bpirger said:I've had some red maple crotches and knots be a little stringy. I have the TroyBuilt spliter that has the welds made on the cylinder itself. I used to just let it power through and almost "cut" the wood, but after reading about the TroyBuilt failures at the cylinder welds (see a thread from this summer on the TroyBuilt) I don't let it push like that anymore. I just go for the easy split and I can throw the bigger curvy piece in the door of the Garn. That thread has me a little worried about the troybuilt, but it has been flawless for the 5 years I've owned it. Haven't met anything I couldn't split, but a few of these 24" beech rounds about 24" long I can't seem to pick up. I've almost though about trying to split the wrong way, vertically I mean.
My own take on the splitter failure . . . s#@t happens . . . anything made by a person can and will fail eventually . . . the design may not be the best, but it is what it is . . . the fact that you've gone five years with no issues should tell you something . . . I mean we can always worry about what could happen and I personally think it makes sense to baby the splitter a bit and not push it as hard knowing that this is a potential weak point . . . but it is what it is . . .
Final thought . . . the internet is good . . . and bad. You can do lots of research and get opinions on nearly every product made . . . but the one thing you'll soon discover is that if there is a problem in a product it can often be magnified greatly . . . a few bad experiences or failures can suddenly make it seem like this is a wide-spread problem when in fact the vast majority of folks with the product may not have a problem.
