7 1/2 hours- 15-20 cords later

[19FarmHand78]

My father in law (FIL) had the firewood processor out today to work up his wood for his Central Boiler. As the awesome son in law that I am, as always I volunteered to help. FIL had a logging accident 2 years ago. He had an 18" tree clicked out caught him in the thigh broke his knee, leg in 3 places and shattered his ankle. So most of these logs have been down for 2 years plus.

My job as always was to load the processor load out table with logs with the skid-steer. FIL's Case 1840C had a gash in a tire sidewall, so we burrowed a Mustang 2076. I had to haul butt to keep up with the processor, he traded up to a Block-Buster 22-22. (rated for 22" logs 22' long, but we ran some 30"+ logs) we started a 8 am, it was 22°, and finished at 3:30 at 48°. The guy with the processor guessed it at 15-20 cords. He delivers 20 cords a week so I'll take his word.

Here are some pics... sorry I forgot to shoot any video.
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[jaoneill]

I had a processor come in last weekend for the first time. Does make short work of a log pile but I'm not completely sold on the advantages (if there are any). By my rough calculations we did about 12-14 face cord in six hours (a few 20" elm trees slowed him down substantially). It is 22" wood so we should be in the six full cord range. Even though the processor utilized a 6-way wedge, I had cut mostly 16"-18" trees so a good share of the pile has to be to be split again for optimum burning in my new gasser. Had a couple of boys here yesterday afternoon to re-split, haul and stack. They manage to get 5 face / roughly 2 1/2 full cord resplit, hauled and stacked in the woodshed in a 4 hour afternoon (using our 24"/26ton splitter in the horizontal mode, 1/2 cord wood trailer, and cord+ dump trailer).
Difficult to compare previous experience because of the difference in the size of the splits (almost twice the handling with the smaller splits). But, even as an old guy, when working up last years wood I averaged a bit over a cord - cut, split, hauled, stacked in the woodshed - in an afternoon (3-4 hours).
About comparable time/cord as two twenty somethings, merely splitting and stacking, but handling twice the # of pieces.
Then factor in my time (a day +/-) dropping and skidding the trees out to the landing, and the time with the loader tractor, loading the table on the processor.
My guess is that, after adding in the cost of the processing it is a net loss, except if one doesn't have the time needed to do it the old fashioned way.

PS: Most of our wood this year is hickory & beech, both of which split fairly easily. Our processor stack was about the same as Tyler's (above)

 

[19FarmHand78]

We had the processor buck everything 20-24" long and split 4 ways... Some of the big stuff got ran through the splitter twice. Most of my FIL's splits are bigger then the burn chamber in my insert. For the size of the logs and finished split there is no way we could have come close to doing this same amount in 4 days... even with the skid steers.

This pile should last 2 years 2015-2016. I can't convince him to season his wood longer, the out door boiler will burn anything. I guess with those size of splits they might never fully season any way.

 

[jaoneill]

We had the processor buck everything 20-24" long and split 4 ways... Some of the big stuff got ran through the splitter twice. Most of my FIL's splits are bigger then the burn chamber in my insert. For the size of the logs and finished split there is no way we could have come close to doing this same amount in 4 days... even with the skid steers.

This pile should last 2 years 2015-2016. I can't convince him to season his wood longer, the out door boiler will burn anything. I guess with those size of splits they might never fully season any way.

The other issue I had with the processor is length, part of which was my fault. I am an old guy and tend to be fussy; I have always sticked my wood so that it is all the same length (+/- an inch). If I had cut the logs exact, it would have been uniform out of the processor. The operator asked that logs be 14' for optimum operation so what I ended up with is a substantial number of shorts and longs that makes it difficult to stack decently. Next time, if there is a next time, I will cut into exact 22" increments short of the 14'.

 

[19FarmHand78]

Our processor has 3 different interchange splitting heads, 4, 6 and 8way splits, all heads can also be adjusted up to a 2 way split. He also was telling me he has a speed splitter that he can attach to the processor so when splitting for wood stoves a second operator can grab big splits instead of running back through, or hand splitting. I need to stop by his place and see this speed splitter, he claims the cycle rate of that splitter is a 1/4 of the processor ram.

 

[jaoneill]

Our processor has 3 different interchange splitting heads, 4, 6 and 8way splits, all heads can also be adjusted up to a 2 way split. He also was telling me he has a speed splitter that he can attach to the processor so when splitting for wood stoves a second operator can grab big splits instead of running back through, or hand splitting. I need to stop by his place and see this speed splitter, he claims the cycle rate of that splitter is a 1/4 of the processor ram.

Sounds like a much bigger and more sophisticated rig than the one that did ours, but the guy who did ours is the only custom operator in our area. There were a few logges around with those big processors but they just did their own. In the last few years there have been many industrial sized users that have switched from oil to wood chips so our logging industry has gone to chipping everything; firewood is apparently hard to find if you have to buy it.

 

[BurnIt13]

Wow....pretty darn impressive tools! I'm guessing this would be overkill for a homeowner that processes 4 cords a year?

Out of curiosity is this firewood considered seasoned and ready for delivery or does it wait for a few years before it gets delivered to the customer?

 

[jaoneill]

Wow....pretty darn impressive tools! I'm guessing this would be overkill for a homeowner that processes 4 cords a year?

Out of curiosity is this firewood considered seasoned and ready for delivery or does it wait for a few years before it gets delivered to the customer?

Sorry Burnit, I wasn't paying attention to the "poster" when I wrote my response below; I was thinking it was farmhand responding to my previous. To answer your question, this processed firewood is not considered seasoned. Whether or not it is delivered right away or seasoned first would be up to the owner. If you buy firewood from a dealer, whether seasoned or not, there is a very good chance that it has been run through one of these machines rather than cut & split in the traditional way.
The machinery the loggers use today is, in a word, unbelievable. I was talking with a fella that owns a local chain saw shop and he was telling me that many of these loggers don't even use chain saws; they keep one behind the truck seat just in case, but don't take them out for months at a time. They use "tree harvesters" that will snip off a two foot hardwood like it was a weed and stuff it into a huge chipper that will reduce it to chips in minutes. We are in a heavily forested area and loaded log trucks were a very common sight up until a few years ago. They are rare today; what are common are huge semi box trailers (dumpers) with the tell-tale wire covered openings high on the sides that prevent air pressure from building up in the box when the huge chippers are filling them.

 

[19FarmHand78]

BurnIt13 the logs we processed where 2-6 years old, from time of harvest. I tested a few splits: Oak 20-30+%, Locust and Red Elm 15-20%, Ash 10-20%, Walnut 10-15% (walnut had been down the longest) most of this I would not call seasoned. BUT my FIL was burning some of it on Sunday.

The equipment is awesome makes it less like work. But your average home owner wood burner couldn't justify the expence. Now as for hiring a processor for 4 cords... that would be 3 hours or less work for my guy. I know my guy likes to have 4-6 hours of splitting per job. I know of a group of 4-5 home owners that go together and processes all there wood at once. They cut logs together and divide the wood equally.