My father in law hires one once a year to split wood for his outdoor wood boiler. Works out great for him, I think the guy charges $100 per machine hour. He is running a new Blockbuster 22-22 and has a 4,6, and 8 way heads for it. It is a awesome way to work up fire wood. We usually have him on the farm for 8 hours and with good logs that gets the FIL 10 cords or so. My father in law just about bought one this year since it is so hard to get this guy, the owner of the processor delivers 20-30 full cords a week from September till March. That's roughly 750 cords a season! Let me know if you have any questions. ~Nathan
Not here. I've crunched the numbers and just can't justify it for when I'm doing, but I do keep looking and wishing. I read quite a few reviews and have checked out most of the major brands on youtube. A good place for reviews is www.sawmillmag.com -- if you Google them and which ever processor you are wondering about you are apt to get something. They aren't a highly critical review, due to their need for advertisements, but you can still get some good info from them. I'd be interested in hearing experiences with the smaller ones where you winch in the log. Seems like a lot of time would be spent re-positioning the cable, but it would eliminate a piece of equipment needed to load a deck. The tractor-powered units are interesting, but then two tractors are needed (another one for loading), and I'm down to just one right now. I'm wondering if just the step up to a bigger/faster splitter would be enough for me (TW-5, please).
Flamested... I agree if you don't have the equipment to supply the processor, and are not able to harvest and haul logs then it is not a money saving option. But in my FIL's case he had 2 skid steers (now 3) and a 16' dump fifth wheel. I know our processor does offer a skid steer and operator for another $100 per hour... that really would not add up. ~Nathan
Nice. Do you winch the logs off the pile, or bring them to the splitter? I've seen quite a few photos of these small winch-style processors where the processor doesn't appear to be getting the log from the pile. It makes me think that pulling a log by itself across bare ground is OK, but pulling a log straight out of the stack by the end might result in winching the processor over to the stack (and bending braces, etc). Are you saving much time over cutting with a chainsaw and then splitting the blocks, or is the biggest benefit saving on physical labor? With a cable feed I assume the cable is attached and then re-positioned once (or more) per log. It looks like your logs have some character (are not straight poles) - am I making too much out of the time to get the log to and through the processor?
Nice build. I sold my 2 processors in the last 3 years. Cant get the wood cheap enough. Cant get decent help. And no one wants to pay $250/ cord delivered. I can however get cheap/free wood from tree services. I've been contemplating buying a splitter and moding it into something similar or a ground up build. Time is an issue which is delaying my decision.
I am thinking of modifing my splitter some. Not into a processor but make it more user friendly. Maybe a removable table and a tray to lay splits on that I can grab with my picker.
I pull right off the stack and drag across the ground. Usually the wood straightens up as it goes up the infeed ramp so I dont have to muscle it around that much. I try to keep about 20' between the processor and the pile. If I had more room, Id put the processor parallel to the ends of the logs so they'd be a straight shot into the machine. I usually have to move the pull cable from the front end of the log to the back end once the log is on the machine so I can use the winch to pull the log through. If its a smaller log I usually pull it through by hand once it is loaded up onto the processor. The winch will pull the log onto the machine pretty fast. I have a video of operation that I can post if you want, but its a pretty crappy and shaky video "character logs" I like it lol. For the most part, they pulled through twists and all. The only problem was when I tried to pull a 26" log through... it was too big and jammed under the roller by the saw. I built some pretty substantial feet for the machine, so they really dig in under load and the machine stays rock steady Time and labour savings are incredible.
No Too much hassle and travel setup/tear down time. Never a good staging area and never enough room. Most clients pizzed and moaned at $150 hour travel/setup time.
