how best to bucking small diameter, bent wood, and lots of it?

[ETpilot]

I made a wooden holder similar to the smart wood holder. It works great for those unruly limbs. I like to keep a good supply of thin limbs for kindling. I have a pallet full now.

 

[513yj]

Look around on here in sawbuck threads for the firewood processor some guy built using a chainsaw that attaches with a hole in the bar and a pin for a pivot. At some point I'm going to make one like it.

 

[mainewoods]

I have cut a lot of small -crooked wood with my chop saw(miter). Use a cross cut blade, it helps prevents binding. If it doesn't cut all the way through just flip it over and finish the cut. Pretty fast once you get going. I wouldn't be without one.

 

[mainewoods]

Of course a multi station saw buck works great also. I load it up with small crooked pieces and lay 1 or 2 large logs on top to hold the others in place. The larger logs hold the small ones in place right to the last cut. Quicker than strapping them down.

 

[Philbert]

Many people do not have tractor-mounted buzz saws, and as a 'safety guy', I have lots of concerns about them.

The sawbuck I posted above (posts#36, 37) and turnkey4099's set up, help to 'corral' bent and twisted pieces for cutting, especially if used with some type of top bar/chain/strap, like the Oregon one uses, to keep them from rotating or rising up. I would consider this primarily for longer, branch type materials that were probably not going to be split later (up to 6 inch diameter?), as opposed to logs.

I have a smaller wood stove, and burn recreationally. So I am happy to burn branches, limbs, tree tops, pretty much anything over 2 inches in diameter, etc., without splitting (smaller stuff gets cut with an anvil loper for kindling). Something like these look like they would be much more efficient.

P.S. - I fixed some of the links in post #34 which show some mounted chainsaw cutters - not vouching for the safety of these either, but with some guarding, training, awareness, . . . .

 

[philoshop]

Not really a high-volume setup, but it can go pretty fast with two guys.
Adjustable jaws for different branch diameters and it breaks down for transport.

 

[Philbert]

Here are a few more I ran across:





Philbert

 

[zogger]

Here are a few more I ran across:





Philbert

Both pretty fast and spiffy!

I still want a 50 cc gas powered jawsaw, with around twice as long of jaws as the electric versions. Because you could do crookedy branches right there at the tree, fast! The log holders need straight wood for the most part, most of the branches I get are crookedy, but there's a lot of wood in there. If I drag whole branches back where I can plug in the jawsaw it works, but still limited in size, it's really only designed for around 3-4 inch and smaller, I'd like something up to 8 inches maybe, all the way down to one inch.

 

[palmrose2]

I spent a couple of days on a 3 man crew with a belt driven buzz saw about 30 yrs ago. I thought that I could have cut the stuff faster with a chainsaw, especially if I had two guys humping wood out of my way. I still think that way. A buddy I cut with used to use a saw buck and electric chainsaw at home, then he bought a 50cc saw and watched me wade into a top and whack it to length as I went.

Some cutting, handling, transporting, handling, cutting, and stacking IMHO takes longer than cutting, handling, transporting, and stacking.

 

[CUCV]

My father made a little setup for the Super splitter to cut limbs. Basically he has a movable ram stops he sets 6" from the wedge. Kiwi ya got the right tool just make up some stops and crank thru the limbs.

 

[KiwiBro]

Hmmm, for the sub-4" stuff, can anyone beat this?

 

[zogger]

Hmmm, for the sub-4" stuff, can anyone beat this?

I'd like to see something beat that on smalls. That's pretty impressive. You need clean limbs, but whut the heck.

 

[KiwiBro]

Was thinking the same thing about the limbs. Perhaps shoot or convey the output to a tumbler/screen/filter/grill to sort into firewood and rough chips, rather than spend too much time cleaning unwanteds from the input?

 

[Philbert]

Pretty cool. Several more variations if you follow the YouTube link. Look basically like brush chippers that don't not grind as fine as what we are used to. Could make some perfectly serviceable stove wood.

Philbert

 

[sb47]

Something like this only larger? That is my limbwood saw buck. Just did come in from cutting up a good batch from the waiting pile of limbs.

After cutting they mostly stay right there for easy pick up:

Takes longer to load up than it does to cut them. Doing it again it would be both wider and taller. As is it is 14" inside dimension width and height. It also folds up.

Harry K

I made something like this but out of wood. Works great. Pile it in and cut it with a chain saw.

 

[zogger]

Was thinking the same thing about the limbs. Perhaps shoot or convey the output to a tumbler/screen/filter/grill to sort into firewood and rough chips, rather than spend too much time cleaning unwanteds from the input?

I do not have a good answer for that, not a commercial answer anyway. Those limbs look to have been stripped pretty well *somehow* but I have no idea how they did it. I have seen the big harvesters that do that, but not aware of any small scale machines that strip the little bitty twigs off. I don't think that machine would work well with branches and side branches like you would stuff into a chipper.

When I work up smalls it is extremely tedious and labor intensive, all done with a small saw or axe/hatchet. Obviously not commercially viable for big scale.

 

[Philbert]

Zog, if you follow the YouTube link, and look at the related videos, you will see some where they feed in multi-stem branches, just like a brush chipper. E.g.



Philbert

 

[zogger]

Zog, if you follow the YouTube link, and look at the related videos, you will see some where they feed in multi-stem branches, just like a brush chipper. E.g.



Philbert

They must use that output in some sort of biomass heater/boiler with an automatic feed of some kind.

Or something. Would be a lot of grab a handful and stand there and feed the stove doing it by hand.

 

[Philbert]

Here is another design from another thread:

That is my sawbuck. Each post is exactly 20 inches so every piece is cut at the same length every time. A can get 120 pieces/rounds out of 5 cuts.

Philbert

 

[reddogrunner]

I just build a jig out of 2x4's that can be folded and moved to whatever site. Build whatever intervals you want into it, but I like have 2 posts per section to hold the wood better and a V seems to work better to funnel the wood down to keep it from spinning or jumping too much. I also added a section of plywood to one end to butt the limbs up against. I stack them in there, cut 3 times or 4 depending on length and then grab wood without bending over and move to appropriate stack, etc. Works great - but I DON"T HAVE A PIC!!!! I'll get one