built a shed, now it will be a bundle shop...

[Patrick62]

The original idea was to store stuff from the shop, extra engines, transmissions, and lots of other stuff...
Well, the plans of mice and men, I hauled the bundle machine in there today, and tossed a mess of splits in to wrap up bundles. Hey, this would be pretty neet! put the machine over here, and build a retaining wall across there... punch a door thru to get splits in one side, and bundles out the other side... bundle shop.

considering that I sold $10,000 worth of bundles last year this is a worthy cause to improve the bundle system from a open ended quanset... to something much better suited to the purpose.

I'll get pics eventually. I gotta think about windows, and wiring it up.

 

[olympyk_999]

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Wow, that's about 20 cords of wood just in bundles! I might sell 4 or 5 cords of bundles a year!

 

[muddstopper]

Not to hyjack this thread, but what do you folks use to make those small splits I usually see in bundles. Wood comes off my hyd splitter in all different sizes. This is fine for my use, I just burn it the way I split it. Bundle splits just seem small for me so there has to be a ton of resplitting going on some how. I think doing the resplits with hyd's might be a litte slow. Supersplit?? Special wedge like used on the Tempest???

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

My bundles first go though a dyna firewood processor with a 6way wedge on it, then I use the super split to get them down to size. This coming summer I already have two campgrounds confirmed at 6000/bundles each. Those two alone will eat through roughly 75cords of firewood. Then there is the stores, and 4 other campgrounds I have contracts with. They are usually use about 7000bundles between them.

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

The original idea was to store stuff from the shop, extra engines, transmissions, and lots of other stuff...
Well, the plans of mice and men, I hauled the bundle machine in there today, and tossed a mess of splits in to wrap up bundles. Hey, this would be pretty neet! put the machine over here, and build a retaining wall across there... punch a door thru to get splits in one side, and bundles out the other side... bundle shop.

considering that I sold $10,000 worth of bundles last year this is a worthy cause to improve the bundle system from a open ended quanset... to something much better suited to the purpose.

I'll get pics eventually. I gotta think about windows, and wiring it up.

That shed will come in handy when it's pouring down rain, and you have an order to fill!

You ever think about cutting a hole in one of the sides, then installing a coal type shoot? This way you can dump a load though it, and it will come down to a table that is a good working height.

 

[Patrick62]

My bundles first go though a dyna firewood processor with a 6way wedge on it, then I use the super split to get them down to size. This coming summer I already have two campgrounds confirmed at 6000/bundles each. Those two alone will eat through roughly 75cords of firewood. Then there is the stores, and 4 other campgrounds I have contracts with. They are usually use about 7000bundles between them.

Damn. you got it going on dude! I was hopping pretty good to keep up with the locations I got.... dirtyjeep you got me beat to snot
This is what I was using to make bundles in. keeps sun off neck, and snow and rain down a bit. Doesn't do much for the wind tho, and that can really suck out here (don't pay no attention to that jeepster).
This is the thing that we finally got siding on this year. Roof is a tarp until next year...
back side of the box, and the logs that are holding the thing up. My plan is to deck those logs with 2x8's and build a railing around the thing. Then punch a door thru that wall. I can split into a pile on the deck, and run them inside as needed.
Build a railing inside and stack bundles along one side, and maybe some on the other side leaving a walkway thru the building. The bundle machine is a homemade creation, but it works really well for me. 10 bundles ready to go!

I do all the splitting with regular splitter. this year I am going to use the kinetic a lot more as making smaller splits with that is easier and faster. I can wrap 40 bundles in a hour without problem. a bundle a minute is possible.... easy money!

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

That is a nice machine/bundler you made. The only problem with electric motors is the speed.

I expect 60/bundles an hour or more out of my manual wrapper. Obviously you could not do 60/hr all day, but its not be to big of a problem for 5hrs. It all about efficiency, those skids in my avatar hold about a half cord. They are open in the front. Pull the wrapper next to one, and an empty skid next to it!

 

[Patrick62]

Electric motor isn't that slow. I could gear that sucker to break the stretch wrap instantly. Bonus points if I can break my wrist on the way past.
50 bundles an hour is about right, and this is with a pile of splits on one side, and carrying bundles ten feet to stack them up. Easy money...
I like your skid idea, make loading the truck a snap with a forklift.

One of the things is that quality has to remain above average. Each and everyone of these things is going to be scrutinized by the end consumer. If it looks sloppy they might pass on the purchase!

 

[ChucktheCanuck]

Not to hyjack this thread, but what do you folks use to make those small splits I usually see in bundles. Wood comes off my hyd splitter in all different sizes. This is fine for my use, I just burn it the way I split it. Bundle splits just seem small for me so there has to be a ton of resplitting going on some how. I think doing the resplits with hyd's might be a litte slow. Supersplit?? Special wedge like used on the Tempest???

Howdy. I run my own little firewood bundle business (besides working a full time regular job) in rural New Brunswick (Canada), with sales very similar to Patrick62. I get tandem loads of tree-length hard wood (mostly red and rock maple, yellow birch, bit of ash and beech) dumped in front of my shop, where I can chunk em up to 16" rounds, and split and stack it all right centrally around the shop. I split everything once with the 27 ton Ariens hydro, and move everything around with wheelbarrows... I generally hold around 1 cord on 3 racks inside the shop, and do all my bundling manually in the shop, and keep around 60-75 bundles stored in the shop, and another 15 outside where people can pick up what they need when I'm not around and leave the money in a locked mailbox attached to the shop door. I split most of my wood on the smallish side to help with it drying a little faster, and also because it's easier to make nice round bundles when you have some small pieces to round out the edges etc.... People love buying bundles from me, and if I could keep enough dry wood in stock I could sell bundles all year round; this year I ran out of dry wood just towards the end of October.... bummer... but then it also frees me up to fill up the racks in anticipation of next year... I'm actually at a point here now with the racks almost completely full (almost 20 cord) that I'm considering continuing to cut and split as much as I can and just pile it in a great big heap of a mountain, and then once I start emptying the racks I can just refill them with the splits from the heap......

pic 1 is my old bundler
pic 2 is my new bundler
pic 3 is my tightening system
pic 4 is my outside rack that customers can access when I'm not home (the mailbox on the door is where they pay for the bundles)
The rest of the pics are just wood porn....

PS I can do around 20 bundles an hour if I push myself

 

[ChucktheCanuck]

A couple more shots of my "wood yard"

 

[Patrick62]

Nice looking bundles. Really nice looking splits!!!
All that extra handling of the wood would bother me some... My system at the moment is to lay a bunch of logs out on dunage logs and mingo them to 16" with a little care we get consistent blocks. Haul them over to the bundle shed and split a nice pile of the stuff. Grab a arm load of the stuff and like working a puzzle arrange them in the bundler. Grab the end of the poly and stomp the switch. Wind 3 to 4 turns on there. periodically adjusting the tension so as to maintain a tight wrap with the stretch wrap. stack it, and repeat.

Like I said, a bundle a minute is possible if my splits are fairly straight.

The stretch wrap costs about 10 a roll, and I can get over a hundred bundles per roll. $0.10 per bundle cost. Last fourth of July weekend over here I sold over 400 bundles in 3 days. I was wrapping at midnight...

 

[muddstopper]

Bundleing looks to me to be a little labor intensive. Extra splitting and handleing. I see bundle price around $5 bundle in stores. Local grocery chain maybe $4 bundle. I stopped by a gas station yesterday and noticed a empty bundle crate, but beside it set another crate full of bundles. Two different crate designs and I suspect the original supplier had probably been replaced by someone else. This leads me to wonder if bundles are all that profitable around here. $4-$5 for a cuft of wood would be $500-$600 per cord, but when you consider the time/labor invested, do you really make anymore money than just selling loads of firewood.

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

Bundleing looks to me to be a little labor intensive. Extra splitting and handleing. I see bundle price around $5 bundle in stores. Local grocery chain maybe $4 bundle. I stopped by a gas station yesterday and noticed a empty bundle crate, but beside it set another crate full of bundles. Two different crate designs and I suspect the original supplier had probably been replaced by someone else. This leads me to wonder if bundles are all that profitable around here. $4-$5 for a cuft of wood would be $500-$600 per cord, but when you consider the time/labor invested, do you really make anymore money than just selling loads of firewood.

Depends on how you run it. Myself, I have high school kids bundle my wood. I pay the .25c a bundle, and I get around 160-170 bundles a cord. The wrap I get dropped off at my yard on pallets and runs $19 a roll, and will wrap around 180/bundles I buy most of my wood already split, for $100/cord. I have to then re-split it smaller, which normally takes me about 3hrs to do my 2cord dump trailer. So for every cord of wood wrappped into bundles I have for close to $165 into it. I sell my bundles for either $4.25 or $5/ each, so anywhere from $680-$800 per cord. Around her a cord of wood goes for $200-$225 seasoned. So I guess you have to ask yourself if the $290-$410 is worth the extra time. That and I can only get 2cords/$500 of loose bulk firewood on my dump trailer, I can get 400bundles or $1700-$2000. Which load would you rather get paid for

PS: I also have bundles that don't go for quite so much. Those are $3.25 bundles, but they are also smaller. I will get around 180-190bundles per cord out of them. These are the ones that go to a large buyer that resells them, and also some stores around town.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

My bundles first go though a dyna firewood processor with a 6way wedge on it, then I use the super split to get them down to size. This coming summer I already have two campgrounds confirmed at 6000/bundles each. Those two alone will eat through roughly 75cords of firewood. Then there is the stores, and 4 other campgrounds I have contracts with. They are usually use about 7000bundles between them.

Your bundles must be pretty small to make 12,000 off 75 cords? My bundles are about 100 to a cord.

As far as the question on splitting, I just run it through my processor and keep an eye on the splits, resplitting when needed. My processor splitter not much slower than a Super Split. (About 5 second cycle on ~22" stroke)

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

Your bundles must be pretty small to make 12,000 off 75 cords? My bundles are about 100 to a cord.

As far as the question on splitting, I just run it through my processor and keep an eye on the splits, resplitting when needed.

Some are rather small, and some are larger. It all depends on where they are going. I have 3different size jigs that we swap back and forth on the wrapper. The smallest jigs go to the grocery stores. They prefer the small bundles as they take up much less space and they are also a whole lot easier for the ladies to pick up and put into the back of a car.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Here the grocery stores would rather haul bundles in from Texas and Utah vs buying local. It's downright stupid!

I need to rebuild my self serve booth back up this year. The wind tore it apart last year.

 

[muddstopper]

Well, I dont know the actual cost of producing all that wood, but 190bundles a [email protected] a bundle times 75 cord is a little over $46000. If your only clearing $12000 off that much wood I think I would revisit my cost. 20% or so profit is pretty good money, but $34000 year in cost should leave a lot of room to streamline the business. Not having done it, I may just be spitting in the wind. I certainly dont know what in all is involved in producing that many bundles.

 

[Patrick62]

Since you guys are bantering numbers, here are mine.
Logs 1600 a load, that makes $0.80 for the wood
if I pay the cutter ............... $25 a cord, works out to about 25 cents bundle.
Bundle poly is already figured at 10 cents a bundle, if I can trust somebody to make good bundles, 40 cents each (and that is GOOD $)

$1.55 each, and delivery isn't that big of a deal... I am wholesale at $2.50 each, and they sell between $4.00 to $5.00 each. That is the locations decision on what to charge for them. The bundle size is more or less 3/4 cubic foot. Not too small, not too big. I could make a smaller bundle if I wanted to create smaller holders and figure out a way to keep the size consistent. Keeping the size consistent with the current setup is more or less eyeballs. Can be a problem if not paying attention.

I figure on getting 125 to 150 bundles per cord, as there is some of the wood that just isn't usable...

 

[jgoodhart]

Patrick what is the Chevy beyond the Jeepster?