My firewood tools

[cantoo]

Because of my upcoming 50th birthday I decided to really spoil myself and get me one of those fancy little German built convertibles. I was gonna get the hardtop but figured I would only use it during nice weather anyway so I went all out and got the convertible. As you can see it's got the full lighting package too. You would not believe the look on my wife's face when I pulled in with this black beauty on the car hauler. I could read her lips as I drove and and she said W hat T he F ancy rig you have there, at least that's what it looked like to me. Jun 3, 2012

 

[coog]

Nice pictures. Good looking buzz saw.

 

[cantoo]

And to keep it in the firewood thread some pics of a new toy. Son just got home from Repocast in Michigan, he's been buying some stuff there for awhile. He bought a Harley last fall and sold it already, his boss bought a couple of tractors and a big toy hauler as well as a bunch of small stuff. Online auction every Thursday in Michigan.
It's the 72" HD unit. Bigger than what I need and ready don't have a use for it but will put it up for sale and play with it until it sells. He bought a bunch of shelving too. Due to the high price of fuel he tries to get a full load for each trip, he buys stuff off craigslist to fill up the truck or trailer if he doesn't get enough at the sale. Jul 27, 2013

I spent some time playing with the new root grapple and it's gonna go on the block. Works ok for some stuff but not what I mostly want to use it for. The throat only opens up 30", 08150 has girls that can get wider than that. Can't take a big enough bite of brush, the grapple arms actually push the brush away. Next time I will just get the brush grapple. I picked up a stump and it worked ok but it was a burnt out out stump and wasn't really big. I played with some rocks too and it worked ok but again the narrow throat opening won't let you get a full bucket. I used it to root up some small sumac trees and it worked ok not again not good enough for my liking. It's a nice heavy well built bucket and for bare roots I think it would work fine but has too many drawbacks to justify sitting on my fenceline. I only have room for so many loader buckets and the dozen or so I have now get used fairly often, I don't think this one would. The chunk of concrete well took abit of lifting power. Jul 28, 2013

 

[cantoo]

Been busy lately getting ready for my son`s wedding so not much firewooding done but that`s gonna change soon. The wedding was yesterday and now it`s time to get back to productive work. The good news is I should have some help now, his new wife is a farm girl and used to work. I`m going to hook up one of the OWB`s I bought to their house so she`s gonna need to start cutting wood too. My son is a mechanic and her family are big on hunting so the boutineers for the guys were designed and made by her. I built the wall in the background using old barn boards off my neighbours barn. I also made the table center pieces using my chainsaw and 24`` chunks of barn beams. The white truck in the river is my son's. Aug 4, 2013

 

[cantoo]

Well, that should confuse the heck out of things but at least I was able to post some of the pictures back up. I left tons out because it was a pain to do. There was lots of good pics of other guys equipment in the thread too that is gone, darn shame. Now I have to redo my OWB installation thread.

 

[ReggieT]

I cut up a cherry log that had some extra weight in it. Look close at the pic and you can see a piece of angle iron nailed into the split. There was a tree stand chained to the tree and the guy nailed angles on to climb the tree. I hit 1 with my 660 (new chain of course) and it barely slowed it down. Keep in mind when you let people hunt on your property that they shouldn't put metal in a high dollar tree, this cherry was likely 30" across and the mill wouldn't even haul it out of the bush. The angles were in the tree about 2" and the chain on the stand was completely grown over. Nov 3, 2011
View attachment 323922

Your 660 cut through the metal spikes???

 

[ReggieT]

Have you used it yet and what do you think of it? Some Unicorn is very unhappy about the loss of its horn.

Ron

Getting real tired of this on "slightly older thread pics!!!": Arboristsite.com - Error The requested attachment could not be found.
GEEZ...the "Fairy hacker really extracted is pound of flesh, huh?

 

[stonykill]

View attachment 323927 Hotblast 1400 is the wood eater. Had it for a few years now and real happy other than the fans are a disapointment. Bearings went on 1 and they want anywhere from $400 to $600 for 2 new fans. I did the redneck thing and fixed them myself. Here's the redneck fix instead of spending $600. Bought a furnace fan at a yard sale for $25, 2 speed but I only use the low speed for now. Airflow is at least twice the 2 smaller fans and I doubt that hydro usage is that much more. Left the sensor so it runs the same as before but I have noticed that it runs longer than the small ones did. I still have to fine tune and finish the electrical and put a gasket on it to curb some of the tinwork noise but I'm happy so far. I also grinded off the knobs on the airflow so we can turn the knob and shut the stove right down if we have too. You can also see my firewood wagon on the right side. Our wood is stored about 60' from the stove so I figured a wagon was the easiest way to move it. Stack it as high as we can and pull to beside the stove, lasts almost a week. Nov 4, 2011
View attachment 323925 View attachment 323926

my parents just bought the same furnace to replace their 35 year old wood furnace. They bought that furnace when I was 11. Moved it to a new house once. It is going to be his workshop heat next. Glad to hear you like the furnace and yeah... that would have been my redneck fix as well.

 

[cantoo]

stony, the Hotblast works great for us, 2 friends also put them in after seeing our setup. They are real happy to be 90% oil free now. I now have the OWB hooked up to our house so the Hotblast is backup but my wife has it running everyday, mostly so the dogs have a hot register to sit in front of.

 

[cantoo]

Here is part of my processor build. It's a slow process, I've had the conveyors for likely 5 years now. I have 6 more sets to use for various things.
1st pic is the saw clamped to the roller conveyor, I may add another length on it later.
2nd pic is a closeup of the hinge I used, just a big strap hinge with a 1/4" plate welded to it. I will replace the hinge pin with a bolt and a cotter key so I can remove to refuel and oil it.
3rd and 4th is mounted on the conveyor and spot welded in place.
5th is closeup of the hinge steel bolted to the 66o handle.

 

[cantoo]

6th and 7 is with the saw mounted and ready to try out.
8th shows that I have to remove the dogs for maximum log diameter cut. They catch the log as I'm cutting right now. I need to use the saw to cut some monsters down so for now I'll likely just put a piece of 1x3 on the fence so the log doesn't catch on the dogs.
9th is the 36" splitter hooked up to a cheap splitter I bought to try it out on. Yes, I was splitting bricks with it.
Next step is to get this setup on a trailer frame. My 36' splitter will be going under this conveyor to split the rounds. The splits will then drop onto the conveyor and up into a pile. Time, if only I could buy it at Princess Auto.

 

[jcl]

Looks good cantoo. just got to make sure the branches are cut off clean or they will hang up between rollers. I found out first hand on that!
makes a long day pulling them down in to the saw

 

[cantoo]

Here is a crappy video of me showing my wife what I wasted the day doing. Sound is horrible, dogs were catching the log and the idle on the saw is a hair low. And I had just got done putting all me gear away when she came home. It does give an idea of how it will work with a few more days work on it. I have no idea why a saw manufacturer doesn't make a saw with a flat tray on the bottom to mount on processors etc? It would sell like hot cakes as it seems to be the most difficult part of the job. The rest can be rollers, winch powered, gravity fed or whatever but everyone needs a saw mounted to it to cut the rounds.

Darn video won't load. oh well< I was actually pretty awesome in it.

 

[cantoo]

jcl, I was planning to set up a winch on it but the ash rolls so smooth I might not bother. I'm building it just to process my smaller ash so it should be fine. I'm also making it so I can raise the end and force roll the logs if needed. Log size will be 5 to about 18" max. Smaller stuff get cut to 36" with chainsaw for my OWB. I can put 54" pieces in it so I cut small stuff pretty long. Less handling.

 

[Blowncrewcab]

Are you going to put an adjustable stopper on it so all your pieces end up exactly the same?? Then you can do 16's, 18's 20's etc....

 

[cantoo]

Blowncrewcab I will be making a slide adjustable stop for it from 12" to 24". I will cut the bigger logs to 36" just with a saw, not worth the handling when only doing 3 cuts on my 12' logs. Limb wood will be cut to 36" with either my buzzsaw or just chainsaw. Lots to do on it yet was just keen to try it out. Spent 2 hours at Princess Auto yesterday getting hydraulic fittings, filter etc for the splitter portion.

 

[cantoo]

Been working on my 3 pth grapple. Have it chained to the loader just to make sure everything works before I weld it up solid. Picking up 32" rounds. I have the 3 point hitch made but have to reroute the hoses for it. Already have hoses on the front so figured I might as well make a mount for on the loader too. Might get some time to work on it this weekend.

 

[cantoo]

Got the skid steer loader bracket made for the grapple. Works good and will pick up some weight. Didn't have the weight box on the back for the test though. Hope my hoses are long enough for the 3 pth pole, looks like it might be a little shy. Grapple even works good for loading scrap.

 

[cantoo]

Test to see if I need side braces on the arm. Grapple is hanging straight, tractor is on abit of an angle. Don't thing I need the side braces. 3' cement tile on the grapple.

 

[chipper1]

Thanks for leading me over hear cantoo.
Lots of lighter work to make the heavy work a lot lighter.