Another Firewood Processor

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

Bags came in.


I built a frame to hold the bags out of 2x4s and various recycled lumber. Seems to work well. I will need more clamps on it though.
Not snazzy but we are holding off to see if we like these or want to spend the dough on DinoBags down the road. Not sure if the ease of bag setup and removal is worth 3-4 times the price...


Opens up to remove the bag.


Tractor has no issues lifting the pallets. I can double or even triple stack them if I were dumb enough to do so.

The bags are from bagsupplies.ca and seem to be very durable. You can see that this pallet was all small rounds. It is just the bag that is keeping it together, nothing was stacked.
Thanks Ken, this will save us an enormous amount of time!!!

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

A couple of observations on your indeed rollers:

Does the chain just sit on top of the middle sprockets with gravity to hold it in place? If so, I suspect you will have problems with the chain jumping on them. I think on Ken's he put some idler sprockets on the top side to ensure contact on the middle ones.

With the way you have the 'sprockets' at the center of each infeed axle, it would appear that once you pass a certain diameter of log, they will no longer be making contact and the log will be sitting on the sides of the V of the trough.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

You can't see it in that picture of the chain I posted yesterday but there is not one long chain running all of the bars. Each bar is run independently from the previous bar.

The infeed though was designed to be wide enough to hold our largest diameter log without hitting the sides, but that is for a straight log. We will have to see what happens when we start running it. We milled the keyway wide enough so we can add more sprockets towards to outside if we need to.

 

[muddstopper]

A couple of observations on your indeed rollers:

Does the chain just sit on top of the middle sprockets with gravity to hold it in place? If so, I suspect you will have problems with the chain jumping on them. I think on Ken's he put some idler sprockets on the top side to ensure contact on the middle ones.

With the way you have the 'sprockets' at the center of each infeed axle, it would appear that once you pass a certain diameter of log, they will no longer be making contact and the log will be sitting on the sides of the V of the trough.

Looking at your log trough, I too think you will have problems feeding the log. What is the reason the sides of the trough where made so high? It looks pretty narrow at the bottom as well. Normally you see a shallow trough with sides just high enough to keep the log from rolling off. as shallow trough will allow a crokked log to pass thru, but I am afraid that what looks like close tolerances with your setup, I think anything but the straightest of wood will get in a bind.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

I designed it based off of Ferguson's. Though mine is wider and therefore the sides got taller. If I had it to do over again the sides would have been shorter for sure. The entire machine is tall, taller than it looked on the computer screen. At this point we will give it a try. If it doesn't work then I guess I will get my chance to make those changes.

 

[kiotiken]

I designed it based off of Ferguson's. Though mine is wider and therefore the sides got taller. If I had it to do over again the sides would have been shorter for sure. The entire machine is tall, taller than it looked on the computer screen. At this point we will give it a try. If it doesn't work then I guess I will get my chance to make those changes.

LOL, I've been blessed with those chances a few times myself! Its all going to depend on how straight the logs are. I had one that needed a little persuading from my pallet forks but if most of your logs are straight, its just easier to deal with the one or two that aren't. It doest take much of the log touching when you basically have 6 wheel drive.
Glad you got the bags, he's a good guy to deal with. I read the concern about slumping and unloading a while ago in this thread but I haven't had any time to respond. Both are valid concerns but having used them for the last 4 years I can say they're incredibly strong and will hold the wood even if it's slumping badly. They were a PITA to unload when I first started using them but I've just figured them out with time, its no big deal now. The time and effort it saves stacking and bringing wood to the house far out weighs the slight difficulty you have unloading them. I will no longer lift a single piece of firewood before bringing it in from the deck to burn it. I used to pick the same piece up 9 times before it was in the fireplace.
Don't be tempted to stack them 3 tall by the way, they move and settle with time. You still need to be able to slide your pallet forks in to retrieve them in the winter. At least one of mine moved so much I basically had to slide the fork under the bag instead of the pallet on one side. Wouldn't want to drop one that was stacked 3 high!

 

[ferrari99]

Very neat project. Also you've really nailed using sketchup I use it but not to the same extent and detail, doesn't it take forever to draw things like that?

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

Been a while...

Thanks for the compliments. The drawing was not done over night. It was months of planning and different iterations that got us to this point. I am a planner. So I can't imagine how to go through this type of project and NOT have a plan like this. (I know that I am a little nuts however)

Ken, I will not be stacking these 3 high. Some of the pallets that are 2 high will be interesting enough like you say.

Ok, so progress... We've done a lot and there is so much that I don't have photos for yet. I'll give you what I've got.

Hydraulic tank:

Here is the end plate with 3" suction port (we have a suction strainer that will go in and reduce the opening to 2") 2" return port (will be reduced to 1-1/2), 2 " fill port, and a port for a temp gauge.


Here you see we made a baffle right above the suction port on the inside of the tank so that it can't create a vortex and suck air.


Here is the longitudinal baffle inside the tank which makes the fluid run to the far end of the tank and back again to get from the return to the suction port.


Finishes tank with a 1/2" breather port in the top and two 3/4 drains in the bottom.


Here it is mounted on the processor. The return is plumbed in for the most part. Misssing the oil filter in this pic.


Picture of the return manifold from the other side.

 

[Wild Bill the 2nd]

Pusher plate and ram are in place. We have welded on some scraps of 2" square tube to hold the logs during splitting.


Infeed trough has the plates welded in place.


Fuel tank is mounted


Engines are welded in place. Had the local exhaust shop bend and swage pipe to fit the two engines. Didn't want exhaust running into the fuel tank or the block of the other engine.


First load of my logs are delivered and wouldn't you know it... It's got the smallest diameter stuff that I've ever received.

Much more is done. Need to get pics.
We are hoping to have it up and running this week!

 

[mx842]

Pusher plate and ram are in place. We have welded on some scraps of 2" square tube to hold the logs during splitting.


Infeed trough has the plates welded in place.


Fuel tank is mounted


Engines are welded in place. Had the local exhaust shop bend and swage pipe to fit the two engines. Didn't want exhaust running into the fuel tank or the block of the other engine.


First load of my logs are delivered and wouldn't you know it... It's got the smallest diameter stuff that I've ever received.

Much more is done. Need to get pics.
We are hoping to have it up and running this week!

Good to see an update, I was wondering if you guys had scrapped the idea and taken up golf or ping pong. LOL

How tall is that pusher block? It looks really tall hopefully you won't have a problem with it bending in at the top like I did with mine. Looking good though.