Chipy

Have a rough price?

I'm considering putting an Anaerobic Digester in and I need ways of using the heat up. I currently use envirobed (waste paper) to bed my cows with which has been kiln dried. I also have a 200kw log boiler which already heats houses etc so not much spare heat with that. I can buy the envirobed not kiln dried for a quarter of the price and get paid to dry it. I can also dry my logs for my biomass boiler. My question is is there such a drier that will dry logs and envirobed which is like sawdust?

Someone's suggested a sequence valve like this one Hydraulic sequence valves, 1/2" | Relief & Sequence Valves | Hydraulic Valves Would this help with trying to run saw motor and saw ram on same valve?

Hired a cone splitter for a day before we decided to build this machine and I wasn't a fan. It was very fiddly trying to split a log into 4 pieces. Would have been worse to put them into 6 pieces which is my plan with my machine eventually. I felt we were handling the wood too much when we chain sawing them all then splitting them then lifting them into the bundler. Was extremely fiddly trying to put them in bundler with cone splitter

Simply because no one makes one that does what mine does which is cut a 10 foot length into a 5 foot length and then split it and bundle it. The reason I want them so long is my boiler has 6 foot chamber in it so the bigger my bundle is the less I need to load it. Im fairly sure no one in the world even makes one. Yes you get bundlers for 3 foot lengths but not 5 feet. Yes you get processors that do what mine does but largest stuff they split is around 55cm and yes you get just splitters that do meter lengths but that's all they do. Also this machine has made the whole process a 1 man job although it's faster with 2 because 1 of us can constantly load the bundler but were sometimes too busy for 2 of us to do it.

Cumbria, close to Kendal

If an electric ram is the answer then can someone show me an example of what I'd need

I doubt many farmers have heard of PUWER lol

Also when the saw is fully up, I can't push it with my hand but when the saw is half way down I can push it 6 inch up or down which makes me think there's air in the line but we have bled it various times and can't stop the ram from having this movement in it. I'm presuming the ram shouldn't be able to be pushed by hand what ever position it's in but maybe I'm wrong?

Finally I have an update for you all. Fitted a motor spool for the saw so it comes to a gradual stop now instead of stopping dead which I was told would do damage in the long run. We also gave the saw motor its own spool valve and the saw ram its own spool. Saw seems to have bit more power now BUT the saw ram is far too sensitive on the lever that controls it. You only have to push it a bit to move it up or down and on our first attempt we snapped the end of the ram off because it flew back up to its park position so we have since learnt from that. This machine needs to be idiot proof because various people use it and someone's bound to do damage unless I can slow the ram down. We tried a needle control valve but ram was still too fast so I'm out of ideas! Someone suggested an electric ram? Could slow it down and wouldn't have too much power that would bend the bar if pushed too hard?

Yes it is a double acting ram but I've used all 6 of my spool valves. I'm going to turn it into a double acting ram and just try it and see if it's the solution. If it is il have to think of a way of extending my block of spools

Now I'm really confused! Guy at Caledonian forestry has told me a solution which no one else has said so far. He said I should have saw piped up like a harvester head is, which is to have the saw ram T'eed into the return pipe not the flow pipe like I have. Straight after the T there should be a needle control valuable which will control the speed at which the ram drops. Would this work?

That sounds interesting. Anyone know if this valve can be bought off the shelf anywhere?

Thanks for all the advice I'm gong to spend next week trying to sort it!