Firewood processor build thread

[kiotiken]

That's a good idea. Another possibility would be a used rubber track from a mini ex or CTL. I'd imagine that it shouldn't be hard to find one for a couple hundred or less since they are just scrap once replaced

I'll take a look. At one point I was thinking old snowmobile tracks. I started looking and discovered they don't exist. People either use them for their trailers or find something else to do with them I guess. I'm wondering if the old tracks from a mini ex would be the same. I'll give it a try though.

 

[jclaudii]

Put the word out at your Co-op and farm stores around that you are looking for farmers USED belts as hay season is not too far off. Same thing if you have a distribution plant for ask what they do with their old belts or elevators or even conveyor chain.

Also, do you not have any junkyards, salvage yards, old farm machinery that may have an actual hydraulic tank on it that you could already purchase and just reuse? Think about old tractors, lift trucks, combines, etc. Even steel fuel tank or an air tank would work from a bus or truck. Heck, I would think even a 30 gallon steel drum would work to hold oil.

Also, if needed, why could you not add an automotive style radiator that is plumbed into it's own ports of the tank and uses it's own circulation pump,transfer pump, water pump(some type of pump is needed) to move fluid through the radiator? It would not have any pressure on it and it would not be at risk of any type of pressure spike as it is only circulating static fluid in the tank. They also hold a few gallons as well to increase capacity.

I am super impressed and have followed this build along. Awesome job!

 

[kiotiken]

Put the word out at your Co-op and farm stores around that you are looking for farmers USED belts as hay season is not too far off. Same thing if you have a distribution plant for ask what they do with their old belts or elevators or even conveyor chain.

Also, do you not have any junkyards, salvage yards, old farm machinery that may have an actual hydraulic tank on it that you could already purchase and just reuse? Think about old tractors, lift trucks, combines, etc. Even steel fuel tank or an air tank would work from a bus or truck. Heck, I would think even a 30 gallon steel drum would work to hold oil.

Also, if needed, why could you not add an automotive style radiator that is plumbed into it's own ports of the tank and uses it's own circulation pump,transfer pump, water pump(some type of pump is needed) to move fluid through the radiator? It would not have any pressure on it and it would not be at risk of any type of pressure spike as it is only circulating static fluid in the tank. They also hold a few gallons as well to increase capacity.

I am super impressed and have followed this build along. Awesome job!

Wow, you're full of really good ideas, thanks. I have the word out to a friend who farms in my area. I figure he knows all the farmers for miles and may be able to help me find something good to use. I know somebody's got an old belt or chain, if not an entire elevator, sitting around that would work for me. I'll update the thread when I finally find a solution.

I love your idea of a rad plumbed to its own port. I would still have a problem running a pump, but its a great idea that I'm going to give more thought to.

 

[aczlan]

I love your idea of a rad plumbed to its own port. I would still have a problem running a pump, but its a great idea that I'm going to give more thought to.

What if you teed into the return as shown below and had it exhaust into its own port on the tank? As long as your radiator is larger than the return (ie: 1.25" vs 3/4") any excess flow/pressure over what the radiator can easily take will go straight into the tank. No circ pump needed that way.


Aaron Z

 

[kiotiken]

What if you teed into the return as shown below and had it exhaust into its own port on the tank? As long as your radiator is larger than the return (ie: 1.25" vs 3/4") any excess flow/pressure over what the radiator can easily take will go straight into the tank. No circ pump needed that way.
View attachment 422655

Aaron Z

Another good idea. How much of a benefit do you think using a rad with no fan would give? I'd still have the issue of not being able to power the fan.

 

[aczlan]

Another good idea. How much of a benefit do you think using a rad with no fan would give? I'd still have the issue of not being able to power the fan.

IIRC, that engine was intended for a mower with an electric clutch correct?
If so, many of those pull 4 amps (per:http://www.ganos.com/electricclutchtesting.pdf ), so you should be able to handle a 2.8 amp fan like this one: Amazon.com: CFR Performance 8" High Performance Electric Radiator Cooling Fan - Flat Blade: Automotive if needed.
I would start with just running it fanless and if you find that you need a fan, add a thermostat controller such as: Amazon.com: Hayden Automotive 3653 Economy Adjustable Thermostatic Fan Control: Automotive

Aaron Z

 

[muddstopper]

I am going to go against the car radiator as a oil cooler suggestion. Automotve radiators are not rated for anywhere near the possible pressures that a real hydraulic oil cooler is. Even a cheap cooler has a 250psi pressure rating. A oil cooler is subject to pressure spikes as the returning oil passes thru them. I really dont think a car radiator is going to hold up for this application. Consider a radiator cap is generally around 14psi to prevent the radiator from blowing up, It would be very easy to exceed 14psi with a fast moving hydraulic fluid moving thru a radiator. You can buy a real oil cooler for less than $200. You will probably spend a pretty penny trying to fit hoses to a automotive radiator

 

[ultrarunner]

Anyone know the psi integrated automatic transmission coolers found in radiators?

 

[muddstopper]

Pressure varies in a transmission. And it takes two 400psi guages to do the test. At idle, pressures range from 55-63psi in drive and 72-98psi in Reverse. Stall test pressures are 151-169psi in D and 188-288 psi in R. Line pressures to the cooler is going to be much less since it is just circulating, but I havent found any specific pressures anywhere.

 

[jclaudii]

you could just hook up a small soaker hose to the radiator and mount it horizontal instead of vertical and just let the water run through the fins and take the heat away.

If you go the smaller oil cooler setup, a belt driven squirrel cage fan or convert one over to a pulley and just run a pulley before your coupler on your hydraulic pump or a separate engine to do this like you were talking about with the rollers.

 

[farmer2009]

I have forgotten what you said your hydraulic temperature got up to. But over the weekend while I was running the decaker I thought I'd shoot the resivore with my temperature gun. It showed over 150*. If yours was much warmer maybe you done need the cooler. This system runs on aw-68. I don't remember what oil your running either. Might get away with an oil change instead of cooler mods.

 

[mx842]

A transmission cooler could work very well or even a regular car radiator for that matter. Although the car radiator would be a little harder to plumb up. In a hydraulic system you could see pressure spikes of 300 psi or more so you would have to run the cooler parallel to the system. Add a couple bungs on each end of the tank one for in and one for the out fluid. You should be able to find some kind of small 12V fluid pump......heck, a regular electric fuel pump would probably work to circulate the fluid. Then go to an auto junk yard and pick up one of those electric radiator cooling fans. You could probably get the radiator, the fan unit along with the control unit for under a hunnard bucks.

The tank is going to be vented so I don't think you would have an issue with to much pressure for a tranny cooler or even a regular radiator for that matter. Trying to plum a radiator would be a little harder but you have to remember most radiators now have transmission coolers inside the tank so you could just plum to that but I guess you would still need to circulate cooling water through the radiator to cool that cooler. In that case you would have to come up with a small 12V pump to circulate some water through the radiator but it should work. That's all a fancy hydraulic cooler is anyway.

 

[jclaudii]

I have no idea what kind of junk/wrecking/u-pull it yards you have around or if you can find parts cars on Craigslist, but there are several vehicles that run a hydraulic cooling fan. I know the Jeep Grand Cherokee in about 2003-2004 with the v8 had a hydraulic cooling fan and some Lincoln LS's did too.

What about a quick and dirty heat exchanger? Such as a transmission cooler or other fluid cooler in a tub/bucket of water with the hose turned on to slowly add cool water to it and just let the hot water overflow.

 

[aczlan]

A transmission cooler could work very well or even a regular car radiator for that matter. Although the car radiator would be a little harder to plumb up. In a hydraulic system you could see pressure spikes of 300 psi or more so you would have to run the cooler parallel to the system. Add a couple bungs on each end of the tank one for in and one for the out fluid. You should be able to find some kind of small 12V fluid pump......heck, a regular electric fuel pump would probably work to circulate the fluid. Then go to an auto junk yard and pick up one of those electric radiator cooling fans. You could probably get the radiator, the fan unit along with the control unit for under a hunnard bucks.
The tank is going to be vented so I don't think you would have an issue with to much pressure for a tranny cooler or even a regular radiator for that matter. Trying to plum a radiator would be a little harder but you have to remember most radiators now have transmission coolers inside the tank so you could just plum to that but I guess you would still need to circulate cooling water through the radiator to cool that cooler. In that case you would have to come up with a small 12V pump to circulate some water through the radiator but it should work. That's all a fancy hydraulic cooler is anyway.

The issue is that most liquid pumps aren't setup to handle 150-250 degree fluids, or they are low enough flow that they wont push enough liquid.
Hence my suggestion earlier to tee into the return to allow a place for any excess pressure to be dumped. If there was a restrictor (so the radiator side of the tee was a little smaller than the tank side) it would reduce the flow further, but if you go from 3/4" or 1" to 1.25", it will drop pressure right there.

I have no idea what kind of junk/wrecking/u-pull it yards you have around or if you can find parts cars on Craigslist, but there are several vehicles that run a hydraulic cooling fan. I know the Jeep Grand Cherokee in about 2003-2004 with the v8 had a hydraulic cooling fan and some Lincoln LS's did too.

Looks like its 2001-2004 Grand Cherokees that have them.

Aaron Z

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

I'm not exactly sure where Ken is on this a the moment but I've been following the the whole thing closely as he lives around the corner from me and I'm hoping to build one this summer.

With all the recent focus on cooling options, it's definitely something I'll keep in mind with mine but cooling is a secondary problem. He was given bad advice during his design process and ended up using a 10 gal oil capacity with a 28 GPM pump. No way around it, that just ain't gonna cut it. Once the oil capacity is up to where it should be, there is a good chance that in it self will solve both fluid temp issues as well as his hyd quirks.

Considering mostly winter use, running water of any sort as a cooling agent isn't much of an option but could be viable as a bandaid for occasional summer use

 

[kiotiken]

I'm not exactly sure where Ken is on this a the moment but I've been following the the whole thing closely as he lives around the corner from me and I'm hoping to build one this summer.

With all the recent focus on cooling options, it's definitely something I'll keep in mind with mine but cooling is a secondary problem. He was given bad advice during his design process and ended up using a 10 gal oil capacity with a 28 GPM pump. No way around it, that just ain't gonna cut it. Once the oil capacity is up to where it should be, there is a good chance that in it self will solve both fluid temp issues as well as his hyd quirks.

Considering mostly winter use, running water of any sort as a cooling agent isn't much of an option but could be viable as a bandaid for occasional summer use

What he said! I'm going to build the tank (no, still not done) and give it another try. I'm bagging my wood so every face cord or so I'll have to stop, move the full pallet and set up another. I think this will give things enough time to cool down, even in the summer. I'll be finishing the tank and cutting all the wood next week, I'm really behind schedule and need the wood for next winter.

I found a conveyor belt today! Can't remember what he called the pattern, but he said it should carry the wood without attaching paddles. Its at a local farm supply place and I'm going to look at it on Monday. $80 for 28 ft.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Yay for the belt! With 28', you should be able to cut it in half and have a spare. 7' long conveyor sounds about right. And if its a suitable belt, can't beat that price

Which dealer?

 

[kiotiken]

Yay for the belt! With 28', you should be able to cut it in half and have a spare. 7' long conveyor sounds about right. And if its a suitable belt, can't beat that price

Which dealer?

Its Rath farm supply in arnprior. He's got a couple belts there, but that's the one he thinks works best. 28' would only give me a 6' conveyor so I may not cut in half. I can't remember how wide that belt was. I'll take a run up there to look at everything he's got and go from there.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Ah yes, Denis. My previous tractor came from him. I haven't been there since he lost the NH dealership. Good guy, old farmer type, knows his stuff. He used to have lots of old goodies in the back yard.

I did briefly speak with him at the last farm show about an LS XU 5065 for my next tractor.....

 

[kiotiken]

Ah yes, Denis. My previous tractor came from him. I haven't been there since he lost the NH dealership. Good guy, old farmer type, knows his stuff. He used to have lots of old goodies in the back yard.

I did briefly speak with him at the last farm show about an LS XU 5065 for my next tractor.....

A farmer friend of mine said the same thing, he'll have lots of good parts stashed in the back somewhere.

I really like my Kioti but LS would be a top pick for me. My dealer picked up LS when Landini switched to having Kioti build their CUT's, said there was no point having a choice of colours for the same tractor. He now says he'd chose LS over Kioti for his personal choice.