Fire wood conveyer

[mx842]

Has anyone built a firewood conveyer? What a pain it is to have to handle wood three or four times when splitting. I have been tossing around the idea of building something to move the wood out of the way as it is split and was wondering what others have come up with.

I'm thinking about running it by hydraulic since I already have hydraulics on the splitter and I know I'll need to upgrade my valve to something with two spools and also I will need a hyd motor to drive the chain/belt. I'm really interested is seeing what you used to move the wood....belt/chain ect.

 

[TCowner]

I just purchased an older 16' grain elevator that I use for moving firewood. I works great and its amazing the effort it saves moving firewood. I, like most of us, haven't completely figured out a system to minimize the times we move the split wood from one place to the next.

The elevator runs with a 1/2 hp electric motor and handles the wood just fine. The only problem I have so far is that the bracket the motor sits on is on top of the elevator and there is only about 15" of clearance. If a split piece tumbles just at the wrong time it can wedge against this bracket and the elevator flights. I keep the electric cord close by for a quick disconnect. One of my winter projects is to raise the motor bracket to allow plenty of room. It should be a fairly easy fix.

 

[250quality]

I have an old hay elevator I converted. It had a 2 chain system with metal slats between but would often bind and break one of the chains. I turned it into a v style trough and one chain up the middle with some 1x3 on the chain to grab the wood. Works great but looking for a shorter one.

 

[jake98]

A roofer's power-ladder would work.
http://www.safetyhoistcompany.com/

 

[mx842]

Yeah I have heard of people converting hay and grain elevators and even those lifts roofers use to raise materials up on to roofs. The problem is finding this stuff laying around that someone wants to part with. I used to see old farm equipment everywhere but over the past year or so scrap medal prices have been so good most of that stuff has been scrapped long ago.

Also I kind of wanted to stay away from electric power if I could because where my wood pile is I would have to run a 500' drop cord or haul a genny down there. Of-course if I could find one I could convert it over but if I had to do that I may as well start from scratch.

Hey 250quality...what kind of chains were on your hay elevator and how did you attach the slats? Is it like regular bike chain only bigger or is it something different? I would like something at least 20' long and have a means of raising and lowering it as needed and that would take a lot of chain which seems to be quite expensive...at least from what I have found.

 

[tulenutn2o]

I bought an old grain elevator to use. I lay trough under splitter and wood falls right in an up it goes..................

 

[Doppelgangar]

I have a wood elevator that is electric and runs on 12 Volts. Splitter ha s12 volt motor on it.

Elevator is a V bottom chain and works very good Originally had starter on to starter flywheel but too noisy so now chain driven.

Plenty of grunt

 

[mx842]

I have a wood elevator that is electric and runs on 12 Volts. Splitter ha s12 volt motor on it.

Elevator is a V bottom chain and works very good Originally had starter on to starter flywheel but too noisy so now chain driven.

Plenty of grunt

There are a lot of ways to make this work and you have come up with another. I was just trying to use what I had and since my splitter is hydraulics that are run by a gas motor I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and didn't like the idea of having to depend on electric power AC or DC to drive anything.

My biggest dilemma is what to use for the chain/belt for the wood to ride on. I have been looking all over at different kinds of chains and the stuff I have found that everybody says will work looks so tiny and flimsy I don't see how it could work. What kind of chain do you have on yours? I mean, how wide and thick are the chain links you are using? I looked at stuff down at Agri supply and the stuff they have that is supposed to be for a hay elevator is only about 1 inch wide and really light weight material. It does have tiny posts about 11/2" high that sticks up about every 3 or 4 feet to grab the hay bales but it still looks so light weight it hard to see it holding up for long with those heavy oak logs banging on it all the time.

Do you have a pic of your setup you could post?

 

[ovrszd]

Yeah I have heard of people converting hay and grain elevators and even those lifts roofers use to raise materials up on to roofs. The problem is finding this stuff laying around that someone wants to part with. I used to see old farm equipment everywhere but over the past year or so scrap medal prices have been so good most of that stuff has been scrapped long ago.

Also I kind of wanted to stay away from electric power if I could because where my wood pile is I would have to run a 500' drop cord or haul a genny down there. Of-course if I could find one I could convert it over but if I had to do that I may as well start from scratch.

Yeah, the scrap metal business has been real hard on cheap people like us. All those $20 bargains in the fencerows are gone.

My neighbor uses an old grain elevator with a Briggs/Stratton gas engine driving it. Lets him be portable with his piling. Crank the elevator down, hook it to his truck, hook his trailer mounted splitter behind the elevator and off he goes.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I had a neighbor who burned an awful lot of wood back in the 70's. He kept it in the cellar of his big old farm house near the furnace. He had nine kids. He would set his tractor and splitter up beside the wood pile in his front door yard. He had one of those roller conveyers you used to see (if you are old enough) going through the exterior wall to the parking lot of every grocery store. He set it up along the wood pile, made a big round 90* turn, and down through a window into the cellar. His nine kids would line up along the conveyor and keep things going. It was quite an operation and I can still invision it very clearly today.

 

[Doppelgangar]

here in NZ the chain used on hay elevators is No 55 malable chain. it would last about 20 years doing hay.

You say not very strong because of its size it is as strong as one needs.

You could run two chains side by side like I do on the short elevator on my splitter.

this has been there for over 10 years and the only wear is from the bottom of the troff were it rubs on the steel. I do have access to replacement chain but as I'm not using it commercially any more I doubt it will be replaced by me.

 

[mx842]

here in NZ the chain used on hay elevators is No 55 malable chain. it would last about 20 years doing hay.

You say not very strong because of its size it is as strong as one needs.

You could run two chains side by side like I do on the short elevator on my splitter.

this has been there for over 10 years and the only wear is from the bottom of the troff were it rubs on the steel. I do have access to replacement chain but as I'm not using it commercially any more I doubt it will be replaced by me.

It don't have to be all that strong, it's just that it's so small in size I have a hard time seeing how it would drag the firewood up a 20' long table especially if it was angled on a fairly steep grade.

 

[250quality]

That exactly what I'm using is #55 elevator chain and put close to 100 cord through my processor so far. Decided to change the chain now as it was also wearing from running in a steel trough. Even though it was a used piece of chain when I built my processor, it still lasted very well. Just recently started to pull the links apart as it was wearing thin on the bottom. I put a piece of 1x4 oak in the trough with a channel machined in it for the chain to ride in. Pretty sure this new piece of chain will last forever this way. Also I put attachments on it every 2 feet and thats what grabs the log. 20 foot oak logs are no problem for it to move. Pics soon as I'm done the hydraulics and firing it back up this week.

 

[mx842]

That exactly what I'm using is #55 elevator chain and put close to 100 cord through my processor so far. Decided to change the chain now as it was also wearing from running in a steel trough. Even though it was a used piece of chain when I built my processor, it still lasted very well. Just recently started to pull the links apart as it was wearing thin on the bottom. I put a piece of 1x4 oak in the trough with a channel machined in it for the chain to ride in. Pretty sure this new piece of chain will last forever this way. Also I put attachments on it every 2 feet and thats what grabs the log. 20 foot oak logs are no problem for it to move. Pics soon as I'm done the hydraulics and firing it back up this week.

How is your trough set up? Is it V bottomed or is it V sides with a flat in the bottom, if so how wide did you make the flat. I had planned on making the frame and forming up the sides to about 12" with a flay bottom of about 4"for just that very reason. I was going to use that plastic like stuff we used on boat trailer skids in the middle where the chain ran on. I'm only using it because I happen to have some laying around but it is really tough stuff and it may not wear the chain as bad as the steel bottom would.

This project is way down on my list right now because I am still working on my barn and I need to finish that so I'll have a place to build all the new toys I have planned. The barn is a slow process because I am working on it by myself and everything takes longer that way but hopefully I will get the roof on the last addition by the weekend, a 10' X 40' room on the right side of the barn that I an going to finish off and use to put my Mill and lathe and also a small office space. I had not originally planned on these side sheds but once I got the roof on the main part the building everything got really small really fast because I was turned on to a company that has offered me more fab and powder coat work than I had room for in the 32'X40' building I had put up. So I decided to put these side sheds on both sides to have room for all my equipment so I could leave the main part open to work out of. I have also put a roof over half the back of the building out to 20' to cover my leaking container which leaves me an additional 8' X 20' that I can close in later on to use for a cleaning a prep station for prepping parts for paint or powder.

When I started this thread I was in a dead zone where I couldn't work on the building so I decided to start gathering information for a few of my many projects and this wood conveyer was near the top of the pile. That's how I do things so now I am in the look and see stage of this project, sometimes it takes a year or more of gathering parts and info before a plan actually gets it's turn at the welding table.

Right now the conveyer is a distant dream I can think about and plan on when My mind is not on a more pressing job I need to do and it just depends on how my dry wood holds out as to how fast this one gets pushed to the top of the pile. hopefully I will have enough to get me through this winter but you never know what old man winter may have in store.

 

[Kevin M]

I looking to build a conveyor too , I have a splitter and Big dump trailer this would make things easy I work for a company that makes crushed stone and we have lots of conveyors. Most consist of angle iron and some pulleys running on electric. Mine will run on a small gas motor.

 

[mx842]

I looking to build a conveyor too , I have a splitter and Big dump trailer this would make things easy I work for a company that makes crushed stone and we have lots of conveyors. Most consist of angle iron and some pulleys running on electric. Mine will run on a small gas motor.

Boy, I wish I had a nice dump trailer. That along with a nice conveyer system would sure make my life over the next couple years a lot easier. Thanks to that last storm I have big piles of oak logs laying all over my little 10 ac paradise. I had the same problem with the other big storm we had in 02' or 03. Wood everywhere and a lot of it rotted away before I could get it all processed because it took so long to handle it so many times. Hopefully this time things will be a little different if I can ever finish my barn project so I have a place to work. I also need to build me a nice wood shed to keep the wood nice and dry but that is down the road a ways.

I was thinking about a gas motor to drive mine with too but the thing don't have to run all the time while you are splitting that's why I was thinking about running mine with the hydraulics I already have. I'm also thinking about a hydraulic run cut off saw to add to the package but before I do that I need to get a tractor big enough to pick up the logs and place them on a feeder rack to feed them into the cut off saw and that's way down the road.