I ran through a whole lot of issues where I was unsure how to proceed and Tony gave me good clear answers.

Earlier in the week Tony advised me that I could mill the timber down to 90 x 45 and then it would be compatible with treated structural pine.

This was good news as just taking off those extra couple of millimetres meant that I ended up with fully dressed timber on both faces.

He also recommended that I implement the top and bottom plates using pine to reduce the weight loading of the frames.

I started looking around the internet for the best price but after a phone call I found that Midland Timber was a good one stop shop for all my questions and materials (nails, bracing straps).

I bought just a 3 metre H2 and H3 F7 piece of structural pine to do my first practice on.

I also bought 3000 coil gun nails to attach the flat 1mm bracing strap I intend to use.

I still need to do some comparison shopping but at the moment I like the idea of using Midland Timber as they seem knowledgable about stud framing.

I also bought a 4m length of tube steel from Midalia to use as a straight edge.

I have marked this up with measuements at 2.8 metres (actually I can get away with 2.685 metres) to assist me in sorting through timber prior to milling it.

This will let me examine a piece of rough timber and decide if the warp / bow is too much to extract a usable stud.

Badly bowed pieces can be cut in half and then milled to be used as noggings or in situations where only short studs are needed.

After the end of our information session, Tony made his way up to my workshop where I thicknessed the existing dressed timber down to 90 mm and then we processed a new rough stick completely.

Saturday

I stayed home to work on milling studs for the first frame.

One disadvantage of working from home is that is very easy to be slack.

I slept in and did not really get stuck in to work until 10.00 am. Also, it is so comfortable at home that it is very easy to take a lot of breaks.

I spent most of the day working through 8 lengths of timber.

This involved using a wire brush to remove any hint of sand or clay, docking the timber to sensible working lengths and using the jointer to square up two sides of each length.

The really enjoyable, "juicy" part of the operation is the final thicknessing step where the last two faces are planed and squared. At this point a very attractive fully dressed piece of timber emerges from the process.

By the time I reached this phase darkness was falling and I only had time to finish the longest pieces.

I am particularly interested in these as these are the most difficult to produce from the wood pile and I am working towards creating six of them for the first frame.

Sunday

We went to a local café for breakfast and then I resumed work using the thicknesser.

I was deeply involved in the machine and at one stage when I looked up I found Lex standing patiently waiting for our scheduled meeting.

After lunch and after extracting a machine Lex is working on, from the barn, I waved goodbye to Lex and finished the last of the thicknessing.

At the moment I am working through a very "rough" part of the wood pile.

These are the timbers that survived a white ant attack.

They have very slight nibbling on the surface and this cleans off completely during the milling process.

Sadly, they have suffered a second misfortune - the carefully constructed and levelled racks on which they were stored have moved slightly and as a consequence the timbers have bowed.

The timber emerging from the milling process is perfectly square and straight - it is just not very long.

As I work from the top of the wood pile down I am encountering the shortest pieces first and have mainly produced lengths of timber suitable for noggings but very few suitable for studs.

I am hoping that when I reach the third or fourth layer from the top that I will start producing usable studs.