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Home made firewood processor idea's

Started by Max sawdust, August 07, 2006, 09:41:36 AM

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Max sawdust

Hello all,
As I am cutting and splitting endless cords of 100" pulp logs into firewood, I am trying to think of a way to automate this :-\

Has anyone made a home made processor or have any ideas on how to speed things up?

Right know I saw the firewood chunks off the off the cordwood pile, toss them into another pile, roll the splitter over and split and create another pile >:(  I would like firewood sales to be a profitable part of my business in the future.  (Say selling 50-100 cords per year)  But all this handling is taking WAY too much time to make any money, and buying a $30,000 processor for 50 cords a year does not seem to be the right decision either.

Any idea's on making a "semi-automatic" processor would be appreciated :)

Max
True Timbers
Cedar Products-Log & Timber Frame Building-Milling-Positive Impact Forestscaping-Cut to Order Lumber

Modat22

I've thought about it myself but gave up on the idea for now. I can't see a way to build one without using 2 hydraulic motors, 25hp engine and a really big splitter cylinder.

I did see a processor that was based on a guilotine a while back that would only use 1 hydraulic motor and 1 cylinder.

It basically had a converor chain with dogs that pushed/pulled the logs into a hydraulic ram connected to a vertical  blade that sheared the wood to length, As the shear came down it also pushed the log into 3 stationary steel wedges that would split the piece of wood into smaller pieces. This would probably be the simplest design to use but I can't see how stationary wedges worked without getting clogged.

Hope this helps.
remember man that thy are dust.

Max sawdust

Ya,
I think I found a University pub on that one, and an obscure PDF, they claimed the wood dried faster too.  Looks like it just kinda crushed the wood :o
max
True Timbers
Cedar Products-Log & Timber Frame Building-Milling-Positive Impact Forestscaping-Cut to Order Lumber

Mr Mom

     Max sawdust..... The one you were looking at was the Chomper by Rainier Hydraulics.
     I was looking for a wood processor that was portable beacuse my wood is never in the same place twice.




     Thanks Alot Mr Mom.
     P.S just look up the chomper on the net.

low_48

Max,
I've been giving this subject some thought myself. It seems that you really have to spend some giant bucks just to get a log splitter and a saw on the same chassis. The splitter is the part that really takes the strength. I think you can get a really nice multiple wedge splitter for around $8,000. Now if a guy made a trough to hold a log, attach a come along to the log and winch it forward to a stop set for correct length. Of course a 12V winch would make that alot easier. A limit switch or foot switch could stop the log at the correct length for cutting. Mount the chain saw to a pivot point on the trough to reduce arm fatigue. I think you could mount the trough next to the splitter so the stock coming off the cutoff side will fall onto a mini log deck, it will be right at the splitter ready for the splitting. With this little log deck you would not have to pickup any wood to put it in the splitter. :o Well this kinda makes sense to me, probably no one else. :D Might be a good idea to make a sketch or two?

Max sawdust

low_48
What you are saying makes sense to me ;)  You are describing how several of the "semi automatic" commercial processors work.  I think some one with good metal fabricating skills and equipment could weld one up for around $10,0000 ???  The good spitter being the highest cost, then the chainsaw and winch and a whole bunch of metal being the other costs.

Mr. Mom,
Here is another shear style processor from Canada.  Personally, I think the wood looks "messy".
http://www.members.shaw.ca/firewood/
True Timbers
Cedar Products-Log & Timber Frame Building-Milling-Positive Impact Forestscaping-Cut to Order Lumber

Modat22

I think you could build one for half that if you visit many repair shops and buy most of the hydraulics from them and rebuild them yourself.

You may be able to get the engine, pumps and hydraulic motors from an older zero turn lawnmower cheap if you find a fix er up special.

metal can be had pretty cheap if you have a salvage yard around you, you won't need perfectly straight clean new metal since this is a splitter.

Just my opinion.

I've been doing some thinking last night about this (look out!) and you may be able build one without hydraulic motors.

On the front of the processor there is a splitter, You may be able to make a tie rod connection to this that advances the log and lowers the saw cutter (by making a racheting connection thru say a 20:1 gear box driven from the output side). This could cut the cost and make the thing a bit less complex.  You may find that a belt driven chopper saw cheaper than making a hydraulic motor driven saw.

Setting wood length could be done with an adjustible stop that the log hits prior to the saw coming down and chopping it.

I'm just throwing out ideas,
remember man that thy are dust.

thecfarm

I've have seen on one wood processor that they drilled a hole in the bar of a chain saw and just kept the saw running at a idle.When the wood is advanced they would pivot the saw on this bolt to saw the wood.It was a good size saw with a long bar on it.When not in use on the processor it could be used in the woods with a shorter bar.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

OneWithWood

I built a bench out of 6x6 aspen.  I buck the logs on the bench and then roll them off onto a gravity roller conveyor,  push the rounds down to my TW 5 splitter, split and load into the bucket of the loader, dump into truck, drive over to the stove and stack.  I will attempt to post some pics but I dunno if I can with the state of the pic archive and all . . .

Well that did not work.  Let's see if I can do a search and find another thread with the pics.

Go here  https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=15063.0
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

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