What make of firewood Vertical Splitter do you use?

[richy_B]

Pretty similar set up to me. As i see it, your options are:

 

- Mini digger, chainsaw, horizontal splitter. Mini digger and grab is sifting through pile pulling out logs, rotates round to someone on a saw who rings it up. What you are doing in your picture. The only thing I'd do is have the rings falling into an IBC cage or tipping skip or loader bucket etc. You want to avoid all that bending over to grab rings as that is what will kill your back. As we all know, the more you have to touch the logs the less profitable it becomes. You could also dry the logs as rings then split as you need. In my opinion a pretty good set up and maybe 10-14 cube a day is possible. Downside is that is will still be quite physical and is a 2 man set up.

 

- Mini digger, chainsaw, vertical splitter, processor. Mini digger is grabbing lengths, chainsaw cutting is cutting to maximum length of splitter (1m i expect). Mini digger then loads vertical splitter and with a 4 way blade you reduce it to 4 billets small enough for a processor. The through the processor. What i like about this set up is there is far less physical labour involved and the mini digger is doing all the lifting and loading. Probably best approach a day at a time, ie spend a whole day making metres logs, whole day billeting then run it through the processor as required. Ultimately i am not sure if you'll get a significant jump in production but its a lot less physical effort so you maybe able to work longer.

 

If you mainly have lengths you could get a cone splitter for the mini digger so you can billet and load this processor in one go. Eliminates the need for chainsawing. £3-4k investment.

 

If you mainly have rings something like the tempest/splitfire type splitter could work well.

[richy_B]

Sorry, half asleep. Switch vertical and horizontal over in my earlier post! On a side note where is the edit button go on the App?

[difflock]

Is there no merit in considering a hydraulic drive chainsaw bar, on the end of the dipper arm, alongside the grab, to snick to logs to length, AS one deposits them on/in the horizontal splitter, or cut knotty/branched or bent sections into thin rings for vertical splitting another time.

The digger operator is perfectly placed to sort a mixture of timber types.

And essentially eliminate chainsaw aches and pains.

Since I see a 3-5-8 tonne excavator with a grab as an extension of the operators arm.

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[Logged On]

Thanks Rich...

 

We now have a processor, a Rytec eco800. So everything we get from the sawmills fits through that (we've asked them for nothing bigger than 12inch diameter).

 

But everything else has to be done by hand, hence asking about splitters...

 

We have a vertical single bladed one ATM, which now looks 'inadequate' for what we need now.....

[Fib]

Rabaud. Only got a small one but very effective. Mine is towable and uses its own petrol engine and hydraulics so I don't need a tractor or powerpack. Not the fastest of them all, but fast enough for what I do with it. Ow, and what others already metionned... reliable

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Arbtalk

[richy_B]

Thanks Rich...

 

We now have a processor, a Rytec eco800. So everything we get from the sawmills fits through that (we've asked them for nothing bigger than 12inch diameter).

 

But everything else has to be done by hand, hence asking about splitters...

 

We have a vertical single bladed one ATM, which now looks 'inadequate' for what we need now.....

Splitting rings feels terrible when you have a processor on site. Its disappointingly slow in comparison and i find myself getting annoyed. What I'd like to achieve is a workable one man set up as i often find myself with a few hours solo. The biggest annoyance is having jump in and out of the excavator 20 times an hour. In another thread i saw a 'deck saw' and wondered if something could be made up on a smaller scale with a remote so you could ring up without getting out of the digger. Just a thought at this stage......

 

What does work well for me is having a ibc full of rings on the forklift and my thor magik vertical splitter. As mentioned earlier, no bending over, everything kept at the right height. I have to push the ibc onto its side when half full. I have a rsj table that fits under the splitter so there is a gap of about 30cm for a 25cm (ish!?!). In this respect I prefer vertical splitters as you can get a good rhythm up.