Not surprisingly with the temperatures plummeting firewood is never far from my mind at the moment. I've always wanted something to process the odds and ends of old handles, offcuts and small logs lying around the yard and cope a bit better than the saw-horse does. Cutting small logs is always frustrating with the chainsaw as they jump and roll so much and you make so many cuts for so little wood, get a broken back and are lucky not to dig the saw into the ground or a nail. So welcome to my Wood-Mate.
I had something of a brainwave today and when trying to cross cut a log on an old workmate I came up with a really easy to make firewood processor. The workmate was salvaged from a skip years ago, but any basic bench would do. Just add 4 sash clamps to make a cradle and 2 thick bungie cords to hold the wood securely - then cut with chainsaw.
The addition of an old fish crate (available in random colours to hardy beachcombers ) under the end serves to catch all of the wood from the cuts at the ends
Leaving only the central cuts which are caught by the bungies.
I even tried it with an old birch faggot and it sliced through the birch spray as well. Instant kindling as well as firewood.
In only two loads, about 12 saw cuts, I'd processed 2 or 3 dozen rods, sticks, offcuts and logs and tidied up a lot of old wood lying around the yard.
But the biggest application is probably still to come. I'm keen to try this out on some birch brash on the commons. It has the potential to allow me to process smaller wood which is normally wasted. I can take the tops and feed them directly into the charcoal bins instead of having to split it first.
3 comments:
Great! I love makeshift solutions. Do you have a way to stop at the work bench table level? Helpful tip. When using my Buckingham wood station, I make sure I stop the saw before I exit between the metal uprights. Well I reckon to, and twice I've had to do some serious sharpening after just touching them before the saw stopped.
Ah you spotted the flaw. As its an old and battered workmate it has a good thick top so can absorb plenty of damage. I also use it to cut down my bowl blanks. I've already spotted that by putting a plank offcut on the bottom of the bundles I can use it as a sacrificial base to prevent damage to the workmate. But if I do eventually cut through the workmate top I can put a new plank one on it so we'll see.
I love that "firewood processing station!"
Beats welding up a bunch of tubes (especially if you neither have the tubes, nor know how to weld (me). But, as Richard Law says, be prepared to replace the top. It occurs to me that a couple of 4x4 at right angles to the firewood would lift the bundle off the top, so you could see where the tip of the saw is.
If it really works well, consider screwing pipe flanges (with pipe uprights) into the workmate top. That way you can use the sash clamps for clamping.
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