It went bang!

I thought I would try to split some of the willow oak. It took several tries and eventually it did split but with a loud bang that scared me. I thought I had damaged my little splitter. I made a video and the bang in real life was much louder. I am not sure I would attempt splitting this willow oak; it is very tough wood. I was under the impression that wood is easier to split green than season; is this correct? I might need that 27 ton splitter that TSC had discounted $200.00. Of course it was still above a grand in cost.

I made a video and again you have to go off site to view it because I don't have embed rights to embed it on FHC. I apologise for the very shaky video.

http://netweb360.com/video/willow-oak.html

Here is a photo:

 

That's no problem don't worry about it, sometimes you get a loud pop Bang,, I had a lot of popping and banging going on with some sugar maple on my electric.
You're not going to hurt the splitter the way you're using it, instead of holding it down when it wouldn't split you backed off and hit it again that's the way you do it.
Finish splitting it up, no matter what kind of wood it is, once you get it popped open the rest is easier, it's firewood when you split it up.
You could save a lot of time if you put a block behind that Ram so it doesn't return all the way every dang time.
I'm not sure on that splitter if you have to let it return all the way even before hitting it again

 

Yes, I remember you advice on the block. I just haven't tried to find anything yet to do that. The splitter must have a pressure relief switch of some kind. When it hits a dead stop it will release and you have to turn the splitter off; which is what I did in the video, to reset it. If you try to extend the ram after it encounters a dead stop it won't go forward. During normal operation then yes, it does not have to go all the way back to go forward.

 

I see they are all a little different .
If you have a free hand , you can position the round off center and hold it and it will split a lot easier .
All I used for a stop block was a 5-6" diameter split in half piece of limb, cut to about 4 1/2" long

 

Kimberly, I run into the same issue some times while splitting on my 7ton electric.
What I do when a good size round won't split on the first pass (even if I line up a crack with the wedge) I rotate the round for the next pass and that usually "pops" it for me. I have had rounds "pop" on me on a number of occasions.
I just always make sure my boys are not on the receiving end of that split... Lol...

 

I've had rounds pop so loud that I thought something had broken on my 23T Champion splitter...I think the dang thing jumped off the ground...sure enough startled me!
Being startled is one thing...when they go flying is what I hate, that could get ugly quick!

 

I get some that pop quite loudly on my Homelite. No worries. A stroke limiter or a push block (I have and use both) would save a lot of time. I notice that the motor is still running on the retract, is that necessary? I can restart the forward stroke during the retract as soon as the motor stops spinning. It is funny how different these units can be. The oak I get is much easier to split green.

 

No, it is one way. If I cut the motor off, it will continue to retract. It sure scared me when it went bang like it did. I have never split any wood that was as tough as this willow oak.

 

I do that often as well.

At the end of the day nothing wrong with a little pop. If you hear metal on metal with the pop then you may have an issue

 

Here are my stroke limiters, made from ABS drain pipe. The first is retained with the hose clamp, the second is cut so the side opening is slightly smaller than the ram. It just snaps over, requiring no clamp.

 

I like that, I may have some scrap pipe around here that I could use.

 

I went outside to split this afternoon but it was so humid that I soon became soaked in my sweat. I did get some splitting done but not as much as I wanted as I stopped and came in and changed out of my wet shirt. While out I did decide to try adding a stop block to the splitter and I must say, it did help speed up things; especially when splitting a big round as once the log is carried to the splitter the time in waiting for the ram to move forward can accumulate. I need to make some better blocks if I go with using the block behind the ram. Some of my wood was a bit longer so I had to adjust the block to accommodate a bit of error in cut lengths.

 

I like that idea

 

There you go, nothing wrong with putting something more permanent but that's all I ever had on mine.
I also had a bigger chunk of wood I kept around, a short round with a flat side, I would throw on between the ram and the wood when I got some short stuff I had to split

 

I am sorry, but is that splitter some kind of a cruel joke?

 

Sorry, not going to like that. No, it is no joke at all. It is a very good splitter for the size and I have split all my wood with it. I tell you what; TSC has two splitters discounted by $200.00. One is a 27 ton so if you think my little splitter is some cruel joke by all means buy me on of those splitters.

 

Judge not.....

 

Those little splitters are responsible for a whole lotta firewood around here and other sites too...very capable, just not as fast as some bigger ones.

 

I am heading out to use my cruel joke of a splitter.