value of beech tree?

[dom]

I'd have thought a saw mill (even a wood mizer) wouldn't notice little bits of (rusty) old barbed wire or staples? 6" nails I can imagine breaking bands or knocking a tooth out of a circular saw.

[Andy Hall]

I do this even with timber coming from a yard, because there can be nails and staples and bits of metal below the surface. During a trip to the U.S. I found one of these in a woodworking store:

has paid for itself in terms of planer blades after detecting a very small number of metal objects.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , " [e-mail]" writes

The carbide tips withstood a buried staple without apparent damage. I'm judging by the operator paranoia:-)

I doubt wood-mizer bands would stand much.

regards

>

[Andy Champ]

ISTR problems some years ago when Dutch Elm was rife with a large elm in One Tree Hill Road, Guildford - because a passing Luftwaffe guy had had a pop at it, and it was full of machine-gun bullets!

Andy

[Tim Lamb]

In message , " [e-mail]" writes

I had in mind using them for sole plates. Having done one barn, I am getting ambitious:-)

I have a large dead Oak overdue to come down. I haven't dared fell it as there are some 11kV overheads nearby. Sometime this Summer the cables are going underground:-)

regards

>

[Tony Bryer]

On a recent TV programme (Working Lunch?) they showed a sawmill that ran all logs through a metal detector before sawing to identify any stray metal. The cost of damaging a saw blade is not insignificant AIUI.

[AJH]

I don't know what bullets the Luftwaffe fired but I did cut a pine at Hankley Common and felt some slight bumps, I'd cut through some copper clad pistol bullets embedded in the base of a pine, the local forestry company office kept the ring on display for some years after. It didn't do much damage to the chain.

OTOH when I was just starting out my foreman was felling a london plane by fulham football ground, the Dolmar CT suddenly speeded up and just span in the cut, on examination all the teeth had sheared off the chain, the explanation given was it hit a piece of somewhat work hardened shrapnel. I've had a similar effect on hitting a round pebble embedded in a tree but this just curled over the leading edge of the teeth.

There are very good reasons for avoiding metal, especially with a band saw as they can be derailed or snapped and flail across the mill. The main reason is just loss of cutting efficiency and hence downtime. With the woodmizer it was difficult enough to keep it cutting straight when sharp so anything that might make it blunt was to be avoided, we'd often use an axe to remove bark in the line of the saw just to keep the blade from becoming blunt from inclusions.

Metal inclusions often give themselves away by staining the adjacent wood, green for copper and quink ;-) for iron.

[dennis]

Lead.. nice and soft.

[Andy Champ]

It was a long time ago and I am going by dimly remembered newspaper reports.

However, I suspect WW2 aircraft would be fitted with armour piercing bullets - steel case or core. Assuming this wasn't a burst from a cannon, in which case it would be bits of steel shrapnel!

Andy

[Stuart Noble]

I used to routinely cut through screws and nails with a TCT blade. As long as the metal is firmly embedded in the wood, there's no problem. It's when it's flapping about in a void that the teeth start to fly

[Andy Dingley]

Talk to:

• Whoever is felling it.

• Woodmizer (portable bandsaws) up in Pocklington, Yorks. They won't want it, but they'll tell you of local Woodmizer operators who probably will do.

• Whoever sells timber locally to woodturners (read the back of the woodwork mags). Maybe cabinetmakers too, if you have such a timberyard nearby. The reason for specifying turners is that bowl blanks are easier to convert and can use smaller trunks than cabinetry. So supliers to turners will often take smaller one-offs than cabinetry yards. Turners might even use large branches, whereas someone converting it to boards won't.

[Andy Dingley]

A beech I did last year contained an entire _fence_. This was the steel pipe and steel hockey stick upright stuff used for paddocks along main roads in the 1920s. The upper rail (which the hockey stick makes overhang the paddock) was at least 6" under the bark.

Interesting staining and spalting from the iron. Half of the trunk went for boards, half wasn't fit for it. However I have high hopes for turning it (when I get some new tuits for the lathe).

[Andy Dingley]

It will, and it will knock teeth off the band. However bandsaw teeth are more numerous than circular, and a lot cheaper to replace. I can have a Woodmizer band majorly doctored for the price of having one circular saw tooth replaced and re-set.

[dennis]

(when I get some new tuits for the lathe).

You have a lathe? Its easy to make round tuits with a lathe.

[1501]

Simply remove the corners from a square tuit.

[The Medway Handyman]

Don't you find it blunts the teeth something chronic?

[Stuart Noble]

Obviously depends on the metal. You can slice old cut nails lengthwise without really noticing it. TCT blades go on being fairly blunt for a long time before they won't cut straight