Billet bundler - any experiences?

[Tom at Heartwood]

I've been spending a dark evening or two looking at different approaches to bundling firewood billets in 1m lengths (mostly via YouTube). There are plenty of examples of this approach in Germany (der bündler) and France (fagoteuse) but I wonder if people have adopted this system in the UK - I have only heard of one or two.

 

It does appear to be a good way of neatly binding and storing firewood that allows efficient handling by timber crane or forklift as well as promoting quick drying of split lengths.

 

I see that Riko sell one version that is three point linkage mounted and manually tipping however there are many variations available in Europe from low to high tech, stand alone and tractor mounted. Some with hydraulic rams for turning out bundles and even some coupled with log splitters on a single three point linkage mounting.

 

Some that have caught my eye in particular are a light-weight non-tractor mounted model (Metallbau Zillner) and a range from the French company Rabaud (Rabaud - Bundling machine for branches or logs*-*Créateur d'équipements agricoles, BTP, Espaces verts, Traitement de sol - Vendée 85 - France).

 

I would be interested to hear of any experiences of using bundlers - perhaps you have bought one or fabricated your own.

 

Cheers,

 

Tom.

[Chris Sheppard]

Got to use the one Riko sell at the APF last year as we had one on the stand. Seemed a well built thing but I found the whole process a bit of a faff. You'd get the bands on and think they were tight then tip it out and it would end up in a bit of a heap. Sure it get's better with practice but it's not a system I could be bothered persevering with

[Tom at Heartwood]

Got to use the one Riko sell at the APF last year as we had one on the stand. Seemed a well built thing but I found the whole process a bit of a faff. You'd get the bands on and think they were tight then tip it out and it would end up in a bit of a heap. Sure it get's better with practice but it's not a system I could be bothered persevering with

 

Hi Chris. Thanks for that. What sort of tensioning system were you using? Cheers, Tom.

[Chris Sheppard]

It was that plastic strapping that uses some sort of buckle rather than a crimp - I think it can be re-tensioned too. We found that you had to be careful not to over tighten it as it did snap a couple fo times.

 

Could have been operator error or maybe just cheap strapping/clips or both

[timberluver]

the rabaud one is very good, I'm a fan of all things Rabaud, very well made.

As you can see from my avatar, i use a Rabaud F16 Eco splitter and it hasn't refused anything I have put to it.

 

there's two options a manual tip, manual tension or hydraulic tip/tension version.

 

the latter costs more but is a bit handier, but both work well.

I have a few customers who have large gasification boilers that buy wood in 1 metre lengths tied in these bundles and they're easy to handle and store.

 

Caledonian Forestry UK dealer for these

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czTua8heNxg]Fagoteuse Rabaud : FAGOMATIC BU PRO - YouTube[/ame]

 

see video.

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

I like the idea and had tried to have customers take bundles as some had electric sawbenches and wanted to do their own logs and would be more simple for all but never took off as deliveries sites are so different.

 

Works well abroad where log stoves can take long lengths of wood. Can also be used to load a heating boiler once a week.

[farmer_ben]

This winter i am looking at building something similar to a billet bundler but i dont want to tie them up, i want to put say 25 billets into a chamber and cut through them say 3 times creating 100 logs in only 3 cuts of a saw. would cut the handling so so much

[Tom at Heartwood]

This winter i am looking at building something similar to a billet bundler but i dont want to tie them up, i want to put say 25 billets into a chamber and cut through them say 3 times creating 100 logs in only 3 cuts of a saw. would cut the handling so so much

 

There's an interesting approach to doing something like that on this YouTube clip:

[farmer_ben]

There's an interesting approach to doing something like that on this YouTube clip:

 

that sort of thing but my idea wouldnt be nowhere near as well fabricated as that, i dont think that level of engineering is needed. would be more like this

but i'd make the chamber so it could twist by 180 degrees so logs could be tipped out

[tree monkey]

were do you get that attachment for the tip of the bar?