To splitter or not

I got this Champion on sale. It was within my budjet. Does what I need and I can pull it around by hand easy. I may upgrade one day but for now its fine. I do put it up on car ramps and sit on a stool. If I stack allot of rounds near me I dont half to get up often.

 

I also use that elevation technique.

 

I had a natural progression from maul to electric splitter to old homemade hydro to a tsc horizontal/vertical. Each works, but I have been processing about 15 cords of oak a year and the tsc hydro makes a lot more splits, faster. I will still split some pine on occasion with an axe. Helps remind my why I process with the hydro.

 

keep hand splitting. Good for the ticker! Do smaller amounts per splitting session or scrounge smaller wood if possible. Rather than buy a splitter maybe rent or borrow one?

 

I’m in agreeance that 20T would be more than adequate for your needs should you choose to go the hydraulic route.

 

Funny, my next guess was going to be Balm of Gilliad. I do have a lot of poplar in my future. Much of the big trees on our property are poplar. How does it season? I have no experience with poplar as a heat source. Mostly ash in south eastern NY. A cousin of mine up in VT says poplar drips sap out of freshly cut rounds and takes a lonnnnggg time to dry. Maybe taking down poplar later in the season would help.

 

I'm with you buZZsaw. I'll never stop hand splitting. But I'll do it for recreation and exercise. Not sure my 62 yo body is good for felling, bucking, and splitting 3-4 cords a year indefinitely. Hence I see a splitter on the horizon.
Almost forgot, it'll be a fresh built house. So I'll be building a set of cellar stairs, framing the short end of the basement, installing a garage door, and a few basement windows, building a woodshed, making a butcher block kitchen island..........I know I've forgotten about a dozen other things on my plate.

 

Poplar is pretty light on the Btu’s


I got the TSC county line 25 ton with a 20% off coupon. Sign up for their member club and watch your email in the spring.


It has split everything I’ve thrown at it. I set it vertical and sit on a 5 gal bucket.

 

That's a nice set-up you have there mat60.

 

Oh I'm not a big poplar fan for heating. But when I'm looking at 3-4 cords of standing poplar in the way of our home site........well......We have at least as much white pine in there as well. If only it was all oak......or that my wife was rich for that matter.

 

Poplar season fairly fast and it is good shoulder season wood if you can get it split, stacked and undercover. Lots of ashes with it but for me it isn't a big deal. Neighbor gets the ashes I generate for his driveway.

 

Well, we will have a 250 ft. drive to spread the ashes on. All is good.

 

I'm sure our species of poplar are different, but I burn a lot of it (because there's a lot of it on my land) and like it. It splits pretty effortlessly (if you're gonna keep doing it the old fashioned way). It starts kicking out the heat fast and hot with no coals. Obviously it's not overnighter wood but if you have it available I surely wouldn't pass it up. I'll leave some in bigger splits to prolong the burn a little.

 

That’s kindna short

 

That splitter looks exactly like my SpeedCo electric splitter. I have used a 100 foot heavy duty extension cord with it and did not notice any issues. You could carry it into the woods and use a small generator to power it.

 

I did see this splitter at Lowe's Home Improvement. It is $700. However, you might want to compare to the TSC 25 ton in your area. You may need to check the hoses when the splitter is inverted to see if they are long enough; hopefully they caught that issue.

A cute little splitter

 

That looks to be a pretty nice splitter.

 

I only burn about 2 cords a year so I hand split. I find using a splitter boring and I like hand splitting. Good exercise. The impossible pieces get turned into shorts.

 

X2. I couldnt agree more!