owbguy
ArboristSite Operative
After careful consideration, I'm going to pass on that fine offer. I would not even pay $300 for me to have that DR saw, so paying $300 and you having it really does not sound too appealing...
The best way to make kindling from 1" diameter branches is?
- Thread starter KiwiBro
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After careful consideration, I'm going to pass on that fine offer. I would not even pay $300 for me to have that DR saw, so paying $300 and you having it really does not sound too appealing...
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
If I'm getting my translations and currency conversions right, that PTO kindling chipper works out about US$10k ex Czech Republic?
Their website is:
ŠTÌPKOVAÈE URBAN
Given the production rates and use of otherwise 'waste' wood, it's probably worthwhile if someone had a market for the type of kindling it produces (the TR110 lengths range from about 2 1/2 inches up to about 10" long chips depending on the material it's being fed). Imaging how many bags you could knock out in a day with that thing?
If pellet fires are supposed to burn so efficiently because of the better air flow around the fuel, then perhaps a hopper could be rigged for domestic fires or wood burners and they are fed bags upon bags of these kindling chips instead of or to augment, regular split wood?
Their website is:
ŠTÌPKOVAÈE URBAN
Given the production rates and use of otherwise 'waste' wood, it's probably worthwhile if someone had a market for the type of kindling it produces (the TR110 lengths range from about 2 1/2 inches up to about 10" long chips depending on the material it's being fed). Imaging how many bags you could knock out in a day with that thing?
If pellet fires are supposed to burn so efficiently because of the better air flow around the fuel, then perhaps a hopper could be rigged for domestic fires or wood burners and they are fed bags upon bags of these kindling chips instead of or to augment, regular split wood?
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KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Yeah. Kinda hard to see the point. I guess we'll just have to wait for someone else to buy and review it
zogger
Tree Freak
Well, a regular big wood chipper will grab the branches and haul them in, compressing them into the chute feed area, with the..I don't know the term, that feed wheel thing with the grabber ridges on it. Say you start with that, from a used junker chipper. Then instead of the drum with chipper knives, it feeds down an extended chute (to keep the branches compressed enough) to a cut off saw, like a normal wood processor. Then it is a matter of timing/activation for the saw stroke to get the desired length. The cut off stuff goes to a conveyor then to wherever you want it to go for packaging.
Johny Utah
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KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
I'd rather not any saw dust. How about a variable feed speed to control the cut length and the material being cut by a guillotine or some other form of mechanical shears, given the max feedstock is going to be something like 4" anyway as anything bigger than that and it will probably need splitting instead? The guillotine blades could be mounted to a flywheel so that it could mow through the material twice per revolution, if the feed speed could handle it. But it might be better to use a guillotine blade like the chomper and have it hydraulic so it's slow and doesn't fire the cut pieces all over the show and just up the feed volume capacity so that instead of feeding one or two branches in each time, the opening is bigger, you feed 10 in and even though it cuts at 1/10th the speeds of a flywheel, the production is about the same rate, without the flying debris?
But it's probably easier for a single operator to feed it one branch at a time. And perhaps the flywheel could include air vanes to fire the product out into some sort of air flow separator out feed that helps divert the lighter stuff like leaves/needle/and tiny twigs away from the bagger and into a separate 'waste' chute?
Oh, and an optional wireless MP3 player and a coffee maker would be nice too.
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zogger
Tree Freak
--well, I would like a hostess with my machine...hehehe
I still think with huge mass quantities of scrap wood like that, a wood fired boiler and steam turbine (or piston unit), sell or use electricity and free heat, the excess steam. perhaps in like a large commercial greenhouse operation?? Something like that, an economic multiplier. Feed it entire branches, no need for cutting small then, and your product will be much more valuable.
I used to talk with a dude (his name is Skip) who was a consultant for this, small steam plants, this is the last known email I could find (been some years now) He knows his stuff and has done work all over the world. sensiblesteam @ aol.com
There are also the big main commercial turn key vendors, GE and Siemens and most likely a lot more.
I just looked, if you google kindling processor, they are already out there, buncha hits
Here's one youtuber..slow but it works
kindling machine - YouTube
anyway, google it, there's various units out there for sale already, I only looked at this one link so far
This is a related thread here on A.S.:
http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/186935.htm
You could make a similar device to the one in Post #14 or #27. Stack the branches high, then gang cut them to length.
Philbert
http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/186935.htm
You could make a similar device to the one in Post #14 or #27. Stack the branches high, then gang cut them to length.
Philbert
ShaneLogs
Addicted to ArboristSite
It sounds like it would work pretty good
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
edit: this post in reply to zogger's.
That kindling machine you linked to is being fed larger rounds, not 1" 'slash' material. I'm talking about mountains of slash resulting from cutting down to, say, 2" diameters for firewood and the rest just being left on the hillside to rot away, which seems such a waste of otherwise 'free' kindling. I've already paid to drop it along with the tree, get it to the landing, the tractor and people being there to work and instead of pushing it off the side of the landing, why not turn it into kindling?
The trouble with burning it, and the subsequent conversion into electricity, is there are no connections to the grid where this stuff is and it's not worth carting to anywhere that has such connections, and unless you are relying upon the moisture inherent in the wood itself (which as the slash is the first to lose moisture, there ain't much) it would then need a water supply too, not to mention the relatively low volume of biomass per unit overhead to feed the gasifier/generator.
Are you confusing this thread with the lateral waste wood thread? I can see some connections between them, but the other is more a general dealing with waste wood, and could have large wood and small slash, whereas this thread is specific to creating good amounts of kindling from small slash branches and the like that would otherwise be left to rot. I guess, if there was a feasible way to deal with all waste wood from logging operations, then the slash this thread refers to would also be fed into it, but until such a marvel of alternative thinking surfaces, I'll settle for a super productive kindling machine that can handle otherwise useless slash. I figure it's a little less lateral and as such not as prone to disrespectful derailing as the other thread, if you get my drift.
That kindling machine you linked to is being fed larger rounds, not 1" 'slash' material. I'm talking about mountains of slash resulting from cutting down to, say, 2" diameters for firewood and the rest just being left on the hillside to rot away, which seems such a waste of otherwise 'free' kindling. I've already paid to drop it along with the tree, get it to the landing, the tractor and people being there to work and instead of pushing it off the side of the landing, why not turn it into kindling?
The trouble with burning it, and the subsequent conversion into electricity, is there are no connections to the grid where this stuff is and it's not worth carting to anywhere that has such connections, and unless you are relying upon the moisture inherent in the wood itself (which as the slash is the first to lose moisture, there ain't much) it would then need a water supply too, not to mention the relatively low volume of biomass per unit overhead to feed the gasifier/generator.
Are you confusing this thread with the lateral waste wood thread? I can see some connections between them, but the other is more a general dealing with waste wood, and could have large wood and small slash, whereas this thread is specific to creating good amounts of kindling from small slash branches and the like that would otherwise be left to rot. I guess, if there was a feasible way to deal with all waste wood from logging operations, then the slash this thread refers to would also be fed into it, but until such a marvel of alternative thinking surfaces, I'll settle for a super productive kindling machine that can handle otherwise useless slash. I figure it's a little less lateral and as such not as prone to disrespectful derailing as the other thread, if you get my drift.
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KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
thanks but that thread and this are referencing two different feed stocks and the ideas posed in that thread would be slow and inefficient for sub 2" diameter slash (whole tops of trees - trunks, branches, twigs, needles, leaves, etc) in the volumes I'm talking about. That's why that chipper idea has merit - feed the whole top or whatever the chute can handle, into the machine and spit out huge quantities of bagged kindling.
A machete or brush axe is a good way to simplify that size green slash into singular lengths. Then, stack and cut to length.
We used to harvest slash piles after the loggers left for stove size wood (2 to 4 inch diameter), and essentially did this, but did not have as nice a fixture as those I mentioned.
Philbert
We used to harvest slash piles after the loggers left for stove size wood (2 to 4 inch diameter), and essentially did this, but did not have as nice a fixture as those I mentioned.
Philbert
Sorry, our last posts crossed. I did not realize what type of volume you were discussing.
In that type of volume, a machine would certainly work better. But can you really sell or use that much kindling? We use the tub grinders around here to reduce urban tree trimmings, but those chips go into a very large, commercial, power generation facility.
Philbert
zogger
Tree Freak
ya, the one you tube link wasn't branches, but a google search in general terms might work, don't know, apparently a lot of hits there. Just seems...branches are such an inherent part of wood processing in general, there simply has to be machines out there to deal with them, outside of chipping them up.
Mostly, I just cut them right off the tree, the tree holding the banch intact works well, but this last huge pile of branches in the yard *off* the tree was a PITA to process into usable firewood for me. Wasn't hard, just tedious.
My above idea using a modified chipper was the best I could come up with, scrunch the branches all down by feed roller pressure, so you are doing several at once, then have an automated slicer, either chop it off or shear it off or something. One branch at a time with thousands of cords worth of branches..man....does that come with an old age pension??? heh
KiwiBro
Mill 'em, nails be damned.
Here's a video of a flywheel type guillotine cutter, only this one has a spike to help split the wood at the same time. I'd imagine it's use is limited to certain species and small wood, but it's the guillotine concept I was thinking of above. If that was married to a feed chute and rollers like the chippers have then we are getting somewhere.
[video=youtube;kE6TXEe3l6g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE6TXEe3l6g[/video]
[video=youtube;kE6TXEe3l6g]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE6TXEe3l6g[/video]
ShaneLogs
Addicted to ArboristSite
That's pretty cool looking, I wonder how it works though
