Log splitter and a flying log - safety

[med1pilot]

I had the exact thing happen. I have a 28 ton Wolfe Ridge splitter and was splitting a gnarly oak log. I wear a full loggers helmet with hearing protection and a full screened face shield. I heard a sound like a gunshot and felt my helmet jammed back on my head. The face shield had been bent in almost touching my nose. The impact spot was just below my left eye. I found a 16" splinter of oak about 3" across and about 1" thick on the ground next to me. I don't even want to think what that would have done to me without the helmet.

 

[vjreb1865]

I keep a gloved hand over the wood, I’ve split many pieces that just creak and pop and I’ve always suspected they could come flying out, a stinging hand much better than a damaged face.

 

[shooterdon]

Wow. I have been lucky I guess.

I sold my splitter three years ago and used a commercial processor for firewood. I am buying a home use processor this year, and it has a cage around the splitting area. Seems like a good idea.

Hope you recover quickly.

 

[nyone]

Can I make a guess that on this splitter the wedge moves and the flat plate stays stationary? In this case it almost always puts the operator in harm's way.

 

[Fallon]

Check out the Hudraulic Press Channel in YouTube. Basically some scandanavian guy crushing things in a huge industrial hydraulic press in a machine shop. It's amazing to find out most everything is a spring. A stack of post it notes will explode like a handgrenade when crushed. It's made me appreciate (and fear) the forces involved a LOT more. A wood splitter can be in the same league.

 

[cqaigy2]

I saw it happen to my dad. we were trying out a new splitter and had a big knotty chunk of wood to test it out. Well, it had a bit of trouble, then it let loose and hit him right in the man danglers. He started to do the curly shuffle around the yard. I was in tears; I just could not stop laughing. Luckly he was okay after the pain stopped.

schadenfreude. New word for the day. Not saying i wouldn't have been laughing too.

 

[pacosperson]

Today I was splitting wood with a 25-ton log splitter as I have done a 1000x before. I had a piece of oak in, and the ram was moving forward as normal when I heard a pop, then saw a flash of a log flying. When I came to, I was lying on my back in the pile of logs, blood dripping from my face, and unable to see very well. It seems the log hit me. Long story short, after the trip to the ER I ended up with a broken orbital socket, some stitches, and a mild concussion.

My question is, what would cause a log to come off the splitter like a rocket? I realize it is under pressure, but I never saw a 20lb log become a full-blown projectile. I was lucky; I had my safety glasses on (the lens was damaged from the log), but not sure how I would have prevented it or how I could have been better prepared. The machine was in the horizontal position where you pick the log up and set it in the machine when this happened. Thinking that having it in the vertical position may be better because if it spits one out it would at least be at ground level.

You say, "moving forward as normal". My splitter always gives me plenty of warning when it loads up and runs into resistance. Knots on locust, cherry and oak can run my 25 ton to a full stall that I have to reverse out of. But I ALWAYS hear it load up. If yours was chugging along as normal when the event occurred, I wonder if it ran into a rifle or shotgun cartridge someone left in a fork or something. That meets the conditions you describe.

 

[Little Red Tractor]

Never seen or heard of air being a factor. Certainly could be a piece of the equation. I think it's more likely a knot of series of them in the wood. I've had pieces pop, but never as badly as described here.

 

[BubbaLouie]

Today I was splitting wood with a 25-ton log splitter as I have done a 1000x before. I had a piece of oak in, and the ram was moving forward as normal when I heard a pop, then saw a flash of a log flying. When I came to, I was lying on my back in the pile of logs, blood dripping from my face, and unable to see very well. It seems the log hit me. Long story short, after the trip to the ER I ended up with a broken orbital socket, some stitches, and a mild concussion.

My question is, what would cause a log to come off the splitter like a rocket? I realize it is under pressure, but I never saw a 20lb log become a full-blown projectile. I was lucky; I had my safety glasses on (the lens was damaged from the log), but not sure how I would have prevented it or how I could have been better prepared. The machine was in the horizontal position where you pick the log up and set it in the machine when this happened. Thinking that having it in the vertical position may be better because if it spits one out it would at least be at ground level.

Cut rounds square, careful with knotted or forked pieces.. I tend to back up a bit when splitting those. To beside or behind where my valve is..
I never stand directly over the wood being split and offset from it just a bit on all pieces until it's mostly split.

Splitting vertically is taking some danger out of it. But it's way rougher on the back.
I usually only split all the very large rounds vertically into quarters, then swap back to horizontal..

If you were splitting water oak, that's normal. It's got super tight grain and it's dense and it's common for the wedge to stop and then for the two pieces to fly out sideways. Water oak has the opposite splitting experience from red oak, which splits very easily.

 

[ning]

Wow, glad you're ok.

I have had splits pop and come flying out of the splitter. Some of the wood species I have don't do it and some do. After getting hit a few times (though not in the face!) I now move a step away and turn away when splitting wood that tends to do that.

I've seen splits "jump" a bit and that's when I realized that my zipper is right at the same height as my splitting table.
I turn sideways now... prefer to learn this one the easy way.

I've definitely had splits go flying when using my splitting maul (dinged up my shins more than once); less so with my hydraulic splitter.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

I'm wondering if you could fabricate something like heavy chain curtain? I know safety things are a nuisance slowing down work. Some sort of steel cover activated by a pedal you step on.

 

[TimBuck2]

From you description of what happened, I agree with John_Mc. The ram must have been moving fast and quickly loaded preassure on the log that was "set" so going to slip of the ram anyhow, just not that fast and that far unless the ram was moving likewise.

 

[John_Mc]

Never seen or heard of air being a factor. Certainly could be a piece of the equation. I think it's more likely a knot of series of them in the wood. I've had pieces pop, but never as badly as described here.

I'm not saying air in the system is the only cause of this problem. However, it's the most common reason I've seen for splits to go flying off a hydraulic splitter. I work with a lot of volunteers with our local firewood donation program. I also work with a number of the 15 co-owners of a conserved working forest to harvest & process firewood. Lots of these folks bring their own splitters - and they are in varying states of repair. On very rare occasions we just see that random odd piece that flies off.

However, We've had 4 occasions that I can recall where it was happening more often. We know it's splitter related, because we are running 4 or 5 splitters on the same wood, and only one of them starts throwing wood while all of the others are fine. If you want closely during a split, you can see the cylinder jerk forward when the wood lets got. That does not happen with a properly functioning hydraulic system. Bleed the system on the offending splitter, and it stops throwing wood.

 

[m5040]

A number of years ago, I had a neighbor who was splitting wood with a splitter on the tractor. He was working with oak. He had been working with wood for many years. A piece split off and came flying at him. It hit him on the side of his head. It broke his jaw, knocked out some of his teeth and crushed his skull. He spent 6 months in the hospital and in recovery and rehabilitation. He was never the same afterwards. Since that accident, I built a shield on the end of my splitter and stand behind that when splitting.

Pictures please

 

[Code54]

To answer a few questions. I was splitting Pin Oak and it was cut a month ago. I have used the splitter since the "incident," and it is working perfectly, and the ram is moving slowly and smoothly. Nothing flew out and it is the same batch of wood. I believe it is an 11-second cycle time, so it is nothing too special. The wedge is sharp - actually sharpened the night before the incident along with a engine oil change. I found the split that hit me (it was easy since every other piece was stacked in the log rack) - no knots and no forks - just very straight grain. At the time, I did not hear the machine bog at all. I split around 4 cords so far this year and understand the bogging sound and always step back and away when I hear it. This was running smoothly. I did notice that one end was not perfectly straight but nothing too crazy.

I often wear a logging helmet, but honestly, this one hit me so hard that I am pretty sure the face screen would have easily folded in (still would not mind having it on). I told my wife I think I am going to wear my full-face motocross helmet from now on!

After going to the facial surgery center yesterday I found out I actually "shattered" the lower orbital and broken the sinus cavity a bit, but nothing too bad and luckly do not need surgery. The stiches are out and that will leave a scar above my eye but hey I am old and married so oh well. They even said my eyes are both still even so I would say all for all it turned out pretty well.

 

[two_bit_score]

Glad to hear the good report! You’re very blessed that you weren’t seriously hurt. Better get that lotto ticket.

 

[Code54]

LOL - I think you are right there!
THANKS

 

[dlctcg]

The stiches are out and that will leave a scar above my eye but hey I am old and married so oh well.

And... besides as I tell my wife... Every scar is from an adventure (even if unplanned) & has a story!!!

Glad you are doing ok...

 

[Sawyer Rob]

You guys are sure making me happy I bought a better designed splitter, even if it did cost me more money!

My splitter has never thrown any splits at me, not even one time.

SR

 

[shooterdon]

Want to applaud the OP for posting this. It may have been a "freak" accident, but it has sparked some interesting discussion and ideas.

The only splitter I have owned was a dual action DR and it had a force of about 15T IIRC. Maybe we were just lucky or maybe it stalled out before we had a bad result.

Like I posted earlier, we are looking at purchasing a small processor. It is designed so this type of accident will not put the operator at risk. It has 27T of splitting force

I respect the opinions of Sawyer Rob, but I doubt a more expensive splitter is the solution. The question is, "What does a better splitter have that prevents this from happening?"