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Firewood Processor

Started by Magicman, August 07, 2011, 05:22:24 PM

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Magicman

Maybe this is already on here, but I just found it and found it interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdXzaGFkWfU
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badpenny

They do work very well. Weight is almost a ton, and new price is about  $48,000, would be very nice for a firewood business. They are made in Two Harbors, Mn, about 3 hours from me. We do need a drooling smilie
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Al_Smith

Something like that or those 80 thousand dollar processers would probabley be okay in certain areas .Like the UP of Michagan where they cut pecker pole wood in pulpwood lengths and sell it like 20 cords at a time .

It wouldn't work well around here .Besides that you'd have to be big time into firewood to justify the price .

I saw a big one at the Paul Bunyan show in southern Ohio the guy claimed could do 6 cords per hour .Then again he was trying to sell it too so how accurate that is would be anyones guess .

WH_Conley

WOW.

I agree with Al. The kind of pulp we get around here is top logs. A load of pulp resembles a load of snakes. Firewood  business here is full of beer money guys. At $21.00 a ton for pulp and $150.00 a cord for firewood delivered, I don't see how a person could ever pay for any kind of processor.
Bill

Al_Smith

Last fall 5 of us did 6 cords in about 4 hours with 4 splitting one cutting down out of a pile of oak ,two splitters .Last week my buddy the tree trimmer had two of his younger men on one splitter  and in 6 hours they got 6 cords of oak .It goes for 150 a cord here too .

So he's got 900 worth of wood and about 150 in the labor .He already got paid to get the tree down and haul it off the job site .

There isn't a lot of money in but say 40 to 60 cords sold during the winter months when there is no tree work keeps beans on the table and the wolf from the door .

clww

I sell all oak cords of firewood during the cold months for $200 (last three years it was $180). A really neat way to make a lot of firewood really fast, but at $48,000, I'd have to be selling it year round to hope to clear a profit several years down the road. With a good chainsaw and my log splitter, I have less than $2,200 invested.
I wouldn't turn one down if I saw it advertised on craigslist for half-price, though! ;)
A really cool one is on the same site, title is "Worlds Fastest Logsplitter".
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zopi

Those bloody things are awfully hard on a loader...for that money, buy a stand alone processor and use the loader to load the log deck...
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lumberjake

I have a cord king processor i paid around 40,000 for. I looked at the one pictured here but thought it would be a lot of running with the skid loader from the log pile to our storage building or slab. And also you would have a lot of sawdust mixed into your splitwood pile. We sell our cords for 150 but with our processor can put out 3 - 4 per hour. It's not a machine you buy to split 100 cords a year unless you're loaded. You need to keep it running to turn a profit. We buy all our own timber so log costs are not as high as buying logs from other loggers. I think it would be really hard turning profits at 150 a cord and paying 550-600 for triaxle loads you only get 6-7 cords out of. And i guess it all depends on your business, if you're only selling 200 cords a year, it probably wouldnt justify spending the money.  but there's also alot of machines out there to make your firewood business alot easier for less than the price of a pickup truck. Id rather drive my old truck and spend the money on my business and save my back. Thats just my opinion.

Al_Smith

Probabley 95 percent of the people that sell firewood do so as a sideline ,not their total source of income .As such if they sell 40 cords per year that can be done with one or two people ,a couple of chainsaws and a beat up pick up truck .

I'd like to know just how many of those processers they sell in a year time .My bet is not too many .

sparky1

I would like to get myself a set of plans for something similar, and build my own!! The problem around here, however is that alot of times were cutting trees close to 3 foot wide, sometimes wider.. this would only work if you basically had perfect condtions and im guessin 20 in wide logs??
Shaun J

Al_Smith

 The only ones I've ever seen were set up at forestry shows .They would load the log deck up with nice fairly straight logs and have at it .

Now the problem is or at least in this part of the country just how many nice straight logs do you come across you'd cut for firewood .Not too many .

What you do end up with is gnarly old oak branchs or maple limbs that wouldn't do real well on a chain operated log deck . The only thing I could conclude from the whole thing is that a processer has very limited usage .They must be usefull but the question remains ,under what conditions ? ???

Busy Beaver Lumber

Al_Smith

I have to agree with you about the limited usefullness of firewood processors. 95% of the wood I buy is either sawmill cutoffs or cut from the tops and branches of trees and are anything but straight. Would like to see someone come up with a firewood processor that could handle knarly, twisted logs since these are the ones most likely to end up in the firewood pile.

All the demonstrations I see, show them feeding nice straight, round logs into the firewood processor and I would rathe cut them into boards then see them wind up as firewood.
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Al_Smith

I'm with you on that .I'd much prefer to see nice straight hardwoods end up as flooring ,trim or fine furniture as smoke going out of a flue pipe .You end up with enough culls and cut offs to supply the later .

AvT

The wood I been putting through my pocessor could maybe have been chipped for osb but I got the stuff for nothing but I had ot pay to haul it home.  I don't know if there is a market for it but it has been curing for a year now an I made my first sale for a pickup load for a case of beer today
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AvT

I will make an effort to find a crooked piece of wood to put though my processoor to show you guys.  I drive past many decks of wood that are now rotting that would have gone through my processor just fine.  There is a bit of a problem of developing a market for this wood as firewood as the btu value is about half of oak.  My advantage is there is no oak around here.
Wannabe sawyer, Cord King M1820 firewood processor Palax KS35 Ergo firewood Processor, 5403 John Deere, Bunch of other farm equipment,   LT70 Remote Woodmizer.  All good things but the best things in life are free.. If you don't believe me.. hold your breath for 2 minutes

Al_Smith

Well you just have to burn twice as much of it .

Coincidently I split up 3 cords of basswood recently for my wifes cousin .It was destined for the land fill so I snatched it from a trimmer .Junk wood is better than no wood .However even as soft as that stuff is you'd have thought it would split easy .Wrong,that stuff was stringy and held together .It took me longer than had it been oak .

Al_Smith

They grow that pulp sized stuff in the southern part of Ohio .Now something like that would be good stock to feed a processer .As it is the slopes are so steep you can't do much with them but grow trees as a cash crop .They farm the tops and valleys and it's pulp in between .

I don't even know what species the pulp is .Might be poplar for all I know .If so it's pretty poor firewood .

CRThomas

Quote from: sparky1 on August 20, 2011, 10:14:39 PM
I would like to get myself a set of plans for something similar, and build my own!! The problem around here, however is that alot of times were cutting trees close to 3 foot wide, sometimes wider.. this would only work if you basically had perfect condtions and im guessin 20 in wide logs??
That is my problem with a processor my logs make my MF 1529 get light in rear end one to handle those type logs is out of site. Some of them I have to go get my fork lift and it P/U 3000 lb. Later

spencerhenry

the processor that goes on a skidsteer was $25,000 when i called them. but i agree with a previous post, you take an expensive attachment and put it on a more expensive machine and put hours on both. buy a stand alone processor and use the skidsteer for moving wood.
i have a processor, a dyna products one. it is relatively small, but at about $20,000 worth every penny. i split about 150 to 200 cords per year with it. it just means that i dont have to wear out  my saws, and my back. i load the processor with a log loader and move the processor every 6 or 8 cords to make another pile. i get a lot more for wood here than you  guys do, and there are plenty of "round" logs for firewood. knotty, twisted grain, bark inclusions, hint of rot, plenty of high productivity logs that i wouldnt mill anyway. i put out about a cord every 45 minutes or so with smaller logs, if i was still using a chainsaw and a splitter i would have a full time job without the full time income.

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