My firewood processor build

[muddstopper]

If I had to haul two or more pieces of equipment to a site, I dont know if I could justify any price. Folks seem to think the only thing they should pay for is the actual time spent processing. They dont care if its 10miles or 1000 for you to get there. Been there with my hydroseeding business. You had to go to load materials, find a water source, and load the machine before doing any work, and when you where done, you still had to clean the machine out. My 1000 gal machine would empty a load in 12 minutes and that 12 minutes was all they thought they should pay for. I suspect it will be the same if your processing firewood for someone too. On the subject of towing a conveyor, My plans call for a scorpion type conveyor setup. This type of setup, the conveyor folds up like a scorpions tail. It stays connected to the processor and you just unfold it for processing and fold it back up when your ready to haul. Shouldnt take more than a few minutes to set up on site. Lots of things one can do to make the process easier, and all of them take money to do. I plan on getting the processor working and worrying about the conveyor later. Three more weeks of therapy with orders today to stay the heck off my leg.

 

[sam-tip]

I don't think this is legal but the guy I hired pulled the processor and then behind processor was the conveyor. He was about 70 ft long. I thought you could have a 5th wheel then a bumper pull. But not two bumper pull. But then these are not trailers they are mobile equipment. No license plates for mobile equipment here in farming country.

 

[muddstopper]

I dont know either Doug, but I have seen many gooseneck trailers with a trailer ball on the rear. Must be somehow legal

 

[dancan]

Don't get caught with that "B"train up here lol

 

[muddstopper]

Well things are starting to look up. Been trying to buy the power plant for this beast for about a year. Today was the day, caught the guy needing a little cash. Engine is a international 7.3 non turbo motor. Got the whole truck for $1000. Engine is a almost new rebuilt, not sure actual milage, but less than 20,000 miles. I will be using the engine, air compressor, fuel tank and air tanks off the truck. All I got to do is figure out how I.m going to attach the hyd pumps to the thing.

On another note, doc has cleared me to go back to work so there goes my free time to work on this thing. Probably go back jan 2nd. Havent been cleared by the railroad docs yet, they might not let me go back, which is fine with me. Either way, July 27th and I will retire for certain anyways. I might get this beast built before next season.

On other hold up might be if my house sells. We put it on the market today. Wife wants to built back on her old homeplace. I hope to goodness this is the last time I have to move. I am in my 6th house in 40 years. The place we are living in now was my dads place. I bought my brother and sister out after dad passed. Been here since 1999. Moving will mean giving up my shop and sheds, but I plan on building workspace before the house is built. Biggest problem will be storing my tools and shop equipment until the new shop is built. without tools, wont be much fabricating going on. Might just rent a building temporary, havnt thought that far ahead.

 

[muddstopper]

Just bringing my old build thread back to the top. After a year and a half of surgeries and Physical therapy, and then a summer of fishing every chance I got. I finally cleaned out the shop and started cutting out the metal to box my hbeam. No pics, yet. Got to do a little grinding and fitting of the plate, but it sure felt good to get back in the shop. Picked up my power supply a couple weeks ago, I bought it last dec and just got around to getting it home. RR wont let me go back to work and the Retirement board wont rule on my disability so funds are limited. I have enough stuff to work with to keep me busy for a while, unless the fish go back to biteing, then all bets are off.

 

[muddstopper]

Picked up the metal plate to mount my wedge to the beam with today. 28x48x3/4. $136. This will allow me to mount the box wedge on the end of the hbeam. the wedge will need more heavy bracing once mounted, but I have a bunch of odd pieces of heavy metal to do that with so metal buying is over with for a while. Sure I will need a bunch more once I start mounting the conveyors and the engine. One piece at a time. Had to buy a grinding cup for hand grinder to clean up the metal I cut over the week end. Rain has stopped for now so maybe I can get back to it today. I have the welding table rolled up to the shop door but the hard rain has kept me from opening it. I hate grinding inside a closed building. Much better to grind with door open blowing dust outside instead of letting it drift onto everything in the shop. Maybe a few new pics tomorrow.

 

[muddstopper]

well, I promised a few new pics. It doesnt look like a lot of work has been done, but there was a lot of cutting, grinding and welding to get to this point.
One side of Hbeam,

Cyl base mount all gusseted up,,, tomorrow will weld up the other side and start mounting the box wedge.. Have to borrow the bro's tractor to lift the wedge, I cant even lift the base for the wedge by myself. Things are starting to get very heavy, very fast.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Hope you don't need to move it far, gonna need a semi truck!

 

[muddstopper]

There is a lot of weight in the beam and wedge. Engine and hyd will add even more. The killer will be the knuckleboom. I could add it all up, but I'm scared to. I am sure my trailer will hold it, but not sure my truck will pull it. It will get weighed once completed, I am guessing around 3 tons or so.

 

[dave_dj1]

This is gonna be bad azz! Glad you're up and about and feeling better. Don't over do it. Have fun...fish on!

 

[muddstopper]

Went fishin yesterday evening. Just drove down to the lake back waters to see how far down we could drive. Took in a fishing pole and threw a few lures, but hydroplant up stream was generating and water flowing to fast to do any good.

I did a little math last night concerning the weight. Splitter beam with wedge and cyl mounts should weigh in just under 1000lbs. Of course I still have to add the conveyors and some bracing for the wedge. Splitting cyl are 150lb each 7 or 8 hundred lbs for the hyd oil, a bunch of hoses and valves, other cyl's, and then there is that 7.3 diesel engine, I dont have a clue how much it weighs. I havent even tried to put a weight guesstament to the knuckle boom, just say heavy. The trick will be balancing the weight evenly on the trailer. The trailer has a wooden floor I might remove to cut down on weight. I have had a 9000lb tractor on the trailer. I built the trailer several years ago and double framed it then, so it will hold the weight, but I might have to swap axles.

Taking a break today, got business to take care of. I might get back to it sometime this evening. Weather is warming back up so I might work a little after dark.

 

[661Joe]

I know a 7.3 powerstroke weighs 1100# dry.. hope that helps. Love the build

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

7.3L is around 1100-1200lbs dressed out (full of oil, accessories, etc)

 

[muddstopper]

Well I knew the engine was heavy, just didnt know how heavy. That probably doesnt include the radiator. I did a little work this evening and got the other side of the beam bracing spot welded. It will take about a hour to fully weld it up tomorrow. It takes about 5lbs of rods to fully weld one side. Then time to add the heavy stuff (wedge) to the beam. Probably put a coat of paint on to prevent rust while I work on the conveyors.

 

[muddstopper]

another pic. I finally got the wedge mounted on the beam. It will be braced some more as I build the saw and clamp frame. Its getting very hard to move around. I think y next step is to go ahead and set it on the trailer so I can ove it in and out of the shop. Spray bombing as I go to help keep down some of the rust. Cat yellow

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

When I was building mine I worried about it crushing a stand or me! I decided to cut some logs at the working height I wanted it at and made a nice stable place to work off of. I had the luxury of not having to move it till it had the wheels on though. Made it nice to roll over to make welding easy. Mine ended up around 4000 lbs when done. Looking good and glad to see you are back on it. I assume your health is going better? I just found out I have another complete tendon tear in my shoulder. Getting old(er) is such fun.

 

[muddstopper]

Take care of that shoulder, Mine has been hurting with all the heavy lifting. Getting old aint for wussies thats for sure.

Up to now, I have been working off the steel sawbucks and my welding table. My concern now is the beam could turn over just working off the sawbucks. I would set it on the floor, but I cant get down there and do any work. I am going to go ahead and set it on the trailer while I work on building the knuckle boom. I met a guy at the lws yesterday that has a cnc plasma cutter. I am going to throw a little work his way cutting out my grapple for the knuckle boom. I could cut the plate, but the cnc cutter should make every thing more even without all that grinding. I think the grinding is whats making my shoulder hurt.

I am going to go ahead and order the cyl to lift the wedge. I thought I had a couple of cyl already until I measured the stroke and it turns out they only had a 6 3/8" stroke. It can raise 8" of total lift. This will allow me to split up to 8in wood in halfs, under the circle, Lower and split 4 ways, using the bottom of the circle, or push 12in dia rounds thru the circle for a 4 way split. By raiseing and lowering the wedge to match dia of the wood, I should be able to keep resplits to a minimum. Once the wood dia gets over 24", thats when the respliting will start. I also expect a lot of shavings and splinters. Is what it is.

 

[muddstopper]

Loaded the splitting beam on the trailer, along with the conveyor. Got to do a bunch of work to conveyor. It was electric and going to convert to hyd. A little torch work to the side chutes. Got to figure out gearing, I plan on removing the gear box. I do have a question. Should the conveyor be set up to pull the log toward the saw or push the log, in other words, which end does the motor need to be mounted. I'll also probably end up making the conveyor a little shorter. Conveyor is 14ft long, trailer is 18ft. I am wanting to mount the knuckle boom on the tongue end of trailer and hav'nt measured yet, KB isnt built yet, but it looks like the conveyor will hit the knuckle boom.

 

[Yarz]

Is your conveyor chain or belt? If so, then my first instinct is to say it should pull the log, that way any slack in your conveyor is pulled tight. Pushing may cause whatever little slack there is to "bunch".