Firewood bundler

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mijdirtyjeep

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I had my firewood wrapper home to doing some off season maintenance. While I was sipping on a cold one and greasing everything up, I got to thinking about how many times in the last 3 years I have turned that handle to wrap wood. I figure I sell 5-8000/bundles every year and each bundle gets 6 wraps of plastic which is about 12 cranks of the handle. That would be around 60-96000cranks of that handle every year.

I thought about putting an electric motor on it with a on/off foot switch, but I don't have any power at my woodyard. So that left me with either buying a generator and electric motor, or just putting a gas engine one it.

Here she is, still have to work out a brake on the rotating arm (kinda like a riding mower deck has) as when the roll gets low on film it wants to keep freewheeling. Also the motor vibrates the wood out of the holder, need to dampen that as well.
 
I do 4 wraps on my bundles and it holds up fine, any reason for 6? That looks alot like my machine actually, you buy it from John? Mine is electric, not that quick either, that is borderline rip your arm off quick!

Actually now that I watch the video again, I'm pretty sure I use thicker plastic, cause I can't tear it by hand like you are doing, have to use a knife.
 
I do 4 wraps on my bundles and it holds up fine, any reason for 6? That looks alot like my machine actually, you buy it from John? Mine is electric, not that quick either, that is borderline rip your arm off quick!

Well, by the time the kids load it from my rack's into the trailer, then unload it a the campgrounds or stores it gets beat on pretty good. I am sure I could get away with a little less wraps though if it was just me touching it!

Yes, it is a John's Welding wrapper. Well made machine and has served me well for the last 3yrs and the guy I got it from used it for 3-4yrs before that.

Speed is varied on how hard you push the pedal down. I can make it go slower or faster with my right foot.

The main problem is that I can't get the pulley off on the rotating arm (to exhange it for a larger one) as the shaft it is on is welded from the get go. I put the smallest pulley I could find on the motor to try to slow it down, but lets face it. I hate slow :D
 
You might look into doing thicker plastic to save money. 2 less wraps means In 100 bundles you'd be able to do 50 more bundles. (Hopefully my math is right, I'm still half asleep).

You'd need like a 2:1 reducer. I'll "clock" mine in a bit, it's probably a good 3 secs a turn.
 
I stopped for gas at a Speedway in Muskegon, MI this morning (S.W. Michigan). Bundles where priced at $6.99 plus tax. They were shrink wrapped with open ends. I picked one up and it weighed a ton.

Seven bucks?
Cashier said they sold a lot of them.
I asked how much markup he thought there was, but couldn't tell me.
 
Here the gas station makes about $1.25 a bundle.
It's a contract that is about 3/4" thick and have to do sandbags in the winter too.
 
New
I stopped for gas at a Speedway in Muskegon, MI this morning (S.W. Michigan). Bundles where priced at $6.99 plus tax. They were shrink wrappedwith open ends. I picked one up and it weighed a ton.

Seven bucks?
Cashier said they sold a lot of them.
I asked how much markup he thought there was, but couldn't tell me


Yeah, that is kiddy corner from the ice cream place that I deliver too. Those supposedly come from IL, I talked with the manager and they were willing to talk about selling mine instead. Then he told me, they buy those for like $2.25/each. I told him no thanks and just walked out. For $2.25, I will sell the wood by the cord. Way to much work involved for that low of a price
 
You might look into doing thicker plastic to save money. 2 less wraps means In 100 bundles you'd be able to do 50 more bundles. (Hopefully my math is right, I'm still half asleep).

You'd need like a 2:1 reducer. I'll "clock" mine in a bit, it's probably a good 3 secs a turn.

I use this wrap, so far the best wrap I have found and I can get it local for a good price ($30 for 4 rolls).
IMG_1573.JPG

I ran 100/bundles today with only 5 wraps and it seems like that will work just fine. They just get thrown around and treated like crap by the kids loading them, so I will stick with 5 wraps for now.

2:1 reducer would be nice, but since I have used it more and more, I like the speed. The reason I didn't buy an electric one in the first place is that they are too slow for production. IMO.
 
I have a hand crank one that I use to sell bundles, but not near the volume that you do. (Only sell as a hobby) I do understand the speed aspect for high volume production. I can't help but think if or when that thing whacks you on the arm and breaks it, or worse yet in the head production is going to drop dramatically. JMO but watching the video it just looks like an accident waiting to happen.
 
And yup, it's rip an arm off fast... half that speed would be about right.

I can do 40-50 an hr with mine, so it's pretty quick. The "slow" part is fitting wood into it. Half ass it and it makes a crappy loose bundle.
 
It's about $80 a case.

Man, you guys do get hit with some steep prices up there in Alaska!

Using the online calculator, we have the same thickness of wrap. I wonder how much it would be for me to ship a case to you? You would not think it would be $50/case, but living in the lower 48 I have no clue.
 
Seems like same thickness, though I know the stuff I have can't be easily torn by hand. We use a knife to cut it.

Shipping is $$. I can get 18" rolls local, but no one carries 12". Have tried cutting 18", so far no luck using a table saw, bandsaw, chop saw, and by hand with a sharp knife.
 
Seems like same thickness, though I know the stuff I have can't be easily torn by hand. We use a knife to cut it.

Shipping is $$. I can get 17":rolls local, but no one carries 12". Have tried cutting 18", so far no luck using a table saw, bandsaw, chop saw, and by hand with a sharp knife.

Back when I was ordering it online, the company I ordered from sent me some 18" rolls by mistake. I emailed them and they sent the correct stuff out and did not want the 18" back and said I could just keep it.

I tried to cut it with a bandsaw as well and it did not turn out good. The saw seemed to melt the cut side together and it would not unroll correctly without tearing. If I used a sharp utility knife and beveled the edge that was cut it worked sorta OK. I ended up just using that wrap for a customer that orders 800/bundles a year picked up at my yard in the fall for then next camping season. I put the bundles on skids and wrap the skids for transport.
 
Seems like same thickness, though I know the stuff I have can't be easily torn by hand. We use a knife to cut it.

Could you PM me the website that you order your wrap from? I am willing to try something different if the quality is better and it costs the same or less.

Case of mine runs $30 and there is 6000ft in a case. That works out to $.005/ft whereas yours cost you about $.0133/ft, but shipping should be a lot less for me.
 
I don't remember anymore, I bought 5 or 6 cases with the bundler right from John's wife and I'm still on those cases. Have 2 left I think. The shipping was a few bucks that way.
I don't do a ton of bundles, it's sort of "beer money". Last year I did maybe 500.

Although once word spread, they sold QUICK. I sold almost 100 on one day I think 4th of July.

She had given me the info where to order, you could contact her. I had priced them out and shipping was $$$.

I might order a pallet this year, it's about 0.35 a lb shipping on the barge.
 
I have a hand crank one that I use to sell bundles, but not near the volume that you do. (Only sell as a hobby) I do understand the speed aspect for high volume production. I can't help but think if or when that thing whacks you on the arm and breaks it, or worse yet in the head production is going to drop dramatically. JMO but watching the video it just looks like an accident waiting to happen.

Everything we do working with firewood is an accident waiting to happen if you are being lax with safety.. How much more unsafe is this than using my SS, the only protection that has is a sticker on the side of it that says "Do not use if you don't have common sense". Or my saws to drop the trees and buck them up. Both the saw and SS have the ability in a blink of an eye to cut a part of my body off if I am not using common sense or being lax.

Worse thing this will do is maybe knock me on my A@% for a bit.

PS: I have tweaked it so it goes a little slower. I added 4 rubber tires and some upright supports to the wrapper so I could turn the engine down to idle speed vs the 1/4-throttle in the video. The reason for 1/4 throttle in the video was that produced the least amount of vibrations. At idle it would vibrate the wood right out of the holder, and even at 1/4 throttle I had to keep a hand on it. Now with the rubber tires and supports, no need to hold the wood there anymore. Just ran another 100/bundles through it and never had to hold one there at all.
 
my buddy told me his son had built a FW bundler so i had to see it. him and his buddy just started selling wood and people were asking for bundles. they used scrap lumber they had laying around and bought lazy susan parts at Lowes. they have less than $20 in it. nothing fancy
. 20170220_105941_resized.jpg 20170220_110102_resized.jpg 20170220_110137_resized.jpg
 
my buddy told me his son had built a FW bundler so i had to see it. him and his buddy just started selling wood and people were asking for bundles. they used scrap lumber they had laying around and bought lazy susan parts at Lowes. they have less than $20 in it. nothing fancy.

That is some very good ingenuity from those kids! You make sure to let them know that I think it is just awesome!

It is great to see there are still some kids out there with imagination, determination, and still like to work with their hands!!!!!!!!!
 
That is some very good ingenuity from those kids! You make sure to let them know that I think it is just awesome!

It is great to see there are still some kids out there with imagination, determination, and still like to work with their hands!!!!!!!!!

I agree! Wish I could find a couple of those kid's around here to put to work! Hired a yard guy last Wednesday and he only made it 45 minutes. When I came back around the building to check on him, his radio and tape measure were laying on the step behind the back door, never even said he quit! WTF!
 
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