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We did a cost comparison last summer and found out that ordering split firewood and selling it at eight bucks a tote-full only breaks even with maybe an extra fifty bucks or so for my sweat. This year we will be selling the off-cuts from a saw mill and while the profit margin will be much higher the
labour increases along with it and I plan to minimize it again.
I intend to build a portable device which attaches to the closed tailgate of a pick up truck.
It will consist of a single chute leading to the first of three 1/2" drills spinning conical drill bits. If you've never seen how efficiently one of these bits can split wood you should check it out, [link].
Now as I feed each whole round down the initial chute it is split in two and falls to a chute on either side to be fed into another spinning conical drill bit and from there falls to a single conveyor belt, (run by belt from the initial drill) which brings the split pieces right back to me in the box of the truck to be stacked or fed back down the chute if too large.
Pulling the round onto itself.
https://www.youtube...watch?v=bE-BC0ESBm0
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Feb 14 2021]
Multiple drill heads
https://www.autodri...image_carousel_1]/3
But with the splitting bits with the correct rotation directions. Could include pressure spikes. [wjt, Feb 16 2021]
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What's wrong with using det cord ? |
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The explosive content of airborne sawdust in close proximity. |
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Explain again why that's a bad thing ... ? |
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Those cone-drills look like they need a bit of "handling" to
work; I'm not sure just sending wood down a chute onto it
will be enough.
A thought: split the log FIRST, before cutting into fire-place-
sized lengths. ie: use a normal hydraulic splitter, but modify
to be REALLY long to split a whole log. Just for [8th of 7],
this has opportunities to fail spectacularly. |
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I can't find videos using the largest size of step cone bit and a non-cordless drill but they literally pull themselves through a log round. |
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I'll attach a video if I ever build this. You've been warned. |
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Okay I found one of the older videos to replace that crappy first link with. |
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Ha, that's kind of funny. I thought this was your idea when I
read the title and I've no idea why. Ha. |
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My dad had built a 4-way splitter that utilized a hydraulic
motor and diesel engine to split wood. And now I'm curious
as
to
how much energy he could've saved or lost had he just
burnt the
diesel fuel in his fireplace. |
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Let's see. 1 gallon of diesel fuel: 139,000 BTU's. 1 cord of
wood: 20,000,000 BTU's. Efficiency of diesel+hydraulic
press: ~20%. Wonder how many cords he could do with a
gallon? |
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I have a set of wood speed bits that pull themselves into
the part being drilled with a similar tip. The reaction
torque when they grab is enough to throw your arm off the
drill. |
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The drills will be mounted to the frame. |
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Perhaps you could mount the two secondary bits close to
the primary, on the same plane but aft a bit, such that
when the log is initially split each secondary bit impales a
half and summarily splits it as well, giving you 4 pieces to
fall backwards into the truck bed. |
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Yep, that is the plan.
Three drill bits... quartered rounds. |
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All three will need to be easily raised and lowered to get as close to centre as possible.
hmmm, perhaps lowering and raising the chutes by weight instead might simplify things a bit. |
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Now if the conveyor belt section could be made to swing from side-to-side and retract in increments I might not even have to stack them after they are split. |
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That sounds like the new ore conveyors that, I think, Rio Tinto
are using (or maybe just thinking of using), to bring the head
of the conveyor to the broken ore, instead of trucking the ore
to the conveyor. |
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Could be clever. Could have non-obvious flaws.
Maybe both. Have a bun |
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Three independent motors or belts/chains? I wonder if a geared drill head can have four or five drill bits for single stroke quartering. Not very error tolerant though. |
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Interesting statement on nature that the two cuts can't really be done simultaneously. |
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Idea invites a song, to the tune of Otis Reading's
"Sitting on the dock of the Bay" we now have
"Splitting up The Logs of The Day"... try it and
see... Meanwhile, [+] for any idea that involves
spinning machinery and drilling. |
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+ that giant drill is so cool. i know you can make
this! |
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Or failing that, ask for a surplus bit from, say Guantanamo
Bay? |
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^ I'm not sure I get that reference... |
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It won't work spinning step-bits on a single plane. Too chaotic with wood grain splitting all willy-nilly.
No, things need to be forced to drop to the sides and given only two choices so that, even if they don't want to split, pieces will be forced by oncoming rounds and gravity to comply whether they want to or not. |
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In that way every quarter will find its way back to me in the pick-up.
Some will need to be sent back down again to become kindling of course but... |
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...kindling is important too. |
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Your right of course but the wood can also occasionally say otherwise and not even yield kindling. |
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Then it becomes bark-mulch weed suppression for the trails. |
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I bow to your knowledge of the grains of nature. |
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The grains of nature will reveal themselves after I begin to grow Treethedral, and then descendants and helpers weave it to fruition. |
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Everything before then is just... repurposing of widow-makers to make way for even more trails. |
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I think we have a few Treethedrals amongst the widow maker trails now (slightly metaphorical). A few more helps. Seeing the wood in relation to the trees, in my opinion, is one of the nicer purposes of life. |
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//What's wrong with using det cord ?//
Well, if you have a 12" diameter log, you could get some pretty cool results by drilling a hole down the middle and threading some det-cord through : difficult to do if it's like 10' long. Other than that, it's more expensive than chainsaw petrol. |
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