DasBlinkenlight
New Member
Not mine.. but looked like an interesting idea... slow but relaxing:
Homemade rotary splitter
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Interesting. I'll tell you right now if you lose a finger to that thing you had to be trying! LOL
Looks like you could sit, eat and drink and carry on a conversation with someone while splitting your winter wood supply. I couldn't stand it but that's just me.
Looks like you could sit, eat and drink and carry on a conversation with someone while splitting your winter wood supply. I couldn't stand it but that's just me.
The first thing I would do is add a cup holder to that chair.
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
Could just about burn the wood quicker than split it!
sirbuildalot
Addicted to ArboristSite
The hydraulic ones anyways
Very true.
A Super Split is much faster.
Some hydraulic ones are coming along that are a little faster. Saw one the other day bragging about a fast 11 second cycle time.
sirbuildalot
Addicted to ArboristSite
I saw a YouTube video of a splitter like this, except that the wheel was much larger and it only took a second or two to do one revolution. Looked pretty dangerous
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
I guess I'm used to mine, has a 5 sec cycle.
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Sandhill Crane recently posted a breakdown of his time on each part of the process receiving delivered logs, producing firewood and delivering to customers. It got me thinking about how even a slow cycling splitter might actually be one of the fastest things in a firewooding operation...if only it could be fed a batch of rounds at a time and split them automatically, freeing up the single operator to be cutting logs, moving the split wood, etc.
I'm thinking of multiple 'magazines' that can rest on the ground or at the side of a bucking table, but then pivot skywards then slide over the splitting chamber where gravity will feed the rounds in and split firewood falls out the bottom onto a conveyor. The operator could load up 3 or 4 magazines at a time and only have to attend to the splitter occasionally, to slide the next magazine over the splitting chamber, refill the mags, swing the conveyor or move pallet loads of the firewood that drops into the packFix or bags/crates.
That splitter could have a diabolically slow splitting speed and most likely still not be the weakest link in such an operation. My point is, it might be dangerous to focus too much on splitting speed, because it's just one part of the operation.
I'm thinking of multiple 'magazines' that can rest on the ground or at the side of a bucking table, but then pivot skywards then slide over the splitting chamber where gravity will feed the rounds in and split firewood falls out the bottom onto a conveyor. The operator could load up 3 or 4 magazines at a time and only have to attend to the splitter occasionally, to slide the next magazine over the splitting chamber, refill the mags, swing the conveyor or move pallet loads of the firewood that drops into the packFix or bags/crates.
That splitter could have a diabolically slow splitting speed and most likely still not be the weakest link in such an operation. My point is, it might be dangerous to focus too much on splitting speed, because it's just one part of the operation.
Been thinking of building a AK47 style full automatic splitter. Havent figured out all the details yet. I need to work on the feed mechanism, and a simple way to load the mags and it should be good to go.
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KiwiBro hit the nail on the head. Everyone talks about splitter cycle time but likely because it's the easiest thing to see and maybe do something about. My new splitter is slow to me but because I can now adjust the wedge height, split 4 ways, up to 36" long rounds and a big table it is likely at least twice as fast as my Speeco is. I built the rear grapple to cut down the jumping in and out of the tractor. It makes me a bunch of time because I don't get as tired as fast and I can safely pull logs after dark. I built 2 log wagons so that I could separate the logs by size as I load them in the bush. I built wood crates to store the splits in to cut down on handling. I have 20 chain saws so I'm never down. What I'm getting at is that the most time consuming part of my firewood process is the building or making of things to make firewooding easier for me. Everytime I get something done I come on here and you bright azzes give me more things to build or do. I figure I could cut my firewooding time by at least half just by cancelling my Internet.
Very true that splitting is only a portion of the time.
I've been telling a friend of mine for years to stop cutting his own logs and buy logs by the truckload. His home and yard is on a grade coming out of a big forested area and hundreds of trucks go by every day. He can buy the low grade logs cheap, cut them to length and split them on his processor and then deliver them. He'll make more money. He just can't produce logs with his chainsaw, truck bumper winch and trailer as cheaply as a logging outfit running skidders, yarders, log loaders and trucks. He thinks he can though and that's why he'll never break 200 cord a year in sales, he's limited himself to what he can wrestle out of the woods!
I think he could break 1000 cords a year if he just ran his processor and one truck to make deliveries. That means bucking and splitting is less than 20% of the time making firewood!
I've been telling a friend of mine for years to stop cutting his own logs and buy logs by the truckload. His home and yard is on a grade coming out of a big forested area and hundreds of trucks go by every day. He can buy the low grade logs cheap, cut them to length and split them on his processor and then deliver them. He'll make more money. He just can't produce logs with his chainsaw, truck bumper winch and trailer as cheaply as a logging outfit running skidders, yarders, log loaders and trucks. He thinks he can though and that's why he'll never break 200 cord a year in sales, he's limited himself to what he can wrestle out of the woods!
I think he could break 1000 cords a year if he just ran his processor and one truck to make deliveries. That means bucking and splitting is less than 20% of the time making firewood!
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Is he looking to maximise the $, or is harvesting logs too much a part of his enjoyment in life to give it up completely? I wonder if it could be argued if he bought logs in, he'd make so much more $ he could afford to spend a day or two each week amongst the trees dropping/harvesting just for the fun of it.
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
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The cheapest wood I ever got was when I used to buy cull logs from a mill. Ash logs were $300 dropped in my yard. Only took 1 day to cut them into rounds and 2 days to split with a borrowed splitter from my brother in law. That got me enough wood to last a winter. I could have borrowed a saw and then it would have even been cheaper. Since then you freaks have convinced me that I need all this equipment and that I need to harvest my own logs from a bush, have several splitters, wagons, etc or I'm a citidiot.
He really thinks that paying $80 per cord would cut into how much money he makes.
His processor lets him turn logs into firewood stacked on the truck ready to deliver at a rate of 1 cord an hour. His truck and trailer haul five cords. He could realistically put out a full load delivered each day, grossing $1125, with a log cost of $400. That leaves him $725 to cut, split, and deliver. Right now he works at least two 12hr days to sell the same amount of firewood. $1125 gross in two days vs. $1450 and probably only 10hr days at that. Once you start to add in the cost of his log trailer, winch, saws and assorted for felling, extra miles on the truck, wear on his body, he is realistically making less than half what he could.
Add in that he has a yard available to him in town to sell to people that want to haul their own, and has customers that are willing to buy the wood dumped loose, and he could really ramp up the volume.
We'll see though, he had a logger approach him with an offer to sell him some decent logs for a really good deal, he was slammed with orders and bought 8 truckloads (80 cords) he processed all of it and delivered it in less than a month, I think the light is dawning on him now, buying those logs let him reach 240 cords sold last year.
Anyway, point being that the splitting part really is only a small portion of making firewood.
i'm glad i don't know how to weld or i'd never get any wood cut. i keep getting threatened that someone is gonna cancel the internet here.
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