Never again

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The young fellow that lives up the hill a bit on our private drive does a good business with processing fire wood. My guess he has had 15 or more truck and pup trailer loads delivered this year. Always "perfect processor sticks". He drove out twice with his 1 ton dump body making deliveries today.

I can't handle a truck and trailer, No place to turn around, and I run out of space to stack the splits as a full load would be several year's of heat. since I've gone to pellets as background heat.

Pellets have taken a large chunk of the firewood business but for some reason, wood seems to be making a come back.
Some pellet stoves do not heat as well and you have to spend some money for a good one if a home is not insulated optimally

 

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I’ve put pieces that big on my horizontal splitter. One piece stays on the beam. If I’m working with a helper usually they can hold the second piece on the beam and stop it from falling off. If it does fall off then it’s on the opposite side of the lift and I have to use the machine to move them back over to the lift side. If I was working by myself I usually would just noodle a round that size before attempting to split it.View attachment 4184730

A lift on a horizontal would be my favorite coupled with a pass through splitter. I like to stack at the splitter hence the pass through preference.
Throwing these splits into the trailer and traveling the hundred feet to the woodshed, was like a “rest”.
Life is different at the new digs as opposed to living in the forest once upon a time.

 

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The young fellow that lives up the hill a bit on our private drive does a good business with processing fire wood. My guess he has had 15 or more truck and pup trailer loads delivered this year. Always "perfect processor sticks". He drove out twice with his 1 ton dump body making deliveries today.

I can't handle a truck and trailer, No place to turn around, and I run out of space to stack the splits as a full load would be several year's of heat. since I've gone to pellets as background heat.

Thankfully, I’ve gone from burning 6 cord at the old place to 3 cord at the new place but I do miss the woods.

 

[ruffdog]

What works better is to index the round on the edges with a chainsaw cut to hold a wedge. Make the cuts across from each other and insert the wedges then pound away.
Much faster than noodling.

Nice looking wood. I also do the small cuts so my wedges stick. After I quarter a big round, I can bust them smaller with the mall. But then, I'm not in a hurry and I like swinging a mall or sledge. It's a good way to enjoy the outdoors.

 

[Jstpssng]

Ok wait a minute:
Let me get this straight.
You’re picking up a 36” round with the grapple and rolling the splitter under it?
So your splitter is a pass through or moving wedge horizontal?
What happens to the 125lb splits?
One remains on the beam and the other?

It's just a 20ton splitter. I take a slice off the side, and slowly chew it up into more manageable pieces.

 

[CalG]

Pellets have taken a large chunk of the firewood business but for some reason, wood seems to be making a come back.
Some pellet stoves do not heat as well and you have to spend some money for a good one if a home is not insulated optimally

I like the pellet stove because I only need to tend it once a day. Fill the hopper and it's good. No filling the fire box every three hours/
BUT...

As the kids are gone, there is no need for a lot of heat all through the house. The pellet burner only "breaks the chill" for the downstairs laundry etc, and keeps the house acceptably warm through the night.
The pellet burner is set at "medium idle", and just runs (no thermostat control) With adjustments for heat output based on the outdoor temps. I would not rely on the pellet burner to provide comfortable heat in my home.
The parlor wood stove is the heater now!

It used to be the big wood stove (Fisher) that is downstairs would heat the whole house and all the kids rooms. The parlor stove was only used in the 'tween seasons" and when the bitter cold weeks hit.
That big stove takes 28 inch wood. Those splits are still heavy to haul and throw into the fire box! There is a reason that stove sits disconnected now.

The parlor stove takes 14 inch wood. So much easier for us old farts! More cutting though, and the short wood still needs to be stacked in the shed ONE piece at a time.

 

[WinterDeere]

I like the pellet stove because I only need to tend it once a day. Fill the hopper and it's good. No filling the fire box every three hours/
BUT...

Stove technology has changed quite a bit, since your old Fisher was designed! Today, it really comes down to two factors:

1. Heat demand. How many BTU's can your pellet hopper vs. wood stove hold?
2. Stove type and model. Some wood stoves can run 40+ hours on a single load.

My wood stoves hold about 700,000 BTU worth of wood, and I can turn a dial to meter that out over the course of 4 hours up to about 36 hours. It's a thermostatic stove, the inlet air is regulated by a bimetallic damper that opens as the stove cools to maintain more consistent heat output all the way thru the burn cycle. It works great for even heat output on 24 hour cycles, but I will admit that output wanes a bit toward the end when stretching for 36 hours.

I generally run my two stoves on 12 or 24 hour cycles most of the season, but will turn them way up to hit 4 hour or 6 hour cycles when it's blistering cold out, due to the unusually high heat demand of my very large and very old house. Most would never need that sort of output though, with 700,000 BTU being above the total daily heat demand for many.

 

[dodge man]

I’ve noodled large rounds in the past and also lifted them on my splitter with FEL bucket. Noodling does go fast but probably what worked out the best is I got a splitter that goes vertical and just roll or walk the large rounds into the splitter.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Well, I learned a new term, never heard of " noodling" wood ...

I do pellets now ... This 43K BTU stove was in the house when I bought it ... I gotta carry and stack the 40Lb bags in the basement, from the walkout door... Stove holds 80 Lbs of pellets, I built a extra hopper that goes on top, to add another 2 bags, it will go about 10 days with thermostat set at 53° in the basement if the main furnace goes out while I'm gone ... It has a fan to assist with heat distribution, when home I run it to heat the whole 2800 SW ft house, depending on outside temperature, it can use up to a bag a day ...

 

[kenmbz]

I use various methods, usually I just put my splitter vertical and use the tractor with forks to move rounds to it.
The splitter is currently by a load of wood and it's got a side slope so I can't go vertical until I move it again. Probably next week to the next pile of rounds.
So for Saturday I just used the X27 to hit the rounds to make a good place to knock in a splitting wedge and got three rounds broken enough to put on the splitter by hand.

A bit of work, but saved some heavy lifting and didn't have to burn through a lot of gas noodling the rounds, though I had done that in the past when I did more manual splitting with a big maul.

I have a bad shoulder so did not use the 9lb sledge only the little 4lb one, The tiny round on the right only needs the x27, but I just drop it on the splitter.

This is Ash, since I have so much of it on the ground here.

A face cord just from the three rounds, this pile and a second one I had already moved to the storage rack. I only do about a cord each year now, down from three cords.

 

[Jstpssng]

If I was buying wood I likely would go with a pellet stove. As long as I can go out back to cut my wood I likely will continue to burn it.(or bring home log ends, the way I've done until this year).
There are some interesting configurations for the purpose. You can get a gasification unit which runs off a thermostat. I've wondered how a coal stove would be for burning wood chips.

 

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It's just a 20ton splitter. I take a slice off the side, and slowly chew it up into more manageable pieces.

So does the round stay in the grapple while the splitter nibbles?
Whatever method, big rounds are a pain to deal with imo.
I have to wonder if I’ll ever revert to a pellet burner.

 

[Jstpssng]

So does the round stay in the grapple while the splitter nibbles?

Yes

Whatever method, big rounds are a pain to deal with imo.

Yes

I have to wonder if I’ll ever revert to a pellet burner.

When that time comes I probably will just buy oil. Pellet stoves I've been around are noisy... just like sitting next to a Miller furnace.

 

[WinterDeere]

Well, I learned a new term, never heard of " noodling" wood ...

Named for the long-grain "noodles" that come flying out of the saw when you cut with the grain.

I do pellets now ... This 43K BTU stove was in the house when I bought it ... Stove holds 80 Lbs of pellets...

So, there's the basic math. 80 lb. of pellets is right around the same 700k BTU I pack into each of my stoves. I can push higher BTU/hr., pushing thru 80 lb. of wood in 4 - 6 hours, whereas the pellet stove needs at least 16 hours to push thru the same weight/BTU load of pellets. But the pellet stove has a huge advantage in warmer weather, as there's only so far you can turn down any wood stove.

 

[Shawn T. W.]

Yeah, with mine the flame will go out if the thermostat isn't calling for heat, and relights when it does ... Most don't do that though ...

My pellet stove is not noisy, but it DOES require attention most every day, depending on the pellets burnt ... First pallet load I could go all winter without any clinkers in the burn pot, just keep the glass clean and empty the ashes, last pallet, can't go 200 pounds without it jambed/plugged up

My propane furnace is much easier, but twice the cost last time I figured it out, to keep the house the same temperature ...

 

[kenmbz]

Noodles do make good fire starter though.

 

[dodge man]

This is my current method for doing large rounds. It doesn’t show in the picture but there are several large rounds out of the picture within reach. I sit on a large round and often use the axe to reach out and drag them closer. These aren’t really huge ones, probably not as big as the op is talking about. I also included a picture of some noodles. I usually lay the round over to noodle them.

 

[kenmbz]

I have the same splitter and can't wait to move it to a spot where I can go vertical.
Then I can use the forks on the tractor to move the rounds under.
Largest one so far was a little more than 36".

Your splitter looks much cleaner than mine though

 

[Shawn T. W.]

I also included a picture of some noodles

Is that white stuff the "seasoning" for the noodles? I've "split" some wood that way before, just didn't know there was a term for it, usually it was knotted up stuff!

My pellet stove has either 2 or 3 heat settings, and three fan speed settings that once the thermostat calls for heat, it is it runs at ... I don't remember where it's set ... I just looked up the model ... Quadra-Fire Classic Bay 1200 Pellet Stove and my memory was off a tad ... It's only 41,100 BTU.

 

[Jstpssng]

Well, I learned a new term, never heard of " noodling" wood

That's OK, I hadn't either until I came here. This is also the first and only place I've heard the unsplit pieces called "rounds"...

there's only so far you can turn down any wood stove

That's why I'm putting up a tier of hemlock. Quick heat to take the chill off, but doesn't have you opening windows.