Woodmizer Sawdust Burner . . . . .

[Wilmar]

I cant wait to buy a Woodmizer truck

[WH_Conley]

I will have to agree with Furby on this.  Keep the name on the state of the art.

[Brucer]

If you're going to start selling a wood-splitter, it better have some very special features. Otherwise it'll be just another brand-x to most of the public.

I've been splitting around 3 cords a year using a 6-lb splitting maul. I saw no point in buying a hydraulic splitter because it didn't save me any bending and lifting.

Now, make a wood splitter that'll let me maneuver a length of wood onto it without bending over, and then delivers the split pieces to me at waist height, and I'll reconsider ;D.

For the last couple of years I've been burning slabs -- I don't have time to split rounds anymore because I'm so busy sawing. It's easy enough to put a chainsaw through a strapped bundle of slabs to cut them to length, and it's definitely faster. But once again, lots of bending over to pick up the pieces, and now I end up with lots of chainsaw "dust" between the pieces. And man, does my chain take a beating sawing through all that bark :(.

So what about a "slab processor"? Throw a slab onto it, and get a bunch of pieces cut to length (and delivered at waste height).

[Bibbyman]

I built the first fire in our free-standing wood stove yesterday evening.  I kindled it up with news print and kindling.  But when digging for starter I found we had a stack of used Styrofoam plates that were otherwise clean and dry.  The paper lit, it still wasn't progressing so I fed the Styrofoam plates in under the kindling one at a time.  I knew from experience that they burn about like petroleum.

Last night I was wondering about the BioGrinder.  I wondered if it would grind up things like telephone books, old catalogs, magazines, paper back books, and rolled up news papers.  I even got to wondering if it would grind up stiffer plastics like bottles or even PVC pipe.  And if so,  how would the mix of this material work in the BioMizer?

[Bibbyman]

I called Mary over for a look see.  She says, "A splitter :-\ ?",   "Now, A slab shear we could use."

I'd think with about the same major components and amount of material you could design a slab shear and have a new market.  One most mill owners could use.

[pineywoods]

Hey Pro sawyer Mary makes a lot of sense. You guys should be able to build a slab shear in OH, say about 2 weeks : Make it stout enough to handle 5 inch branches and I could sure use one.

[Bro. Noble]

My Dad is in his mid eighties and keeps his fireplace going as soon as it cools off in the fall and stokes it till spring.  He has always cut and split his own wood until last year.  I hauled him some scraps from the mill and told him we would haul him all he wanted to just let us know when he was getting low.  The next week he said he thought he's get a wood splitter.  I told him I'd bring him some more stuff from the mill.  He said there were some down trees that he wanted to work up.  I told him my son Tom and I could chunk them up and burn them in our furnaces without splitting them.  Next week he said there was a sale coming up that had a wood splitter and he was going to it.  I told him if he didn't like the stuff from the mill that Tom and I could bring him wood from the tops that were whatever size he wanted when we got our wood.  He said no,  I'm going to get a wood splitter-----FIREWOOD SHOULD BE SPLIT!!!  He bought the wood splitter ;D

[Bioman]

I wondered what kind of responses we would get on the splitter.   ???

FYI, the splitter was designed a couple of years ago with the intent of offering our branches and ASC's additional equipment to broaden their product offering.  The extra sales would also mean filling the gaps in production which ultimately reduces costs on everything.  The branch guys want it, but we made the choice not to sell based on the lack of margin in a 'me-too' product like a splitter.   

Just wondered what kind of reaction I'd get....you guys didn't disappoint.   :D

[Bioman]

I also mentioned a turret style splitter.  Have you guys seen one of these?  This is what I was referring too when I said we lose the vertical option.

[Bioman]

The picture is a bit small :(.  The unit has a turret on the back end that rotates.  There are a double, triple and quad splitters on the turret.  It takes only a couple of seconds to rotate the unit for different wedges.

[Bioman]

Back to the thread - We've been busy wrapping up the burner for release.  Just changed the auger to a 2 1/2 (from 2) to make coarse fuels feed more consistantly - much better now

We have also been optimizing the combustion chamber to burn wetter wood.  I just checked the sample we were burning yesterday and it checked in at 95%  .  We could almost burn it, but not quite.  We've been getting rain for days here in KY and the logs were obviously fresh and wet.  We had a hard time picking up the sawdust bag it was so heavy.

Here's the question of the day then, how wet is wet?  It looks like we're approaching the ability to burn wet fuels in the 60-70% range.   If we can't burn the dust from logs that are above average in MC, where does that leave us?  Does an ability to burn 60% MC matter if there may be 75% or greater fuel coming at the burner?

We're still working solutions for a dry-on-the-fly concept too.  This would be the optimum for versitility, but there is cost involved.

I'm waiting for the latest set of ceramics to harden up for another test to burn the wet stuff.  I'll have answers on that tomorrow.

[ElectricAl]

95% is real wet for dust that has not been rained on. 

Burning 40-60% stuff is nice but it requires support equipment and labor.
Dry on the Fly only requires a one time fee at the time of purchase.

[stonebroke]

So you were just teasing us with the wood splitter?

Stonebroke

[Bioman]

Not necessarily.  The design is already done and it works well.  The guy testing it wouldn't be happy if I took it away from him.

I have the parts to make more and I'm considering a small release to determine real manufacturing costs.  I'd like to have a project like this to fill the gaps in manufacturing time.  I wouldn't have to apply full cost to a product like this if it can be built without adding manpower or overhead. 

The splitter and kiln parts are both products we could make and sell out of the Bio-Mizer group.

[farmerdoug]

Bioman,

Why don't you post a copy of the lotto letter here for everyone.  I have seen it on your Forum. 8)

Farmerdoug

[Bioman]

I'll have them do that tomorrow.

[Bioman]

I'm headed down to the shop to check out the new ceramics.  Hopefully we'll be burning 'wet' wood in the small burner today....

[Bioman]

Well, it looks like we may have figured it out.   8).  I won't claim that definitively until we've had a few more days test time.

I did a quick oven dry sample of the dust and it showed 70% moisture.  I was able to burn it well.  I didn't get a chance to start from cold on the wet dust, but it sure did well after the ceramics were warmed up. 

I may even have to tone down the changes we just made because it is too aggressive now....I'll let you try to figure out what that means.   :D

[Jeff]

Have you created a little sawdust fission machine that now needs cooling ponds? ;)

[LT40HDD51]

I think I have an idea  ;D.

Did you catch my post in the crash archive about using a diesel edger as a powerplant for a grinder? Looks like about a 7hp diesel you had there? Seems like our edger isnt working very hard, even sawing squirrely 2" spruce or fir...

[Kevin_H.]

Bio man, just my thought on your splitter,

I dont believe that wood mizer selling a good quality wood splitter, even if it doesnt do anything special, would cheap'n the name. buying a splitter from someone I already know and trust would be a bonus. with the parts and tech support that comes from wm it would be an easy choice.

If it helps the branch guys out then all the better.

[treecyclers]

Man, do I feel like I am WAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY behind the power curve on this one, but after about 3 hours of review, I figger that I got this Bio-Mizer thing fairly straight in my head, and as soon as the industrial version has the electricity generation attachment ready to go, I'll buy at least one, if not three.
I'm working on a partnership with a few municipalities in SOCAL that need a machine of this type, that can directly convert chips to power and heat, which ultimately powers the operation's electricity needs and heat for facilities and kilns.
Bioman, it appears that we're all in a similar position on this - we have something of an obligation to society to bring this to the world, and I believe that, because of our passion for what we do, success is just a matter of time.
Ideally, I need a unit that can take average sized chips produced from an average chipper used by tree companies, and do it's thing.
Using the heat to generate electricity as well as the heat source for dry kilns is as close to perfection as it gets.
Better than sliced bread!
Superdave

[Bioman]

Update on the wet stuff - they did a cold start this morning with 50+% MC fuel.  Burning higher MC is not a problem after the unit is heated up.  We'll keep experimenting to figure out where the threshold is.

[Bioman]

Superdave,

Welcome to the thread.   I agree we all have a responsiblity to use our resources wisely, and we're all hoping the Bio-Mizer technology is a step in the right direction toward achieving that goal.

As far as the cogen piece goes, we look at it like it's the Holy Grail of energy production.  Many have tried and failed to convert heat to mechanical energy at an economically viable micro level (ourselves included with the Stirling engine project we spent years working on).  We have yet to prove it, but I have confidence that we will find the right combination of technology to make it happen.

On that note, I can't remember if I updated this group but we have shifted our primary engineer over to the cogen project as of this week.  We want to have a working proof of concept machine by the end of the year......we'll see.

[Bioman]

Gotta hit the road again.  Getting away from meetings and back to the playground  8).  I'll be checking in from KY tomorrow.