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Firewood tumblers / trommels ?

Started by BargeMonkey, August 14, 2018, 02:20:15 AM

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BargeMonkey

I'm headed to Boonville to shop for a tumbler. 3 options and wondering if any of you guys have one ? 
 Order a new Bells trommel, I've heard mixed reviews but Bells has been great about parts with my 6000 processor. 

 
 A guy I know of from W.NY has a low hr Multitek he is selling, for their operation I can u understand the need to feed it with a loader, I've heard the multitek hold up well internally ? 


 
 I'm hoping they have one of these at the show, dealer said he will have 3 and then would need to import more, the short conveyor seems nice. 


 
 I'm about sick of firewood for the yr and it hasn't even started yet 😂 


 

teakwood

Hey Eric. Why do you need to separate the fine splines from the firewood? Would that fine stuff be handy to start the fire? 
National Stihl Timbersports Champion Costa Rica 2018

Pclem

Not an answer to you're question, but a few years ago we had a local guy that was going big into firewood. He had a long tumbler made with different spacing between the bars in sections.( Maybe 8' each). First set of bars were spaced narrow for the fines, 2nd set a little wider for the package/restaurant wood, and 3rd for the pieces to be resplit or just sold for furnace wood. Pretty slick for a packaging operation. Never seen one made available to public.
Dyna SC16. powersplit. supersplitter. firewood kilns.bobcat T190. ford 4000 with forwarding trailer. a bunch of saws, and a question on my sanity for walking away from a steady paycheck

OH logger

will you EVER need to feed the cleaner with a loader or will it ONLY run the wood directly off the processor? I clean dry wood out of my pile so I have an ABS wood cleaner. its a totally different setup. I can clean off the processor or load with the bobcat (which I do way more). if not I would probably get the multitek. I think they are all about the same money. unless you need the tumbler to match the color of the processor and conveyor ;). I think multitek stuff is built real good. will your prosessor run the tumbler with the conveyor hydrauilics?
john

ehp

 Im going to Boonville as well , Its to rain a ton, Tumbler makes nice firewood , Guy that bought my processor has one and the wood comes out clean and hardly any bark

barbender

When I worked for a local asphalt company, the shop guys built a rip rap sizer one winter. They used a couple rollers that came out of the local paper mill, I haven't seen it in years but I'm thinking they were at least 40' long. Anyhow, they were set up lengthwise to each other, nearly rubbing together at the close end and about 2' apart at the far end. They were powered so they turned up from the center, so the material would be lifted and it would move along until it got far enough down the line to fall through. My explanation is probably as clear as mud, but it was simple and worked well. Barge, I realize you're not looking to fab something, someone mentioned a custom sizing machine and it made me remember this. Sorry to sidetrack things😊
Too many irons in the fire

OH logger

not to throw another turd in the punchbowl but the cleaning bars on the bliockbuster tumblers are angle iron. most all the other manufacturers make them out of pipe. I think the angle iron ones would be easier to weld and thus might hold up better. not sure if they clean as well as round pipe though :-\
john

BargeMonkey

 The multitek comes with a 2nd drum because they used the wrong pipe on the 1st one 🤣 a guy north of me swears by the blockbuster, has worn out a couple of them. Theres actually no one within 30 miles of me doing it, the chip separator on the bells just doesnt work as well as I want. Yes feeding it exclusively off the elevator, as much as I want to stockpile wood it's just not right for my operation. Any of them should plug into my Bells conveyor, I'm planning to go up Saturday but waiting on the weather, if it's not raining I'm headed to go mow down a forest 🤣 

ehp

Bell thing on the end of your conveyor in my mind is first to short and second non adjustable , the higher you run your conveyor that separator needs to be able to adjust up or down . The one I made for my machine works pretty good and takes most of the small stuff out . I looked at that tumbler , looks fine other than I see no way to load trucks here that the racks are just over 13 ft high off the ground unless you use another conveyor . 99% of our wood trucks are that high

Ken

Although firewood processors do make a lot of fines sometimes I think you need to find some less fussy firewood customers  ;).  
Lots of toys for working in the bush

OH logger

Quote from: Ken on August 19, 2018, 09:12:47 AM
Although firewood processors do make a lot of fines sometimes I think you need to find some less fussy firewood customers  ;).  

i wish that were true. seems like everyone around here wants their cake and they want to eat it too. :D  the heck of it is is that im competing with guys that split and load their wood by hand so there is NO debris in it. also nearly every piece of wood they sell is the "target" size.  there are NO other processors around here. I didn't need a cleaner until the guy that processes my wood built a "box" wedge for his processoer.  now it makes nice wood fast but it makes a LOT of splinters. I even load my wood with a rock bucket that is stored on a concrete pad. for me the cleaner is absolutely nesessray.
john

BargeMonkey

Quote from: Ken on August 19, 2018, 09:12:47 AM
Although firewood processors do make a lot of fines sometimes I think you need to find some less fussy firewood customers  ;).  
I cut a fair amount of HEAP wood for NY state, about a week before it starts out answering machine sounds like an episode of the Jerry Springer show, we have dropped the worst ones and in a few yrs when I'm doing 100% of it I'm going to drop alot more of them. No one else around here does it, my competion down the road has a heaping load of fines left after his load, the added cost is worth it to retain what good customers I've got. I'm doing more and more up near Albany, that's where the wood market is, 300-350+ is nothing but the wood has to be clean. 

Satamax

Bargemonkey, you're saying 300-350 for a cord of wood? 
French CD4 sawmill. Latil TL 73. Self moving hydraulic crane. Iveco daily 4x4 lwb dead as of 06/2020. Replaced by a Brimont TL80 CSA.

BargeMonkey

Quote from: Satamax on August 20, 2018, 02:19:34 AM
Bargemonkey, you're saying 300-350 for a cord of wood?
Yup. It's a niche market and I'm kind of the middleman but one guy I'm supplying has been getting 500 a cord stacked, not carried around the house, just out of the back of the truck in some of these gated communities around Albany and he cant feed the monster fast enough. I know the prices at the ski slope's 20-30mins from me are about the same. I'm 225-250 a cord local here dumped off. Theres money in firewood you just have to be able to starve for 4-6 months sitting on a pile of wood till it comes around again. 

petefrom bearswamp

Standard cord or face?
I looked at one tumbler  saturday at Boonville but it wasnt running.
I just process wood for my son and I.
Just curiosity on my part as my Classic doesnt care of the wood aint perfect and neither do I, but I can see it gives value added to your product.
Eric is the store up and running?
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

ehp

the guy here that bought my processor has been running a tumbler for about 3 years and it sure does clean the wood up real nice , you can hardly believe the amount of crap you take out of the wood

mike_belben

What kinda shmuck is too lazy to stack a woodpile but wealthy enough to pay $500/cd, fool enough to choose wood over gas or oil at that price, and yet has the energy to feed the wood he wouldnt stack?  

Theres a whole lotta conflict going on there.  Is it a lumbersexual commune or something?  Buncha guys in bunyan flannel around the bonfire, sharpening their fiskars and waxing their whiskers?
Praise The Lord

Satamax

Quote from: BargeMonkey on August 20, 2018, 03:16:20 AM
Quote from: Satamax on August 20, 2018, 02:19:34 AM
Bargemonkey, you're saying 300-350 for a cord of wood?
Yup. It's a niche market and I'm kind of the middleman but one guy I'm supplying has been getting 500 a cord stacked, not carried around the house, just out of the back of the truck in some of these gated communities around Albany and he cant feed the monster fast enough. I know the prices at the ski slope's 20-30mins from me are about the same. I'm 225-250 a cord local here dumped off. Theres money in firewood you just have to be able to starve for 4-6 months sitting on a pile of wood till it comes around again.
Ouch!
Here in the French alps, for oak, which is imported from lower lands,  a cord would cost 255 approximately.  175 for larch. Tho, that's for wood which isn't perfectly dried. Those firewood guys always say, "yes it's dry" Sure!  If i import oak from lower lands, in big quantities (half a 44 tons truck load)  i can pay as low as 165/170. That's all for split in 1m length. 50cm or 40 cm Or even 25, cost more. But depending on quantities, it can be negotiated.   And that's for "dry" you can always manage to find cheaper. People selling their firewood as private persons, or people who switch from wood to pellets etc. Sell their leftover wood cheaper. 
French CD4 sawmill. Latil TL 73. Self moving hydraulic crane. Iveco daily 4x4 lwb dead as of 06/2020. Replaced by a Brimont TL80 CSA.

BargeMonkey

Quote from: petefrom bearswamp on August 20, 2018, 08:54:21 AM
Standard cord or face?
I looked at one tumbler  saturday at Boonville but it wasnt running.
I just process wood for my son and I.
Just curiosity on my part as my Classic doesnt care of the wood aint perfect and neither do I, but I can see it gives value added to your product.
Eric is the store up and running?
This guy will sell a 1/2 cord but generally sells a full. The term "face cord" is rare here, they live by it in western NY, we wont do it. The store is open, it's quite the learning experience. 🤣 it's under "The Conesville country store" on FB, I've got 2x great cooks and they are making some awesome food, I never have to make myself a sandwich ever again. 
 Mike- I had a customer from Brooklyn a few months ago who had some friends over while I was working there, the 2 guys come out in the flannel shirts and capri pants, 🤣 I like money, after the wood gets dropped I dont care. 
 This tumbler isnt light, my backhoe wouldnt pick it. Picked it up Sunday night at Boonville. Seems to work good, set it up temporarily for a little bit, processor is going back inside in a few weeks, elevator will stick out the building, feed the trommel and then dump onto a concrete pad. 
 

 
 

 
 It does make a nice clean load of wood. 

ehp

I told him you were buying it 8) , he said that was his own tumbler

BargeMonkey

I got a "free" hat out of it 😂 I wasnt sure, my father went up, I worked all weekend, figured when I saw the truck and trailer gone something was up. It's going to be elevated and a longer shute, I really dont want to run tandem conveyors. 

ehp

ya that was his tumbler , I told him the same thing on longer shute but he seems to think the wood shuts out far enough but he is loading a low straight truck

BargeMonkey

Quote from: ehp on August 23, 2018, 10:16:37 AM
ya that was his tumbler , I told him the same thing on longer shute but he seems to think the wood shuts out far enough but he is loading a low straight truck
Yeah NO.... 🤣  I dont mind going up 1x to knock a load around, was 3x the first time with the trommel. Longer shute and set up on mafia blocks is the trick. Planning on going for a tour of the Bells plant, stop out and see you and Nathan, every time I think I've got a few days something breaks. 

ehp

Im about 5 hours from Bell, Nathan is abit more as he is north of me a couple hours

Aclement

Eric,  that tumbler that you got has 2" spacing.  You might find it picks out to much as standard is 1.5".  Do you think it picks out to much?  
Andrew

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