Setting up a small time firewood business

[Donnie]

Here's a photo of the yard I might be getting to rent. I'm not going to be at this five days a week as I'm a forestry cutter Monday to Friday. 
 

I'm looking for a petrol log splitter that's towable and I'm steering towards Rock Machinery Venom splitters.

I've a lot of access to Sitka, some larch and pine. (For free obviously through forest wasteage)

 

I'll be buying IBC cages and using them to store my logs.
 

How much is the going rate of an ibc cage of softwood logs?

[Dan Maynard]

Going to depend on area, competition etc but I'd say 2 years ago, about £80 if you could find someone to buy them. Last year anything up to £150, next year, well anyone's guess. Somewhere in between I think.

 

Some of the competition is internet sellers sending pallets so you can Google a certain amount to find a market rate. Some of the posh websites round here are really expensive.

[Donnie]

Aye. I've had a google but I'd say most things on there are just for the lazy people who can't phone around. 80-150 for softwood? I'd of thought 150 for a trailer load 😂

 

it might be a bit different where I am from 

[Puffingbilly413]

34 minutes ago, JDon said:

Aye. I've had a google but I'd say most things on there are just for the lazy people who can't phone around. 80-150 for softwood? I'd of thought 150 for a trailer load 😂

 

it might be a bit different where I am from 

A lad near me sells tonne bags of larch for I think £80 a bag. Used to be less but he went up this year I seem to remember.

 

He sells it as a sideline - perhaps a couple of hundred bags. Always runs out by about Christmas.

[scbk]

Can you not work weekends doing the felling?

 

Probably make more money at that than firewood 🤐

[Donnie]

21 minutes ago, scbk said:

Can you not work weekends doing the felling?

 

Probably make more money at that than firewood 🤐

Yeah I'd like to but cutting is a hell of a lot harder on the body than firewood...

[Donnie]

1 hour ago, Puffingbilly413 said:

A lad near me sells tonne bags of larch for I think £80 a bag. Used to be less but he went up this year I seem to remember.

 

He sells it as a sideline - perhaps a couple of hundred bags. Always runs out by about Christmas.

Aye like I'm not looking to make this my absolute full time job as soon as possible. More so a side hustle alongside cutting so I'd more than likely be the same, I'm guessing larch will sell the best for softwoods. I can buy 3 metre lengths of hardwood/softwood etc from the company I work for. 
 

 

[Donnie]

These are the two splitters I was looking at. 

[Dan Maynard]

I looked at their dual action one, not convinced that it's really twice as fast as you have a much longer stroke too. My little splitter has quick auto return and that means you're sorting the next log while it's going up.

 

I like the table type vertical splitter as the round sits on the table while you split pieces off, and I think means less bending over. That said, best idea so far is pay one of my children to run it.

[Vedhoggar]

Going rate for softwood logs in your area probably about £110/m3 loose local delivery or £70/m3 for 2-3m3 loose trailer loads. If you were to sell trailer loads of unseasoned firewood straight from the wood then you wouldn't need to rent a yard. Most customers don't know the different between larch, pine and spruce unless you tell them and so simpler to sell it all at the same price. Of the machines you area considering neither the Rock Machinery 12T Venom or the 20T dual split are road tow machines, they are designed for moving around the yard so you would have to transport them to site in a trailer but the 20T machine might be a bit heavy to manhandle onto a trailer (the 12T you would get into some vans). The more expensive 22T Venom is a road tow machine with a recommended max speed of 45mph, so fine on the back roads but on a main road expect traffic to build up behind you. The rock Venom log splitters are all a bit on the slow side and single split machines, of the three machines the dual split will be a few seconds faster. The 22T Venom splits both horizontal and vertically so an advantage when it comes to logs that are too heavy to lift. Most customers I find want seasoned hardwood or wood that will season from about April/May to October although some prefer a mix of hardwood/softwood, 1/3 softwood 2/3 hardwood works well as does a 50/50 mix.