building a processor

[drmiller100]

fall is here. been working on the project for the past week. Learned lots of invaluable lessons (read "broke a lot of ???? and paid guys to fix it without any profit")

do not use a cutting edge off of a road grader as any part of a log splitter. It looks tough, it is indeed really hard, but about 10 cords into working, the stupid thing shatters. Took 3 guys a day to replace the main splitting edge out to a piece of mild steel plate.

the splitter works. the conveyor works. Getting the splitter to dump into the conveyor is not trivial.
The table works. the saw works. getting the table to feed the saw is not trivial.
The saw works. the splitter works. getting the saw to dump rounds into the splitter is beyond us so far.

good news. splitter has an 8 second cycle time. it is a 4 way splitter. with 10 to 14 inch lodgepole, 3 guys average something north of 2 cords an hour, sustained. The thing that stops us is 2 cords of rounds takes up a big enough pile by the end fo the hour you have to walk too far to get the next one.

the table and saw allows one guy to cut faster then 3 guys can split.
we can't get a rhythm to combine it to all one operation.

YET.

 

[Al Smith]

Do you have a digital camera per chance? It certainly would be nice to see your handy work on this as well as some of your other endeavers you publisize widely about.

 

[drmiller100]

Do you have a digital camera per chance? It certainly would be nice to see your handy work on this as well as some of your other endeavers you publisize widely about.

ill go buy one next week.

she's a thing of ugly, as no paint anywhere and we keep scabbing things around with the magic metal glue stick (welder.)

 

[drmiller100]

new laptop still broke.

3 guys split 6 plus cords of wood friday afternoon in about 3 hours. took pics fo the finished wood pile and processor.

we did 2 cords an hour, but all agreed until we streamline something, we can't maintain it all day.

one guy running hydraulics, one guy loading the splitter, one guy pushing new rounds with the skidsteer.

new conveyor worked great right up until it jammed, and we decided we were too tired to continue anyway.

 

[Patrick62]

Sounds like fun!

You will make it work. It won't be easy, and probably not pretty, but functional.
Grader blade is fine in my book.

That is a 5" cylinder pushing against this thing. I have not broke it yet. If I do I will think of something else..... My 3 way works great as well.

-Pat

-

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Theirs no reason grader blade should shatter, save for improper welding technique or stupid design parameters.





Pics please O great one......




.

 

[BuildnFab]

Can we see some pictures?

I am considering building a wood processor and would like any advise you can share about your build.

 

[cabinman]

Grader blade

You will make it work. It won't be easy, and probably not pretty, but functional.
Grader blade is fine in my book.

That is a 5" cylinder pushing against this thing. I have not broke it yet. If I do I will think of something else..... My 3 way works great as well.

-Pat

-

I agree with patrick, Grader blade is a high speed High impact steel,..NO reason for falure do to steel chemistry, But many splitters are built with hot rolled steel, and maybe tiped with harder steel, I think Ill stick with cold rolled steel, as It works real good and is twice as strong as hot rolled,... as the impact is slow and the steel is very hard, The best scraper Ive ever built was tiped with tool steel,. Personaly I dont think it makes a big difference one way or another, Unless were racing, Eric

 

[drmiller100]

got the camera working, some of the snow finally melted.

autocycle shows, well, the autocycle. it is a 2 way detent valve. a short piece of tubing welded to back of splitter foot.

pvc stuck over that, then holes drilled in for the eye bolt stops. when the "don't go any further towads the knife" stop trips, it allows the bungy to overcenter the detent valve, causing it to autocyle back to full open.

another bungy, and she'd be a back and forth all day program, but i'm not sure how safe that is.

pump and engine and tank unit are shown, along with the spaghetti line hoses.

splitter is just a splitter. to do it again, i'd mount the 4 way lower - the bottom two pieces are often too big. she is 4 inch, 32 inch stroke, limited down to 21 or so for 16 inch logs. i've got the high speed set REALLY high, so max pressure is only 2100 psi at present, but for our western logs it seems to do just fine, even the 4 foot ponderosa (yeller pine) and 3 foot white fir.

 

[drmiller100]

more pics

the table is where you set the 13 foot logs. hand grab one, put it on roller table, it moves it to the far end where a chainsaw is mounted as a chop saw.

the small pile is what a helper adn i did this afternoon. not quite maintaining a cord an hour, but the rounds were huge, muddy, and buried in snow banks, and we didn't have the conveyor running to get them out of the way.

the last pic is all that is left. just a few 42 foot dry tamarack sticks left.

 

[drmiller100]

some interest on another site, so i tried videoing it.

hmmm

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bAckm2YdLEQ"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bAckm2YdLEQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

 

[drmiller100]

hmmm.
try this.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/33_SDctnXsE"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/33_SDctnXsE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

 

[wdanforth]

I like it. My neighbors would just love me for that setup.

 

[cabinman]

Redneck

some interest on another site, so i tried videoing it.

hmmm

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bAckm2YdLEQ"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bAckm2YdLEQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> DR, I Love your redneck processor, Looks like sompthing Id build, Aint nothing better than fabing up a concept/prototype,.nice work,..Eric

 

[drmiller100]

one neighbor stopped by and looked at it, i sold him 3 cords of split tamarack for 150 per cord.
i doubt he'll be complaining.

two guys can do 1 to 2 cords an hour. that includes refuelling the chainsaw and stacking the deck.

 

[arlen]

hmmm.
try this.

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/33_SDctnXsE"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/33_SDctnXsE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

Hello, How did you mount your chainsaw and what kind of a chainsaw is it. I enjoyed watching your videos and pictures of your processor David

 

[drmiller100]

it is a dolmar 7900, with a decent enough port job and muffler port.

i'll take some pics of the saw setup later today or tomorrow.

anything else you want pics of???

 

[arlen]

it is a dolmar 7900, with a decent enough port job and muffler port.

i'll take some pics of the saw setup later today or tomorrow.

anything else you want pics of???

thanks. David

 

[husky455rancher]

nice job! that thing works great. love the saw mount also great idea, Mike

 

[drmiller100]

sorry, decided last minute to go to NW gtg.

just got back.

will get pics up in a day or two.