I made pallet kindling today.

figor · Jan 21, 2023

Slick. Wish I had something like that when I kindled that pine sub floor. I just used my Sotz monster maul. Had my hand choked all the way up. Took a while and I got plenty of nicks and splinters.

buzz-saw · Jan 21, 2023

Nice job Lenny.

buZZsaw BRAD · Jan 21, 2023

Lennyzx11 said: ↑

So today, I had to make some kindling and had some time. And beer.

So here’s my version 1 of a kindling splitter.
I bought a 48” piece of 2x2”x1/4” angle iron and a Fiskars machete. Since it has a “lifetime guarantee “ wink wink.

First I cut the 48” angle iron into 16” pieces. I planned using it all but that wasn’t necessary I found.

Then I drilled 6 holes in the angle iron. 3 in each. Two for mounting and one for the pivot. I used a 3/8” drill bit because that was what size the hole in the machete blade was.

Though I have a bandsaw, welder, shop tools, I wanted to make this easy to do if possible with ordinary tools most guys have.
So no welding involved.

I cut the angles out with an angle grinder. (You can use a hacksaw but it sucks to be you then).

Lag bolted it to a shop 4x4 and started testing.

To my surprise, it worked really well! After cleaning up a pine pallet, I cut up an old oak one to test. Then there needed to be a couple more notches made. I used the angle grinder with the splitter mounted. Looked at a “good” angle with a test piece of kindling and then made the steps a 90 degree angle to keep things simple.

Easy 2 beer project. Split two 5 gallon cans of 12” x 1” pine and oak in roughly 15 minutes. Like an old time paper cutter.

The machete is held by a 3/8” bolt and self locking nut. It can be removed to go murder zombies if needed or replaced with the lifetime guarantee as no changes were made.
I didn’t even sharpen it more.

Though it works fine, the 4x4 mounting is a bit thin for me at the sides.
I’d rather see the contraption on a 6” piece rather than 4. I was thinking using a 2x6 as a base and then mounting that to whatever post, wall, etc. on second thought, drilling the mounting holes closer to the centerline would work to leave plenty of “meat on the sides of a 4x4.

The factory holes in the blade for the pivot made the blade and end set past the back of the 2x2 angle when swinging over center. To make it work properly, either redrilling the hole in the blade(voiding the guarantee) or using larger angle iron to set it “out” a bit more would be the right thing to do or trimming the blade down around the pivot point(again voiding the warranty).
Or do as I did and circular saw a kerf in the mounting board so it has clearance to swing.

As I said. Fun project. And those thin pine pallets that nobody like using are perfect for kindling.
Lenny

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Nice job Lenny! Worthy of its own thread.

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I made pallet kindling today.

figor

buzz-saw

buZZsaw BRAD