My firewood processor: a learning process.

   / My firewood processor: a learning process. #1  

Guy37

New member
Joined
Feb 29, 2016
Messages
23
Location
Quebec, Qc
Tractor
Universal 643, John Deere 310A, Sumitomo SH60
I am writing the story of the ups and downs I faced in the making of my (yet incomplete) firewood processor with the hope it will help an unqualified person, such as myself, tackle this challenging but rewarding project.

A year ago, I became aware of a machine the would make an easy work of cutting and splitting firewood. I used to do it with a vertical splitter powered by my farm tractor, but it was too much work for a guy in is seventies even for a dozen face cords or so a year.

So I allowed a neighbour to take away fallen and sick trees on my 20 acres wood lot. But since he cannot do it any more, I decided to take care of that myself after seeing hundreds of videos on YouTube and reading on the subject on different forums, mainly on this one. I though I could do an EASY simple processor in a couple of months after the snow was gone and start making firewood early in July even if I knew nothing about hydraulics and not much more on welding. All I needed was a few cylinders, some steel, my old way wagon and a couple of thousands $.

Was I ever WRONG. So, I made a nice Sketch-Up plan, not much detailed, I will wing it as I go along. And I did, I did measure, remeasure, cut, recut, weld, re weld, grind and regrind times and times again.

Plan proc...jpg

The first thing I bought was a large 5.5 inch cylinder to avoid too much re-splitting, six months before using it. I learned later that one is not to believe all an advertiser publishes. It was supposed to be 22 inches of extension but was only 18'' which is tight when you roll in 16 inches cut logs. I have now learned how to measure the possible extension of a cylinder. I was also impressed by the supposed force, 50 tons, forget that PSI thing, cannot be important I though. WRONG.

CYLINDRE 5.5.jpg

I used an old hay wagon that had to be reinforced and enlarged it to make it a 5 feet by 10' platform.

HAY WA..jpg

A 7 feet length of an old hay conveyor is cut, reinforced and, jacked up as a trough for my 8 logs, so the cut log will roll down to the splitter.

CONVEYOR.jpgCONV 2.jpgCONV 3.jpg

I bought a great metal saw with 8 inch long lasting blades. WRONG. The expensive blades makes super clean cut, but wont last if you cut 3/4 or 1 inch thick stock. I have 7 or 8 to prove that. I may try to resharpen some that still have enough teeth, next summer.

SAW.jpgBLADE.jpg

For 150.00$ I bought a 1/2 inch x 6X6 H beam. Scrap metal is expensive here at .60 a pound while new one is at 1$. I though it should be rigid enough. WRONG. With the centre only 3/8 thick, I was told it would bent. So, I welded a 1/2 inch plate on one side and a 1/4 inch on the other side. Now the vertical is 1 1/8 inch and should hold on well.

H BEAM 1.jpgH 2.jpg

Once the H beam in place, I built a slanted table for the cut logs to roll down to the splitter, but a little higher and close to the beam. BAD IDEA. The split pieces can go wide and they did and unwelded that table as well as the posts holding the log lift.

TABLE.jpg

I bought a used 12hp lawn tractor motor thinking it would be easy to make it fit to the 16 gpm hydraulic pump. WRONG. First, the screws for the mounting bracket go in specific holes the are on dedicated motors, no on any or all motors. So a plate was bolted on the motor and holes were drilled to correspond to the bracket bolt holes. Second, the motor shaft needed to be 4 inches and now, because the plate shortened the available shaft to only 3 I had to weld a piece of 1 inch shaft, something I was not looking forward to do.

MOT 1.jpgMOT 2.jpgMOT 3 .jpg

I found different new cylinders locally at a good price and I thought I would find a way to fit them in later. WRONG. Its better to have a good idea of the length of the ram that will do the job rather than adapting your work to the cylinders you have. For instance, I had to unweld the attachment to the log flip table (at the end of the in-feed deck (not yet installed) twice to have it where I needed it.

3 CYLINDRES.jpg

The TBN system does not allow me more pictures right now.
Part 2 is coming up in a few minutes.
 
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   / My firewood processor: a learning process.
  • Thread Starter
#2  
PART 2

I decided to use a 3 1/2 inch cylinder to move the arm that keeps the log in place since it does not need to be that strong. WRONG. These small cylinders are stronger than I had anticipated. The pivot post unwelded after a few time holding log. I should have made my welds stronger since now it will be difficult to reweld and reinforce because the space is tight. However, scrap triangles, from my excavator thumb, welded on the arm work well to keep the logs in place.

Arm 1 .jpgArm 2 .jpg

One part was easier than I expected. But it took a while to figure out how to attach the saw to the processor. It had to be easy to put on and to pull off. I decided to try with a piece of pipe, welded to the side of the trough. I was surprised it was holding on so well. I looked around and found another pipe the would tightly go over it. Fixed it to the saw, slipped it on and with a pin, locked it in position and it works perfectly. A couple of pieces of steel were added to prevent it from going too far forward or backward.

Saw 1.jpgSAW 2.jpgSaw 3.jpgSAW 4.jpgSaw 5.jpg

For years, I threw away my drill bits when they became dull. WRONG. This is not what a machinist does and one taught me how to resharp them on a bench grinder. My cheap bench drill press is ok for wood, but too fast for metal as it create heat. I manage by going slowly with the help of a new product to me, CUTTING OIL. This special oil made it easy on my bits and me since I had to drill a large number of holes for that project.

Holes 1.jpgHoles 2 .jpg

I thought grinding my wedges would be easy and fast. WRONG. Life is too short to grind 51 inches of steel to perfection, so I went to a milling shop. Not cheap though.

Knives.jpg

My plan was to use a DC winch to move the log forward to the saw. I was sceptical regarding the force it would take to do that with a log weighing hundreds of pounds. WRONG. The first time I used it, it pushed the log stopper and unweld it.

WINCH 1.jpgWINCH 2.jpg

PART 3 COMING UP IN A FEW MINUTES.
 
   / My firewood processor: a learning process.
  • Thread Starter
#3  
PART 3

Now for the piece de resistance: THE WEDGES.

To me, this is the heart of my firewood processor to achieve my goal of cutting a log in 6 to 8 pieces, quickly and effortlessly.
It could have been simple and easy. But one is not to shy away from experimentation and creativity ....at a price.
I found out, as expected, this was a time consuming and frustrated part. I had been advised it would not work. But I wanted to prove that it could be done. WRONG. This is a picture of my first set. It did not work for many reasons, some of them I now know. The angle of the knives were keeping the pieces of wood captive.First, I believe that if 2 of them are welded on the main wedge with a 4 inch distance, that distance should be higher at the tip to allow an easy escape. Secondly, the 2 small ones at the top cannot work properly because they are too short and mostly because the wood is going to be captive between this knife and the one below. Thirdly, the welds need to be stronger than the ones I did.

WEDGE 1 .jpg WEDGE 2.jpg WEDGE 3.jpg WEDGE 4.jpg WEDGE 6.jpg


Believing the first set needed only some minor adjustments, I spent a whole day taking it apart and grinding all the welds. The next day, I put everything back on the beam and I was ready for phase 2. NOT GOOD. Soon one of the knife popped out, another one bent downward. One side was fairly intact. But I wanted to know more. So the next log was done slowly, taking pictures every couple of inches to see what was really going on. I was mostly intrigued by the middle part of the log, going in normally at first, like 4 inches and then, at the end, like one inch. Is it the fact that, unlike cheese that would follow the angle of the knives, a log cannot bend?

WEDGE 8.jpg WEDGE 8C.jpg WEDGE 9.jpg WEDGE 10.jpg WEDGE 11.jpg WEDGE 12.jpg

PART 4 COMING RIGHT NOW.
 
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   / My firewood processor: a learning process.
  • Thread Starter
#4  
PART 4

This is the moment I took many pictures while spitting a log. The log was advanced inch by inch to see the effect of the knives so that I could understand (still no sure) what was going on even with only one side working.

WEDGE 13.jpg WEDGE 14.jpg WEDGE 15.jpg WEDGE 16.jpgWEDGE 17.jpg WEDGE 18.jpg WEDGE 19.jpg

Since I did not have the proper answer, the third set of wedges was made simply with only 2 horizontals. GOOD.
Works like a charm. But with lots of resplitting. Not what I wanted in the first place. It was then late october, time to put everything inside till next spring.

WEDGE 20.jpg LAST .jpg

Now, early January, something else came to my mind. Why not make a floating wedge to slide on to the main one?
Will it work? I will know in May. So, a suivre,,,,,

Slip on .jpg
 
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   / My firewood processor: a learning process. #5  
Here's a similar wedge as to what I plan on building when I build my splitter. image-1705111327.jpg I've built a wedge before and we shaped it with a cutting torch. The end result was nowhere near as nice as your bevels, but it was cheap.
 
   / My firewood processor: a learning process. #6  
Great write up guy. I think your novel will definitely help others. I thought it was a good read and had some comical excerpts. At least you learned and are still learning.
I have a slip on 4 way and a 6 way I fashioned out of 3/8 x 6" steel, they work well.
Keep up with the updates. If you need a pic of my wedge design give a yell.

dave
 
   / My firewood processor: a learning process. #7  
It looks good except your welds.
 
   / My firewood processor: a learning process. #8  
I forgot to mention earlier that I am collecting parts for a processor build. I really have no use for one but I want to build one none the less. I have a 5" bore by 30" stroke cylinder I picked up for cheap back when scrap was sky high. It's never had the factory plugs out of the ports nor had grease in the zerks. For $40.00 I couldn't turn it down.
Anyway, on the the slip on wedge pics, this is the 4 way but the 6 way is built the same. To be honest, the 6 way doesn't get used a whole lot but the 4 way has had probably 20 cords or so through it.
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
And an action photo of the 6 way, I was making kindling
Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet
Hope these help. I bent the steel in a hydraulic press brake that I built. (20 ton)
 
   / My firewood processor: a learning process.
  • Thread Starter
#9  
The first thing I did, working back on my processor, was to weld pieces of steel to make a slip-on wedge
so that I can split in 6 ways. I was a little apprehensive that this would work, having lost so much time trying
to make it work with fix wedges.
Well, so far so good. I have split a few logs and its working perfectly. I will know in the long run if
it stays solid. I have the material for about 15 face cords that I will cut and split in the next week. I hope it
will work well, but since its a new build, minor adjustments might be needed to the wedges and to the processor.
And for a while, I will stay away from hard to split pieces.
 

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   / My firewood processor: a learning process. #10  
Your first 6way is very similar to what I have on my splitter,0131141615.jpg.The difference is my whole wedge is height adjustable. I can leave the wedge lowered and use the top wings as a 4way, or raise it to use as a 6way. The wedge is raised and lowered with a hyd cyl using a lift arm. Since the wedge just sets on top of the armsecuredownload.jpg. it can float up if a split gets wedged under it. I have found that even with a 6way wedge, I still have a lot of resplitting to do. Even if you manage to split a 24in dia round into 6 even splits, each of those splits is still 12 inches wide. Since I usually split a lot of large dia wood, I have built a 12way box wedge1017161503.jpg I will be using on my processor if I ever get it finished
 

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