At Home In The Woods

[tony Cecil]

How would he loose his hand?? I was chopping down on some kindling , and a piece flew up and hit me right between the eyes...hurt mightily...Just a couple of weeks ago....So be careful Tony

 

[Obed]

Get yourself a nice high end wood stove! You will use the same amount or wood and get 100x the heat off of it. I have a High valley catylist stove. The wife resisted for a few years as she likes the looks of it and seeing it. Well this one has a glas door and you can see the fire. We use to heat the room barely to low 70s for 4 hours each day. NOw i can use a similar amount of wood and heat the house all day on that ame quantity of wood. The room can get well past 80 F in the dead of winter depending on what part of the house we open up to allow the heat to flow to. I have a large first floor, bout 2500sqft, not really an open plan either, we use 2 fans and sometimes the blowers on central units to distribute the heat. I figure i cut an easy $100/month off the cold months!

clemsonfor,
We have a high efficiency fireplace. It doesn't seem hungry for wood. Last week, we stoked the FP before bed and it still had hot coals in it at 5 PM the next day. We are still trying to "learn" the FP so we don't yet have a feel for how much wood we will need for an entire season.
Obed

 

[Obed]

While you are still splitting by hand put the log to be split onto a stump or another log. You will not have to bend over so far while splitting and it might improve your aim a bit. Just be very careful! If you miss the wood the maul will keep going and sometimes it attempts to split toes or other body parts. Kudos to you for not giving up.

easygo,
I am a little nervous about putting the log up higher on something for the exact reason you mentioned. I have a particular affection for my toes. My aim is by no means perfected; I still drive the axe/maul too long or too short at times.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Here's another tip for splitting wood. Put the wood in an old tire to keep from having to stand up the piece of wood to split it again.

srossman, I never heard of doing that but it sounds like a great idea. It is time-consuming to have to keep repositioning the wood pieces.
Obed

 

[Obed]

That track loader is becoming a permanent addition to your property. I hope he is letting you use it as it's saving him money storing it there.

Yes, it has been here a long time, about 7 months. I think I'm ready for it to leave. No, I don't get to use it. I sure would love to though. I can easily think of several good uses for it around here.
Obed

 

[IndyIan]

I'm holding off on a hyd splitter for as long as I can. My trick is to rip knotty chunks with my saw. I cut 16" firewood so a 20" bar lets you cut parallel to the grain and its surprisingly fast if you've got a sharp chain and a saw with some grunt. So I try to leave myself rounds or halfs that I can split a piece off with one whack so I'm not hitting the same chunk of wood 5 times.
I did a 3 cord ash tree this summer with some rounds over 40" this way. I ripped the crotches or spots with a huge branch on one side as I bucked it up. I still had to rip a few chunks that I couldn't split, but I also didn't have to move 300lb+ rounds more than a couple feet.

 

[Obed]

Dear obed,
I would reccomend you to buy a horisontal splitter with electric hydraulic engine.

I've gone back and forth about the electric ones. At first I discounted them because all the one's I've seen locally are very low power units. Then I saw some higher end stuff on the web. I finally decided to go for a gas powered one because I want to use the splitter at my log pile where I don't have electricity. Splitting the wood at the log pile and stacking it on a pallet reduces the number of times I have to handle each piece.

Take a gander at this Log Splitter, Wood Splitter - Super Split(R)

I'd love to have a Super Split. I just don't think I can justify the price. It's at least double the cost of what I can otherwise buy that will do the job I need done.
Obed

 

[Obed]

I'm holding off on a hyd splitter for as long as I can. My trick is to rip knotty chunks with my saw. I cut 16" firewood so a 20" bar lets you cut parallel to the grain and its surprisingly fast if you've got a sharp chain and a saw with some grunt. So I try to leave myself rounds or halfs that I can split a piece off with one whack so I'm not hitting the same chunk of wood 5 times.
I did a 3 cord ash tree this summer with some rounds over 40" this way. I ripped the crotches or spots with a huge branch on one side as I bucked it up. I still had to rip a few chunks that I couldn't split, but I also didn't have to move 300lb+ rounds more than a couple feet.

Saturday, I gave up on splitting one knotty piece. I set it aside for when I can use a log splitter on it.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Hey guys, look at this! I saw it late last night on craigslist. This morning I called the guy at 7:20 AM and apologized for calling so early.

Almost every gas powered log splitter I've seen on craigslist has sold before 5 PM the next day. I've been looking everyday for the past 6 months and have struck out. I looked at one several months ago but the owner couldn't get the gas engine to start. The one we bought today is a 2 year old 27-ton Troy-Bilt that operates in vertical or horizontal positions. It is the exact model I had already decided to buy new. I probably would have bought a new one this week if I hadn't found this one today.

I sent my wife to go look at the splitter and buy it. She took a hickory log with her and had the seller split the log. Everything checked out so I now have a log splitter after a half-year of looking. We paid $925, pretty much the going rate, for the splitter. A new one costs $1430 counting tax.

I can't wait to try this thing out. I rarely get excited about toys and such but I'm like a kid on Christmas Day.

 

[dstig1]

Wow. You found the mythical CL splitter. Good for you. Very hard to find them there...

 

[B7510HSD]

WOW nice score!! :thumbsup:

 

[bem1965]

Good luck with the splitter!

But Obed, bee careful! It is a splitter that have a one hand operation instead of the safe two hands operation. Remember to never touch the log you are splitting with your favoured hand, in that way its easier to dial 911 if you loose it. A safe two hand operation forces you to have both hands on the controls to start splitting. Good rule is also never ever more than one person within 15 feet of the splitter.

A good precaution is to wear a combination ear and face protection (that engine is noisy). If you split your wood in winter you will have more clothes on and less exposed skin for splinters. A mechanical splitter is a lot more dangerous than an axe. There is a nice sticker you can attach " This machine has no brain, use your own."

All that aside, Happy chopping!!!

 

[clemsonfor]

clemsonfor,
We have a high efficiency fireplace. It doesn't seem hungry for wood. Last week, we stoked the FP before bed and it still had hot coals in it at 5 PM the next day. We are still trying to "learn" the FP so we don't yet have a feel for how much wood we will need for an entire season.
Obed

Still, how efficient can a fire place be? Does it have a blower on it, it must to actually get any heat off of it.

My stove i can start a small kindling size fire and then fill the stove and let it burn wide open in the 450sqft room its in and in an hour the room will move from say 74 to 82F, thats with having a fan blowing into the room to get the hot air out and dispersed into the rest of the home. Oh also if i load my stove up slam full to the top like you supposed to it will have coals the next night as well easily 8pm the next night and more likely will have them the next mourning as well, if the stove was damped down when it was loaded.

srossman, I never heard of doing that but it sounds like a great idea. It is time-consuming to have to keep repositioning the wood pieces.
Obed

There is another way with rope, tieing many pieces togeather then splitting them all. I tried bungy cords this weekend for the first time after spending 20 mins or so watching youtube splitting vids. Id bungy 2, 14-16" rounds togeather and split them all before unbounding them and pulling the pieces seperate then rebunging a few more. This saves a ton of time cause much time is spent standing and restanding them up as well as bending over wearsyou out!

 

[ruralruss]

Hey guys, look at this! I saw it late last night on craigslist. This morning I called the guy at 7:20 AM and apologized for calling so early.

Almost every gas powered log splitter I've seen on craigslist has sold before 5 PM the next day. I've been looking everyday for the past 6 months and have struck out. I looked at one several months ago but the owner couldn't get the gas engine to start. The one we bought today is a 2 year old 27-ton Troy-Bilt that operates in vertical or horizontal positions. It is the exact model I had already decided to buy new. I probably would have bought a new one this week if I hadn't found this one today.

I sent my wife to go look at the splitter and buy it. She took a hickory log with her and had the seller split the log. Everything checked out so I now have a log splitter after a half-year of looking. We paid $925, pretty much the going rate, for the splitter. A new one costs $1430 counting tax.

I can't wait to try this thing out. I rarely get excited about toys and such but I'm like a kid on Christmas Day.

Congrats on the spliter. I have been using one for years and they make the job much easier not to mention faster. Please remember, any powerful piece of machinery can do awful damage to the human body. We (wife and myself) work as a team and it works out well but these are our rules. Always look at your hands, especially when splitting vertical. The lever operator should always look at the hands of log holder. When you start getting tired, QUIT.

 

[srossman]

There is another way with rope, tieing many pieces togeather then splitting them all. I tried bungy cords this weekend for the first time after spending 20 mins or so watching youtube splitting vids. Id bungy 2, 14-16" rounds togeather and split them all before unbounding them and pulling the pieces seperate then rebunging a few more. This saves a ton of time cause much time is spent standing and restanding them up as well as bending over wearsyou out!

That's a great idea clemsonfor. I'll have to try that out next time I'm out splitting.

 

[Obed]

Still, how efficient can a fire place be? Does it have a blower on it, it must to actually get any heat off of it.

Of course you're not going to get more efficient than a wood stove in the middle of the house. Our fireplace has a a blower, plus a heat duct with a fan running to the bedroom end of the house that exits beside a H&A return duct, plus a return duct running between the end of the house opposite the bedroom end and the fireplace. This setup does a great job of warming the entire house so far. However, we haven't had the fireplace for an entire winter yet so we'll see how this winter goes.
Obed

 

[Obed]

Congrats on the spliter. I have been using one for years and they make the job much easier not to mention faster. Please remember, any powerful piece of machinery can do awful damage to the human body. We (wife and myself) work as a team and it works out well but these are our rules. Always look at your hands, especially when splitting vertical. The lever operator should always look at the hands of log holder. When you start getting tired, QUIT.

Good comments Russ. It seems that the most probably injury would be an injury to the hands. To tell you the truth, I don't think I would like a splitter that wouldn't let me position the log with one hand while splitting, especially if I'm trying to make small firewood pieces. I'll just have to be careful.
Obed

 

[Coyote machine]

You don't have to wait to see if your garden will get enough sunlight. Any good solar collector installer has a disc that measures the specific site, and takes into account the trees heights too, for amount of sunlight year round. Some HVAC/radiant heat guys who do solar domestic hot water systems as an add on to their regular work might have the calculating disc too. Call around and have someone stop out to your place to give you an 'orientation' for solar collectors at your garden site.

Also, you live in the south, consequently if I were you I would not bring that unseasoned wood, or for that matter any wood into my garage or house unless I was going to be burning it within a few days. Stacking it on pallets makes sense, but unless you want carpenter ants and possibly termites inside, put the wood at least 100-150 feet from the house in a lean-to or under tarps with plywood under the tarp and on top of the wood to handle snow load. Pallets allow air to season the split wood. Wood that has been on the ground in log form is not the same as having it split and exposed to air flow to reduce the moisture content. Your fireplace will run much better and not smoke as much if you allow your wood to dry from exposure to sunlight and air/wind flow.
If it were me I'd hire a high school kid who has worked with wood to split up a lot of your wood- with supervision. Two people working a wood pile is much faster and safer, etc.

 

[dstig1]

The risks with a splitter are there but not unreasonable. One of the biggest things to watch for is having 2 people running a splitter. That is the recipe for injuries. The best way to run splitting with 2 people is to have one person, and one person only, putting rounds on the splitter and pulling the levers on the machine. The second person is best used to get materials near to the splitter man (and by "near to" I mean near the splitter man and not onto the splitter) and also to remove and stack the splits coming off.

As soon as you have 2 people working the machine, the chance of someone having body parts in the wrong place at the wrong time jumps exponentially. No machine is risk free, but that is the big one to avoid.

The next big one is to always keep your hands on top of the rounds and never on the ends. You should not hold rounds if possible, but sometimes they will roll away if you don't. Hard to manage that other than holding them somehow, but keeping your hands on top of the rounds is the best way to avoid getting something caught in the wedge or ram that you didn't see. And the instant contact is made with the ram, the round is held, so pull your hand away.

Those are the biggies. There are hydraulics risks, engine risks, CO risks (don't do it in enclosed spaces), and others I am missing, but the ones that seem to get most people are those 2 - Two people working one machine, and hand in the wrong place.

And just like dropping a knife - avoid the impulse to grab for ANYTHING.

My $0.02.

-Dave

 

[ruralruss]

Good comments Russ. It seems that the most probably injury would be an injury to the hands. To tell you the truth, I don't think I would like a splitter that wouldn't let me position the log with one hand while splitting, especially if I'm trying to make small firewood pieces. I'll just have to be careful.
Obed

You will be able to split a lot in the horizontal position which is easier to do alone. It is generally safer as well. It is the big rounds from the trunk where you have to go vertical that are more dangerous. It seems I tend to leave them for last as well, which is not so good due the the tired thing I mentioned.