Finally got around to renting the wood processor. I’ve been itching to try this method for a few years now after seeing my fellow firewood hoarders posts. I have a small crew lined up and we are going to run the machine Sunday for my rental time of ~8 hours. Been preparing for over a year now collecting logs. At my best quick count, I have 60-80 logs ranging from 4-16’ in length and 4-24” diameter. A nice variety of Black Locust, Ash, Cherry, hard Sugar Maple, and Hophornbeam. I have four piles, one of which is very deep (hard to tell in the photos). Plan is to utilize my rental time to split all of these sections and dump the piles strategically so that I can stack later with minimal laborious effort. I’m renting a 7x14 dump as well to efficiently move the split product. None of the wood will leave the property, rather I have 3 drying locations prepared. Some are better than others but too covered and stored on pallets, I should be fine. I grabbed a brand new Dyna SC-16 from my local renter. Haven’t ran it yet but she sure is purty. More photos and details to come. Stay Tuned Folks!
Pictures please!!!! I am running one of these fir the first time for a friend of mine tomorrow morning.
Well thought out and planned. One of the important things in making firewood that im not always that good at. Wanna see it in action.
Getting the unit in place Initial thoughts: Unit is quick. I ran a 16-18” 12ft ash log through it as a test and - wow - felt like about 5 minutes -what a time saver! Definitely a learning curve with these but really a simple contraption overall. So far the two things I don’t like are how high the log rack is and the fact that the saw/clamp do not auto detent. In my trial run I found it is possible to run the log into the saw blade if it is not lifted. There’s a lot going on so it’s easier to do than you would think- luckily I did not cause any damage. Using a Kubota L3901 tractor w/la525 loader to load logs. I could definitely use a bigger machine for this task but it will get the job done - barely. There are some big boys that may have to be saved for the regular splitter. The Kubota has moved every single one of these logs with the forks, problem is the loading rack is ~5ft in the air and not only is it tipsy, it struggles for loader lift power at that height - common complaint on the LA525. We’ll get ‘er! More pictures to come
We tried one last spring, with operator, for $200 for 4 hours. We were not prepared but still managed to get around 4 cords split. Being better prepared I could see another 2 cords for a total of 6 without much trouble. One problem for us is limited straight logs to work with here in the Midwest. Not sure if we will do it again or not, but time will tell. Did do better this spring getting sale wood split and have plenty more to process, but the heat has really set in Close to 90f by 10:00 AM. I am wondering what they cost in your area to rent for 8 hours? Thanks and happy splitting today.
What's the max log diameter size on that one? 16"? It looks lust like the one we had out some years back...I think it could go up to 20"...which we had quite a few that were too big...and many that were just too irregular to go through. Still ended up with about ~10 cords in the split pile by the end of the day...not bad for its maiden voyage with a bunch of green operators! Sadly, that machine was later lost in a barn fire, along with most of the owners firewood inventory when and errant firework lit 'er up...that, or someone did it on purpose...they never figured out for sure.
I would say there is not such a thing, but I do see them here from time to time. Maybe they're photshopped.
