One Man Basic Wood Splitter

Well when I was home alone a few years ago when we had a problem with people breaking into our house while we were gone, I was splitting some wood, and I believe the 2 people breaking in didn't know I was home, because they came to a little gate thing between us and one neighbor(before the neighbor moved in and made that area into a horse corral) and were surprised to see me. They tried to act like they were just wanting to know about the neighborhood and such. I was a little uncommunicative and kept on un-neglecting the maul. They seemed to get the message because I think after that we quit having problems with people breaking in, hence saying you'd be surprised how many problems an axe(maul) will solve

 

That machine has been on you tube for years. The main reason I don't use a power splitter is that I have to load whole pieces of wood into my trailer and haul them home then unload whole pieces then p[ick them up and put them on the splitter. Here is how I do my fire wood gathering. I take my hand cart out into the woods looking for a down hil run back to the truck and trailer. If I can a park right next to the tree and don't use the cart. I drop the tree and cut it into 18 inch lengths. I stand them up where they lay. I split them right there in the woods. I only split them if they are bigger then 5 inches as rounds burn just great when cutting standing dead and down oak. I load up and go home . Unload righ onto my rows ready for burning. I think a power splitter is more work in lifting . I have done it both ways. Even on large rounds like huge oak trunks I can hand split them faster with a maul when working by myself. Using a power splitter to me is a two man job.

I do like how little effort the man has to use to operate it. I also like how the splitting platform is elevated but it causes him to have to bend over for every piece of wood. Having it set up with a dump truck feeding him at the same level would be great. Use like a feed chute onto the platform then toss the split wood into a bin.

KF

 

I no longer split logs by hand, maul or axe, but I saw an idea that I wished I knew when I was younger, the axeman put his log pieces standing up inside an old tire. With many log pieces in the tire the split pieces stayed put which save bending and picking up cut pieces that invariably fly as the axe split the log. YMMV,
GB

 

Gotta give this a try. Thanks for the tip!!