Graham w

Push Pull for a Hydraulic Cylinder heres an easy way to work out tonnages

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT7ue0twkoo]HOMEMADE HIGH OUTPUT LOG SPLITTER - YouTube[/ame] why not have two rsjs and two rams. gridded plate or series of cutting knifes need high tonnages to work, 30 tons is good for pine but more tonnage for hardwood especially if they are seasoned

you dont need to dig a pit. set it on stands above the ground and build a walk way, know a lad who works one this way so the cut wood can roll off the bench to a resaw. Dose it come with a hydraulic log haul?

good price at 2500 but a large mill to set up, the bottom wheel sits below the ground. a serious piece of kit built to last forever

sounds about right

propane bottle forge, just blow in the top with the air line

what you will need is a diesel engine to drive hydraulic pumps with a large displacement and high psi/bar. the higher your system pressure, the faster and or stronger your hydraulic rams will operate. to split 24 inch hardwood blocks in one you will need around 80 tons, to get 80 tons of force at 3000 psi you will need a ram at 8.5 inch bore which will have a slow cycle time. with 5000 psi or 350 bar your split is faster as you wont need as large a ram. for a basic layout i think 100hp engine (or an excavator) with horizontal rams pushing logs through a series of hardox knifes companies dont manufacture large firewood equipment because of the huge costs involved.

here is our home made job, built for 52 cm x 82 cm nets retail around £6 -£7, wholesale £4.50. works well

how much is your budget? this is a good truck

yes mate you will do well with firewood. look up the thread 'starting small'. .

dont quote me but 3.4m3 for 1000 nets

loaded. shoud have seen the wet pine load

just finished building this prototype. running off a jcb it takes two folks to use, one working the digger(revs and hydraulics) and another loading. it weighs one and a half tons and pushes three rounds through at a time up to 24inch in diameter. it needed lots of adjustments to stop jamming and now its working. produced 40m3 in a morning without any problems and a cube in 3-4mins build cost was under £200 +time. it wont split a knotted 24inch round but will eat 14inch no matter how ugly. starting to build a monster with a 250hp cummins and 85-100 tons of splitting force, to take six or seven 30inch rounds at once. already sourced the engine, rams, pump, hydraulic saw, spool bank, steel beams, cutting edge,oil cooler and elevator for under a grand. cannot wait to see the tonnage processed in a day. get a lad to build one for pennies. 10k will get you an awesome machine

a cube can be cut, split sold in under an hour so lets go with £65 per cube (you can get up to £85+ depending on market) tenner to him = £55 tenner to your car= £45 tenner to your saw, chain wear, petrol and redbull= £35 fiver on packaging if necessary= £30 that leaves you with £30 for that hour. say you worked a 6hour day that will give you £180 profit. your boss could pay you to do this and you may get £60 for your 6 hour day and he could go home with £120 for watching my opinion sell a few loads. at the end you will either be skint or mint, probably more mint than skint

firewood is strong with electric and oil being so high. pretty much what every one above said keep your machinery costs down, try sourcing cheap timber and a 106 wont be as heavy on the juice. i have never advertised sales come from word of mouth and good service over time try small scale first and if things work out upwards you go. running four trucks that do 22mpg diesel becomes expensive. wood is running low in my area you could get it for £15m3 then it went to £30m3 today is at £55-65m3. hope to enter firewood season with 400-500ton hardwood and already have infinite access to softwood. you are half way there. hope it goes well

inverness

last year was getting £4.50 for 82x52cm at the petrol station, you could prob get 2.75 40x 50 bags from one 82x52 thats 14-16kg so almost works out the same. would you be looking for more than 600+ to collect from inverness (only 15mins) 40x50cm for £1.60 schedule is busy i may be able to fit an order in but wont know for two months. i cannot guarantee all wood is crispy 16%.

hi john the mill pictured is not running yet. i hold the log in place by hand, theres room between the gaurds. will post some photos the mill will be highly modified so it works like a frick sawmill with no need to hold the log search frick sawmill on youtube how can a mill be run with low hp? looking at my mills and others alike you need at least 100hp or a frick needs up to 238hp. i have seen a frick mill powerd by 160hp and thats under powered

we call them yankee mills, i already have one thats been in regular use for about 15 years now, it has a 42inch insert tooth blade driven by flat belt. the bench is 8 meters long and is mounted on a steel chassis measuring 11meters. the bench must weigh 6+ tons as a jcb cant quite pick one end up we mounted a 6 cly130 hp perkins engine with a special fuel punp governor to keep engine speed constant under load. when cutting 40cm+ dry larch you can hear the engine working. i have recently purchased another mill (pictured) thats 18.3 meters long with a selection of blades 42" to 66" and no engine. i will be looking for no smaller than 6cly 140hp+ a fellow down the road had one with a 48" blade and a 4 cly turbo lorry engine. he needed to run it flatout using loads of diesel/ same as a 7.5 tonner doing 500 miles our perkins is a large engine working on over the tick over but on the torque, this means fuel economy. i spent all day friday and saturday afternoon cutting this used 4-5 gallons run the mill with 4 v belts as flat belts are hassle you may need more than 20hp to cut premium logs

what was his wholesale price, could supply you if the margins were good

once did a 7.30 am till 12.30 at night on a sunday and then drove 60 miles home for 1.30am. thats a 17-18 hour day. the aim was to build three double garages in 1 week/ personal best. firewood split and deliver was 9 2.7m3 loads from 7am till 10.30pm. today the weather is poor and did a 11.30 am till 7. being self employed has its up and downs

websites in the making, hope photos turn out ok. i mill all the wood so anything is possible. our basic 8x12 wooden shed can exceed the legal load on our iveco trucks lol

what would a rack mill cost these days?

i do the best buildings around for the cost of the crap. problem is i am based in scotland and your a bit far off. mind you travel expenses is only a few hundred

have been on a few kit houses where the paslode is king full stop. all joiners i know have them, i have a hitachi 90gc1 i find its slow and under powered and one of the batterys melted into the charger, its never used. i have three senco 501cl nail guns. these have double capacity mags and can take 40g and 80g gas. puts 90mm nails in all day always beating hitachi. senco guns cost around 480 but i bought my first three years now for £25 as new at auction. second was £150 ex display and last one was £50 returned by customer??? all guns came with two batterys and in immaculate condition (paint still on the tip) look out for guns going cheap i dont need the last one but who could say no?