Home Built Firewood Processor

[zanderson]

So we took a look a that firewood processor that i posted pictures of a few days ago. It fired right up - the guy doesn't have splitter attachment on right now, but supposedly it will be able to cut and split 5 cords an hour. Haven't made an offer yet, but it needs to be finished before i buy it...
see what you guys think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4ORgqFIpec

 

[Husky137]

The big huge expensive processors won't do 5 cords an hour.

 

[rx7145]

I don't see five cord a hour, But I could be wrong.

Anyway the setup looks good even if it did one cord a hour that's a lot of wood!!

 

[zanderson]

well we timed the cycle and it was about 5 and half seconds- thats about 10 pieces of wood a minute, 600 an hour. if the logs were bigger, (than the one in the video which was pretty small) then the rounds could be about cubic ft. each. 5 times a 128 is a little bit over 600, so maybe 4 cords an hour is a more realistic number- but not to bad if its splitting it too...
btw, there are processors out there that can do 5+ cords and hour (The Cord King, for example, and even the chomper 16) but you'd be looking at at least 40k...

 

[zanderson]

Another Vid of the cycle. The log runs out at the end...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3edXE-9B24

 

[blackdogon57]

Processor speed

That machine seems to cut very fast as do high production machines like Cord King. I run a Built Rite SCP 30 that is rated for 1.5 to 2 cord per hour. My cycle time is 8-11 seconds. If I am running perfect wood (telephone pole diameter and straightness) I can get that kind of production. In the real world where an average grapple load of logs will contain x number of crooked/knotted and otherwise difficult logs it just doesn't work out that way. You also have to factor in time spent on machine maintenance. I run my machine 6 hours a day and usually get 5-6 full cords. That is with one guy running the machine a one guy loading logs.

I stopped to watch a couple of guys running a Cord King not long ago. When they took a break I had a conversation with them about the machine. It was a machine for hire. They were charging $55.00 per cord. They said in a 10 hour day they averaged 19 full cords.


5 cords an hour seems way too high for any machine.

 

[drmiller100]

look up my processor on youtube - drmiller100 firewood processor

mine has a cycle time of 7 seconds, and real world says 12 cords a day is scooting right along.

that thing you posted is a LONG LONG LONG way from a processor. you have a few issues to work out with it.
splitting it.
splitting it 4 ways or more.
getting the round to fall into the splitter correctly
getting rid of the split wood.

bucking the rounds is the easiest part of hte whole process, and my mounted chainsaw will outcut that thing.

i'll sell you my complete system in mccall idaho for 7500 bucks. ready to go, 2 cords an hour.