Building a wood splitter

[Glenn]

This fellow must be part blacksmith (grin)

 

[Jim Coke]

Scary .... OSHA ??   Don't think I would want my fingers any where close to that one...   I do that much work with a hand splitting maul... and faster..

 

 

Good luck

[VaughnT]

I don't see it as scary.  I mean we mostly work with red hot steel and open fires with just as much proximity and personal protection.  

 

It does seem like a rather large contraption and I wonder about it's ability to split gnarly woods.  I have a DR wood splitter that will go through anything, including sweetgum.  This guy, though, doesn't seem to have enough backside to fight through knots or twisted grain.

 

Looks like he was splitting some really nice wood with a minimum of effort.  Kudos to him for coming up with something that's far easier on the back than a splitting maul!

[Frosty]

Vaughn: Is that the DR using flywheels instead of hydraulics? I LOVE those, were I to be in the market I'd buy a DR at twice the price.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Eddie Mullins]

Man this is odd timing, I just saw a link to this very similar contraption a couple days ago http://www.wimp.com/choppingfirewood/ .  My first thought was a potetial platform to be modified into a treadle hammer : ) .

 

I see after watching Glen's I see there are a few of them on youtube. You can see a fellow struggling a little on this one

[EtownAndrew]

It doesn't look worth the trouble. He demonstrated splitting little easy straight grained logs that split with only half hearted effort using a hand swung maul.  

[SmoothBore]

My first thought was about how easy it would be to convert a "Cherry Picker" type Shop Crane, into one of these splitters.

 

I liked the second design, ... with the counter-weighted splitter, ... better than the spring return version, ... because the inertia of the counter-weight helps do the "work".

 

 

 

 

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[Glenn]

Anything with straight grain splits easily. Add a knot or a twist and you need to get serious. Then there are those crotch pieces where the tree forks, and certain woods like sycamore that suggest you use the best tool available, the chainsaw, to work them down to size. That is said after I cut and recut a 28 inch sycamore that was a leaner and could cause serious damage to a building. The result was blocks of wood 4x4, 4x6 and 4x9 by 16 inch long. Man those stack nice (grin) Solid too. Limbs 6 inches diameter and under were not split but used as all nighter logs.

[iron quake]

Nice idea if you like cutting meat with a stone ax, clumsy, slow and dangerous!

[stovestoker]

Is that guy splitting balsa wood?

[VaughnT]

Frosty, the DR is sure enough running with flywheels and no hydraulics whatsoever.  Have yet to find a situation where it doesn't split.

[Frosty]

Frosty, the DR is sure enough running with flywheels and no hydraulics whatsoever.  Have yet to find a situation where it doesn't split.

 

The guy who demoed one at the local "Craig Tayler" had some birch burls he split for demos and as anybody who splits wood knows, burls don't split. The DR just blew through them like they were straight grained. Not smooth and straight but split, fast and easy on 120v house current.

 

Frosty the Lucky.

[KRS]

I could not resist, for those of you who haven't seen it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmtMv7Cz0HA

[EtownAndrew]

The widow maker is scary! I noticed after I finished watching it that my gut had tensed up.

[madax]