Fire wood conveyer

[mx842]

Has anyone built a firewood conveyer? What a pain it is to have to handle wood three or four times when splitting. I have been tossing around the idea of building something to move the wood out of the way as it is split and was wondering what others have come up with.

I'm thinking about running it by hydraulic since I already have hydraulics on the splitter and I know I'll need to upgrade my valve to something with two spools and also I will need a hyd motor to drive the chain/belt. I'm really interested is seeing what you used to move the wood....belt/chain ect.

 

[TCowner]

I just purchased an older 16' grain elevator that I use for moving firewood. I works great and its amazing the effort it saves moving firewood. I, like most of us, haven't completely figured out a system to minimize the times we move the split wood from one place to the next.

The elevator runs with a 1/2 hp electric motor and handles the wood just fine. The only problem I have so far is that the bracket the motor sits on is on top of the elevator and there is only about 15" of clearance. If a split piece tumbles just at the wrong time it can wedge against this bracket and the elevator flights. I keep the electric cord close by for a quick disconnect. One of my winter projects is to raise the motor bracket to allow plenty of room. It should be a fairly easy fix.

 

[250quality]

I have an old hay elevator I converted. It had a 2 chain system with metal slats between but would often bind and break one of the chains. I turned it into a v style trough and one chain up the middle with some 1x3 on the chain to grab the wood. Works great but looking for a shorter one.

 

[jake98]

A roofer's power-ladder would work.
http://www.safetyhoistcompany.com/

 

[mx842]

Yeah I have heard of people converting hay and grain elevators and even those lifts roofers use to raise materials up on to roofs. The problem is finding this stuff laying around that someone wants to part with. I used to see old farm equipment everywhere but over the past year or so scrap medal prices have been so good most of that stuff has been scrapped long ago.

Also I kind of wanted to stay away from electric power if I could because where my wood pile is I would have to run a 500' drop cord or haul a genny down there. Of-course if I could find one I could convert it over but if I had to do that I may as well start from scratch.

Hey 250quality...what kind of chains were on your hay elevator and how did you attach the slats? Is it like regular bike chain only bigger or is it something different? I would like something at least 20' long and have a means of raising and lowering it as needed and that would take a lot of chain which seems to be quite expensive...at least from what I have found.

 

[tulenutn2o]

I bought an old grain elevator to use. I lay trough under splitter and wood falls right in an up it goes..................

 

[Doppelgangar]

I have a wood elevator that is electric and runs on 12 Volts. Splitter ha s12 volt motor on it.

Elevator is a V bottom chain and works very good Originally had starter on to starter flywheel but too noisy so now chain driven.

Plenty of grunt

 

[mx842]

I have a wood elevator that is electric and runs on 12 Volts. Splitter ha s12 volt motor on it.

Elevator is a V bottom chain and works very good Originally had starter on to starter flywheel but too noisy so now chain driven.

Plenty of grunt

There are a lot of ways to make this work and you have come up with another. I was just trying to use what I had and since my splitter is hydraulics that are run by a gas motor I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and didn't like the idea of having to depend on electric power AC or DC to drive anything.

My biggest dilemma is what to use for the chain/belt for the wood to ride on. I have been looking all over at different kinds of chains and the stuff I have found that everybody says will work looks so tiny and flimsy I don't see how it could work. What kind of chain do you have on yours? I mean, how wide and thick are the chain links you are using? I looked at stuff down at Agri supply and the stuff they have that is supposed to be for a hay elevator is only about 1 inch wide and really light weight material. It does have tiny posts about 11/2" high that sticks up about every 3 or 4 feet to grab the hay bales but it still looks so light weight it hard to see it holding up for long with those heavy oak logs banging on it all the time.

Do you have a pic of your setup you could post?

 

[ovrszd]

Yeah I have heard of people converting hay and grain elevators and even those lifts roofers use to raise materials up on to roofs. The problem is finding this stuff laying around that someone wants to part with. I used to see old farm equipment everywhere but over the past year or so scrap medal prices have been so good most of that stuff has been scrapped long ago.

Also I kind of wanted to stay away from electric power if I could because where my wood pile is I would have to run a 500' drop cord or haul a genny down there. Of-course if I could find one I could convert it over but if I had to do that I may as well start from scratch.

Yeah, the scrap metal business has been real hard on cheap people like us. All those $20 bargains in the fencerows are gone.

My neighbor uses an old grain elevator with a Briggs/Stratton gas engine driving it. Lets him be portable with his piling. Crank the elevator down, hook it to his truck, hook his trailer mounted splitter behind the elevator and off he goes.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I had a neighbor who burned an awful lot of wood back in the 70's. He kept it in the cellar of his big old farm house near the furnace. He had nine kids. He would set his tractor and splitter up beside the wood pile in his front door yard. He had one of those roller conveyers you used to see (if you are old enough) going through the exterior wall to the parking lot of every grocery store. He set it up along the wood pile, made a big round 90* turn, and down through a window into the cellar. His nine kids would line up along the conveyor and keep things going. It was quite an operation and I can still invision it very clearly today.