Firewood Processor. Am I Nuts?

I've been mulling this idea over since harvest. I want to build a log splitter that can pick up, cut, and split 8 ft. logs.

Ingredients:
16 ft I beam
8 ft. Hydraulic cylinder
Hydraulic chainsaw on a pivoting arm
Wedge
Hydraulic lifting arms
4 gang spool valve
1 elec./hydraulic spool valve
Small diesel powerplant (30hp?)
Pump, reservoir, filter and hoses.

Cylinder retracted. Load log. Chainsaw will be 18 inches from wedge. Cut log. Extend cylinder to split cut piece. Cut log. Extend cylinder. Cut log and so on til there's no log left. Retract cylinder and load another one. Run controls with one hand and drink coffee with the other. Besides the price tag...what's wrong with this plan?

There is an animal like that being made now. I"ll see if I can find the name. A friend of mine burns a LOT of wood in his shop He uses his all the time. Cuts a ton(s) of wood in a day

Blockbuster makes several models. Located about 20 minutes from my house. They use one to split all the wood for the Old Threshers show. I have seen other versions as well. You can check Youtube and see some videos of them in action. Very slick if you plan on splitting a lot of wood.
AaronSEIA

Yeah I've seen em too but they all seem too fancy and overpriced. I bet I can cobble together something as effective for a couple thousand bucks.

You are likely better off just making a regular type of splitter and have a young fella help you with loading the logs.

The 16' I beam and 8' cylinder sound unusual to me. I think the ones that work as you're saying use a chain conveyor to move the log ahead to be cut off where the piece drops to the more conventional splitter. With the conveyor the log isn't limited to 8'. (not only that, they use a cross conveyor and rack that holds a bunch of logs to feed the system)

I would consider replacing the hydraulic chainsaw with a seriers of 40" buzz saw blades on a single engine driven shaft. If the log were full length to start with perhaps it might be worth considering splitting it along the side with a shorter ram or series or syncronized rams driving a wedge along the side of the log. To prevent pushing the bed into the blades while the ram is extended, tradionally I would suggest a sequencing valve, which is what aircraft use to use to ensure the landing gear doors were open prior to extending the landing gear, but as long as you have atleast a 12 volt electrical system, I would suggest using limit switches and solinoid valves to control the two way sliding bed on which the large trunck of the tree would rest as it is processed.

What if I am the young fella? (24) I guess what they say is true...kids are lazy.

Those are some good ideas. I think a big saw blade would be cheaper and more reliable than a chainsaw.

Don't forget the conveyor to move the logs off the wedge and stack in a big pile.I would get a good picture of one commercially made to use as a rough pattern.

You ever get married to MS.Minnesota?

HTH

Vito

The fancy ones with a live loading deck and outfeed conveyor are proven and sell for about 10,000$ with a 3 point hitch mount.

I thought long and hard about it and there is a pile of labour to build that sucker, then rebuild it. See a lot of ones on Kijiji, "almost finished, just needs etc etc" yeah right. They never got it working well.

Sure, you could use a single rotating blade and the two way bed, which would need to become almost a four way bed could be moved to make multiple cuts.

I would recomend going to a 4' splitter, But only if you burn 4' wood. It's harder to handle and cut shorter after splitting.
If you are burning shorter lengths - Think about cutting to length and then split it.

Sorry, you're too late, your idea has already been invented, Woodbine firewood processor. Check it out.
http://www.crdmetalworks.com/?gclid=CJmlq-nRka0CFcYKKgodWk8dlQ

A problem I think you'd have is.. you'd be limited with what kind of 8' log you could process. If the log wasn't big or straight enough I think it would buckle in the middle rather than push through the splitter.

I've seen a wood processor on a bobcat that was cool.picked up the log,cut it , split it.I think I saw it on utube?

I wish I was 24 again.

I've been mulling over the idea of firewood processors for several years. I've watched just about every video that the tube has to offer on them...
My opinion... if you want to build something, the one to model is the CordKing Compact (model 60).
That said... I just can't see the numbers working on anything that is presently on the market.
Are you looking at this commercially or just something to tinker at to do your own wood? There would be the big difference....

From what I see of the Hakki's and the other northern european machines... they have fairly fast saws and cycle times.... but they are not made for doing commercial wood; at least not what we have here. They're going to work fine in small birch and other softer straighter processor wood. Saw cut wood, crooks, knots and all... I don't think is going to work so hot on an 8 ton splitter that they have. Then add in the fact that you are still lugging every stick. I can't make the numbers work when you pay for the machine and pay for the man to run it... They just don't have the hourly output to pay a sensible wage.
When you get into what are commercial processors... Cord King, Multitek, etc.... you've got a machine that can make serious production in big wood... for about 100 grand. Not so much production in small wood, tops, etc. So....

I think if you want to build something, model it roughly after the larger Cord King or Multitek on a smaller scale. Means... you use some type of feed conveyor to feed the logs to the saw from where tehy're cut off and drop onto the splitter.
You could also use a simple feed trough with a butt pan to push the log along the trough. I've seen setups that hauled the pan along on a chain or cable something like an old sawmill carriadge. If you find that beast on the tube.... I'd copy it in every respect. That was built to produce wood. It claimed 22 metric tonne per hour and I'd believe it and every bit more. Only thing was... it didn't split, but that could be adapted into it.

Rod

Here you go... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdXz...in&playnext=1&list=PL0F7CDEA4AC457B22

Something like this?

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5pLiJMZjQDw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

To deep a few things i can suggest (I have seen many) fire wood units and thay have to fit the operation. Pick upload or handle the wood usually a live deck or loader is needed Some small units are feed by hand. Next a convayer to load truck or move the wood out of way is great. I have a tractor powered 3 pth unit problem with big wood is i saw it with chainsaw and just use the splitter and convayer. ALSO SOME WOOD IS GREAT FOR A PROCESSOR SOME IS WELL NOT SO GOOD.

My neighbor built a pretty nice one. It has a deck with feeder chains for piling the logs on. Hydraulic motors run the chainsaw blade and the only cylinders are the ones that split and the one that moves the cutter bar up and down. It even has a conveyor for throwing the wood on the truck after it gets chunked by the 4-way wedge. It's really something to see it work.

The problem is if you don't have a good supply of straight logs that are good enough for firewood, it doesn't help you. It seems like most culls are huge, short, hollow, rotten or have so much sweep they don't want to run through the machine. If you're only taking logs good enough for your machine and bad enough to be sawlogs, you're passing up most of the firewood.

If I had money to burn, I would buy one of those <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPvdCxLkQa0">tempest splitters</a> instead. We split most of our wood that way anyway since we can only take barkless wood over the state line where most of our market is. Can't justify spending $8000 on a splitter though.

Teen ager with a lot of energy that needs burned off in a constructive manner?