Chainsaw and splitter Versus Processor

[wannabe logger]

Hi all, was wondering would a firewood processor be way faster and less work than my rather slow way of doing things? IE, lifting approx 10 or 12 sixteen foot logs about a foot in diameter on the loader's pallet toes. Then cutting them into 10 inch lengths whilst still on the loader and finally splitting them individually on a vertical tractor splitter. Cheers in advance.

[Theocus]

do a few youtube searches for firewood processors and you will find the answer there. Its all to do with how much you want to spend and how much of your business firewood is?

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

The $64000 question! I think that for bigger diameter timber (10-12"+) saw and splitter is ok. For clean cord, processor gotta be quicker. There is billeting and sawing between the two tho. I was going down the billeting route but the amount of handling put me off.

[Rob Stringer]

Quite likely, probably best see one/several in action and/or try them out to see which machine is most practical for your setup. Processors tend to have less power for splitting knots than a splitter and are usually better suited to small (10/12" and under for basic models) cordwood- obviously varies a lot depending on the make and model etc.

[wannabe logger]

Thanks for replies, i appreciate them. I spent 4 hours yesterday using my method and 3/4 filled 2 four tonne grain trailers, approx 10 cubic metres i think, it appears to be about 1/5 of a full artic load. Would that sound right, about 50 cubic metres of rings in an artic. So i reckon i could cut a load into rings in about 20 hours, so at an average wage i should be able to cut a full load for about 200 quid. This doesnt sound too bad albeit i still have to split the rounds, so maybe i'll stick with this method for a while before investing in a processor. Thanks again for the replies.

[s.varty]

If you have a saw bench you could cut the rings 2,3 or even 4ft long into billets and cut them into logs on the sawbench.