lets see your wood splitting systems.

[PCTREE]

ED that is a super nice system there, however I still prefer mine as that on you still have to pick up the pieces and it seems limited to the size wood that I usually chip

 

[Peter]

For the bigger stuff I fancy a big splitter with a windowpane knife, push the log through slightly more than a firewood length, then cut all the split pieces with a big saw, and they all fall straight into a bulk bag or bucket whatever.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

ED that is a super nice system there, however I still prefer mine as that on you still have to pick up the pieces and it seems limited to the size wood that I usually chip

Eh? Only because you have the loader... I just didn't bother to use the loader in the video. As for capacity, most firewood guys in Europe usually break their big stems down into billets for drying, and then use the circular saw processors to do the final dimensioning.

If I was going to do firewood seriously, I would use one of these -

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/2cm0n84zcXQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[PCTREE]

Man I would hate to think what that thing costs

 

[woodworkingboy]

Too nice a photo of Woody not to enhance.

 

[Al Smith]

I had no idea that something as simple as firewood would be done on such epic proportions .That processer is akin to an assembley line in an automoble plant .Wow!

 

[Thor's Hammer]

You should see some of the Italian plants Al. They will run 3 or 4 of those machines on shifts.

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Siur-KBxnWg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[flushcut]

Crazy!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Wonder how many days per month of firewood go towards the electric bill?

 

[Al Smith]

In my pea mind I cannot fathom the use of firewood to the extent that the production of same would become automated .There evidently is a huge market for it .Amazing to say the least .

 

[Jack]

This thing would be fun. ... can't imagine paying for it though

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xXNn9MOMYRU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Al Smith]

They have developed some really ingenious methods I'll have to say .Ha and I thought I was walking in tall cotton when I finally built a hydraulic splitter

 

[stig]

Al, heating oil is about $9/gallon here.

 

[Al Smith]

Yeah but you folks have lotsa money .

Seriously though it was probabley 35 years ago I read about some of the types of wood heating used in the Scandinadian countries and was very impressed with the innovations.

Things like down draft gassing stoves and outside burners that were never even used in this country until 20 years later .So I guess neccessity is indeed the mother of invention .If you live some place cold enough to freeze the ballz off a polar bear you gotta have some way to get heat .

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Haha Al, I reckon Northern Ohio gets a lot colder than Denmark...

 

[Al Smith]

Not according to Stig .

 

[bonner1040]

Its cold as all get out in cleveland in the winter

 

[stig]

Not according to Stig .

Never said it was cold here, said heating oil was frigging expensive.

 

[Jed]

I'm with Stig on the hand-split method. Spoiled rotten up here in the Northwest. I don't take a stick of wood home unless it's clear-vertical grain Fir, Big Leaf Maple, Alder, or any Pacific Madrona (Madrone) I can find whatsoever. Man that stuff is delicious. I have never ever split an easier wood (GREEN mind you!!!) that was higher in B.T.U.'s. Matter of fact, I really doubt if there ARE many woods that are too much higher in BTU's. Only thing up here higher that Madrona is coal. Seriously though. Lots of people up here burn coal in their woodstoves. Scares me a little too much, and seems slightly perverse. Every God fearing redneck knows that heat's supposed to come from WOOD dangit!

 

[bonner1040]

A friend of mine bought a warehouse and installed a small double barrel furnace to heat a portion of it. What started as me dumping loads of wood to help him out turned into him buying a splitter and stockpiling fire wood.

Here is a quick tour of the operation. Of the wood pictured I dumped and cut 100% of it, and split/stacked about 90%.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/JpDgrYcm7bA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I am sorry its so shaky

 

[woodworkingboy]

With all the beetle infested Red Pine in the area that is going to be removed for years to come, and also introducing specially made boilers for municipal buildings to utilize the wood heat, the city has developed a program where people with some degree of disability are operating the Timberwolf splitters. They are always looking for ways to give such people jobs. Perhaps some mental disability not physical, I don't know how they are determining who can safely do it and who can't. I know a guy who is involved in developing the program. He tells me that the people doing the work very much seem to enjoy it. I guess if you didn't do anything for a number of years, splitting wood all day or whatever, might bring a degree of satisfaction. I think it could beat monotonous assembly line work, which is what the mentally impaired seem to end up doing around here at supportive factories.

 

[PCTREE]

Nick so where's the splitter??

Jay I think its great that they try so hard to get those folks a job. A lot of self worth can be derived from simply working .

 

[Al Smith]

I'm not sure exactly where the double barrel stoves came from .It was thought perhaps from the Army engineers who built the Alcan highway in WW2 .They put out a huge amount heat whoever came up with the idea .

Ingenuity at it's best .They had a zillion oil drums lying around and more wood than you could shake a stick it .It was Alaska cold enough to freeze the 'nads off a brass monkey .It was do something or freeze to death .

 

[Burnham]

My system...

 

[bonner1040]

I am such a wuss!