need help starting wood splitting buisness

[ChoppyChoppy]

I need to find this "free time"!

Put in a punch clock, so been keeping track of my hours. I did 78hrs this past week.

 

[Eagle90301]

I need to find this "free time"!

Put in a punch clock, so been keeping track of my hours. I did 78hrs this past week.

Like I said this isn’t my full time job. I’m a fullTime firefighter/ paramedic. Because of my schedule I have 4 days a week to work on other projects.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Like I said this isn’t my full time job. I’m a fullTime firefighter/ paramedic. Because of my schedule I have 4 days a week to work on other projects.

Understand, but was saying my job takes up most of my time. I'm home to eat and sleep and do chores, that's about it.
Need another 2-3 months of summer, I'm WAY behind on things.

 

[Eagle90301]

Understand, but was saying my job rakes up most of my time. I'm home to eat and sleep and do chores, that's about it.
Need another 2-3 months of summer, I'm WAY behind on things.

Oh I get it. I have family that are working 16hr day 6-7 days a week at their jobs.

 

[user 122190]

I’m going to do a 2hr minimum. Not looking to make a killing. I have a full time job just looking to fill some time. Have no clue what I can split in an hour. My guess is a cord or so. Thank you for your help.

With a good splitter close by the stack, an hour/cord is what I can do. I usually get distracted by the dog barking at a deer, or turkeys passing thru, etc., so usually an hour plus.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

With a good splitter close by the stack, an hour/cord is what I can do. I usually get distracted by the dog barking at a deer, or turkeys passing thru, etc., so usually an hour plus.

What's a good splitter??

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

With a good splitter close by the stack, an hour/cord is what I can do. I usually get distracted by the dog barking at a deer, or turkeys passing thru, etc., so usually an hour plus.

There's no way. You'd need to average a few seconds per piece.

Maybe with a 4-5 second cycle splitter and a 6 or 8 way wedge, but you'd be working hard too.

 

[NSMaple1]

3600 pieces is a lot of pieces.

 

[chucker]

3600 pieces is a lot of pieces.

must be making tooth picks out of it... lol

 

[user 122190]

Yeah, those are to small. LOL! Go bigger, fewer splits, longer burn, less handling, less work, etc.

must be making tooth picks out of it... lol

 

[user 122190]

This is a great one.

What's a good splitter??

 

[Ryan'smilling]

This is a great one.

View attachment 668525

I'd believe you could split that volume of wood with that splitter, but only under totally ideal circumstances. Like wood cut to 20" instead of 16" and leaving chunks pretty large. I don't believe for a minute that you could turn a cord of 16" rounds into sellable splits in an hour. I can do a cord per hour but I've got an auto cycle valve and a 4-way wedge.

 

[CentaurG2]

I know a lot of guys that help pay off a piece of equipment (ZTR, chippers, TLB ect) by doing side jobs but I don’t know anyone who does this with a wood splitter. There is just no money in it on either side. Even big processors are too large to move, too hard to feed, too hard to maintain and produce too much outfall (wood and waste) to be used profitably on remote locations. If you are looking for a side job buy a ZTR, a trimmer and a blower and pick up a few lawns. Get a quality bagging system and a JRCO rake and you will have all the work you can handle come leaf season.


The only splitter that I know of that can reliably produce a cord an hour with one operator is the power split/timberdevil with a conveyer. Very nice splitters but also very costly.

 

[user 122190]

I have a lot of White Pine. Super easy to split, 1/4 way into a piece its complete. Ponderosa is a very different situation.

I'd believe you could split that volume of wood with that splitter, but only under totally ideal circumstances. Like wood cut to 20" instead of 16" and leaving chunks pretty large. I don't believe for a minute that you could turn a cord of 16" rounds into sellable splits in an hour. I can do a cord per hour but I've got an auto cycle valve and a 4-way wedge. View attachment 668534

 

[rancher2]

I know a lot of guys that help pay off a piece of equipment (ZTR, chippers, TLB ect) by doing side jobs but I don’t know anyone who does this with a wood splitter. There is just no money in it on either side. Even big processors are too large to move, too hard to feed, too hard to maintain and produce too much outfall (wood and waste) to be used profitably on remote locations. If you are looking for a side job buy a ZTR, a trimmer and a blower and pick up a few lawns. Get a quality bagging system and a JRCO rake and you will have all the work you can handle come leaf season.

People around here that are fire fighters or teachers do exact this they run lawn services and make good money. We use to have a fire fighter in our area that worked in the city and did painting of barns and metal building, grain bins on his days off made good money and stayed as busy as he liked.

 

[lknchoppers]

If you are splitting with a standard splitter it will take about 3 hours to split a cord. I delivered some firewood to a guy and he had a little over 2 cords bucked just laying in his back yard. He wanted me to bring my splitter over to split it up this past spring. I told him if he helped I would bring the splitter out. It took about 4 hours with him feeding me the rounds. I charged him $250, he was happy and so was I. I supplied the fuel which wasn't much.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I'd believe you could split that volume of wood with that splitter, but only under totally ideal circumstances. Like wood cut to 20" instead of 16" and leaving chunks pretty large. I don't believe for a minute that you could turn a cord of 16" rounds into sellable splits in an hour. I can do a cord per hour but I've got an auto cycle valve and a 4-way wedge. View attachment 668534

When I load my truck, it takes me a good 45+ mins to stack a cord and that's with me moving pretty quickly.
I've only had 1 guy work for me that was quicker.

With a guy stacking and me running the processor, it takes around 3.5-4 hrs to do 2 cords.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

When I load my truck, it takes me a good 45+ mins to stack a cord and that's with me moving pretty quickly.
I've only had 1 guy work for me that was quicker.

With a guy stacking and me running the processor, it takes around 3.5-4 hrs to do 2 cords.

I wasn't including stacking at all in my estimates.