Firewood processor build thread

[kiotiken]

Woodchipper, thanks for your reply, I really appreciate your kind words. This sure has turned into a long drawn out project for sure. I think my perseverance comes from how much I have invested in this thing! Not sure my kids would agree with my patient nature either :laughing:

Thank YOU for staying interested in and following this thread :thumbsup:

 

[kiotiken]

...Oh woodchipper, I may be responsible for this long winter too. As soon as this thing's out of my garage and I can park in there again, it will turn warm and the winter will magically end.

 

[kiotiken]

Added the 5th roller last night. This one is 12" in front of the the second roller and 6" in front of the trough. I wanted the first two rollers to be 12" apart so the last round was supported by two rollers.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

...Oh woodchipper, I may be responsible for this long winter too. As soon as this thing's out of my garage and I can park in there again, it will turn warm and the winter will magically end.

THAT'S IT!!! IT'S YOUR FAULT!!!! I knew someone around here was to blame.......LOL

Are we going to have to come over to help you get that thing done so we can all stop freezing our butts off?

 

[kiotiken]

THAT'S IT!!! IT'S YOUR FAULT!!!! I knew someone around here was to blame.......LOL

Are we going to have to come over to help you get that thing done so we can all stop freezing our butts off?

Oh thank god, let me know when you guys get it done and properly tested by running 100 cord through it. I knew if I dogged it long enough you guys would get sick of waiting and finish it yourselves!

 

[murphy1244]

Dang it Ken, I had frozen pipes all weekend cause of you. What do you want us to do? I can paint but not weld.

 

[kiotiken]

Dang it Ken, I had frozen pipes all weekend cause of you. What do you want us to do? I can paint but not weld.

Frozen pipes suck, sorry to hear it, errr..., cause it. You're doing better then me, I can't weld OR paint :laughing: Aren't you an electrician Murph? You can pimp this thing out with a bunch of cool lights!

 

[mikehaugen]

Dang it Ken, I had frozen pipes all weekend cause of you. What do you want us to do? I can paint but not weld.

Should have bought that welder from the government auction.

 

[murphy1244]

Should have bought that welder from the government auction.

You still remember that? Wow, to much for too little.

 

[murphy1244]

Frozen pipes suck, sorry to hear it, errr..., cause it. You're doing better then me, I can't weld OR paint :laughing: Aren't you an electrician Murph? You can pimp this thing out with a bunch of cool lights!

Even add some heat and air to it if you want but no can weld......yet.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

I've got the welding part covered, that's the easy part. Especially with your 220 mig.

Paint? I thought rust was nature's paint

 

[woodchipper]

I've got the welding part covered, that's the easy part. Especially with your 220 mig.

Paint? I thought rust was nature's paint

Snow is the best all around cover...Lol...:laughing:

 

[woodchipper]

Ken,
Have you given any thought about using a conveyor chain, instead of the rollers? Could a conveyor chain get things tingled up?
Also, one cheap roller way to go, is to use boat rollers found on trailers to slide the boat on to. If the rubber is good quality, it should resist real well the intense scrubbing from the logs bark.
The way you have positioned your rollers, I do not see any problem They stand high, and have a nice "V" shape. Should perform well with any log diameter.

 

[kiotiken]

Ken,
Have you given any thought about using a conveyor chain, instead of the rollers? Could a conveyor chain get things tingled up?
Also, one cheap roller way to go, is to use boat rollers found on trailers to slide the boat on to. If the rubber is good quality, it should resist real well the intense scrubbing from the logs bark.
The way you have positioned your rollers, I do not see any problem They stand high, and have a nice "V" shape. Should perform well with any log diameter.

Yes, I thought about doing a conveyor, but thought it would be more complicated and more expensive without offering me much extra benefit. In my case, almost all the logs I get are perfectly straight. I see the main benefit of a conveyor system is to handle logs that aren't straight. Apart from that, a conveyor would require all the same components that I'm using plus a few more, making it harder to build and more expensive. The boat rollers are a good idea, I do prefer what I have though. I intentionally only added 4 spokes to each roller. That way I might get a little lifting action if a log has an uneven fork or nook. I figure I'll have plenty of traction to drive a log forward with only two of the 5 rollers, and no matter what the log is like, it's not possible for it not to rest on at least two.

 

[kiotiken]

It doesn't look like much, but I'm actually satisfied with last nights progress, and that rarely happens. Like I mentioned before, the cylinder was no longer mounted level with the pusher plate, I goofed by 1" when I rebuilt it. What I failed to mention was that the plastic runner clamped the bottom rails a little too much and acted like a brake pad. So my first task last night was to tear it all apart and fix those two issues. As we've learned from this insanely long thread, I'm not happy until I've done something 3 times, so now I'm happy:laughing:

I cut the cylinder attachment off for the 3rd time!


I removed a little of the plastic to allow the pusher plate to move freely. I wanted about 1/16" to 1/8" of play, I ended up with about 1/8"


I used the processors jacks to level the processor then re-installed the pusher plate. MUCH better!


The only other thing I did last night was re-use the back of the processor frame that I cut away to give more clearance. I cut it to size and added it for bracing to the sides of the slide rails. I don't want the pusher plate to be able to push those rails out if a round gets stuck.

hard to see...

 

[kiotiken]

I got the chain drive system done last night... well mostly. That makes me happy, can't say I enjoyed fiddling with it. The problem I still have is getting the hub on the hydraulic motor. The shaft on the motor is 1.25" and the key is 5/16". The hub I have and any that I can find for a 1.25" shaft have a .25" keyway. The only choices I've been given is to bore the hub I have out or by a split key that starts at 5/16 and goes to 1/4. Obviously, boring out my keyway and maintaining the 5/16" key is a better choice, but it's expensive and I'm kind of sick of spending money on this. I can also get the other key quickly and boring out my hub will take a week. Once that's done, I can position the chain properly and install the chain.

First I needed to build a bracket for an idler sprocket to drop the chain down for the return



The idler sprockets installed and the completed chain path. You can also see the brackets I cleaned up and re-installed for the log deck.


Finally, I built some tensioner arms to keep the chain tight and off the engine. I'll attach idler sprockets to each.

 

[mikehaugen]

It really should be nothing for a machine shop to broach the keyway out bigger in the coupler. Probably could do it while you wait.

 

[kiotiken]

It really should be nothing for a machine shop to broach the keyway out bigger in the coupler. Probably could do it while you wait.

They say they won't have it ready till next week. They also say it's $100 to broach my $8 hub. Why complain about $100 at this point? It seems excessive to me.

 

[mikehaugen]

They say they won't have it ready till next week. They also say it's $100 to broach my $8 hub. Why complain about $100 at this point? It seems excessive to me.

That does seem outrageous to me. Honestly I've never done it nor had it done but I would really expect $20 (give or take) and 15 minutes... maybe a more on the time if yhey are busy. Have you shopped around at all?

 

[kiotiken]

That does seem outrageous to me. Honestly I've never done it nor had it done but I would really expect $20 (give or take) and 15 minutes... maybe a more on the time if yhey are busy. Have you shopped around at all?

I just spent the last 30 minutes calling every machine shop around me and they all say they can't do it. I can switch out the key with a combination key for $30 which also seems really pricey for a key. My only problem there is I haven't been able to remove the existing key from the motor. The hydraulic shop I bought if from assures me it's not pressed in, but for the life of me, I can't get it free.