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Chopped and even chopped firewood can now be bought, but the costs will not justify such fuel for heating a house. For this reason, many owners do this on their own. Equipment for preparation of firewoodas well as hand tools.
Varieties of wood chopping machines
When there is a need for a large amount of solid fuel, it is wise to have a wood chipper that can quickly split the thick wood into logs. There are also machines that grind tree branches into small chips. In the future, such fuel is excellent for filling into the boiler. Before you buy one of the devices, you need to decide on a few questions:
- Firewood machines are divided into two classes: professional and household. For yourself, you need to decide which one is suitable for performing the work. If you intend to harvest a large amount of firewood for sale, then professional equipment is preferred. These machines are more expensive, but they are more efficient. When the need for firewood is limited to heating a country house or bathhouse, household equipment will do. These machines are compact, inexpensive and easy to transport.
- All firewood machines are powered by electricity or a gasoline engine. It is necessary to buy equipment for this parameter, guided by personal preferences. An electric car is cheaper. During operation, the noise only comes from the knives. The absence of exhaust gases allows the use of electrical equipment indoors. Gasoline-powered machines are heavier, more expensive, and due to exhaust fumes, they cannot be installed indoors. However, such equipment is much more powerful than electrical counterparts. Electrical equipment is tied to the mains with a cable. It cannot be used in a forest belt far from home. If it is easier for you to harvest firewood in the forest, and to transport already chopped logs home, then it is better to buy a machine with a gasoline engine.
- To get logs from a chock, use a wood splitter. When choosing it, you need to pay attention to knives. A straight blade machine splits the chock in two. That is, you get lamellar firewood. The cross-blade machine splits the log into several triangular logs. It is more efficient, but also more expensive.
Having mastered the basic nuances, let's look at what kind of technique is for harvesting firewood. Let's start the review with machines that allow you to get ready-made logs or chips from the chocks.
Hydraulic wood splitters
By performance hydraulic wood splitters come first. This explains the great popularity of this equipment. The machine consists of a hydraulic cylinder with an oil pump. The system is powered by an electric or gasoline engine. The hydraulic cylinder is mounted on a steel frame. Depending on the model of the machine, the cleaver knife is mounted on the cylinder rod or on the frame itself. The steel heel serves as another thrust piece.
The principle of operation of the wood splitter is simple. The chock is placed between the anvil and the cleaver. The motor drives the pump. It starts pumping oil, which pushes the hydraulic cylinder rod with great force. The chock located between the cleaver and the steel heel splits into logs.Their number and shape depends on the design of the knife.
By design, wood splitters come with a vertical and horizontal hydraulic cylinder. The first option is usually household firewood machines. They are less traumatic, characterized by low power and low cost. Vertical wood splitters are more professional class. These machines are powerful, less mobile and capable of splitting up to 90 cm thick wood.
Cone wood splitters
A cone wood splitter is also called a screw firewood machine. The equipment received this name because of the shape of the knife. A steel conical tip with a sharpened end is used as a cleaver. During operation, it rotates at high speeds and moves towards the chock. The log relative to the cleaver is placed not end-to-end, but sideways. A cone, like a self-tapping screw, is screwed into the chock, splitting it into two parts. The resulting halves are put on the machine again. The process continues until the logs reach the required size.
Most cone wood splitters are household models powered by a single-phase electric motor. There are also more powerful firewood machines that operate from a three-phase power network. Another cone wood splitter can be made in the form of a nozzle for a walk-behind tractor. It is connected to the motor by a belt drive.
Rack wood splitter
The harvesting of firewood with a rack and pinion machine is fast. The equipment has a work table. A chock is laid on it. The pusher mechanism is activated by the control lever. He moves the log along the slats with great force. On the opposite side of the pusher, the knife is securely fixed. Striking the blades, the chock shatters into separate logs.
Household rack and pinion machines are powered by a single-phase electric motor. Professional equipment is equipped with a 380 volt motor. The most productive and powerful are gasoline wood splitters. There are combined rack and pinion machines capable of operating from an electric motor and a gasoline engine.
Branch shredder machine
Many people think that a firewood machine should chop wood into logs. However, wood chips can be used as solid fuel. It is perfect for filling the boiler. A big plus of such firewood is that you don't have to destroy whole trees to get it. Chips are obtained from the branches left after the fall or spring pruning.
The machine consists of a crushing mechanism - a shredder. It is powered by an electric motor or a gasoline engine. Electric models are equipped with a single and three phase motor. There are also crushing machines without a motor. Such models are considered attachments to other equipment, for example, a walk-behind tractor or a mini-tractor. They work from the power take-off shaft through a belt drive.
The principle of operation of the shredding machine is simple. The operator loads the branches into the bunker. They fall into a mechanism with knives, where they are chopped into chips. As a result, the output is a finished solid fuel. The choice of the thickness of the branches for processing for firewood depends on the power of the machine. Professional models are capable of chipping round wood with a diameter of up to 12 cm. Some machines can automatically pack the chips into nets or send them along a line for loading into the car body.
The video provides an overview of the equipment used for harvesting firewood:
The saw is an indispensable tool for harvesting firewood
Our great-grandfathers felled wood and sawed logs into chunks with two-handed saws. It is difficult to work with such a tool and the productivity is low. Now a hand saw for harvesting firewood is rarely found on the farm. The current generation is used to cutting trees with a chainsaw or an electric saw.
Choosing a chainsaw for firewood
A gasoline saw for cutting firewood is the ideal tool. You can take it with you to the forest, as it does not require attachment to an outlet. In search of an answer to the question of which chainsaw to buy, you need to proceed from its purpose.
The tool is needed for home preparation of firewood. This means that a professional chainsaw disappears immediately. Preference is given to the household model. Here you immediately need to choose the right tire size. Its optimal length is 40 cm. Thicker logs will rarely come across. As a last resort, they can be cut in a circle. The motor power for such a tire is sufficient within 2 kW. A firewood saw chain will work in 0.325 inch increments. It is designed for short-term operation, but does not generate vibration.
Choosing an electric saw for harvesting firewood
From the very beginning, you need to learn an important truth: it will not work to prepare firewood for heating a large house with an electric saw. First, the tool is not designed for continuous operation without interruption. Secondly, an electric saw will not be able to cut trees in the forest, since an electrical connection is required.
The tool can be used to cut a small amount of wood for a sauna or fireplace. This limitation is also related to the speed of rotation of the chain. For an electric saw, it is usually in the range of 5 thousand rpm. For a chainsaw, this figure is 3-4 thousand rpm more. This means that the performance decreases from lower revolutions of the electric saw chain. The log will have to be cut longer, which increases the wear of the parts. As a result, there can be two consequences after harvesting firewood with an electric saw:
- cut logs quickly without rest, but then the tool will fail;
- sawing logs with rest, but for a very long time.
The cost of an electric saw is not much less than that of a gasoline tool. If you are still only on the verge of choosing, it is better to take a chainsaw for preparing firewood.
