First, a big thanks to MrWhoopee for his posts and youtube videos about his electric splitter. They were a big help in making this decision. I never thought I'd get a splitter, but one of my shoulders decided I need one. The species of wood I get aren't particularly hard to split, my splitting is always done near my garage, and I liked the idea of something compact for storage and transport, so I spent a long time researching electric units. Once I decided to go electric, there were a couple of things that helped narrow down my choice. I wanted a splitter I could pick up locally. One of the most common complaints I saw in reviews, was that splitters got damaged in shipping. Picking it up in person let me see the condition before accepting it. Also, if I need to return it, taking it back to Lowe's or Home Depot is easier than sending a 100lb unit back through the mail. The other thing I looked for was single hand operation. The yardmax met those criteria, and it doesn't hurt that it's a 6.5 ton vs most others being 5 (if you believe their power ratings). A splitter made anywhere besides China would have been my choice, but as far as I could tell, every single one is chinese. I knew up front that it would need to be on a table to be comfortable. The table took 30 minutes and some scrap wood to make. With a set of 2x6 ramps it's real easy to set up by myself and it'll be easy to load in my 4runner and take to my parents place so my dad can borrow it. After getting a half cord done with it I'm really happy.
That's great, I can see the benefits of an electric unit especially if close to power. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk
Congrats on your purchase. I use mine when I do bundle assembly. I often make splits smaller and it fits the bill. I did split some big 14" diameter straight grained sugar maple a few months back and only a couple chunks stopped it. It is slower vs a gas powered one, but if time is not an issue no big deal.
The stuff I cut usually pops with the splitter only moving a couple of inches, so it goes pretty quick.
I kind of expected that the knob which limits how far it cycles would slip. It does slip, and a small block of wood does the same job. I split a pickup load of hemlock today and it worked great. This stuff had more knots than I'm used to, so it was definitely better than splitting by hand.
Very nice arrangement. How did you manage the one-handed control? I split a piece of ABS drain pipe that snaps over the ram for a stroke limiter. If your splitting is anything like mine you will need to cross-brace the legs on the stand.
Nice share of what you chose. Hey, my (new to me) F150 truck has an electric outlet, maybe I could just plug in and get after it.
It's one-handed operation from the factory. The power stays on until the button is hit again to shut it off. The stand seems pretty sturdy, but I might still add some bracing.
I definitely give this thing a thumbs up. The 5 pickup loads of fir that I got last weekend all got split and put away in the last 2 days.
I've split truck load upon truck load of wood with my little electric splitter. I moved up to a big one this year because it was free. Pro tip....make a small wedge to slide in next to really big stuff and lop a side off first then big stuff will split much easier. I've split some fairly large rounds in mine and I always wedge it to one side first for that first chunk.
