I'm In the market to purchase a firewood processor, can you guys tell me what is good and bad,
Thanks
Lots of brands/and arrangements out there. My best advice would be to research what's available in your neck of the woods, and then ask questions from there. What are you looking to produce?
Natureswaytreef
A lot of questions you need to answer before you even start looking. Whats the budget? How many cords of wood a year wanted? What type and size of wood am I going to process?
How much are you willing to spend? ;D :) Commercial use? How many cords a year? I've had really good service out of my Block Buster. The Brute Force machines are really nice 8) 8) and are a sponsor of the FF. The Bells machines are impressive.
The processer is just part of the operation . how are you going to feed it . where is the feed [wood] going to come from . Where is it going and how are you going to handle the splits . 1 cord an hour means you will fill a truck in?? then what ? is the processer going to sit until the truck gets back ?
Everyone has made excellent points and I really have nothing to add but my experience starting out.
I started out last year with a used processor, doing 150 cords a year. The biggest bottleneck is getting wood to the machine and getting it away.
I've ended up buying a 70hp tractor to move logs, clean up, and tow the dump trailer for deliveries rather than use my truck (which is too small for a 6x10 dumper due to commercial rules)
Like everyone else has mentioned, the processor is only part of the fun!
I have a Blacks Creek model 1500. It's simple , very portable, local support, cheap to operate. I do a lot of on site processing of customers logs and this machine works for that. I do a cord an hour when it's all going well with nice sized wood that's in a nice neat pile. Local parts/support and dealer relationship is just as important as the machine itself.
Good luck!
I'm going to use a TB290 Takeuchi excavator to feed the processor, Also im going to have wood 8-24 inches in diameter, I live in Oregon so it would be nice to find a dealer close to me.
Thanks for all your help.
Quote from: Rougespear on October 26, 2019, 11:59:19 PM
Lots of brands/and arrangements out there. My best advice would be to research what's available in your neck of the woods, and then ask questions from there. What are you looking to produce?
8-24 Inch wood, maple , fir, alder
natureswaytreet,
I own northern michigan firewood products and I am one of the sponsors in the forestry forum. Where are you located? If you pm me I can probably point you in a good direction. There are a lot of questions that have already been asked, price range, how many cords per year etc. To get a machine that will process a 24" log you usually have to jump up to the larger and more expensive machines. good luck, Ed
We're up north in WA and we use a 15-20. We then just saw and use a wood splitter on anything over 15". Good luck on parts. Most people are in the Midwest or East for companies.