In spring/early summer they would be dry in only a couple of days if spred out on the trailer. At this time a year I leave them there for a week or so, then they go into my south wall “corn cribs” and then I empty the cribs from underneath into paper bags which are stored inside in heated space. The shunks that go into the hopper have been stored several mounths. Can’t get them any dryer. I still get about 1.5 L out of every 6 kg hopper.
I haven’t. Is that green wood or dried? Compact volume or a “bucket full of chunks” kind of volume?
Interasting, l ecpected less! Looks like you get better space economy with round wood rather thain my angular. I have to find a way to dry roundwood faster…
Yes. In Wood-For-Fuels every factor matters.
Why a continuous calculating human hands-on in the system will always be the best strategies approach.
Woodgas-For-Power imho should be hang-glide/light aircraft/fishing boat human controlled versus the fully automated Boeing/Airbus/hands-off central rail controlled.
Just read a book about the early American nuclear power systems designer H. Rickover. As a power system engineer he insisted that if a pump was to be turned on he wanted an human present doing it to listen/hear/feel for problems. Not One of his systems has ever had catastrophic failures. Forced shut down, yes.
He did not trust the use-the-least-humans-labor Power Industries to ever make safe nuclear systems.
History is a harsh judge.
At the end of his life he wished that nuclear power had never been developed as some humans were always weapon-izing it; profit maximizing abusing it, and could only be trusted to muck it up.
I have come to feel the same about “gasification”.
Only personal use wood sweating seems to keep in check the gasification abuses.
S.U.
It sounds to me like you’d be much better off having them mill for most useable lumber/timber; sell your good boards; use the proceeds from it to buy cheap firewood to process into chunks.
Something along the lines of something I’d read in an article about gathering one’s own firewood: “make sure you don’t turn a tree made of 5,000$ worth of timber value into 500$ worth of firewood.”
Yes I could hire a logger to come in and cut my trees for both lumber and pulp, but when they do that it takes 10 years for the trees to start coming back. I just want to walk about through my woods until my walking days are gone. Then my relatives can log it. I am very protective of my land. The farmer that rents the land farms it the way I want or he doesn’t get to farm it.TomC
I hear you on the big picture and I agree; what I’m talking about is that it sounded like you were having your local miller cut your 100 old trees into 2x3s for your chunker. Instead of chunking up the good old timber, sell off the lumber from the trees he’s sawing up and buy some “trash trees” for him to mill into chunker wood. You’d get more gasifier fuel for your wood, and you’d know that those old trees are finding a longer term use.
No Brian, I’m not cutting good trees down. We have had a couple of oak deceases that killed many of the oaks. One decease kills the roots and the tree may stand there dead for 5 or 6 years. Those we harvest when they fall for dry fire wood. The ones I plan on cutting into 2x3 are dead from another disease.TomC
I found this firewood splitter that’s similar to @RPMHartman 's but slightly heavier duty… Woodworking Crazy Homemade Log Splitter: https://youtu.be/-AVSefsz2zM
Great find Brian, I see the engine, the very havy fly wheel that it is driving, the shaft going toward the crank mechanism but the non-mechanical video person didn’t show the mechanism!! Wonder how he’s turning that crank wheel??? Herb
As I’d commented on the Facebook page that I’d found it on: as long as one follows the simple rule of “don’t put your limbs on top of (or under) the round of wood” (just grab the wood by the sides each time, and not the ends), it’s quite safe. The splitter only goes partially down, and leaves a big gap under the bottom of the stroke; and is moving somewhat slowly.
I noticed that if the end cut was not square and the chopper hit a knot the piece slapped down sideways with considerable force
But a unique and fast homemade wood splitter
@mggibb and others, Here are some pictures of my chopping block that I use with my small hand splitting mal. The mal is a old roofing hatchet with the blade ground down making more blunt with 30* plus edge on it. I think the hatchet is as old as I am, except the handle has been glued and duct taped. I’m getting to that point. At least I feel that way sometimes.
The sides keep the wood from fly off when you chop it . The small pieces fall through the bottom at the sides though the gap. It has increased my chopping speed by by 4 chops to my one with out the sides on the chopping block.
Make one, you might like it.
My next one is going to be a bigger and higher, round chopping block.
It’s about time to make a new chopping block, I have put a lot of chops to it, so I can Drive On Wood.
Bob
Bob, l hope you dont mind me borrowing your idea, since my chunker made chunks are drying l am allso forced to sit in the “office” with a hachet every day. These sides look so handy!
