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Does anyone on here have a "Bundler" for firewood ?

Started by BargeMonkey, March 17, 2015, 09:48:37 PM

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BargeMonkey

 I always laughed at the bundled firewood till i sat down and realized the margin involved.  :D  Do any of you guys do it ? And what brand do you have ? I plan on selling both bundled firewood and a F/C of wood from the store, and i recently got asked about sending bundles down to L/I, 3-4 tractor loads a season. Anyone have suggestions ? Things i should watch for ? I have a kiln, and my dads been thinking of a dedicated firewood kiln, there is a guy up north going out, but it requires another outside stove and more headaches. Figured maybe one of you guys has some tips.

Corley5

I've got an old Twister and do about 1,000 bundles a year.  A thousand too many actually.  You make more $$$ but there's a lot more work than selling than in bulk.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

lopet

If you have a market for and it pencils out, why not. A couple of years ago i watched somebody unloading a whole truckload of shrink wrapped bundles on skids at the local TSC. Next time checked out the prices and wondered if they would sell. They didn't. I think at least half went back in the spring. 
The small user around here runs a little pellet stove and carries in bag at the time, no mess they say and very little ash. 
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BargeMonkey

 Ive been thinking about it, and watching people buy it by the trunk load at the store down the road from me. Stopped at a place tonight for gas that sells alot of it and flat out asked the guy what he is paying, the guy said if i could beat 4.50 a bundle he would buy it. Ive got an in with someone where i can ship wood down to the Hamptons in L/I, just trying to figure out if the profit is in it. There is a guy in Margaretville NY doing it in volume but we wont go down the illegal immigrant route for labor.
How much is the wrap ? How many bundles do you average ? How many pieces to a bundle ? Any problem with bundles coming loose ? 

Wallys World

We bundle wood but not all that much. We sell it in a stand at the end of our driveway by the road and at Christmas at the Lynchburg Community market. I built our bundler out of an old ink mixer that was disposed of where I work. It does a good job, usually my wife loads it , I wrap, label and put handles on the bundle. It only takes a few minutes to do one if you have everything ready. Yes your profit margin does go up but most bundlers cost more than $1000 so that is a lot of wood to do even before that is paid for. mine cost maybe $10. Wrap is not too expensive, I bought 4 rolls from U-Line for around $90, it is 10 inch.


 
Photo before the move to the end of the driveway next to the road. Sometimes we sell out, then other times it can be a month. I didn't want to get in a wholesale deal, I just do it to pay for gas and oil for our saws. Sometimes for the market I'll take the edgings for the mill and cut and bundle them. We sell cheap, one for $3, two for $5, that eliminates the need for change in the honor box. Only been ripped off twice in 7 years. Our local Kroger store sells it for $5.29, it comes from Kentucky in bags. I've calculated and we are selling .75 cu foot bundles, which around here is standard.
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MJD

I sold bundled for 10 years or so (home made wrapper), my bundles were good size and then one day I get a letter from the state that my bundles were to big and did not have proper labels. The weights and measure people that check that you indeed did get a full gallon of gas were the people that turned me into the firewood police :-\. I would of never thought there would be a volume you had to maintain to be a legal bundle. From there on I quit selling at the gas stations and just sold piles to campers from the roadside from home.

Corley5

  I get stretch wrap from www.stretchwrapsupply.com  This is what I've found works the best http://www.stretchwrapsupply.com/80-ga-12-in-x-1500-ft-hand-stretch-film-p-94.html  Four to five wraps makes a strong bundle that holds up to handling pretty good.  I tried the thinner mil wrap and it takes more wraps to get a good bundle.  The bundles we make are 12-14" in diameter 16" long.  A roll of wrap will do about 150 bundles.  U-line is way too expensive  :)  We don't label or add handles.  The wrap is strong enough that they can be grabbed from both ends for carrying.
  I've got two bundle accounts.  One is the local party store/gas station/hardware and the other is a resort cabin rental place that buys to sell for the cabin fireplaces.  The gas station takes 150 bundles about every six weeks depending on the season and the cabins buy 100 bundles in the spring and another 100 in late August.  The $4.50 price you quote is about what they retail for here. 
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

NWP

My thoughts on bundles are the same as Corley's. It is a lot more labor intensive. We resplit our processed wood to get it to the correct size then wrap and palletize it. We do 10-15,000 per year all mainly in the summer for state and county parks. We do label them and put a handle on. The handle is 1" webbing about 10-12" long that we staple on with an air stapler. I buy it in bulk and it comes out to 3-4 cents per handle. We print out sheets of the labels on regular paper and cut them up then just put one between wraps while we are wrapping. It's cheap and effective. We use a Twister wrapper. It uses the same wrap that Corley put the link to. I bought mine new and it's worked well. We can sell them for $3-3.25 per bundle but I also lose out on bids to guys willing to work cheap and sell them for $2.30 per bundle.
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Ford_man

NWP there will always be someone that will sell cheaper than you no matter how low you go with your price. You have just got to have quality product.

Firewood dealer

I have a factory bundler, but I cant remember the who makes it. I do it much like NWP with the webbed handles and a air stapler, also we print all our own labels. The machine is set up to bundle .75 cu.ft. per bundle. We stack 75 bundles per pallet witch is about 1\2 cord. We also use the wrap from Uline. With 3 wraps it seems to hold up good. (except when one of the guys dumps a whole pallet on the ground)
As far as profit margin, it is hard to beat. We get $3.95 per bundle wholesale. The wrapper is paid piece work of $.40-$.50 per bundle. You can do the rest of the math.

glassman_48

I think busy beaver said he has done over 100,000 bundles with his twister.  If I can get a good enough supply of ash I have a lot of stores in the area that have asked.  I have a 6 way wedge on my processor that works just about perfect for bundle size wood. 

NWP

We've done probably more than 125,000 bundles with our Twister. I've replaced the shaft where it goes through the bushing twice other than that it's been trouble free. I did have to do away with the foot switch. It would get full of dirt and mess up.
1999 Blockbuster 2222, 1997 Duratech HD10, 2021 Kubota SVL97-2, 2011 Case SV250, 2000 Case 1845C, 2004 Case 621D, John Deere 540A, 2011 Freightliner with Prentice 120C, 2012 Chevrolet, 1997 GMC bucket truck, several trailers, and Stihl saws.

BargeMonkey

 I appreciate the information, but its like anything else, how much more can you do on a limited amount of time. I see the little packages of "kindling" for 5-6$ at Stewarts, shipped from over seas and i just shake my head.
I figure i can get the nicer, straight looking ash, white birch and soft maple logs, run them thru the processor into my wire baskets, let the wood dry for a bit, pull my splitter and the bundler next to a row of baskets and go to town. Would you guys recommend the .75 or 1.00 cubic ft bundles ? Your just using a small staple for the handles ?

Firewood dealer

The standard around here is .75 cuft. I don't know if you would create some confusion by putting out a 1.00 cuft bundle because you would have to charge more for the larger volume. I guess it would depend on the price point the consumer is used to seeing in your area. The strap staples we use look a lot like a roofing shingle staples. I could tell you exactly what we use tomorrow if you would like.

Ford_man

We were making 12x12x16 bundles when we started but the customers said they were too heavy. And they were harder to keep tight. We then went to 10x10x16 and the customers were happier. I am looking at a different kind of Banding machine, I have tried a friends machine, I think it will be faster and cheaper.

Butlerslogs

In the uk you can buy logs in a net bag usually £5 for 10 kg of wood! Rather exspensive.....

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