Another Firewood Processor

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

We got a little more work done this evening.




Cut down the lawn tractor frames and removed the front axles.


Welded the supports that will hold the motors.

So the tractor engines, frames and all, will be installed in the processor. They will be welded to the pieces of angle running right to left about a foot up from the bottom frame members.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

Well, I have not posted in a while but this time it hasn't been due to lack of progress. Just busy. We've actually gotten a lot of things done.


The main frame has been painted and the infeed rack is on.


The saw mount and the log clamp have been welded on as well as their cylinder mounting tabs.


The main wedge and the multi wedge support have been tied together.



The pusher has been all welded up.


We are currently less than pleased with the potential for binding on the foreword stroke so we are going to add a longer plate below the existing sled. Our hope is that this will greatly reduce the risk of catastrophic failure.


We have a fuel tank that is ready for installation.


The infeed rack is ready to mount the legs, mount the cylinder tabs, and get painted.

We got the plate that will hold the back of the splitter cylinder today so that should be going on tomorrow. After that is done the I-beam can be mounted in the frame.
I ordered the pump mounting plates and motor to pump couplings today. We're getting close to start the hydraulic phase of the project.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

Got the new tractor a couple weeks ago. I am liking everything but the greatly reduced forward visibility compared to the old 35 HP Boomer.




Grapple for the logs and ripping random trees out of the ground.


48" Forks for handling firewood bags. We are also tossing around the idea of adding a grapple to the forks so that we can use one tractor and one attachment to load the processor with logs and remove palatalized firewood.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

I think I've mentioned that we are planning on bagging our firewood. Got the idea from Ken's build thread. Then Scooby074 turned me on to this video.


So that is now all in the plans. I've come up with a pretty simple design that I think will work.

Some square tubing or angle for the base. Square tubing for the upright with an outer sleeve to make it height adjustable similar to the legs on our infeed table. Make the hinge out of some round stock and a pipe that goes over it. Drill and tap the end of the round stock to keep the pipe on there. The tray gets welded onto the pipe. An arm comes off of the tray and a gas spring is used for the tension to keep the tray held in either direction.

The hope is for this to be a two person operation. One runs the processor, one sets up the pallets, takes them away, and feeds the logs onto the infeed rack. Should put out some serious firewood, that is, if it works...

 

[Scooby074]

For production, I think the 2 bag system would be excellent. The flip chute is probably the easiest way to get it.

I notice you dont have anything in your design to hang the firewood bags?

If/when I get enough tractor, Im going to bags ASAP.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

I bought half a dozen or so bags of wood from Ken this past winter. Ken loves them. Me, I see it differently. The bags are great for the initial loading of them and OK for storage. I HATE them for the unloading part. They slump over as you unload them (which is part of the problem of the storage). It takes twice the floor area for one bag to sit as it does for the same amount stacked in one of my frames. Some rigid metal baskets would be my choice but I need a minimum of 30 of them for a year and at $100 each, I can build pallet frames and have to stack it once right off the splitter then all the moving is with the tractor and I can get double the wood into the same space.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

I notice you dont have anything in your design to hang the firewood bags?

We still need to buy the bags. Once we receive some we'll design and fab the structure. I really like the hanging method of bags like those in the video or the Dino Bags. But they are cost prohibitive if you use a lot of firewood.

I HATE them for the unloading part. They slump over as you unload them (which is part of the problem of the storage). It takes twice the floor area for one bag to sit as it does for the same amount stacked in one of my frames. Some rigid metal baskets would be my choice but I need a minimum of 30 of them for a year and at $100 each, I can build pallet frames and have to stack it once right off the splitter then all the moving is with the tractor and I can get double the wood into the same space.

Good to know about the slumping, and I can see the concern about space requirements. I currently have a 16 x 24 woodshed that can hold 24 full cord if hand stacked (I designed it to hold 3 years worth of wood). Thing is, it's never been full. So I have some extra space.

I usually use about 6-8 full cord a year to heat my home, one of the other individuals involved in this build burns up to 20 full cord a year with his outside wood boiler. Since I would like to always have 2 years worth of wood on hand I will need over 50 bags. My neighbor will need about 60 for a years worth. We like how inexpensive the bags are and the prospect of NO STACKING. I haven't priced out building boxes but I can't help but think they would be pricey. Since we all have space we're liking the idea of bags. Time will tell.

However, we do have access to plenty of scrap skids so maybe we could end up building some frames if anyone feels like stacking to save space. Thanks for the input.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

Two of us were able to work this morning.


We felt we should add a support onto the tongue so we don't rip it off.


Welded the rear splitter cylinder mount in place and got the I-beam mounted in the processor. Had to set up the saw to confirm the saw to wedge measurements.


A closeup of the saw. It is not hooked to a cylinder, it would not be able to run that far down otherwise.


The other side of the processor.

I'm heading out to see family for the 4th but they will be working on it some more tomorrow. We're quickly entering the hydraulics phase.

 

[Jim Timber]

Neat project. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[jonix]

Hi,

"Wild Bill the 2nd",

Sorry to use your post to try to solve my problem , but I'm desperately in need of help. I am in the final phase of a firewood processor ( 3D images ) , and the first tests did not go well .

The two 50 lts/min and 66 lts/min gear pumps exceed 5000 PSI (!!!!) and still not achieve the 10 cm diameter piston to split eucalyptus with a 400 mm diameter into my 8 edges knife ..can anyone help me with this?

And why the F11-005 PARKER motor with 34 Lts/min dedicated pump can not get a decent cut at 150 bar ? ( a 3/8 pitch chain with a 7 teeth sprocket and a set of pulleys to double speed)..

The system has a 18 KW (24 Hp) electric three phase motor with 4 pumps (2 for splitting, 1 for the saw and saw piston, and 1 for log conveyor, log feeder, clamp, log lenght stopper, etc...) what is wrong with this? something has to be wrong...

I can get you much more information and a video of what is happen (all the machine is near to break and still not splitting the wood!!!) if you need/want to see that...

thanks in advance..and i hope anyone helps me, because here in portugal the season is about to begin, and i have no firewood drying...