log splitters

ha ha ha</p>


After a few logs with that leg pumping log splittingthingie, I bet you would make it into a boat anchor. LOLI usea 27 ton splitter from Tractor Supply. Nothing fancy but it can split horizontally or on the vertical and can tow it at highway speedbehind truck if need be. Sure beats asking my wife to continue using that sledge and maul. LOL.</p>


Keifer, a RTV wannabe</p>
 
Hey Peanut do you think you could fill this shed up for me? It is 20 ft. long X12 ft. deep and 8ft. tall in the back to 10ft. in the front. It hold about 15 cords plus I have the pile of slab wood which is easily another 3-5 cord. We like it warm when the wind blows up on top of the mountain. We keep it around 74F inside plus run the snowmelt so I don't have to shovel. It is a lot of work but even with buying the slabs and paying the Amish boys $10 an hour i don't have more than $550 dollars into a winters worth of heat and hot water. We fire the boiler after Labor day and run it till Memorial day. It also heats our hot water. We used less than 180 gallons of propane for cooking and summer time hot water. When that propane truck pulls up it is about $400. That is why he only comes once a year.</p>
 
mine does the horizontol or vertical and can be towed but it says the max speed is 35mph . i'm pleased with it so far with my disability this thing is a real helper . i'm already thinkin of ways to use it as a press.lol.</p>
 
das alot of wood muleman!! i feel for you guys who have to do this to survive but atleast you don't have them high untilty bills like we do.</p>
 
BC...........A couple of reasons to shut down the heat pump. </p>


The heat exchanger/fan is down under the house in the basement/crawl space. This area is unheated except of what it picks up throught the floor. We block off the air intake and registers to prevent that for sure drafts that are caused by the cold air the ducting picks up and flows into the house.........</p>


I guess bragging rights that for sure we depend on the stove to keep us warm and toasty.</p>


Lastly, I am CHEAP........I hate turning that thing on cause then I am wasting that money that I could use for something besides feeding TVA employees.........</p>


I go to bed in the 10pm to 11pm range, stoke the stove, and then come rain or shine/summer or winter I get up around 4am or so...........Easy to stir the coals that are still hot enough so the aux fan on the stove is still kicking in and out and get the place going while my coffee is perkin...............</p>


Dennis</p>
 
ok i done went and got me some logs and split dem yesterday to see how long it would take. now this is just a one man job i had the rhino backed up right next to it that way i could just roll them right into the slot now i split about 7 logs in 35 minutes but these was wet logs the tree was not a downed tree like i thought it was just blown over and the roots was still feeding it. so the time took a bit longer to split the wood but i ran out and had to go back for another load all together i done about 13/14 logs and it came up to just under a face cord so with the time i'm saying about 1 hour and 20 minutes for a face cord of this wet stuff and about 1 hour for a dry face cord.</p>


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now the second question here being i'm a newbie splitter when you come across a wet"green tree" do you leave the logs whole for a month or two then split of do you split them right then and there. the reason i'm askin is yesterday it prety much tore them apart instead of splitting them they was wet infact when the wedge went in water seeped out.</p>
 
Those must be small or short logs if it takes 14 of them to make a face cord. I figure one medium sized tree can generate a face cord.</p>


I like to split when it's either green or dead and dry. It's the "in-between" that's the hardest to split.</p>


What kind of tree is it that was giving you trouble? Oak can be dead and on the ground and still retain moisture inside after a few months.</p>


I don't leave logs laying around. When I start on the tree, its processed all the way through stacking.</p>
 
i cut the logs about 14"/15" long and the tree was about 10" maybe 12" in diameter ionly have about half of it done i still got to get the rest of it done it was a tall and linky tree i'm gonna try to go get the rest of it today i figure maybe about 15 more logs off it and i'll be finished with it plus it's getting to the top and the logsare starting to taper off to little 4"er's</p>


i need to make a measureing stick to mark my logs that way they are all the same size . and for storage i don't have anything outside to cover the up so i'm gonna make use of an old shed with some flood lights i have mounted on the roof. it's 10x14 with a cement floor and the sides are about6' high so that should hold a good bit of wood and the lights might help out on the moisture too.</p>


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the tree i'm splitting right now is a live oak and she got some knots in her too. i just thought it might have needed to dry more sisne it was ripping apart instead of splitting. i'm trying to just get all theoak trees right now then i'm gonna get the others .the side of the highway is covered with hardwood trees that i can get. the parish comes by and cuts them down and leaves a stump about 3 feet stickin out so i figure i can come by and cut that stump down another 2 feet.</p>
 
Tommy.......</p>


Thoughts..........Running lights on that wood is NOT really gonna do much except run up your electric bill. A covered shed is excellent and with open walls it will be able to breathe. My stove which is kinda common takes 18" wood max. My measuring device is from my elbow to the tips of my fingers stretched out on the log as I chain saw it up. I try to cut most stuff in the 16" to 18" range. I think one will find this is a pretty marketable size and smaller might be shorting folks a bit if you are calling it a "face" cord. By the way, a rick, which is one half of a true cord is marketable and a good pickup load, this is 2'X4'X8'. A name is just a name and around here it is often just called a truck load rather than the confusion naming it. If I buy a cord, I want and expect that............You dont buy a gallon of milk with 1/3 of it gone?</p>


Dont know about live oak; but I imagine it would be fairly "twisty" grain as the tree itself is fairly bent. That is why it is tearing apart on you. The grain twists around the tree basically and as you split you are "tearing" through that grain. Doesnt matter to me about how dry the log is. A LOG by the way is not the cut up chunks or blanks that you are going to split; but the whole tree or 6' or so sections of the tree. Where how dry the log is is how long I have to let it "cure" so it will burn efficiently. If you are spitting "green" wood NOW, it will be best to let it dry till next fall at the earliest.................anyway.....Just thoughts......God bless........Dennis</p>


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the lights areon in that shed all the timeand there is no switch to turn them off so they are there .lol as for as the live oak yes it's a twisty wood and that could be why it's riping apart. the selling thing i plan on just telling people to pull up their pickup truck and laod it up and thats it i figure from what prople are telling me 150 for a truck load would be a really good deal so i think thats what i'm gonna set the price at unless i hear it drops i figure my shed will hold about 5 truck loads i don't know this is my first time doing this so next year will be better i took some pictures of what i split and i'm gonna post them in a bit i'm about to go run and cut a few more trees up while my hand warmers are still warm.i got one in each pocket of my jacket and in my gloves. thanks for all the info from you professionals</p>
 
Tommy,</p>


For a measuring stick, just use your chainsaw. What's the length of your bar? You can then put your chainsaw bar parallel with the log (with the tip at the very end) and get your eyeball on the bark where you're going to cut.</p>


You say you're getting the oaks now and the others later. What are the other kinds? Oak has a very long "shelf life". It can lay on the ground dead for a few years without anything more than a little surface rot. I grab the maple, cherry, ash (in that order) since they don't last nearly as long.</p>


Some oak, ash, elm & locust can get "stringy" and yes, you tear though them instead of them popping apart.</p>


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Hand warmers? Come on mah! time to man up and get to work. As I type it is down to 6F and supposed to be in the -5F range by morning. If you what to make a quick marker just cut a piece of 2X4 and tack of screw a shorty piece on the end. Hook it on the end and mark your cuts with a spray bomb or a wax pencil. You get more heat out of wood that has seasoned for a year. You should try to stack it outside in rows a few feet apart for about 6 months. It needs the sun and air flow to dry out nice. That is why my shed is just posts and a roof with a vertical 2X4 at the end of each row. even just thrown on a pile will season it good.</p>
 
here's some pictures of the splitter and the wood the wood pile is about 10' long and in some spots 4' high i need to make a rack the wood is motly live oak but some is white oak and it splits much better.</p>


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My woodsplitter is the ultimate in simplicity. Needs no gas or hydraulics beyond an occasional beer. Just me with my 8lb. splitting maul. Works especially well when the temps are 0 or below--wood splits instantly.</p>


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[quote user="D&D Farm"] Dont know about live oak; but I imagine it would be fairly "twisty" grain as the tree itself is fairly bent. </p>


[/quote]Your right about the live oak, the grain on ALL live oaks are swirling grain wood. Tommy, that will be some of the toughest wood your machine will challage. Another wood you DON'T want to deal with, and it's very popular in the swamps is Bodark wood. Very strong PEROID !!! Bodark, is french, ( as you coonass' know, "bois d'arc" ) meaning the " wood of the bow " . The wood of this tree, years ago, was to make longbows and many other weapons. Due to it's density, it great for everything, fence posts to fancy woodcarving. Great for making natural fences, windbreaks, being Bodark is not prone to decay, years ago, farmers planted rows of these trees for many purposes for hedgerows & such. Stay away from the Bodark trees !!!!</p>


Just thought I'd throw that in ~~~~~</p>


...... Two Guns >>></p>


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[quote user="Kubota Kanook"]</p>


Peanut......We call these logs in these parts.....eh!</p>
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[/quote]</p>


you got dat right if i was to even show up wit a log dat size i tink my rhino would start itself up and run off . looks like that guy got him a few dollars for that log dare. they will come to your house and cut down and haul off the tree if it's big enough. i think the cut off point is like 24"for a pine tree but if it's really tall and straight they might take it if it's thinner. not to long ago right after the huricae a guy i know who buys all myold batteries was cleaning up trees and came across an old oak tree that was atleast 5' in diameter well i was at the dump when he came to try to get it off his trailer it was a no go his winch wouldn't move it and the truck couldn't pull it off too. so i told him why not make money off it and get them to unload it and the guy kinda scratched his head . i told him about this loggin company i think it's "TAYLOR LOGIN " but anyways he looked them up the next day and told them what he had and they was in the area so they sent a truck to come see well they bought it for a few hundred bucks plus unloaded it too now he takes all his big trees to them instead of the dump.</p>
 
I have to confess considerable 'hardwood envy' when I see or hear about all the lovely hardwoods that most of you have access to for firewood. Up here we live on spruce and pine and (for those like me who are equal opportunity burners) poplar (also known as Aspen). The latter burns hot but quick and leaves lots of ashes. There are a few birch trees around, but not on my property. But even oak will split more easily when it is well below freezing. Especially if you have a really big maul, like the one at www.lehmans.com (site that sells lots of neat stuff for off-grid living):</p>


http://www.lehmans.com/store/Stoves___Wood_Cutting__Splitting__and_Hauling___Heavy_Duty_Splitting_Maul___12450?Args=</p>
 
[quote user="Onfoot"]</p>


My woodsplitter is the ultimate in simplicity. Needs no gas or hydraulics beyond an occasional beer. Just me with my 8lb. splitting maul. Works especially well when the temps are 0 or below--wood splits instantly.</p>


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onfoot you da man anyone who can brave da cold like you should beable to split dat would wit his teeth. stay in shape and post more pics of that perty kinkade country. you know wit you standing like dat you could make a malboro comercial.lol</p>
 
[quote user="Kubota Kanook"]</p>


Peanut......We call these logs in these parts.....eh!</p>
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Well those are nice looking logs. Some of the maple we just did makes those look small. i would have left them lay but the Amish boys said they would wrestle them so we cut them to length and rolled them in the backhoe bucket to haul up out of the bottom land. got 2 or 3 pieces and it filled the bucket. About 8-10 of them we had to use wedges or take the saw to halve them to load on my splitter. They made a good bit of wood in the stacks. I prefer ash as it burns hot and lasts longer. I have about one more year of tops to cut up then we will start on the ash trees. There is a bug attcking them and you are not allowed to ship them outside your county so they are better for firewood and about worthless for lumber. It is a stringy wood as well. They make baseball bats out of it at a company about 30 miles away from me.</p>


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