Improving firewood production

[greenheadwoody]

I need some help. I have a very small firewood business that I do as a side job. It's a one man show. I sold 5 cords this winter but I want to sell 15 to 20 next winter but I need somehow to increase production. I currently cut on 3 different places that are all 5 miles or less from my house. I am using a 372xp and a Ryobi for the small stuff. The places I cut allow me to leave limbs as they lay so I am basically felling the trees, bucking them, and loading them on a trailer to take home to be split with my fiskars super splitter and stacked.

So my main question is would a TSC 22 ton splitter increase my production any. The is basically my $ limit at this point. Or is the SS just as fast. I'm still young and in shape so I don't mind the work but I would like to get more put up faster. I do cut some big trees that I can't man handle the logs but I just split them on the spot to be able to load on the trailer.

 

[Curlycherry1]

With your somewhat smallish volumes you could scour craig's list and pick up a decent used splitter and function just fine. No need to go new. Around here there are plenty of woodsplitters on CL all the time in the "homeowner/farmer" size range and they are often ~$500-800.

 

[greenheadwoody]

Thanks I will keep the used market in mind. But will the splitter allow me to get more wood for less time in terms of start(cut) to finish (stacked)?

 

[Curlycherry1]

Thanks I will keep the used market in mind. But will the splitter allow me to get more wood for less time in terms of start(cut) to finish (stacked)?

It all depends, and it depends on a million factors. If you are splitting by hand right now then that is going to be a killer on your body in the long run and you need to eliminate that hand splitting just to stay functioning.

A fast splitter just like a fast saw can increase production, but if getting to the wood or getting the wood to the saw/splitter is the rate determining step, then those tools will not help much.

Me, I operated for over 1o years with a small tractor and winch, a big fast saw, a fast 4-way splitter and a truck. Once a tree was on the ground I was a formidable force to get it into firewood. I knew a family with 3 people, a skidder, one more splitter than I had and they could cut 10X in a day what I could. If I added two more people I could maybe have cut 4X. It all depends on the operation and how it is set up.

 

[BuddhaKat]

It depends on what kind of wood you're dealing with and how easily it splits. If it's not that big of a diameter and it's a fairly easy to split, (straight grained), then you could probably go faster by hand with a maul. The harder the wood is to split, the more value there is to having a splitter. The drawback to most of the small splitters is that they usually have a pretty slow cycle time.

The way we operate we cut one day and split the next.

Why would you stack the wood if you're going to sell it. Throw it in a pile. It'll season just as well.

 

[1harlowr]

I've got a 22 ton TSC splitter. I can split a cord of hickory/locust/oak in well less than an hour by myself. That is logs that have been bucked and ready to split. If you can't do that with a frikars all day, then yes it will speed your production.
If you are selling 5 cords, a splitter might be a waste of money for you. If you have a larger market then a splitter would be a benefit

 

[clearance]

It depends on what kind of wood you're dealing with and how easily it splits. If it's not that big of a diameter and it's a fairly easy to split, (straight grained), then you could probably go faster by hand with a maul.

Very true. I have proved this to people with splitters. Big rounds of clear wood can be split with one swing, where they lay. I do pretty good with just a maul and a 395 for those rounds that are difficult.

 

[Turkeyslayer]

I've got a 22 ton TSC splitter. I can split a cord of hickory/locust/oak in well less than an hour by myself. That is logs that have been bucked and ready to split.

Full cords of Hickory?

 

[indiansprings]

Yes a splitter will speed up production, the time you spend beaten yourself on the tough pieces is enough of a production increase to by a splitter IF you are dedicated to selling that much firewood. CL and local papers should have plently of splitters available after the winter ends and they need the money for something else. Check Lowes, TSC and other companies that sell splitters, they usually have returns, where something simple has failed and repaired and will sell at a discount due to the end of the season.
We usually cut all we can cut and load on one day and split it the next, repeat process. Only on specialty sizes do we go out and cut and split on the site. During the spring and early summer we will build up a good portion of our wood supply in advance. Don't have to split all of it at once, just build up your round inventory. We will drop alot of trees in the next couple of months just to let them season before next wood season. Get a trailer and haul all you can on each trip, we have a hired hand that gets 10.50 per face cord for every cord that gets cut, split and delivered, we furnish the saw, transportation, etc all he provides is muscle and his own water. We feed him good home cooking.

 

[Curlycherry1]

Why would you stack the wood if you're going to sell it. Throw it in a pile. It'll season just as well.

Careful, a lot depends on where one throws that pile. Nevada is far different than MN or where I grew up, CNY. Throw a heap of wood into a pile (green) in CNY and 4-5 weeks later the wood will be covered with mold. And with all the freakiness about mold out there you can get some real temper tantrums about mold.

I have wood in the center of one of my stacked piles where the wood is ~3' from outside air and I noticed black mold on it last night. And that wood has plastic on top of it to shed the water.

 

[BuddhaKat]

Good point actually. I have to admit, I did notice some black spots on my wood pile the other day. It's pretty green wood and it's been covered in snow for a while. I figure it'll burn just fine by next winter.

 

[1harlowr]

Full cords of Hickory?

If I didn't have all this locust, I would be splitting almost 100% hickory. My woods has more hickory than multiflora rose

 

[Turkeyslayer]

You must really be hustling to split a full cord of hickory in less then an hour

 

[Curlycherry1]

You must really be hustling to split a full cord of hickory in less then an hour

Piece of cake to do.......when I was about 1/3 the age I am now.

 

[Greenthorn]

You must really be hustling to split a full cord of hickory in less then an hour

:agree2:

Call me a wuss then, cause all I got here is Shagbark Hickory and it is a mother ####er to split, most days.

 

[Michael M]

My biggest increase in production came from a skid steer, But lets face it, It's all in what you want to do. There are all sorts of way to increase production but if you start spending a bunch of money then you "have" to increase production to pay for all that equipment. I started out selling maybe 10 full cords a year and hope to do 100 full cords this year. I bring in log truck loads of poles and also cut blow downs, dead and un wanted trees on my own property. My skid steer was not bought for firewood it was bought for another purpose but I wouldn't now what to do without it now.

I guess what I'm trying to say is this. If you want to increase production to make more money you are going to have to spend a bunch to do so. My goal in selling firewood was low stress and low overhead.

 

[greenheadwoody]

Thanks for the info. I cut only oak And most of it is easy to split. I stack for drying plus it allows me to know how much I have.

 

[Oldtimer]

If you want to do more faster, get a 4-way wedge splitter.
It will do 3x as much work in the same time-span as a 2-way wedge machine.

 

[Curlycherry1]

If you want to do more faster, get a 4-way wedge splitter.
It will do 3x as much work in the same time-span as a 2-way wedge machine.

Agree, 4 way is the way to go. They make a huge difference in production vs single wedge.

 

[dnf0929]

20 cords is a lot of wood even with a Tractor Supply 22 ton. That was my first splitter and I did about 12 cords with it the first year. When I decided I was going to try and double my numbers I went for the Super Splitter and don't regret it one bit. The 30 cords I did with the SS took less time and effort than the 12 with the TSC. I'd recommend going with something like the TSC for the first year and if you decide to upgrade it probably won't be hard to re-sell. I bought mine new for $1100 and sold it 6 months later for $900. Also you are probably going to have to start buying some log length wood given your 15-20 cord goal. Getting that much wood by yourself with no heavy equipment is a lot of work although you are still young. Good luck to you.