Turned My Track Loader into a Firewood processor! (I’ll Never touch a splitter again! ) 

Amen to that..double handling is a waste.

The metal cage that bulk liquid "totes" come in would work well.

And a shed to store the wood in so it stays dry.

I was thinking the squarish metal cage ones, better then wooden pallets out there in the woods. Wont rot or fall apart, easy to move around with the forks.

I have always thought a 20 foot connex container with a V bottom underneath and a conveyor that had a sliding chute into the fire box would be useful. Male a lid access hole on roof and just split right into the container. A couple blower fans could help with curing process too. Heck run a couple of circulation lines and you could pump hot water through to cure wood with excess heat.

😂

My dad had one of those too!

Me too but I loved it. Working outdoor with the tractor and the wood processor behind the time flew by. Used around 8 cubic meter of wood through the winter in Norway.

Yeah and me... For many years

Wow, mine to. Didn’t realize how common they were.

Definitely would have helped with lifting the cab

That is so true. Stop all the other projects and get the crane installed before you get so much stuff in there that you wont feel like expending the effort to clear the shop and install the crane. The crane will be a major work saver.

That crane is ridiculous huge. A bit overkill but time will show for sure.

@@Frank-Thoresen Yep, he even said so himself, but it was the price he couldn't pass up :D

@@Frank-Thoresen I Worked in a shipyard with a crane that size in a shop that size and it's the perfect size and power level. That can also be automated with a wireless remote control that Matt can clip on his belt to move when he is alone. Literally making it a lifesaver.

THE THING IS WHY DID HE INSTALL UNDERGROUND HEATING. HE NEEDS TO GET THAT STREEM WORKING FOR HIM AND MAKE ONE OF THEM DEVICES THAT PUMP WATER UP HILL . THATS MY THORTS ON IT .

AND SUPPLY ELECTRIC FROM A GENERATOR TO THE WORK SHOP .

"Yeah, Matt - 'demo' it!" Sort of like a car salesman telling you take 'er around the block. 😉

The "puppy dog" close!

Now that it's used, Matt should get a great deal on it!

great product C&C,I think yous have one sold with Matt

We need to see Mrs C running one of these. Bridgette has her list of equipment she wants to run , this needs added to it,,haha

No idea what boiler he is looking at specifically. But the ones on RU-vid seem to take some decent size. The split wood is maybe for fire starter. After that... as big as you can pick up and throw. These things ain't fed as normal wood stoves. Splitting the small stuff will just add to the work needing to be done while feeding the fire.

I know, right! Every week I cross my fingers and hope this will be the week to install that bad boy crane. One of these weeks I'll be right!

@@Martin.Wilson I am still waiting for the scissor jack lifts he bought, unless he got rid of them.

@@dubuque1 i know he never gave us an update on the auction buy scissor lifts

I thought they were in the wiring video

Or he can break open the vault and buy then lift shocks...😅😅😅

Or just weld some thin plates at the right lengths. That way they are semi permanent and can take a beating.

@@JustMeAndVideos Agreed. Matt mentioned the machine is a demo unit on loan so the dealer might object to him welding on it.

Better to have a camera with a monitor in the cab

@@angryyank A mirror needs no power or cable.

What is the fuel consumption running the splitter? What about modifying a backup camera to see the working end?

An even better idea would be to use COAL instead of hardwood. In 15 years that hardwood will be worth more that all his land and equipment combined.

I'm 70 and never miss a Saturday with Ether Creek. LOL. watching Matt work is my new cardio.

Agree

I have had three outdoor boilers. Split wood burns faster but it get the water to temp quickly. Large unspilt wood last longer but doesn't burn as efficiently. It smolders, but still works ok. I actually had a Central Boiler. Terrible workmanship quality. Wiring was done wrong and welds were poor. The company warranty was worthless. I lived 30 miles from the factory. Sold it for half of what I paid for it and bought a Heatmor. The best down home company. High standards in workmanship.

Makes sense to me.

That's what I came here to suggest. If you can pick it up with one hand, it's too small, unless you need kindling to start a fire.

depends on the airflow

Or mount a laser, that is what sawmills use

Lots of sensitive electronics involved in doing something like that in a robust way. Expensive, for starters - not to mention complex and time consuming.. But look at the conditions this is used in. Wet, sawdust-caked, shock/vibration, etc. So many ways to fail.

yeah it sounds like a toy ....very strange

Unless you have an electric one that is, I have a mains saw and about the house its great, obviously it has its limitations but work within those and they are a brilliant bit of kit.

I always stick around to see whats coming up, i usually know what it is but this one i have no clue what it is or why he needs it! ! ! ! LOL

I know there's always something sus going there😅😅😂

@@qualitydirtmoving looks like he’s been to the auctions, and if that’s what I think it is, he’s definitely got a decent supply of biomass lying around.

@@qualitydirtmoving I’ve figured it out, and it’s nothing to do with biomass, but plenty of water and possibly even the cab of a truck 🤔

Yes, what the heck is that thing in the last few moments of the video?? 😮

yup, i was thinking that all the way though the video. and also don't cut any peice shorter than height the cut porttion needs to fall so that it doesn't tumble over.

I came down to comments to say the same thing. Would be a good mod I think.

True. I was thinking fill a trailer or the dump truck to move the wood closer to its final destination. Your idea is great.

I would hate to know the price of it. Thanks. From Sc

He will scoop it up with the bobcat bucket and take it right to the outside fireplace

@@davidclemdis4796 it’d still be easier to put it in an IBC tote frame, then use the pallet forks to bring the whole big sucker over.

@@allenbuck5589 last time I looked. The 150 is $21,500

It really would...can't wait for that one either.

My buddy's dad had a big wood heater in the basement of there house and it took 4ft pieces of wood. We never had to split wood at his house. He wood keep a cord of fire wood in the basement. I don't believe he could use anything over 12 inches in diameter. But they would just throw 4ft pieces of wood in the furnace 3 or 4 at a time. I don't think it was a boiler. I believe the heat would just radiat up threw duck work. It was single story house. Now we are talking back in the 80's now so it's been a minute.

So the bigger the log - the bigger the pleasure? Is that what you are saying?

The great thing about a hydronic heating system like this is that you can heat the water many different ways. For now a wood boiler is cost effective for Matt, since he has a lot of wood on the property to use. A waste oil boiler would also work, and even better it could be run completely automatically. The other good thing about hydronic is that you need less delta T in your system to get a comfortable result. Meaning, the temperature of the heating water doesn't have to be as high as the temperature of the air in any forced air system. This makes hydronic systems especially well suited to heat pumps, since you can produce plenty of thermal energy with the heat pump it just doesn't have to get as "hot". This is great for colder climates with winter capable heat pumps that are still more than 100% electrically efficient. Any way you do it, hydronic is great for a shop like this.

If Matt starts working with no shoes on and talking about the US forestry service, it’s time for an intervention! If you know, you know!

​@@Pugjamin Act Accordingly

@@TheDr.Magnum noooooooooo 😩

@@Pugjamin The point of no return is when you refer to yourself as a professional Ho

On the video about the loader before there was a comment suggesting that having the filter under the cab means that you're more likely to notice any issues/do other preventative maintenance while you're there. I doubt that was the intention, but it's a point.

only dorks read the manual.

I appreciate that!

Glad you like them!

great cam ideas make it removeable so it dont get hurt by the weather

Yeah the ones I have seen use 10 to 30 cords or so a year. I once seen a video where someone burnt whole hay bales. Now this might have been in the farm show magizine too. None of the boilers I have seen are big enough to make it one day with out filling it again. This one metal shop that i know burns 9 railroad ties or whole 8 foot trees trunks in their shop. They load them using a gripper thing they made for a fork lift. to do the railroad ties they just strap them with those plastic banding and then open the door and just drive it right in to it and then unclamp them. The 9 ties is the most they can fit in it other wise the gripper wont fit on the sides. The gripper is pretty much this ( ) The fork lift they use for wood is the only thing they use it for. They just stack the old ties outside on other ties so they can grab them with the forks or the logs. The thing is made out of some 4 foot steel pipe that is like 1 inch thick all the way around and the door is like a dome shape to which they open and then the fork lift drives it in and sets it down . The thing is nearly 10 feet long and they fill it every 3 ish days. Its got a bunch of electric stuff on it to open up one of the many smoke stacks it has. I think and not too sure is that the many smoke stack areas so cycled or open closed based on temp of one area of the stove. For example if its really hot at one end it will open a stack the furthest away and close the one where its hot. That way it redirects the fire in another direction to help burn better. I never really asked when I seen it the few times I have seen it. Still really cool. While boilers are cool I do not want one. I thought about adding floor heat to my slab build yet still questioning if I need it. What I want to build is some custom wood stoves. I want something large yet really narrow. Like 1 foot or even 9 inches. This is still more than enough to get split wood in the door? The reason why I want something this narrow is because I do not need a wood stove to take up a huge amount of floor space in my house. At 9 inches and a 6 inches from the wall the stove will only take up 15 inches by 2 foot by 5.5 feet tall. Though I still need to add in about 5 inches for fire bricks so an area 4x4 feet will be all that is needed to fit the wood stove Pretty much it will be placed next to a door so that the wood pile is right out the door and you can fill from there. I mainly want to use them as back up and general heating when someone is home. All of the wood stoves I have had over the years too up so much floor space that made my living room something that could not be used. Boiler heats can leak/freeze and I still am unsure if I want to take that risk.

@@kameljoe21 Leaks are always a risk with boilers. I want one bad!!! I think a lot of the leaks are from morons throwing wood in and striking the back, that seems to always be where the leaks are. I agree, he's likely got a couple weeks of wood there at best.

I think you are right Darrell, I had to smurk when he said that split pile would last him all winter. My reaction was just like you said; 2 to 3 weeks. I had a 50 by 50 building with concrete floor and block walls about 14 foot high and I heated it with a taylor commercial size furnace and it took me 23 cord of wood my first year. My building was not insulated and my heat transfer was forced air not floor radiated, but his building is way bigger than mine was. I don't know maybe the wood furnaces are way more efficient today. I hope he's right.

@@jimwhite1061 to me that pile looks like 2 cords and the rest of that unsplit pile is maybe 4 cords. Hell I have 10 cords of bucked out trees and another 10 plus cords that still need cut down on the block I own. I also have another 5 cords of trees that I may cut down as well. I do not even burn wood right now. Have not since the start of covid and when we bought out new place. I am clear cutting pretty much everything so that I can build new in a couple of years. All of what i have seen for outdoor boiler takes 10 to 30 cords of wood easy!

My grandparents had a wood boiler set up to heat 2 houses and a greenhouse about 20 years ago. It burned pellets mostly. Had a 10yard hopper iirc setup with augers to feed it, like a little grain silo. Filled it with pellets fed from a grain transfer auger. Burned tons and tons of those pellets a year, ended up costing more than the propane boiler had cost to install and operate and was less reliable and more labor intensive. Ended up tearing it out when the firebox burned out in 4 years iirc. I think he's under estimating his burn rate but that entire log pile might last 2 winters depending on how warm he wants the shop to be.

Slowly but surely getting there

Exactly. I watch another RU-vidr who has a wood boiler and he cuts into whole manageable logs. If you split the logs they burn faster and you will be refilling the bin more frequently. You want a slow hot burn, like coal.

Matt might figure it out big chunks burn longer

His boiler is (will be) a gasifier. The bottom of the stack is what burns. There is no air moving at the top of the stack. As the bottom burns the stack shifts down. Larger logs don’t shift as well. Central Boiler recommends 2 x 4 size. I like to think of it as 8 or 9 square inches, or 3 x 3.

You can stack smaller pieces more tightly than big round ones. The newfangled boilers nearly shut down until it calls for heat so you don’t waste as much.

I know I was thinking how satisfying a sound it is.

Hay bale conveyor

@Harold Komm We used the same elevator for both ear corn and hay bales. The older elevators would handle the split wood better.

@@normstephens8354 the older style is what i was thinking of.

I saw article of guy doing his work shop.thermal mass of concrete takes a long time to heat and he learned not to turn it off see videos.. possible space units better. plus high ceiling guess where heat goes..

@@peter-pg5yc I have a 2500 sq/f chalet up in the mountains. It hits -35C in the winter. I use the boiler for all 3 levels and the garage, and I can 100% confirm that space heaters are nowhere as efficient. Yes heat rises, but simply running ceiling fans in the correct mode will send it back down. I've NEVER been so comfortable throughout the winter. Feet always warm, no forced air breezes, very uniform heat. PLUS...it's FREE except the small circ pumps...

@@High_Caliber how many acres of woodland do you burn per year? My feeling is that wood burning is only free for a few years?

@@ramdynebix ACRES? lol. I burn about 10 cords of wood. That's about 2-3 large-ish trees per year. I have ~100 acres of woods here, many of which were burned in wildfires and need to be dropped for safety. I cut, clean burn, then bring the ashes back to the forest floor. It's completely organic and sustainable forever. If I set a hydro generator into my creek I'll be 100% self-sustained and absolutely 0 impact on the property. Softwood regrows in ~10-20 years so only logging (clearcutting) is really damaging.

I had a 20' x 45' woodshed...open on the ends, with a tin roof. i could pull my pickup right in, unload and drive right out the other end. The floor must have had a 6" bed of sawdust on it. Even when I wasn't splitting wood, it was a cool place to hang out with my dog, especially when it rained

For an outdoor wood boiler you can burn 3' x24" logs last alot longer

Just plant 10 trees for every tree cut down for firewood then should have a pretty good wood supply in the years to come

Yes, cut the second to last short, then the last round will not stand up on end.

Now you all understand why Amish people are in such great shape??? Yep you won't meet many fat Amish people! Because they work the old ways!!! Trump 2024

You can actually make your logs burn much longer if you just cut your log every 4 to 8 inches and don't split it at all. Having a thick, full round piece like that- it will burn all through the night in a fire place (and a boiler too I assume). It doesn't burn quite as hot, but it will last much longer. So you'll want a mix of regular split logs to get it good and hot with a lot of coals, and then you stack on a few of those full sized discs vertically onto the coals and they will stay burning all through the night.

@@calholli With a gassification boiler you don't normally burn all through the night... (except when very cold and you need to, but for a house that should be planned to be max a week or two in a year, for a workshop you can probably just tolerate some cold). Ideally you load once, burn at highest efficiency (typically at rated power) for say 6-12h and put the heat into the buffer tank (which should be inside). That should last you the rest of the day (or even more when not too cold, so you could burn every second day and still keep consistent heat).

@@calholli have you owner a outside wood boiler? The full 3' logs split one time is recommended and worked longest.