Advice building large wood processor

[Chipy]

My father in laws building me a processor so I'm just after any advice any of you have. It will be similar to this http://youtu.be/jit-ZLJetk8. The reason we're building one is because there isn't really an affordable machine that cuts and splits into 5 feet lengths for my biomass boiler. He's already bought an old 3 tonne digger which the user wil sit in to work all parts of the machine. One of the tracks will work a chain conveyor which brings logs towards saw. We're going to use a hydraulic saw. Whole thing will be mounted on a large trailer. Diggers engine and hydraulics will hopefully power everything. I need as much advice as I can get and if anyone's selling any parts which may be of use like saws then let me know!

[Logsnstuff]

whats wrong with just buying a horizontal splitter and a chainsaw if it's just personal use.

[Chipy]

I've burnt 180 tonne in my first year so I'm sick of handling wood and I'm trying to make it all easier by handling it all with a digger and even trying to think of a way of loading the wood without hand balling it in because that really is doing my back in

[codlasher]

Sounds like you have already gone off in the wrong direction........

codlasher

[Mortimer Firewood]

With the time and money it's going to take to build the machine your talking of it will be cheeper to buy a horizontal splitter like a posch if your boiler takes a 5ft lengths would you not be better off using 2.6 ft lengths so you get a more affective burn

[Chipy]

Sounds like you have already gone off in the wrong direction........

codlasher

. Care to elaborate codlasher?

 

I priced the posch 32 tonne machine after having one on hire along with the bundling machine but splitter came out at over 7k and bundler is over 1k. Gone off idea of bundles because there too awkward to handle and load into boiler. They just burst open before you reach the boiler. The splitter was a nice machine but father in law and I believe that we can make a machine for less that does a lot more than just split. If not less then at the most it will cost same price as the posch machine. The reason for the 5 foot lengths was there easier to handle with a machine and easier and safer to stack high up which il do to let it dry. 2.5 feet lengths stacked high won't be very safe. Another factor is that me and the guy chopping the wood aren't the most experienced chainsaw users so a processor is going to make the job safer.

[briquette_seller]

Out of interest, how do you load a 5 foot clog into the boiler?

By hand?

[Logsnstuff]

I would go with a guy crosscutting and load & stack using the digger not convinced you can build as good a machine as the posch never mind better for less money.

[Chipy]

This is how you load 5 foot logs. My boilers bit smaller than one in picture but that's idea I had in mind. Push off buckrakes work well but would still end up hand balling onto the buckrake I think.

I'm currently loading 5 foot logs by hand that ive split with a cone splitter on my digger but that machine was far too slow.

The posch machine is well built and ours certainly won't be built as well but as long as it works and lasts then that's all that matters.

[codlasher]

I'm just not a fan of batch burning or handling lumps of timber. Whatever and however you approach the matter it requires hard work and a plethora of specialised machinery all of which need attention/servicing/fixing.

 

I only burn 14 tons per year and I tie up my 360, two tractors and a trailer.

 

All the lumps can be chipped at the very beginning and fed into a chip boiler. Drying is the only process that requires attention and this is quite simple if you site the boiler in a big enough space and allow for 20Kw to be bled off. A little bit of sheet metal-work, gravity, a radiator, and an extractor fan makes a good drying box. The storage remains the same but only a loader is required for all operations. This also puts the considerable volumes of arb waste at your fingertips too:thumbup1:

 

 

Hence my comment of going off in the wrong direction......

codlasher