ABS firewood cleaners

[OH logger]

does anyone have any experience with these?? I'm thinkin of pullin the trigger tomorrow and wonderin if anyone has one? I like them better than a tumbler for loading into with my bobcat if I need to . thanks

[barbender]

I don't, I've been looking at their splitters real hard though. Their stuff is all built real stout, I will say that much.

[OH logger]

that's good to hear. I haven't been around much of their equipment

[glassman_48]

Oh logger,
I am a sponsor in here, and sell ABS products, their fine seperator like all their products are well built.  I also have one of their commercial splitters my 11 year old grand daughter put a 23" diameter log through that splitter in about 40 seconds, all she had to do is pull the splitter lever, the machine did all the rest. 

[shamusturbo]

We looked really hard at their stuff last year at the PB Show. Very very nice conveyors. And the "auto fine" and "auto split" look very very nice too. I am not sure how you would stage them so you could put max volume through them. Not sure what kind of volume they handle either. I know you are in the couple hundred cord a year club......

[barbender]

They look like nice heavily built machines. I was really trying to justify one of their Autosplit machines, they offered me a pretty good deal on one. However, my 10 cords of split firewood sales per year didn't justify a $10k splitter😊 I'm trying to figure out how to up my production without getting myself way into debt, but there's not much available between my little MTD homeowner machine and something that could  do 100 cords a year. The MTD would do it but I don't have enough spare time.

[OH logger]

I laid my hands on one at the bunyan show and I think I made a good choice. they had the first one they ever made there. they have came a long way sinse then which makes me wonder. why the heck wouldn't they bring a new redesigned one?? that way instead of having to say "well this and this and this is different" they could say here it is and watch it work. the reason I bought that over a tumbler is they can be loaded with a processor OR a skid loader. not sure if ill reclean much cause I think we can clean off the processor, let dry and sell. but the option is there if I have to. no offense to anyone here but I think a tumbler with a chute or funnel you laod with a bobcat is wishful thinking at best. I think it will bridge and plug before it gets into the drum unless you feather the heck out of the bucket dumpin into it. then its so slow its not even funny.  on a side note I need some opinions: I processs my wood onto a concrete pad and let it dry for 5 or 6 months then deliver it. do you all think its going to be good enough to clean the wood off the processor and deliver directly out of the pile 6 months later? or will a lot of stuff loosen up? if I do it that way it takes no extra time and also ill be getting ALL of the fines out (when cleaning) and my thinkin is the little bit of bark that loosens up will be welcomed as kindling. cause all my customers say the same thing when I tell em about the cleaner "I still want kindling". I am really lookin to get ALL the chips and fines out and keep a majority of the kindling (especially the bigger stuff).   I really don't want to clean it again when I deliver it(takes time). thanks for the help

[stavebuyer]

I laid my hands on one at the bunyan show and I think I made a good choice. they had the first one they ever made there. they have came a long way sinse then which makes me wonder. why the heck wouldn't they bring a new redesigned one?? that way instead of having to say "well this and this and this is different" they could say here it is and watch it work. the reason I bought that over a tumbler is they can be loaded with a processor OR a skid loader. not sure if ill reclean much cause I think we can clean off the processor, let dry and sell. but the option is there if I have to. no offense to anyone here but I think a tumbler with a chute or funnel you laod with a bobcat is wishful thinking at best. I think it will bridge and plug before it gets into the drum unless you feather the heck out of the bucket dumpin into it. then its so slow its not even funny.  on a side note I need some opinions: I processs my wood onto a concrete pad and let it dry for 5 or 6 months then deliver it. do you all think its going to be good enough to clean the wood off the processor and deliver directly out of the pile 6 months later? or will a lot of stuff loosen up? if I do it that way it takes no extra time and also ill be getting ALL of the fines out (when cleaning) and my thinkin is the little bit of bark that loosens up will be welcomed as kindling. cause all my customers say the same thing when I tell em about the cleaner "I still want kindling". I am really lookin to get ALL the chips and fines out and keep a majority of the kindling (especially the bigger stuff).   I really don't want to clean it again when I deliver it(takes time). thanks for the help

I really like the looks of the ABS cleaner. We set our splitter in front of the wheel loader: hand toss the splits into the bucket and stockpile on concrete. Our wood is pretty clean going into the pile, but we still get a lot of loose bark and trash loading out. I think the time to clean is when loading out.

[OH logger]

any other opinions fellows on when to clean?? I imagine it will be trial and error but I'm just curious on what yall think

[North River Energy]

Is the 'cleaning' plan driven by customer demand, or are you simply trying to set a higher standard?
Are you loading out of the stockpile with a tine/comb bucket, or a standard material bucket?

[OH logger]

Is the 'cleaning' plan driven by customer demand, or are you simply trying to set a higher standard?
Are you loading out of the stockpile with a tine/comb bucket, or a standard material bucket?

both. I built a homemade cleaner "grizzly" loaded with the bobcat and the wood slides down it into the delivery truck (as seen on this forum). It works ok but I want my product to be the best. also its slow cause you have to feather the bucket so much when dumping and I had to put the bars far enough apart to let  the debris go through. then some good wood goes through and has to be sorted out later in my "free Time" (no such thing). I have in my opinion the best wood around BUT no one around here processes wood with a processor. they all split by hand or with a splitter and load the truck by hand and either dump it or throw it off or stack by hand thus eliminating all the unwanted debris. I charge a premium so I need to provide a premium product and service. and I load with a rock bucket and if shaken it takes a very minimal amount of grit, chips out. no one around here takes firewood business seriously and I do. hopefully that dependability gives me a leg up. I feel it has already. this all maybe overkill but I think it will fetch my wood an even better price

[North River Energy]

Generally, it seems that most of what falls through my processor grates is splinters, whereas I tend to see more loose bark than splinters after 6 months in the sun.  Assuming I'm processing fairly green stock.

So I guess the question is whether or not your cleaner mechanism can process fast enough when fed by bobcat v processor, and whether or not the cleaner is suited to sorting bark.

One of the advantages to a tumbler is that some of the larger debris is bound to be pounded through the bars by the falling blocks, whereas the vibratory screen may pass some of that along into the outgoing load. Or at least it appeared that way from the promo video.

For best cleaning, the wood has to spend enough time rattling around, so you'll need a reasonably large machine if you want a respectable throughput.

So far a tine bucket seems to work well enough for my operation, but if I had to build a separator, it would be a two-stage barrel tumbler with a vibratory in-feed table that would advance the material without bridging. I can load a cord to the truck from the ground in about 12 minutes, so the cleaner would have to keep up, otherwise I'm paying myself less per cord.


Something else to consider is sorting log type prior to processing, to ensure that 'looser bark' species go into one part of the stockpile,and 'tighter bark' goes into another part. Might not be practical for your layout, but it's worth some thought as a means of simplifying the cleaning stage.

[OH logger]

good ideas but as far as sorting types of logs out before splitting I really dont have room to do that. the reason I tend to think I can get by cleaning off the processor is that I want to get all the little splinters and debris and chips (10 way box wedge) out, BUT leave some bark and kindling. I think if we clean off the processor it will get ALL of this out and maybe even a FEW of the pieces of kindling I would kind of like to save. so as the wood dries and some of the bark comes off I think this would be welcomed by the customers as kindling. but I NEED to get the debris out. this cleaner is not a vibrating kind, threre are 8 rows of "discs" that all spin the same direction to advance the wood to the discharge end. the discs are space 1.75"apart. I'm sure I could have space them out differently but we talked about my goals and that's what he suggested. the cleaning "trough" is 53"wide and 9' long. its pretty substantial but I'm not sure if it will be fast enough loading with a bobcat to suit me. I like production cause I have very liitle free time as it is. that's a big part of me wanting to clean off the processor only but I want to do an effective job too. sorry for rambling but like I said I am a firewood aholic. 

[North River Energy]

You're probably on the right track, so far as cleaning right after the processor, especially with a box wedge.
 I'd almost think you'd be better off 'including' a box/bag/bale of kindling splinters with each load, rather than relying on residual bark for kindling.
I use wood for DHW year 'round, and prefer the fines and splinters to bark.

What is the actual throughput on your processor? From the video of the disc cleaner, it looks a little slow for a high production operation.

Blockbuster offers a tumbler with conveyor feed from a hopper. No idea on cost, but it appears to be targeted toward cleaning after seasoning.

[OH logger]

he can do 2.5 cord/hour on average. that tumbler set up from blockbuster is great...but its $20,000 to $25,000!!   I forget the actual amount...maybe cause I fainted and fell off my chair when he told me. I honestly think the cleaner I bought can keep up. I hope so anyhow    he has a CRD processor with the "split" conveyor so that takes some trash out already. that helps

[North River Energy]

That's real money. I could do a lot of damage with that, by way of Craigslist, the blue wrench, and the Bridgeport.

So are you hiring out the processing part of the operation at present, or did I misread something?
Also, didn't realize you'd already bought the cleaner. My mistake.

[OH logger]

that's a ton of money in the wood business  . yes I hire out the processing and yes I bought the cleaner  already. today is the first day he has used the "split" converyor. it works pretty good for the chips and fines. I'm almost back peddling though now and wondering if I should clean while delivering the dry wood. takes time but might be the best thing. I bought it to make my wood the best right?    some of the reason for wanting to clean off the processor is so that the wood I sell in the summer wholesale by the semi load would be cleaned also. I bobcat that wood on our semi with a ramp I built out of a flat bed semi trailer.

[OH logger]

well I have had a chance to use it and I'm sad to say I'm a little disappointed. the salesman told me it was 53'' wide. the whole machine is that wide. the trough is only 32'' wide. (that's what the heck I care about; not the total width.) I feel like I was misled because when we talked in person at the bunyan show and we were looking at the first cleaner they built he held his hands apart and said its this wide. the wood when dumped in then bridges and doesn't get it all out. you have to feather the wood in which is SLOW and still not that effective. cleaning off the rear of a processor would work better but its advertised to use like I am with a skidloader.  also the discs are too close together. there is a 1.75'' gap and I think there should be 2.25'' gap. there are 8 sets of rollers and I wish there were 10. we are running it uphill to try to work the wood over more too. we tried running it slower and faster. it seems to be the same though. I had them mount the motor and powerpack right on it which is handy when moving it and I don't have to worry about running it over. but the cover over the motor is about 8" or 10'' above the motor.  there is a hole in the shield above the gas tank but its so high above the motor I have to use a funnel or gas would get everywhere. it sucks for filling up with gas. very cumbersome. the hydraulic drive motor wasn't tightened on the shaft at the factory and jiggled loose and fell off on the way to my house. it was dangling by the hoses when it got here which didn't hurt anything but I had to take the affor mentioned shield off to fix it. that is a 2 man job and I work alone.   its a VERY heavy shield and there is NO WAY to take it off OR put on by yourself. AND there is only 4 1/4 bolts that hold it on. stupid and not thought out design. other than all those things I love it  . maybe that's why they didn't have a NEW one at the bunyan show for people to see. aas far as the design of the machine, I think I like it and it would work as crazy as that sounds. the rollers seem to orient the wood parallel with the machine to get the slivers out better. I really think if I could get new shafts with the discs 2.25'' apart it would work ok. I  just wish they would answer the phone.      they must think I already sent the check out for it 

[thecfarm]

Sent check,that is funny.
Guy at work bought a heating system,250 gallon oil tank. Delivered it only 200 gallons.  He put a stop order on the check. That got thier attention. A 250 gallon tank was bought to his house.

[North River Energy]

^
^That's a bummer.  Judging by some of the video footage available on firewood machinery, it often appears that there's a critical 'brain' link missing from the typical design process.

Given the cost, you'd expect the iron to do a particular job without complaint.