Santa Came Early!

[Caw]

The Country Line gets its 11 second cycle from a 4" bore and 14 gpm. Plenty good enough for my purposes.

Cool that you're making your own! I'm very handy and good at building things with wood but I know relatively nothing about building motors/hydraulics. Only know the basics. Totally different skillet.

 

[Pinesmoke]

I got lucky a month back. I ask a farmer i work with it he knew of any splitters for sale. He said he had 2 he was taking to a consignment auction. I asked how much they would go for. I could get a 22 ton champion for 1k here. He said about 600 bucks. I said the 800 mile round trip with my 4runner and trailer would add 150 bucks in extra gas so I would just grab a new one. He said look, I just replaced the motor for 200 bucks. Give me that and it's good, I gave him 250. A 22 ton hor/vert pink splitter sits out back now.

 

[Caw]

800 miles damn. That's literally me driving to Washington DC and back. Id never do that for a splitter. Up here in NE our concept of distance is very different than in the Midwest.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Little more to it than the splitter. I work up there every other week so it was just a vehicle change and grab it on a trip up.

The company I work for asked me to do this and train my replacement for around a year. The offer was too sweet to pass up.

I can be to I75 in 35 minutes and is just a 375 mile bottle rocket flight from there.

 

[Ashful]

...should get me well below 10 second cycle time on this machine, good enough for me.

Thanks for the link! I'll be measuring this weekend to see if that can fit my machine. I'm at 8 seconds now, and would really like to get below 6 seconds full-cycle at 24" down and back. Not quite the speed of a kinetic splitter, but also without all the limitations that come with those.

You guys who say you're short-cycling must be splitting different stuff than me! I used to short-cycle, but found I'd waste more time muscling the splits apart after, rather than just letting the splitter run full stroke. Red oak pops apart nicely when splitting tangentially, but most of the radial splits require full strokes, most especially those first radial splits in a big 24" diameter round when I'm struggling to hold the thing straight vertical on a footplate on rutted and frozen or unlevel ground.

I've never paid attention to the exact "split" (sorry...), but I'd guess probably half of my work gets full strokes, with only half or less popping apart with short strokes.

 

[Caw]

I'd guess probably half of my work gets full strokes, with only half or less popping apart with short strokes.

This is an interesting thing to consider next time we're all splitting. I'm going to pay attention to it next time. My initial estimate is 75% short strokes on red oak and ash then 50% on Maple.

 

[Ashful]

I have done elm, and that's the worst, but our shagbark hickory is a pretty close second to that. My red oak is highly variable, I guess there are so many species and growing conditions for the broad class we call "red oak". Ash is mostly straight and easy, but of course has nasty areas around branch collars and crotches. Cherry is almost always a rotten mess before I get to split it, so I can't comment on what "good" cherry usually splits like, I just hate the stuff.

Black walnut is pure pleasure to split, usually pin-straight and you could probably pop it apart with little more than a Swiss Army knife. Do walnut by hand, if you want to feel like He Man. Of course it's low BTU and makes a ton of ash, so not something you want to burn unless it fell in your yard and you just need to make it go away.

Other than a little red cedar for kindling, pretty much anything lower on the BTU scale than Walnut and Cherry gets left in the woods or dumped in my burn pit whole. I'm not wasting time or precious shed space on it!

 

[Pinesmoke]

I have done elm, and that's the worst, but our shagbark hickory is a pretty close second to that. My red oak is highly variable, I guess there are so many species and growing conditions for the broad class we call "red oak". Ash is mostly straight and easy, but of course has nasty areas around branch collars and crotches. Cherry is almost always a rotten mess before I get to split it, so I can't comment on what "good" cherry usually splits like, I just hate the stuff.

Black walnut is pure pleasure to split, usually pin-straight and you could probably pop it apart with little more than a Swiss Army knife. Do walnut by hand, if you want to feel like He Man. Of course it's low BTU and makes a ton of ash, so not something you want to burn unless it fell in your yard and you just need to make it go away.

Other than a little red cedar for kindling, pretty much anything lower on the BTU scale than Walnut and Cherry gets left in the woods or dumped in my burn pit whole. I'm not wasting time or precious shed space on it!

All that and walnut is dirty as hell with it's black bark as it separates. Fluffy ash too but hard to beat the smell of the smoke.

 

[Ashful]

I don't have as much problem with the dirt, for me hickory and cherry are the dirtiest woods, as they get infested with powderpost beetle and just make piles of dust everywhere.

You nailed the smell on walnut. Put me blindfolded within 100 feet of black walnut in any form, logs, splits, burning, or even the whole nuts, and I can tell you what I'm smelling. My yard has so many black walnuts, that it's sort of the smell of "home", here.

 

[NHWS]

You guys who say you're short-cycling must be splitting different stuff than me! I used to short-cycle, but found I'd waste more time muscling the splits apart after, rather than just letting the splitter run full stroke. Red oak pops apart nicely when splitting tangentially, but most of the radial splits require full strokes, most especially those first radial splits in a big 24" diameter round when I'm struggling to hold the thing straight vertical on a footplate on rutted and frozen or unlevel ground.

I've never paid attention to the exact "split" (sorry...), but I'd guess probably half of my work gets full strokes, with only half or less popping apart with short strokes.

Most of what I'm splitting is hemlock and alder. Some pine. Much of it fresh cut (a week or three). Some of it cut a few months ago. The only time I have to do a full stroke on that is when there are knots. Often less than 1/4 stroke. Now and then I have to pull the splits apart the last small bit by hand, but it usually just a sliver hanging on.

The rare ornamental cherry, apple, or maple piece generally takes 1/2 stroke or more.

 

[NHWS]

Cherry is almost always a rotten mess before I get to split it, so I can't comment on what "good" cherry usually splits like, I just hate the stuff.

Cherry is about the worst that I split, too, although it's almost always near-green when I see it. Not all that hard to handle, but more likely to take a full stroke than any other species, and the bark sometimes stretches like taffy. I keep a hatchet nearby for the bark if I see any cherry in the stack of rounds,

Other than a little red cedar for kindling, pretty much anything lower on the BTU scale than Walnut and Cherry gets left in the woods or dumped in my burn pit whole. I'm not wasting time or precious shed space on it!

Cherry is a PITA, but it's the highest BTU per cord wood that I've seen here.

Madrone is supposed to be a common species in the Seattle area, but I haven't seen any yet.

 

[Caw]

You guys can send me all your cherry. I love the way it looks, smells, and tastes. I always save some for the smoker. I have a soft spot for it since I like to make furniture. It's easily my favorite wood when though it's a PITA to split.

It's also good to mix in the stacks with all the oak. Load up the stove with oak and a cherry split or two on the coals gets it going nicely. Oak is annoying on its own. Works amazing once it gets going but it can be kind of bitchy and has motivation issues on questionable coal beds. It needs a friend like cherry.

 

[peakbagger]

Of all my "normal" woods I split (Red & Sugar Maple, White & Yellow Birch, Beech and Ash), Yellow birch is probably the worst. for "strings", closely followed by Beech and the occasional Eastern Hop Hornbeam. One thing to point out is I cut all my trees and process them down to 3 to 4 inches diameter so I deal with lot of crown wood and yellow birch crowns tend to be straighter grain than beech. Splitting the small stuff takes about the same cycle time as the big straight trunk rounds so from an BTU/minute splitting efficiency that small stuff is the least efficient use of my time. I used to cut on someone else's property, so I got in the habit of cutting the small diameter stuff. Now that I have an infinite wood supply on my woodlot and will be girdling far more beech than I can cut I suppose I could start leaving bigger tops. It just takes a lot longer for the woods to look "neat" again.

The only cherry I split normally is standing dead or on the ground as is pretty rare on my lot so I try to leave them. Its looking like I will have a right of way cut and paid for by someone else next year on the lot and I included in the agreement that they will have to move all hardwood over 6" to a location I mark out and then they can either chip the smaller diameter wood and disperse the chips in the woods or haul it off. There is at least one nice cherry (for my lot) that in in the way that may get set aside to be turned into boards. There is also some Aspen but trying to ask them to sort it by species is pushing it. The nice part of the right of way as I will be able to get to use it and it opens up a big chunk of my lot. I still have plenty of wood even if doesn't happen, if it does I guess there is couple of years of firewood

 

[brenndatomu]

I'll be measuring this weekend to see if that can fit my machine. I'm at 8 seconds now, and would really like to get below 6 seconds full-cycle at 24" down and back.

I got mine fired up for the first time today...8.8 seconds down and back, full stroke, that's with that cylinder and a 16 GPM pump...pretty happy with that. Just happened to have some 12"ish cherry rounds handy, the 0-5000 PSI inline gauge barely even moved to pop that open.

 

[Ashful]

I never got the chance to measure today, ended up doing a long-overdue final mowing for the year, changing oil in two machines, and driving kids to different activities. But I am definitely NOT happy with my 8-second splitter. If there's a relatively easy path to reduce that, then I'm on it.

New pump, cylinders, lines, and valve are all easy... only money. The suction line bung in the tank will be the primary hold-up, as the present one is undersized for supporting a 23 gpm pump overspun to my max engine RPM, even with a thin wall fitting installed. Carving out the time to drain, clean, drill, weld, paint... that's gonna be a challenge on my current schedule.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

How far does your piston move? If your piston moves 24”, and your splits are 18”, you could shorten the the travel length by 4” and effectively speed up the cycle time by building up the end without the wedge. That’d be 1/6 less throw or something like 17% increase in speed for something that could be made of a split duct taped to the splitter with the grain orientated so it doesn’t split.

 

[peakbagger]

My guess is a wood splitter manufacturer has to be concerned about liability and a super fast splitter is going to have a high potential for someone getting caught in the splitter stroke. I know during the first energy crunch in the eighties when wood burning went mainstream(again), many rental places stopped renting splitters as there insurance companies were raising the rates due to the number of people crushing and severing fingers. I dont hear as much about this type of splitter accidents these days but no doubt they do still occur.

If someone wanted a fast splitter would it make sense to put in a hydraulic accumulator on the return and then discharge it on the forward stroke?.

I have seen a two way splitter that splits in both directions that would effectively reduce cycle time in half.

I know when I am splitting solo, my stock Countryline splitter is fast enough. I take a break whenever my loader bucket gets full, I can mound it up and get about a cubic yard of wood in it and then go to dump it where I plan to stack it. Usually around 5 buckets, about a cord, I either take a break and start stacking or just go find some other project to work on.

 

[brenndatomu]

New pump, cylinders, lines, and valve are all easy... only money. The suction line bung in the tank will be the primary hold-up, as the present one is undersized for supporting a 23 gpm pump overspun to my max engine RPM, even with a thin wall fitting installed. Carving out the time to drain, clean, drill, weld, paint... that's gonna be a challenge on my current schedule.

After it was too late, I realized that I could have picked a better candidate to use as the bones for this project...it started out as an old Huskee 22 ton, and it was cheap, but something with the engine down low on the opposite side from the operators station would have saved me a bunch of time for sure!
You mention overspeeding your pump...what kind is it? I've never seen a 2 stage pump that wasn't designed for 3600 rpm...they are 3000 PSI, is that what you are thinking of?

 

[Caw]

My project thread has been hijacked Im just messing around I don't mind. I'm learning something.

So in other news the pull start on my saw went. Brought it in to get a new one and the whole starter assembly is pretty worn and needs to be replaced. Ordered the part but it's 7-10 days out which means likely after the holiday. Argh. I may just have them slap a temporary rope on it so I can work this week while I wait for the part. That or I'll borrow my Dad's 18" Stihl. I don't like using other people's saws but I also don't like my wife being annoyed there are uncut logs in the driveway for 2 weeks.

 

[brenndatomu]

My project thread has been hijacked

Sorry @Caw , my bad! We can start a separate thread if you'd rather...

 

[Caw]

All good man. Just busting your balls a little bit. 😉

 

[bigealta]

I'd replace the pull cord no biggie.

 

[Pinesmoke]

My project thread has been hijacked Im just messing around I don't mind. I'm learning something.

So in other news the pull start on my saw went. Brought it in to get a new one and the whole starter assembly is pretty worn and needs to be replaced. Ordered the part but it's 7-10 days out which means likely after the holiday. Argh. I may just have them slap a temporary rope on it so I can work this week while I wait for the part. That or I'll borrow my Dad's 18" Stihl. I don't like using other people's saws but I also don't like my wife being annoyed there are uncut logs in the driveway for 2 weeks.

Wives get annoyed, it keeps them occupied.

 

[Caw]

Yeah I'm going to replace the cord then just bring it back to replace the part when it arrives. If it broke beyond doing that I'll just use my dad's saw. It's a nice saw I'll just be extra cautious.

 

[Ashful]

Wives get annoyed, it keeps them occupied.

Mine's been in that state for at least 13 years. Our oldest is 14 years old. Coincidence?

Sorry for spewing splitter chat all over your thread, Caw. I'll take it offline with brenndatomu.