my FIRST processor build

[Gray57]

Hello all! New guy on here, been watching and following processor builds etc on here for a bit and decided to join so that I could humbly prostrate myself in front of some of you more experienced wood guru's. I have begun my 1st hydraulic processor build finally and would very much appreciate any advice and or constructive criticism anyone has to offer.

To start with I live in a rural area and have a lot of bush available really close to home. It's mostly poplar, tamarack, spruce, and jackpine with a bit of birch here and there so it's mostly softwood. A yr ago we had a forest fire come to within 6 miles of our farm and we now have access to perfect fire killed dry standing jackpine a mere 3 feet from the rd where we park to drop trees and load logs.  We have been heating with wood for a few yrs already but always did it by hand the old fashioned way. Seeing as I'm not getting any younger which my aching body reminds me of every morning when I wake lol I decided to build a processor. I'm a jack of all trades  (welding machining mechanics hydraulics)so the actual physical fabricating and assembly of the processor is no issue whatsoever but am hoping to limit the amount of changes after the fact that will inevitably come with my 1st build hence the hope of some kind souls offering advice etc.

My goal is to spend as little as possible while still ending up with a decent machine which is a conundrum in its own right lol.
Nothing is assembled yet and only the splitter knife is built yet so lots of time to change plans on the fly. I've watched and Googled everything I can find regarding processors so have a good idea of what I'm building just haven't 100% finalized the design yet. Mine does not need to be portable and it will have a live log deck and am hoping to use a buzz saw instead of a chain saw bar as it seems it may be slightly less maintenance. Feel free to chime in on bar vs buzz saw pro's and con's of both? The processor will primarily by working with softwood at max diameters of 16" so am going with a 2 way 4 way splitting wedge thats not as beefy as some but i think it'll work. Some of you may chuckle at the overkill of my power plant design but it's what I have available to me on the farm so that's what I'm working with lol. Gonna be a long cold winter and we have had 18" of snow already so every nickel is being held in a vise grip lol.

I will start off with listing what I have for parts so far.
- a 70 hp 4  cylinder Toyota diesel with clutch, transmission, rear diff and axle. Not sure yet of rpm's required for hyd pump so haven't figured out yet if I'll incorporate the clutch and tranny to power the pump.
- a MASSIVE bi-rotational hydraulic pump, can produce up to 120 GPM and 110 hp with 1.25" suction line, I believe it's a single stage only but will confirm that yet.
- hydraulic reservoir think it's about 20 gallons
- a single valve not sure of specs on it yet but has 3/4" lines
- four 4" bore 1.25" rod 24" stroke cylinders 2500 psi, 2300 psi when fully extended 1/2" ports
- two 4"x8" stroke cylinders 1/2" ports
- a Massey Ferguson deep tillage cultivator that I'm robbing the steel off of for the processor and splitter frame etc but still need more steel.

I realize that I will need a oil cooler a 4 spool valve yet and possibly some flow dividers relief valves among other miscellaneous hydraulic parts which I will have to spend money on. Hydraulic plumbing and flow rates capacities etc I could also use advice on. Hoping that I can build a unit that'll easy do a cord an hr mainly because I have a skidsteer with a grapple and a 3 ton flat deck that I'm using to get wood now so in a day I can easy get 6-7 cords home. To begin with this build is mostly for our own wood consumption but cord prices around here for jackpine are around $300 give or take so may eventually look at trying to generate some extra income to feed the tipsy bottle fund lol. I do also have a wood boiler which needs to be installed yet in the future and also supplement my shop propane boiler with a wood stove.

With the future boiler install what considerations should I take into account with building my processor? Obviously cut lengths will change I'm sure but is there anything else I'm missing?

For now I'm building the splitter first and I'll power it off my bobcat s185 so we can still split wood easier than by hand while I continue the processor build. Life is always busy at our funny farm so I may not be on here as often as I'd like but....I'll try and keep updating as my build progresses hopefully have it done in the next cpl months but maybe that's a bit of wishful thinking lol.

Hopefully my ramblings make sense to most of you folks! Ill try and attach some pics to. Also I've been pondering an idea I had on halving cycle times on any hydraulic processor, I've Googled it and can't seem to find anyone that's done it yet. I'm debating putting 2 cylinders opposite each other, 1 cylinder would push the block while the other cylinder pushes the splitting wedge. If for example normal cycle times of one 24" stroke cylinder were 10 seconds then with two 12" stroke cylinders each pushing towards each other the cycle time would be cut in half no? Anyone ever seen tried or heard of someone trying this?

  Thanks for now and take care!

[DDW_OR]

please add your location to your profile.

I have a 2008 Multitek 1610ez
what i like
live deck, conveyor, 4 way splitter
what i do not like, or change
make live deck to handle longer logs
awkward last cut.
3 foot longer conveyor
my controls are on the driver side, I like the newer ones with controls on passenger side.
better motor cover to keep bark and branches off

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,89073.msg1369419/topicseen.html#msg1369419

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,82908.msg1342780/topicseen.html#msg1342780

[Gearbox]

If you are looking for a low price tag that works look at what my friend and I did with the BT6870 . Stand alone wood splitter mounted on a trailer with a live deck [80 roller chain ] vee feed deck . Both decks run with harbor freight winch motors , 2 motors on the live deck for more power . 11 HP Briggs on a 16 gal. 2 stage with a 4 X 24 cylinder . The Briggs keeps the battery up and I run an inverter to run oil cooler fan. The only thing I would do different would be to spend the money on a auto cycle valve instead of building my own .

[John Mc]

It's an interesting idea you have of moving two rams towards each other. However, if your cylinders and fittings can handle the flow rate, wont you get the same speed by pumping all of that flow into one cylinder? On the other hand, the engine and pump you have are HUGE, so you may have more flow than you know what to do with.

One thing you lose with two moving cylinders: if your knife is stationary, and your anvil moves, your splitter will split the wood and push it out the end of the splitting area. You can use it to push the wood right into a trailer or onto a conveyor with a minimum of extra moving parts. Maybe you can do this with two moving rams, but you'll have to get more creative with the wood handling.