Wood Screeners?

[Old Greenhorn]

Third party request here.  My buddy Bill has a firewood operation as fill in work for his crew between jobs and would like to expand and improve it. Input logs are no issue (byproduct of his land clearing, logging, and tree removal work) and processing is no issue, he has a full processor and several commercial splitters for the specialty wood also several conveyors. What he is looking at no is adding a screener to remove the junk before the wood hits the bag or truck box. As he has never had one of these he is looking for pointers and ideas on which do the best job, what he should be aware of as he shops around and any lessons learned from those who have one.

[doc henderson]

I do not have one but have thought about the ones with 5-sided rotating "wheels" that convey the firewood along its path to a conveyor.  I thought about making one, when my BIL worked at a truck bed manufacturing place and could have made the parts for me.  

https://youtu.be/z_Br2lVfa4M

[mike dee]

Interesting video link. 

The machine posted looks like you would have to clean out underneath by hand or pick up the whole unit with a set of forks and move it.

Practically speaking I would want to buy something I could clean out the swarf later using my SS or CTL bucket. Having to flip attachments and move equipment or clean around the machine by hand would be a no go for me.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah we saw that unit at Booneville last year. Cleaning looked like an issue to us also. Just looking at all the styles before he gets into the decision making stages. Being able to have the swarf fall into some kind of container for removal would be a big help. Having to move the unit to clean, while very possible, is something he would like to avoid and it isn't a show stopper, but close.

[hedgerow]

I had one for a while it was a trommel style that was made out of a old rock trommel. It had a chute under it set up to run a conveyor under it to carry the waste away. We just had a dump trailer under that conveyor to catch the waste. It worked ok but needed some more fab work done to it. Because of some health issues ended up not using enough and sold it. I would look at Multitek's or Whitlands they seem to make some good tumblers to get some ideas.  

[Dave Shepard]

I like the looks of that Timberwolf style separator. I'd set it on some concrete blocks do you could scoop underneath it. I occasionally run a Timberwolf ProHD for a friend. It would be great to have that between the processor and conveyor. 

[doc henderson]

these used to be just multi-tech now many have them.  One is an extra 6 thousand bucks and has a slanted sheet metal shelf that kicks all the waste out to the side and some are set on axles.  this is just the first one I found.

[TreefarmerNN]

With a ag background, my immediate thought was use air to blow light stuff to the side and firewood to drop down on a conveyor or slide chute.  Vary the velocity and amount of air to suit the product being produced.  That wouldn't debark anything but loose material should be easily separated.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well I like the disk ones but there has to be a way to have easy cleanout. I like the japa one, they thought about that. It's up to Bill what he wants and I seldom can tell.  Just trying to find out what folks have that works or doesn't. The desired output is to have pretty much no small junk when he dumps a load of firewood in someone's driveway. Me, I collect that stuff when I am done stacking and throw it in milk crates to use as kindling. It's all good, but some folks expect different.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Tom,

I have seen 1 setup like the Japa where they had a self dumping hopper that has fork pockets. Actually, they had 2 hoppers. When one got full, grab the forks and slide it out, put an empty in its place.  Next problem, how and where to get rid of this new by-product!

[barbender]

Some put it in manure and compost it, I think that's what Barge's family does.

[Old Greenhorn]

Bill's swarf will mostly get shoveled into the OWB on top of a layer of softwood. Other wise it gets dumped/spread in the woods if it's really fine stuff. Disappears in a few months. There are lots of holes to fill everywhere and it's good for the ground.

[GRANITEstateMP]

Mine is used as fill, I've also put it in low spots on a couple atv trails, bit there are a few 22in slivers that get mixed in and those need to be tossed aside.  We do take all the saw dust and mix it with cow manure.