Cycle time matters not a jot when you have one of these.
- Thread starter KiwiBro
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1project2many
ArboristSite Guru
Elm will twist the snot out of a Timberwolf.
Mr. HE
A tough Elm can twist the snot out of an inexperienced splittin axe wielder, too.
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Have seen videos of various bundle cutting options, including a big bar they could put at 25/33/50cm increments. So that would give them flexibility and be a pretty darn quick way to cut large quantities of billets to end-length firewood. But I would not think the firewood length demand a particular firewood vendor experiences from year to year would radically change, so it must be fairly easy to predict with a good degree of certainty which lengths to cut the wood into. And it's not like it's a particularly perishable product so easy to carry over to the next season, just as they would have to carry over any unsold meter bundles.
So, I'm thinking it is mainly a storage issue. It is probably much cheaper to strap and stack bundles of billets rather than crates of finished firewood. But there's more handling involved. Personally, I like the idea of it rolling off the splitter and knowing it doesn't have to be touched again other than to stack crates/bags and load out for deliveries when it's dry. To have to deal with processing (cutting bundled wood to length) during peak season when trying to get deliveries out just seems a sub-optimal use of time that could be better spent serving customers.
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Yes. Always something to learn about how and particularly why, others do their firewood and with what equipment.
http://www.arboristsite.com/communi...llets-or-firewood-length-rings-rounds.256139/
Having read a bit more, there are a few incidences of the Binderberger splitters not necessarily holding up in real world use as well as the owners would have liked. When talking big wood here, we are into very stringy and knotty old-man pine and some occasionally very twisty grained and more often than not seriously dense gums. I guess it comes down a fair bit to operator wisdom and experience with the machine to decide, for example, whether or not to try to pushing 4 x 1' long, 3' diameter rounds of twisty grained gum through an 8-way wedge at one time.
That's what I'd like to see more of too, but from real-world users of commercially available 30-40t splitters that can handle at least 3'long rounds.
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Got a spare $80k?
Ouch.
But I don't think too many logs would be able to argue with that splitter with any authority.
7sleeper
Addicted to ArboristSite
Excelent summary. One last thing to add is that in the german speaking Europe, firewood work is often on a small scale operation with a lot of tradition involved. So a lot of handling is not a big problem.
On the videos showing the big hydraulic machines, it has a lot to do with the type of wood being processed. In the german speaking areas, beech is one of the major firewoods. Also for very simple reasons, fast growing, rather straight, easy splitting, early harvesting time, etc. So of course for high production facility's using difficult wood or waiting more than 50 years before harvest is just not sensible.
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Rudolf73
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7sleeper
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KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
The longer rounds would be more suitable if having to do re-splits on the larger wood, because it would be fewer pieces to handle twice or more.
But given these splitters have such long beds, and assuming we are splitting, say, multiple 14"-long rounds each stroke, could a wedge be developed that was much deeper than what these videos show, so that it could be some sort of progressive box wedge that gets the split pieces down to much smaller cross sections than what most of these splitters generally produce?
Even if it means sacrificing the length of one round to accommodate the deeper wedge/s, so instead of putting in four at a time, it would be three, if it avoids having to drag wood back to be re-split, then it would be worth the price of admission, surely?
There are some videos of the 60/80t models with fairly deep box wedges, but even those are still not producing split wood of small enough cross sections in most cases. I am thinking along the lines of getting splits that will fit through, say, a 4 1/2" square hole if need be. Anything bigger than that here generally needs to be re-split to keep most people happy. But perhaps instead of needing a 80t splitter to handle it, the 30/40t models could if the wedge was redesigned so all the necessary leading edges of the knives weren't bearing on the wood at once, but progressively.
Has anyone seen anything like this or used such or have any reservations?
Further, rather than handling three or four rounds on to the splitter per stroke, why not one longer round and then buck it on the splitter bed before splitting? Wouldn't work for the bent or larger and more non-round crotch sections, but could save some handling, even if it means the operator would have to stand on the log lift to buck the larger rounds.
I'm seriously considering a long bed, reasonably high tonnage splitter if I can work out these sorts of details to handle the wood as little as possible and minimise the split strokes needed to fully process the wood into finished length firewood. I'll have about $30K for it.
But given these splitters have such long beds, and assuming we are splitting, say, multiple 14"-long rounds each stroke, could a wedge be developed that was much deeper than what these videos show, so that it could be some sort of progressive box wedge that gets the split pieces down to much smaller cross sections than what most of these splitters generally produce?
Even if it means sacrificing the length of one round to accommodate the deeper wedge/s, so instead of putting in four at a time, it would be three, if it avoids having to drag wood back to be re-split, then it would be worth the price of admission, surely?
There are some videos of the 60/80t models with fairly deep box wedges, but even those are still not producing split wood of small enough cross sections in most cases. I am thinking along the lines of getting splits that will fit through, say, a 4 1/2" square hole if need be. Anything bigger than that here generally needs to be re-split to keep most people happy. But perhaps instead of needing a 80t splitter to handle it, the 30/40t models could if the wedge was redesigned so all the necessary leading edges of the knives weren't bearing on the wood at once, but progressively.
Has anyone seen anything like this or used such or have any reservations?
Further, rather than handling three or four rounds on to the splitter per stroke, why not one longer round and then buck it on the splitter bed before splitting? Wouldn't work for the bent or larger and more non-round crotch sections, but could save some handling, even if it means the operator would have to stand on the log lift to buck the larger rounds.
I'm seriously considering a long bed, reasonably high tonnage splitter if I can work out these sorts of details to handle the wood as little as possible and minimise the split strokes needed to fully process the wood into finished length firewood. I'll have about $30K for it.
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Take this 32t splitter for example and the round at about 3 minutes into the video:
Even if a progressive knife/wedge required to turn that into the small split cross sectional areas noted in my above post was so deep that there was only enough room left for 1 x 14" long round, that would still be much faster splitting time and much less handling.
Perhaps it's just not feasible to build such a wedge/knives that could handle the loads and even if could, it just couldn't be done with 32t? Also, I guess would never get the last-split wood out of the wedge/knives until the next split wood/s were put through it.
Even if a progressive knife/wedge required to turn that into the small split cross sectional areas noted in my above post was so deep that there was only enough room left for 1 x 14" long round, that would still be much faster splitting time and much less handling.
Perhaps it's just not feasible to build such a wedge/knives that could handle the loads and even if could, it just couldn't be done with 32t? Also, I guess would never get the last-split wood out of the wedge/knives until the next split wood/s were put through it.
I think bucking long splits after splitting would be a real pain. If your set on a long ram, splitting multiple rounds would probably be faster.
I like the idea of a multi stage box. I bet it would work great! It doesn't really matter if you can't get the last little bit of wood out. It'll push through with the next piece.
I'd be interested in seeing a box like the one your describing.
I like the idea of a multi stage box. I bet it would work great! It doesn't really matter if you can't get the last little bit of wood out. It'll push through with the next piece.
I'd be interested in seeing a box like the one your describing.
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
At 1:50 it shows the wedge. Perhaps something like this but with at least another outer ring.
Also, why not have the outer rings hitting first, much like when hand splitting a round and taking bites from the outside rather than trying to bust it open from the middle outwards.
I guess the issue with a circle or multi-circle knife is turning it back to a 2 or 4-way when in ugly wood.
Also, why not have the outer rings hitting first, much like when hand splitting a round and taking bites from the outside rather than trying to bust it open from the middle outwards.
I guess the issue with a circle or multi-circle knife is turning it back to a 2 or 4-way when in ugly wood.
I like it!
Rockjock
Addicted to ArboristSite
Hallo aus Austria
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Hallo aus Kanada
0 Grad mit Eis und Schnee heute einfach wunderbar! Nein nicht wirklich !!!
Rockjock
Addicted to ArboristSite
many of the people from the area I am from have quite small fireplaces, much like this one so the wood is rather small. They even have units that heat water for the rad systems they have
7sleeper
Addicted to ArboristSite
Mir ist Eis & Schnee lieber als Matsch und Plusgrade!Hallo aus Kanada
0 Grad mit Eis und Schnee heute einfach wunderbar! Nein nicht wirklich !!!
lg,
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