kindling machine

[drythropple]

Hi, has anyone out there managed to make an automatic kindling machine, any ideas/pics will be appreciated

 

[hr3]

Automatic no but I use a small electric splitter in the basement...

 

[Baby Grand]

Are you looking to create large quantities of kindling? Just curious. For starting the stove I find that a light, limbing axe and a short scrap of 2x8 is all I really need. If the wood is well seasoned and doesn't have a lot of knots it splits right up.

 

[/pine]

...automatic kindling machine...

I call it a Poplar tree...

Poplar branches from 1/4"-1" make for great kindling especially with a few pieces of "tinder" sized pieces of the same...does not take much to get the hardwood fuel burning...

Poplar breaks very easy..what I do is pile up a bunch of branches etc. and just run over them with the tractor a time or two and it breaks them down to managable size for storing in bins...

 

[foggy1111]

Wood Shingles. If you ever find where they are pulling old wood shingles off a house.....get a load of those shingles for fire starters. Split real easy. Simply the best I ever had.

You can buy a bundle of these shingles....and it will last a long time....but they are pretty spendy fire starters.

 

[BHD]

I just use the trash and splinters from the splitting process, that fall off under the splitter,

if there is a construction site any where near, the cut off of the framing process, make fairly good fire starter,

 

[drythropple]

I appreciate all your advice, I sell firewood but a lot of my customers want me to supply them with kindling, I have been chopping by hand but it is very time consuming so I thought a dedicated kindling machine would be the answer. I cannot justify spending the thousands required to purchase one

 

[The Haymaker]

One of the old shingle machines? Seems something you could rapidly run stuff through would be the best.

I've always thought of some sort of machine to crush pallets. The hard, dry, wood usually splinters and breaks, so crushing them would make nice kindling.

!

 

[Treemonkey1000]

If they are or were building as many homes around where you live as they are here go get the lumber scraps. Kiln dried lumber usually splits up pretty easy. I doubt if you can get your hands on a Cedar shake splitter but that would be the way to go as far as faster processing. What I have done in the past with cedar and 2x4's is hold or strap them together. Then whack them with a sharp axe to split several pieces off at a time. Something else to consider is hiring someone like a retired person or student to split it and pay them per bundle.
So now if you come up with something we want pictures

 

[drythropple]

Dont worry, there will be pictures, I dont think you guys realise but I'm in the uk

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Dont worry, there will be pictures, I dont think you guys realise but I'm in the uk

Well some of the folks in the UK are the Masters of invention and ingenuity!

 

[drythropple]

not sure about that, I will come up with something though

 

[Matt_Jr]

What about having them just throw in a couple briquettes of charcoal used for grilling?

 

[blunosr]

I've seen one of these in action. I think it was a youtube link on the Old Wood-Working Machines (OWWM) - Welcome site. It was an old machine with a blade that oscillated up and down, fairly rapidly, but slow enough you could move the piece of wood under it. It was dangerous, but as long as you remember not to put your hand on top of the piece of wood... gotta be smarter than the wood...

I think with a see-saw type blade setup, and either a slow motor, or a 3phase motor on a VFD, you could make one up quite easily. I seem to recall that the one I have seen had a flywheel running the oscillator.

Maybe I'll make one too...

Bye for now,

Troy Boyd

 

[Scotty370]

Lately I've resigned my self to using the manufactured wax-type, fireplace logs. Cut them up like a loaf of bread, and use one 'slice' per fire.

 

[Taylortractornut]

Saw a rotary splitter on youtube the other day on a 1 ton truck axle. They has the spiral on on side and the other side they had abot a 10 to 12 inch pipe cut like a rorary Cam. There was a rest on the bottom of the machine and on the cam it had a small wedge to split the pole. A small 4 or 5 inch diameter pole was put in it and fed through it reaqlly fractured and splinterd it. I have an old small punch press I got at an auction to get the table off of. I thought about locking the clutch on it and using the 4 inch stroke to run a small busting shear to feed slabs or poles into it.
YouTube - Wood splitter NEW VIDEO

I have seen pictures of old square balers that had a wedge welded to the plunger an had a plate welded over the the bale chamber. THey let the pto build up momentum on the flyweel then drop logs into it. It busts them and drpos them out the sides. A man in one of the issues left the side open and the bottom to and fed slabs in the side to bust them up for kindling.

At work the cabinet shop chunks out bundles of alder strips from the plant into the landfill we run. I load a few loads to bring home and cut for kindling so my machine got put on hold.

 

[kyspartan]

SCHEPPACH 6 WAY SPLITTER HEAD, KINDLING MAKER on eBay (end time 08-Feb-10 19:37:09 GMT)

if you have a splitter allready this could work

 

[spo307]

could you make a 6 way wedge for a log splitter, splitting smaller logs into 6 pieces at once

SORRY DIDNT SEE THE POST ABOVE TILL AFTER i POSTED

 

[studor]

What about a multi bladed device to hang on the end of a log splitter or bolt to the wedge? Instead of a four way, say an eight or ten way!
Oops --great minds think alike or fools seldom differ

 

[glastron23]

take a look at this one... YouTube - Wood processor ZA 160