Streamlining

[simonm]

We seem to be producing more and more firewood every year as a by product of tree surgery, i am trying to streamline the firewood side to increase efficiency & reduce man handling.

This year we will have produced around 200 cube of hardwood all processed by hand, the oversize stuff is usually ringed up & broke down via vertical splitter smaller stuff on saw bench then straight into ibc's.

Ideally i would like 1 machine to split over size stuff & cut & split lengths, maybe load with a mini digger & grab

 

Does such a machine exist? i am open to any other way of doing things.

[gdh]

The biggest conventional firewood processors do up to 50cm diameter but they'll be 20k+ usually.

 

If it's all oversized then for 200 cube a year it might be worth stockpiling then hiring in a big vertical splitter for a week. If you can find one with a 12 way splitter you could put them through a billet processor after or just quarter them and put them through a normal processor.

 

If you already have a digger you could look at cone splitters and tree shears then you wouldn't have to leave the cab in theory.

[ash_smith123]

Would mini digger and screw splitter help? Can leave everything in lengths, split it with the screw splitter into billets then through the saw bench.

[simonm]

I dont see the point in the screw type ones, they look messy

[gdh]

I dont see the point in the screw type ones, they look messy

Yeah, they can leave a bit of stringy stuff which is why we got a splitter instead and a splitter is faster. The cone/splitters are cheaper though and better on bent timber.

[Daythe trees]

We do about the same amount and find a rock machinery 22 ton splitter and their circular saw to be ideal. It's not fast but for arb timber it seems to work well for us. I've looked at other options and for arb arisings I can't seem to find anything suitable for everything we get in which would be more efficient and cost effective. The thing which has improved our productivity is ensuring we sned properly and not leave daft pegs and step cuts which are unavoidable to get it on the ground still in place once it's in the yard.

[simonm]

I am trying to avoid the manual handling side of things, by the time it goes from site to leaving the yard split it will of being handled 5 times.

[william petts]

I think with logs you will always handle then multiple times, is really unavoidable, just down to cutting down on processing time more than amount of handling imo

[woody paul]

I think with logs you will always handle then multiple times, is really unavoidable, just down to cutting down on processing time more than amount of handling imo

 

That about sums it up, but I have in the past handled log once when to be split. Because timber was moved off site with forwarding trailer and stacked in yard and then cut with chainsaw and picked up and split.

[Gray git]

Had a customer we dripped timber lengths of off too tell me for every ton of logs he cut himself he manually handled 7ton before it was giving off heat in the stove, he now gest split logs off us.

Like you say presentation of timber before it comes back to yard is a big help like cutting out forks, ringing to correct size or into bits that will neatly cut into 2-3 even bits, if your using a big billet splitter try and cut bits on site that will fit exactly into it when you get back to maximise each ram stroke.

I quite like the idea of the billet system where they dry in a big stack then get cross cut directly into the delivery vehicle.

 

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