Thunderbird 840 Loader with Keto delimber/processor

Keto 1000 Processor on Thunderbird 840

Saw trimming butt

Processors are among the amazing devices that have changed the way logging is accomplished. From the beginning of time, sturdy woodsmen have chopped or sawed fallen trees into logs by cutting off the limbs and cutting the trees to usable lengths. Until as recently as the late 1940's it was done with axes and hand saws. At that time the development of the "Oregon chain" made chainsaws practical and the next 40 or 50 years were dominated by the chainsaw. The advent of the computer, however made very complex devices such as this processing head possible. It has an amazing number of moving parts the movement of which is managed by computer and ultimatly the operator who has a couple of joysticks to rune the the host machine with buttons all over them for the control of this processing head.

the long and the short of it is that you can pick up a tree (limbs and all) and feed it through the processor stripping off the limbs, and measuring the length and diameter in the process and cut the logs out of it as you go and dump them in a pile for subsequent loading and trucking to market.

There are several manufacturers of these heads, and they are typically made in varying sizes. the Keto 1000 is the largest of the Keto family of heads and will accept a tree up to 30" on the big end. In the basic cycle, you pick up a tree, trim the butt end to get it squared up and also zero the measuring device, then you slack the grabs (which have knives on the sides of them and advance the tracks pulling the tree through the processor striping off the limbs and continuing until the desired length is reached. Then you buck a log off the tree and due it again until the tree is fully utilized.