Hi all, I'm a new guy to the Firewood Hoarders Club, but a guy who's been cutting a long time and has now reached the stage where he has to change how he goes about getting his bush firewood (jarrah) here in the lower southwest of Western Australia. What I want to do is cut rounds and load onto the vehicle(s) with no, or minimal, splitting - all on my own, with only my wife Sue along as accident insurance. Then when I get home, split the lot with a kinetic splitter, and store it in the woodshed. So, how to get the heavier rounds up onto my truck or trailer? I used an idea I saw on this FHC, and adapted it to my own variation as demo’d in my video just below. Before I go any further, I want to acknowledge member Keith Maki (“Thoreau’s cabin”), and I’m going to refer to Keith as ‘you’. I’d been racking my brains, and researching lifting devices to get heavy rounds up from uneven ground onto the vehicle, when I saw your timber log o lift device, and straight away I had that Eureka moment! Simple, cheap, and the instant solution to my needs. I went ahead and made one out of lumber, and it worked! So that I could adjust the height for either my truck or my trailer, I used Keith’s principles to make an adjustable steel variation. I can lift an 80kg (175lb) round with it, could possibly go a little higher, but anything heavier would have to be ripped or manually split before loading. In weightlifting terms, I can snatch the smaller rounds, but large diameter ones 70+kg need a clean and jerk, with a definite pause to gather yourself before the jerk for an old guy like me! Thank you Keith, or as we’d say Down Under, thanks mate. The idea was all yours! Here’s the video: I hope it has something of help, especially for you older guys who only gather firewood a few times a year. I made a slight verbal slip at the 3min 17 sec mark of the video, where I used the word 'split' instead of 'cut'. And I do apologize for occasional wind noise, and for being out of the frame - my phone screen is terrible for glare, and wife Sue simply couldn’t see me clearly to point it accurately. For anyone who’s interested, I’m going to use the metric system to describe the lifter, as metric is just easier for the engineering measurements. The device is 2500mm long, 350 wide (outside to outside of the rails), and uses 3 gauges of square galvanised tube: 25x25x2.5 (fairly solid stuff) for the long rails, 30x30x2 for the 400mm sliding rack, and 20x20x1.6 for cross members. The back rest for the round is 280 back from the shelf, because my rounds, cut by eye, average about 325 (13 inches) long. The shelf on which the round sits is 25x25x2.5 x 100 stubs. If I had my time again, I'd have made it stand out 250, which would cater for all rounds including large diameter ones without toppling prematurely. When test lifting (haha, it’s no good testing during live filming!), a 600mm dia round tried to come off early, so I whipped up a shelf extension of scrap 25x25 angle and 20x20 tube. This was actually the most labor-intensive part, as I had to hone down the 20x20 legs to slide into the 25x25 stubs 'cos the 2.5 side walls didn’t allow a slide fit. 19x19 square tube would have been better for those legs, but I didn't have any. The manufacture weld seam particularly on the insides of the 30x30 sections interfered with easy sliding, and I filed them down as best I could. A moment ago I came across this, which would help: How to Quickly Remove Internal Weld Seams from Steel Tubing - YouTube. A word on the welding: I was well aware of weld shrinkage with my old arc welder, and the welding did warp the sliding rack a little, but not disastrously. You have to stagger or stitch your welds progressively from one side to the other to counter, rather than use long continuous welds on any one side. Cost in AUD was $63 for the 30x30 and 25x25 square tube, plus $10 for two 25mm stainless steel C-clamps from a set of 4 that cost $20. I had 20x20 laying around. Plus a few welding rods and a bit of gal spray. I originally posted this video on the Aussie Firewood Cutters site, and got a lot of feedback, and suggestions for more sophisticated alternatives – but they cost a lot more than the AUD$85 (USD$60) I spent on mine - and I don’t have a lot of active years left to recoup high costs. The device is not fancy, but it's cheap! Since making the video I’ve added a back-saving extension handle to the lifting end, in response to one of the suggestions for improvement. It swivels on 2 mounting bolts, stands up about 20 inches (half a metre) so that I don’t have to bend to ground level to start the lift, then folds back down for easy stowage.
Welcome ZekeDownUnder !!! Glad to have you here!!! Thanks for the video of your back saving device!! You did a fine job putting that together and Sue did a great job with the camera. Looking forward to seeing more about your wood gathering in WA!!
Thanks guys, you're up early! I see you've got your firewood machinery and vehcles in your profiles, how did you get that there? Is it in status message? What is status message (in Personal Details, by the way?
If you want to add some details, click on your profile name in the top right. Then select “signature” from the drop down menu. You can access everything from the drop down menu.
Welcome Zeke. Great introduction post! Nice to kinda meet you. Hover over your user name in the top right of the page and it will pop open a box where you will see signature. Click that to add details.
Nice meeting you ZekeDownUnder ,you have an awesome introduction. You will fit right in here, post away. We like pics.
Welcome. I like the idea! It reminded me that I had got this in last month and hadn’t even got it out to try yet. https://www.etrailer.com/Hunting-an...hy6ISRMIBJ_t0wadIGviVdyZCuoxEP1EaAhY5EALw_wcB Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Welcome ZekeDownUnder, after some technical difficulties we finally got you on board! What a great first post, very well-made, well-thought and excellent device! Thank you for sharing the info and video, as I'm sure it'll help others, and that's a big part of what this place is all about! Glad to have you on board with us!
Welcome to the club. Lots of great folks here sharing knowledge and humor. Nice job on the lift and video
Welcome to the club. I'm very familiar with Jarrah I have worked for a Australian timber company off and on for over 35+ years. We specialize in Australian species here in Virginia USA. I like burning Australian Cypress, nice Eucalyptus smell.
Howdy, you'll fit right in! When you get a chance to post, show us your stacks and whatnot. Happy lifting, cutting and splitting!
