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Tyler Howell
01-21-2007, 9:43 AM
It's time. The Stihl did its job, so now I need to split, stack and get this stuff off the ground. If you are familiar with Paper Birch it will rot if you don't split or kerf your logs soon. I just want to move it one time:doh: .
So any recomended manufactures. Gas or electric:dunno: Vertical looks like the way to go. A lot of this stuff is 12 - 24" in diameter.
TIA

Curt Fuller
01-21-2007, 10:40 AM
This is what I use...I call it the Armstrong. http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_200325117_200325117

It also gives the wood one more opportunity to warm you up!

Jim Becker
01-21-2007, 11:19 AM
If you bought a tractor with a 3pt, consider a tractor mounted version. If and when I buy one, that's what I'm going with...saves many hundreds of dollars on something I'd only use periodically. Tractor Supply and Northern Tool both have them in their catalogs. You also don't need to deal with tough starts in cold weather that way...the tractor will always fire up!

Tyler Howell
01-21-2007, 11:19 AM
I got one of those Curt and use it every week to demention some tinder. But there is some serious chunks out there:o

Steve Evans
01-22-2007, 8:17 AM
We used to heat our farmhouse with wood when I was a kid. As the only son, one of my hobbies was cutting/splitting/stacking next year's firewood. We had a tractor mounted splitter,but if the wood was heavy and split easily, I preferred the Armstrong way, faster and easier. One hint, split when it's nice and cold.

Steve

Al Willits
01-22-2007, 9:27 AM
Wondering why you like the vertical splitter?
Years back we found the horizontal one easier to use, personal choice though.
btw I have a monster maul ya can have, if I can find it, darn near killed me last time I used it....muscles ached for a week...:D

Al

Tyler Howell
01-22-2007, 10:25 AM
I've rented a few in the past and that height is real hard on the back. Concidering the size I'm getting from the local loggers, I'don't know if I could handle them.
I was out on 5* temps last week and it was like hitting rock with that splitter. That stuff would bearly dent.

Steve Dewey
01-22-2007, 10:33 AM
If you bought a tractor with a 3pt, consider a tractor mounted version. If and when I buy one, that's what I'm going with...saves many hundreds of dollars on something I'd only use periodically. Tractor Supply and Northern Tool both have them in their catalogs. You also don't need to deal with tough starts in cold weather that way...the tractor will always fire up!

A couple gotcha's here:

1 - small compact tractor's have low hydraulic flow, often less than 5 gpm which makes for slow cycle time. Probably not an issue unless you are working w/ 2 people.

2- Plumbing rear hydraulics if you don't already have them will cost $200 on the low end, plus more for hoses.

3 - Adding a PTO hydraulic pump will bring the speed in line with a gas powered splitter (which typically have 2 speed pumps), but requires a reservoir and plumbing which brings the total expense higher than a gas powered splitter.

4- It is very handy to have the tractor bucket available for moving wood when splitting - hard to do if the splitter is behind.

Sooo. If you heat with wood (multiple cords per year), I'd buy a good gas splitter. If you are just trying to split the occasional tree that comes down for your fireplace, a tractor mount will be slower, but has less maint. and may be (slightly) cheaper - depending on plumbing required.

Fred Voorhees
01-22-2007, 7:47 PM
Tyler,

I have a splitter that will do either horizontal or vertical and if you go with a gas splitter (which I definitely recommend) you can alleviate the height deal by using car ramps to raise the horizontal method. I found that using it in the horizontal position was such a back breaking way since you had to bend over to work with the pieces on the rail of the splitter. Putting it up on car ramps does raise the level to which you have to lift the pieces up onto the rail, but you are bending over way less this way. And yes, vertical is nice for those large chunks that you can simply roll over to the splitter and stand up underneath the wedge. There are some things that electric may have have over gas, but log splitters are not one of them - - - go with gas.

Barry Stratton
01-22-2007, 8:03 PM
I have no experience with gas or electirc splitters, we do all our birch and spruce with an axe, or a sledge and wedges. Birch splits real easy.

Are you saving some choice pieces for turning blanks? rumor has it you own a lathe.....

Dan Oelke
01-23-2007, 4:31 PM
Some birch might split real easy.
The yellow &$@! birch I cut at my uncles place a couple of years ago was a bear. Using the gas splitter we were running the splitter all the way down. It was as bad as the elm to split. Lots of stringy cross grain in that stuff.

Now the hard maple - that takes just one nice whack with the maul.

Of course when it's about 10 below after a week of cold weather is about the best time - if the log is frozen it splits rather than be mush.