Equipment ante

[firefighterjake]

I think if the goal is to get enough money to help pay for a few years of taxes that buying a $20K processor would eat into a lot of any potential profit . . . to me getting a processor would be the next step for a guy who is thinking about selling firewood on a full-time basis or at least someone who is going to put a lot more time into the endeavor.

I have to agree with Kenny on this one . . . clear an area and have the logger stack as much wood as you can . . . putting down some "sacrificial" logs might help as it seems as though this will be a multi-year process to buck and split this wood.

With ash I think getting a 6-way wedge would help quite a bit . . .

You might be able to sell the wood in different options . . . local business for example sells wood in log length, in four foot lengths, cut/split/you pick up and cut/split/delivered . . . obviously the more handling that is done = more of a price increase.

I think you should be able to handle this project with your existing equipment . . . guy in town has a side business selling firewood . . . every Spring he gets a lot of wood delivered tree length to his lot and then he and a helper or two running a couple of regular ol' splitters split it up. It's a long process, but he gets the job done.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I think you should be able to handle this project with your existing equipment

I wouldn't want to split that much wood sitting on a milk crate ;-) I'd like to get it split and under a roof. Given the amount of shed roof that my wife's grandfather put up, I won't run out storage space any time soon. The 6 way may very well get me under an hour a cord with the straight ash. At some point, I'd like to add a log lift but none of this should be big enough to justify it.

 

[Jags]

I think you should be able to handle this project with your existing equipment

I wouldn't want to split that much wood sitting on a milk crate ;-)

Why am I getting this image of a checker board butt in my head???? :gulp:

 

[SolarAndWood]

Go ahead and laugh Jags, I used to get that right through the Carhartts in my former vertical splitting life. Then there was the time I folded the dang crate rolling on a corner to grab a locust round.

 

[smokinj]

With my current saw/splitter setup, it takes me about an hour to buck and an hour and a half to split a cord. I am potentially going to have a glut of ash to process and have been thinking about how best to process upwards of a few hundred cord of it. Seems like the small processors under 20K would probably cut my time in half but they are fairly limited in diameter and finicky about straightness. But, as you get bigger, the price goes up very quickly. I haven't found one of those guys that will come in with a big processor in the area.

Do I just suck it up and do it with what I've got or is there some option I'm missing? The alternative is to take whatever the logger can get for it in log form.

One hour on the saw = 3 on the spliter sounds your math sounds right to me...

 

[Deere10]

Let me know if you need a hand cutting n splitting. Not sure of exact location though.

 

[kenny chaos]

Why so quick to get under a roof? Weather it!

 

[SolarAndWood]

I'm one of the biggest proponents of drying outside. However, Lake Ontario dumps all kinds of rain and snow up there and the big mature forest keeps the wind and sun out. Everything I split up there goes right under a roof.

 

[bogydave]

Have the logs that is to be cut into fire wood, loaded on a truck & delivered & piled near your house.
Or at least as much as you have room for. Pile the rest by an easy access spot & have it hauled as needed.
Then your only outlay is the delivery cost.
Your current set up is working now yet this will increase production & reduce expenses.
Firewood has been cut & sold for hundreds of years, so there is money to be made.
Just keep in in control. You love doing it. You are a good hard worker. Don't stress to the point where you get overwhelmed.
If you run out of firewood to be sold, use some of the profit to grow your business a little at a time.

Sell the good timber, cut up what you can.

Mother nature will take care of the trees, she's done it for a while. New trees will grow & use the old ones as food.
The trees aren't going to waste.

Keep us posted.
The saga continues.
Good reading. Like a Louis Lamor. We want a good ending.

 

[SolarAndWood]

Wise words Dave. The only thing I am stressing is 1200 hours of processing using my current setup 2 hours from home. With two little kids and working full time, that is a big commitment. The last thing I want is an albatross in the form of big log piles laying around. The Chomper is pretty compelling if it really can do 2-4 cord an hour without wielding a chainsaw, loader or handling rounds. Maybe it is worth 20K to me to process this stuff even if I only get 10-15K for it when I sell it?

http://www.chomper.net/video.html

I guess I will know better after I walk the property with the logger and get a better idea of how much wood we are talking about.

As far as hauling it home, that would be ideal and would mean the end of my illustrious scrounging career. However, it can't be moved more than 50 miles unless I buy a kiln. If my wife had her way, we would make the camp home and I would just go into the firewood business. Not ready for that good ending yet.

 

[kenny chaos]

Someone else mentioned the tops. Used to be that the logger would take the main log and leave the rest.
There was often another two logs from that tree with minimum trimming, to make firewood logs.
Today, there is more a market for the firewood logs so very little is left and requires too much work to trim and remove in large quantities.
There's a chance you'll end up with a whole lot more than you plan and plans need to be made with the logger reguarding this.
A good used processor, bought right and taken care of, could be a good idea.

 

[SolarAndWood]

There is a good pulp market up there and everything down to 4" is processed unless I have him set it aside for me. The mature canopy also produces very differently shaped trees than I am used to in the city. The problem is that pulp barely covers the trucking which is the only reason I am looking at this. Well, that and ash makes good firewood. The things I like about the Chomper as opposed to the other processors I have seen are the integrated winch and the shear. Not needing a log loader and not having to maintain a saw seem like huge advantages.

 

[firefighterjake]

I think you should be able to handle this project with your existing equipment

I wouldn't want to split that much wood sitting on a milk crate ;-)

Why am I getting this image of a checker board butt in my head???? :gulp:

I was thinking the same thing . . . add that to the con- list to mention to Dennis on the perils of splitting wood vertically.

 

[Danno77]

if you ever need a place to sit and you are surrounded by thousands of 16" long rounds and still can't find a place, then I question your cognitive skills. No checkerboard butts to worry about...

 

[Got Wood]

if you ever need a place to sit and you are surrounded by thousands of 16" long rounds and still can't find a place, then I question your cognitive skills. No checkerboard butts to worry about...

Thats funny!

and I believe Dennis will chime in that he has a nice cushin on his milk crate.

 

[JustWood]

Chomper dohn't have good resale value! Get a Timberwolf or BIG Northstar. More potential buyers with a regular splitter than a processor!

 

[SolarAndWood]

Chomper dohn't have good resale value!

Sweet. Where do I find the cheap used ones? Is there a good reason they don't hold their value?

How much better am I going to with a Timberwolf than the current hour and a half per cord out of my home made splitter? Isn't most of the improvement coming from a multi-way that I could have made for my splitter anyway?