bit. It's only a gut feeling at this stage but I think the stack that was left NOT fillet stacked for a year seems to have less degrade (at this stage). I'll fillet that stack in the next few weeks and check it again next Summer and compare with the stack that was filleted straight off the mill

g'Day drifter. Yeah blame it on me. Thanks for the suggestion. I've had good results using up a big container of PVA glue for the end sealing of logs before milling. Still get some checking though, in gum especially, but not too major.

No chance you could season anything longer than 300 mm in a year by air drying, even then it will still be around 18 to 25%MC. To be seasoned properly you'd want 12% (can't get it any drier than that here) to 14%.

If your talking lumber lengths of around 6mtrs about 7 to 10 years for air drying or you could put sprinklers on it and speed up the drying process and control it better to. Also if you submerge your logs in water for 3 months they'll be pretty dry in 12months, far better than air drying.

 

[husq2100]

I'm have no clew but I would have thought length not a factor but timber size ??? Ie 6m 4x2 dry as fast as 3m 4x2 as they have the same 4 sides to dry from. But a 7x4 longer time as deeper to dry???

 

[KiwiBro]

No chance you could season anything longer than 300 mm in a year by air drying, even then it will still be around 18 to 25%MC. To be seasoned properly you'd want 12% (can't get it any drier than that here) to 14%.

If your talking lumber lengths of around 6mtrs about 7 to 10 years for air drying or you could put sprinklers on it and speed up the drying process and control it better to. Also if you submerge your logs in water for 3 months they'll be pretty dry in 12months, far better than air drying.

You know, I was thinking about that a bit earlier today because I have already done something like that with firewood. In this case, the end use is not so much about the lumber appearance as having a big hunk of natural log as the ridge beam. Would be relatively easy to drag a few logs into the river and tie them off.

Now that you are here though, your mission should you choose to accept it is to please find me the best deal on a 90+cc saw for large trees and also some milling, using your Extra Special Price finding abilities . Have been told the husky air filtration isn't the best, but then have got mates using 390/395 and so far no probs, so I'm a bit confused on that point.

 

[husq2100]

ta. Any probs with the air filters letting fines through?

No idea but huskys have good filtration and better than the older 660 880 I believe. I figure the 395 better Antivibe and bit more torque than the 660 and a bit lighter than the 084 880 saws???

I have never run anything bigger than a 288 and I'd think a husky 390 or 660 a little under done for the big stuff in hardwood.

Let the pros chime in I could be full of ****???

 

[Bwildered]

Check this little insect out, you wouldn't want one of those tickling the back of your neck while snuggled up in a swag
. Stangst

 

[KiwiBro]

Check this little insect out

See quite a few of them when playing in native timber here. They seem to love Totara for some reason. They can move pretty quick when they want to.

 

[chippy]

Timber has 2 main types of moisture content.

There's the moisture that occurs in the cell. Most of that moisture is there for good and you need something like a microwave or fire to remove all of it and then the cells start to break down, they collapse and your timbers not much good anymore. This moisture when it leaves the cell, and not much does, travels into the capillaries of the timber then travels along its grain and escapes out the ends of the lumber.

Then there's the moisture that the timber has in the capillaries and other tubes that I cannot remember the names of. This is where the bulk of the moisture in the timber resides. For it to leave the timber, it has to travel along the grain until it hits the air and escapes. It can get blocked by drying sap and then it takes longer or if the capillaries collapse, which will slowly happen as the cells loose their moisture.

It doesn't loose moisture coming out the sides, well stuff all, pretty much all out the ends.

By wetting or submerging the timber, it initially sucks in all the water it can. The cells expand and the capillaries and tubes open right up. When the timber is removed from the water, the excess sap is suspended in the water and because it's now so open, the moisture escapes much faster and before the capillaries can collapse and wnot be blocked by sap..it's dries 3 to 10 times faster than air drying, is less susceptible to warping and bending because it dries far more evenly.

I firewood pile left to dry in the rain dries marginally faster than one under cover, but it is marginal, less than 1% usually because it doesn't rain enough to make a huge difference.

So, by wetting your timber, the more the better, the better it will dry.

 

[postrip]

If you say 2100, I'm going to buy a plane ticket and come over there and kick you in the nuts.

That said....

What would you good buggers suggest for a used saw to run a 40-ish" bar felling gums, and sometimes a larger bar slabbing logs I can't get the mill over please?

I know they are an old and heavy design but occasionally used dolmar 9010's turn up pretty cheap.

Hi Tony, I'd go the 395xp!
With a small muffler mod & retune, it'll give you many years of reliable use.
I personally have always used a filter oil on both Stihl & Husky material style filters.
I've always used the Stihl pump spray filter oil, a lite spray all round with stop any very fine microns of dust.
Never had a dusted engine of my own using this method, and for $10/$15 I'm still on the same tin I purchased in 2002, and I service a lot of machines.... Just my 20cents worth

 

[chippy]

Get the big Dolmar/Makita.

There was a shop in Sydney selling them for 1150 or there abouts. I think retails around 1600.

 

[Bwildered]

Timber has 2 main types of moisture content.

There's the moisture that occurs in the cell. Most of that moisture is there for good and you need something like a microwave or fire to remove all of it and then the cells start to break down, they collapse and your timbers not much good anymore. This moisture when it leaves the cell, and not much does, travels into the capillaries of the timber then travels along its grain and escapes out the ends of the lumber.

Then there's the moisture that the timber has in the capillaries and other tubes that I cannot remember the names of. This is where the bulk of the moisture in the timber resides. For it to leave the timber, it has to travel along the grain until it hits the air and escapes. It can get blocked by drying sap and then it takes longer or if the capillaries collapse, which will slowly happen as the cells loose their moisture.

It doesn't loose moisture coming out the sides, well stuff all, pretty much all out the ends.

By wetting or submerging the timber, it initially sucks in all the water it can. The cells expand and the capillaries and tubes open right up. When the timber is removed from the water, the excess sap is suspended in the water and because it's now so open, the moisture escapes much faster and before the capillaries can collapse and wnot be blocked by sap..it's dries 3 to 10 times faster than air drying, is less susceptible to warping and bending because it dries far more evenly.

I firewood pile left to dry in the rain dries marginally faster than one under cover, but it is marginal, less than 1% usually because it doesn't rain enough to make a huge difference.

So, by wetting your timber, the more the better, the better it will dry.

timber holds moisture the same way a sponge does, a fully saturated sponge is like green timber, if the water is squeezed out of it, this is like the free water inside the sponge & timber cells being lost, but the cell walls are still wet, the timber won't shrink, now if the sponge dries out further then it shrinks, which is what also happens when the timber cell walls dry out .
Thansk

 

[KiwiBro]

I firewood pile left to dry in the rain dries marginally faster than one under cover, but it is marginal, less than 1% usually because it doesn't rain enough to make a huge difference.

So, by wetting your timber, the more the better, the better it will dry.

Had an old-timer tell me about this years ago and I did some tests the following Summer and bugger me it worked. But it wasn't something I could scale up to hundreds of cubic metres, so the idea got shelved like a McBobsta hotsaw.

Hi Tony, I'd go the 395xp!

Cheers Ears. Am leaning that way but I guess the burned up 395's on the dealers bench who was warning me about the filtration never used a filter oil. Come to think of it, I never have on the Dolly HD filters either.

What do you good buggers think would be the maximum bar length for felling with a 395 and then what about the longest for milling with aux oiler?

 

[derwoodii]

dam it i just discovered my Atlas bi pod for new 308 a china knock off fake,,, ffs it works but its not the ant pants eday had the fakes em from 69 to 180 bucks mine feels the goods & well built & I paid $200 thinking i got a good deal vs OEM prices 370 to $450 ,,, feeling a tad foolish

 

[Dash Ooter]

dam it i just discovered my Atlas bi pod for new 308 a china knock off fake,,, ffs it works but its not the ant pants eday had the fakes em from 69 to 180 bucks mine feels the goods & well built & I paid $200 thinking i got a good deal vs OEM prices 370 to $450 ,,, feeling a tad foolish

If you paid with PayPal you'll be right. Just lodge a claim with them and report the seller to eBay.
Oh, be more careful next time. Harris aren't that bad.

 

[chippy]

Check this little insect out, you wouldn't want one of those tickling the back of your neck while snuggled up in a swag
. Stangst

Funny you should say that.

When the state gov banned the cattle in the high country here in Vic, I went along to a protest drive of cattle through the high country.

We stopped for the night at Wonnangatta Station. I set up my swag about 800mtrs upstream from the main group on my own. I was sober.

Went to bed in my swag, zipped it up. Out like a light. Woke up feeling cold to see both sides of my swag open above me to the sky and one of those crawling across my back. Scared the crap out of me so wide awake now. Couldnt work out how my swag ended up being like it was so got dressed and sat in the car having a durry in the drivers seat. All windows up as its about zero degrees.

5 minutes in to my smoke there's a knock on my drivers window, 3 knocks just like someone would knock with their knuckles on your front door. Clear as day and right beside my head. I start the engine and turn on all my lights front and back, grab my torch and jump out of the car.....there's nobody there. Its 3.30 or so in the morning and no way I am falling asleep now so I went looking for tracks on the ground around my car and swag. Could only find my fresh boot marks. It was quite chilling.

That morning over breakfast I tell a few of the mountain cattlemen what happened to me that night. Im then told that some believe the station is haunted, the owner and his wife of the station were murdered and found by the postie that visited once a week or so.
I still dont believe in ghosts or the supernatural, but it was wierd.

Edit: It was 1917/1918 and the station manager was found dead and his cook missing. The cook was found dead a couple of months later not too far from the station. Both had been shot and both were in shallow graves. The murderer/s were never found but police found strychnine in the pepper shaker at the homestead and that the station managers shotgun had been recently discharged but his body was found badly decomposed and eaten by dingos and other animals. He was shot in the back, the cook had been shot through the head.

 

[Creeker]

Having slept dozens of times in the 'Gatta chippy I must say that I never ran across a ghost, not fully 'sober' though on
to many of those nights

To continue the story of the murders, BARCLAY the Manager was found deceased not far from the Stn house by the postman Harry SMITH
some time later and then the body of BAMFORD a Station worker was found much later dec. on the Howitt High Plains from a gunshot wound.

To cut to the chase, I reckon Harry SMITH administered some summary bush justice very early in the piece to avenge his friend BARCLAY, but who knows ?

I'd really like to read the Inquest Briefs re the two deaths, see what the investigator Detective McKERRAL says.

Got the "History of Wonnangatta Station" by Wallace M. MORTIMER here chippy, you are welcome to borrow same.

Edit...The above author felt that two district cattle thieves were responsible for both murders, Harry SMITH later 'adopted' BARCLAY's son and they spent many years together at Happy Valley, Crooked River.

 

[Creeker]

K'bro, Jaycar sends me emails with products, saw this, seems cheap but might do the job - <Au$30 or round NZ$500.00.

http://www.jaycar.com.au/Test-&-Mea...-Meter-for-Wood-&-Building-Materials/p/QP2310

 

[KiwiBro]

Cheers Creeker. There's a moisture meter gathering dust on a shelf somewhere in my shed. Not sure if I will ever use it again but never say never.

 

[KiwiBro]

Guys, the more I read the more confused I seem to be getting about this big saw choice. So I'm hoping your good selves can help please. I figure42" is about what I'm going to need for felling big-ish trees in all but a few occasions. But 42" and longer will be used for milling.

In terms of weight while felling, I think the biggest I have actually used rather than just picked up and waved around, that I might be able to compare is the husky 2100 with about a 34-36" bar. That was fine, not too heavy. I won't be using the large saw every day, but I get the feeling that when I need a big saw, I'll need a big saw, if you get my drift. A classic example will be big, old macrocarpa trees that are 1.5m DBH, sometime more. But I figure most will be within the 42" bar size that I have read the husk 395 is fine with.

The issue for me seems to be if I could, albeit occasionally, mill with up to a 72" bar with RX mega-skip or other skip (or full comp but real high rakers) chain and aux oiler, using just the 395 and accepting it will not have the torque so will need to take things a bit slower, with higher rakers than I otherwise might with a bigger saw or the 4-stroke on my sawmill. Or whether it's lunacy and I would be better of with a 3120 and just having to grovel with the weight a wee bit when felling big-ish trees.

I'm leaning towards the 3120, but would I regret having a boat anchor like that in the arsenal and wish I chose a 395 or something else around that size instead? It would be an expensive screw-up to make.

Perhaps it's worth getting a 395 ported?

If the 100cc+ option is best, then is a 3120 or 880 or some other saw worth looking into a bit more? From what I've read, there's coil/intake boot swaps needed to wake the new 880's up.

Any help muchly appreciated.

 

[peter92]

model 4900 beaird-poulan chainsaw.77 cc made from 1980-84
can any one tell about this saw
Is it worth buying or is it crap
Peter

 

[derwoodii]

gun club just installed and we'r testing HEX wifi auto score target reader and scorer,, its very nice and gonna be far easier than pulling markin targets...tho an issue of online security arises as its live system and all names of all OZ shooters is accessible with out log in and so the bad guys got access to hundreds of names OZ wide all who would own fire arms so uh oh ,,,,, I,m not so keen about this even my son get a guernsey yet he's not paid member ATM i ask for nick name used or system locked out by access code or both