My Firewood Machine

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Onfoot

Member
Two Guns provided a link to a firewood machine (in ban travel thread), but I could not get it to open. However, for the record, thought I would post a pic of my firewood production machine. Works OK so far... :-)</p>


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You are lucky you are only splitting pine! My wood that is over 10-12 inch dia. gets run through a 20ton hydraulic splitter. I gave up hand splitting hardwoods years ago. It was great excersise but too time consuming for me. Now I just work the handle and pay a couple of young fellas to load and unload the splitter into the skid loader bucket for stacking and piling.</p>
 
Onfoot and Muleman,,</p>


Where are you finding those small trees..........Last night we cleared some trees and they were about 20 and 24 inches....Oak and maple.............If you want to test your axe or splitting axe against some twisted maple.....Yipes.........you can have some fun......We were cutting down some dead trees in our community park............That is why they were 24 inches across............If it wasn't for the trees being in the park some midnight tree specialist would have it in the back of his truck heading for the mill.....................</p>


Rusty Anvil,,,,,,,,,</p>
 
No argument from me--if we had the luxury of big hardwoods (or even small hardwoods!), I expect I would find good use for a hydraulic splitter. But the Northern Boreal forests are mostly Lodgepole Pine and Black and White Spruce, with White Poplar thrown in. And the logs behind me in the pic are from what we would consider big trees! But a long time ago I worked in the Ketchikan Spruce Mill (now site of a cruise ship dock) where we mostly milled Sitka Spruce. Our debarker could handle trees up to 12 ft. diameter and every day there were at least a few logs that needed to be split before they would fit into the debarker (dynamite worked well for splitting). So I do know big trees--some of the Sitka Spruce would reach heights of nearly 200 ft. (Some have reached more than 200 ft.)</p>


As for splitting, my 8 lb. splitting maul works pretty well. I suspect even Oak and Maple would split once we were at -20 or -30F.</p>
 
Ah, the joy of splitting firewood. Before we got our gasoline powered splitter (a 27 ton job)a maul or wedges and a sledge would work up a sweat in no time. Years ago, many a night after work was spent spitting oak, hickory, maple and other hardwoods for our Pappa Bear woodburner.No pine to speak of in our area. These daysit's even a chore for me to splitthe wood with a machine. Good thing it works both horizontally and vertically as I can't pick some of the rounds up to place on the splitting rail.Sounds like some of my other Forum friends have had some experience getting warmed up severaltimes before putting those logsinto the fireplace or wood burner as well. By the way, any one who hastried to split a large piece of twisted and knotted hickory with a maul and/or wedges, has also thought of dynamite. lol.</p>
 
Well, here in the land of Keifer, muleman, Rusty and myself, as noted we pretty much have hardwoods. We have a few poplar but I normally throw those on the bonfire.</p>


Here's an old picture of some wood processing. That really old looking stuff that's on the ground is still hard as a rock. If you look to the left, you can see cherry. Near that rubbermaid tub is some maple. I like to mix it up, especially when I have some old deadfall I'm processing.</p>


The woodshed is 12x24 and as you can see, it's split in 1/2. I burn one of the bays each winter. (8 ranks, 6' tall by 12' long). </p>


Oh, that hill to the left... that's what I need to climb with the RTV to go get my firewood. It goes back about 1/5 of a mile. And no, I can't climb straight up. I had to cut trails to traverse it.</p>


OnFoot - Real men use Husqvarna saws :-)</p>


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Ah the old Husqvarna vs. Stihl debate! In my experience, preferences seem to follow geography--so there will be patches of Alaska and the Yukon where showing up with a Husqvarna will get you laughed out of the camp and other patches where showing up with a Stihl will get the same reaction. Here in Whitehorse, the Stihls are pretty much top dog. Partly it has to do with dealers. The Stihl dealer is a reputable guy who really takes good care of his customers. The Husqvarna dealer has a much less favourable reputation. I had a Husqvarna and after a couple of quite unpleasant experiences with the dealer was very happy to switch to the Stihl--of which I now have two, both bought second hand and both working their hearts out for me.</p>
 
Forgot to say, Brian, that I am envious of your hardwood! And very nice pic of your RTV in its native situation. I have to burn nearly 2x as much softwood to get the btu's of some good oak or maple. But I do enjoy the splitting. Time will come when I will be content to let my grandson do it, but 'til then I appreciate the exercise and getting out.</p>
 
[quote user="Onfoot"]Ah the old Husqvarna vs. Stihl debate![/quote]</p>


I thought it was a rule that this debate must occur on ALL forums, regardless of their primary theme. Mrs. Zoom was having the debate on her knitting forum a few weeks back. Next week we'll be having the Ford/Chevy truck debate.</p>


Actually, I don't have a preference. I only bought the Husky's because they do internet sales and I could get a better deal that way. I'll only buy their "Professional" series saws though. I've used some of their residential stuff and they're just not built the same. Some of my other equipment is Stihl (backpack blower, weed-eater...).</p>


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Ok. Just for the record I have had an Echo 452vl saw for almost as long as my wife. (32years) I also own an Echo limbing saw and gave my brother the spare Echo limber I had. Also own a Stihl 026 and a Stihl weedeater that is 24 years old. Have a newer Echo weedeater that is lighter and easier to use. They are all good as long as they start and do what they are intended to do.</p>
 
Echo?!? :puke:</p>


Just kidding. They make some really nice stuff. Shortly after I bought my Stihl weed-eater (FS-90), my neighbor picked up an Echo weed-eater. His absolutely screams through anything you put in front of it. Unfortunately, it screams verbally as well. It's probably twice as loud as the Stihl. I do like the Stihl 4-MIX engines. It's a 2-cycle that thinks it's a 4-cycle. Lots of power but without the vibration and noise.</p>


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Muleman,</p>


I have a Stihl 026 chainsaw also..............</p>


Bczoom,</p>


I have a Stihl FS-110R weedeater and a HS-45 hedge trimmer.........</p>


Onfoot,</p>


You sure have tall softwoods, you can cut one down and cut it up all day long..........</p>


Rusty Anvil,,</p>
 
something just ain't right about this conversation. you see down south if a guy over heard some men talkin about how big thier saw was and how hard their wood was you would think they was in a gay bar but you northern folks seem to be at ease talkin aboutit. oh whell i guess when we have that rtv rally it will be interesting to hear everyone talkin about how much power their rtv's have hauling their big hard wood around.lol man i got to get me an rtv soon . an some enzyte maybe down here i seem to have a few china ball trees but nuthin to hard. a few good wacks and it's down not like you guys up north where when you go get wood you wack on it for an hour or so before it falls down. i heard texas got some really hard wood.</p>
 
Maybe it has something to do with needing firewood to stay warm through the winter--we take it pretty seriously and it figures into lots of conversations and loyalties--like the Husqvarna versus Stihl prejudices. I guess our woods are like your swamps, eh?</p>
 
yea i guess what about pine i heard it wasn't the best wood to burn but i guess if thats all that grows near you thats what you got. have you ever given some thought into makin your own firelogs???like save up all the chipings from the logs and from the chainsaw and put them in a barrel then soak them in ferosene or something for a few daysafter that get somekinda glue that is flamable but burns slow and pour it into the barrel.you can make a press with a good 20 ton jack and fab up a steel box to form the logs .as for as the glue to hold them together i would see what kind they use on them starter logs in the store and try to find some of it if not make your own out of pine sap. but a good home made pine saplog should burn for a good long time plus it should burn pretty hot to .</p>
 
if your furnace or whatever has a vent that runs directly outside then i would try to save the old motor oil from the cars /rtv's and trucks even the cooking oil will make good logs .</p>
 
Ya'll talking about them saws, Yep, purchased one myself this evening while in town,</p>


~~~~~~~~~~ new " Sig Sauer " .45</p>


Runs Great !!!!!</p>


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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ two guns ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</p>
 
das a good one .45 saw i bought some mags for my m4 they came with a sig ar15 pistol nice gun i just hope their mags are the same quality.</p>
 
Tommy, making my own firelogs sounds like way too much work! In the same amount of time and with less effort, I can buck up a whole tree! And I have trees to spare. Just managing all the windfall and standing dead (trees that die for one reason or another) keeps me supplied with a lifetime's worth of firewood. But you are right about pine--if pine is what you have, pine is what you burn! As for firestarter, a bit of diesel with some kindling works great in my boiler.</p>
 
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