Has anyone on here built a homemade firewood processor? I bought a small diesel engine, and want to build one out over the next year or so. Just curious what people are using on the hydraulic side for both the pump and motors, as well as the actual saw. Danzco has a nice model, but want to see what else is out there I can use. Thanks
How small of a diesel engine did you get? Processors can take a lot of horsepower to run all the hydraulics. Depends on how many features you have on a processor, how many pumps, ect.
Don't know about a processor but I am taking a 34 diesel fairway mower engine and trying to make a drivable log splitter. Might need 5 wheels to keep it balanced. Length is approaching 15 ft long. I would think a processor would require 50 hp or higher. I still have lots to figure out on my log splitter project. Hoses are going to get expensive. Using a cylinder from a large excavator. Twin hydro pump I found on Ebay. Had the beam and wedge fabricated. It might be ugly but it will be a beast.
Some day I'll get around to it. I have one I use other places. Just have to find where I put the pic to upload it.
dyna products has a full featured processor that only uses a 13hp engine but the sky is the limit on what you can use. 36hp should run a 22gpm pump at full pressure. so depending on how it is setup and what size the splitter cylinder is it should still be reasonably fast.
I am in the beginning stages of this myself. I have a 22HP Yanmar diesel for power. The amount of HP on the larger processors are required mainly because they are doing multiple things at once; splitting while the next chunk is being cut for example. Those are both high flow operations. My design isn't so much built to make a living off of it, but to save my body. I can have it split and cut all at separate times. Not as efficient, but hey, I buck logs up bent over with a chainsaw then lift them on my splitter now so in my eyes it'll be an awesome improvement! I'm thinking of something along these lines: As fordf150 mentioned above, Dyna makes some low HP processors. I took these pictures of their processor at the Bangor show this past spring to get some ideas as well:
The dyna processors are bare bones siimple designs. copying them would make for a decent build that was quick and easy. the downfall is that they are built pretty light weight. I have the sc12xp...not a bad unit and will really put wood out if its the right size wood. lighter built than i would like but the price was right.
