That's barking up the right tree, but for whatever reasons my initial impression tells me it's not done cooking yet.
They are appealing. I strongly considered one, before getting a traditional Split-Fire. The biggest downside of the Split-Fire vertical splitter is that it can't be pulled on the road. Other factors are it's only 7 tons, the log lift control seems difficult & the knee control is extra.
I ran one of those for a bit last year...very nice! Splitfire is the real deal, been around a long time, and even though they are priced far below commercial splitter prices, they are built to hold up just as well as commercial units.
This splitter is headed down the road I'd like to see. Needs a way to swing the beam down to double as a trailer point and some more ground clearance for those of us who will split in the wild. Seems like it's been designed to fit in the corner of a garage. Stretch it out a bit and I'll be more interested. I'm a fan of guillotine/table style splitters but the existing are far beyond what I would spend, admittedly.
We need Barcroftb to chime in here because he has one. He brought it here and used it when we cut up logs and then split it for a neighbor. It did a good job.
Sure are! But the ton limit is not and not being able to be towed as well leaves a-lot to be desired.
You'll find that knife will split/cut anything a wedge will...well, unless we are comparing to a monster commercial machine, like a 40 ton or something...
I own one of these splitfire vertical splitters. Overall it is a terrific little splitter. It’s fast enough to keep 3 people busy. It will split (and lift) rounds it has no business being able to split. I’m talking 20 plus inch wood. I can see the quality built into the machine. My machine was an early machine and Splitfire has done some upgrades/updates since. Since I’m a good hammer donkey and found most of those weak points, they have shipped me those upgrades for free on their dime! They are polite and an actual person answers the phone. I’ve talked with one of the owners quite a lot actually. Top notch customer care! Having said all that I have expressed my thoughts on the drawbacks to this splitter to the owner. Mainly the hydro fluid in the main beam makes this unit incredibly top heavy. Coupled with the narrow/small footprint and I’m sure you can imagine why that’s a problem. Yeah I’ve tipped it over a couple times I think they are working on some sort of wheel extensions. An “outrigger” would also be good to keep it from tipping when lifting large 150#+ rounds. Other than that it’s meant to be their entry level splitter and it will run circles around most box store basic splitters. I’ll probably buy one of their pto vertical splitters for my tractor at some point because of my experience with the company.
Agreed...I have talked to one of the owners(?) or some kind of manager at Paul Bunyan and the other show (the name fails me right now...over NW of Youngtown OH last spring...international firewood expo maybe?) and I was impressed with the level of customer service that they seem to maintain...as I mentioned before, my brother has an older horizontal model of theirs, he says they will make any part you need for older models, if its not already in stock. I forgot that
The waist height table is the best feature of this style splitter. I personally really like the knee “trigger” as it leaves both hands free to handle the splits/rounds. You can precisely split most rounds and round in the 10ish inch range can be repeatedly split and spun until desired uniform split size is reached. Then the whole split round can be grabbed and stacked. It’s a fast and efficient process. Especially on species like red oak, ash, hickory, or maple that tend to split straight. Unfortunately this is one of the only offering in this style splitter that isn’t stupid expensive.
