Not trying to zap your motivation but if you have it for a week then split for a few hours a day or start strong and tapper off as the week goes by. Or if you work better under pressure wait to start. Sounds like ya got some flexibility which is what I like. Seems to me some of our fellow hoarders like to get after it like a windmill in a hurricane. Please keep track of the time it takes and let us know. Never timed splitting kinda curious now.
If that’s what you thought I meant then what I really meant will probably disappoint you lol. Black Label looks a little more sophisticated than this. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My plan is to start splitting on the Friday before Memorial Day since I will already have the splitter waiting for me when I get home from work. I would like to have everything split and stacked by Monday night(Memorial Day)...Tuesday morning a log load will be delivered....another 10-12 face cords in logs of Ash, Cherry and Silver Maple. Have that log load all cut to size by Thursday night( mind you I still have the splitter).....Friday-Sunday...split and stack the fresh cut log load. Take a shower, pass out and get up for work Monday morning....
This sounds great! As to how long, for sure it depends on many things. For example, is the wood just thrown into a pile or is it neatly stacked? Just this alone can mean a difference of 2-3 hours time or more. How is the wood? Were the trees from fence lines or open area or did this wood come from trees inside a woods? Splitting time betwixt the 2 can be a big difference. How close will the splitter be to the wood? If you are taking steps from splitter to wood pile, that is time wasted. Is the maple hard or soft maple? There is a huge difference in how they split. Soft maple, if not knots you can usually simply touch the wood with the wedge and it breaks but many times with hard maple you have to use the entire length of the wedge. How is your technique? Ah, here is one of the biggest points. I remember lending my splitter to a neighbor. I watched him split then I showed him how to split. Result? Him and his wife stood there with their mouths hanging open. They could hardly believe how much faster I could split vs what they were doing. And one of the things I was doing was to not use the entire stroke of the wedge. Bring it down only as far as you have to and then take it back up only as far as you need to to split the next log. Yet I see people always raising the wedge the full distance. If the stroke is 24" and they use the whole thing vs using maybe a 6", just imagine the time savings you can enjoy. We cut our wood to 16" yet the splitter can split a 23 or 24" length. Imagine the difference of raising the wedge to 18" vs 24". No, it does not take long to move that wedge and extra 6", but if you multiply it by hundreds of times, that can be a lot plus extra wear and tear on the machine.
What he said!! ^^^^ Nailed it. We split for a living vs. hoarding for personal use, so we’re either tossing the splits in a pile or throwing them right onto the truck or trailer. This is also how we know how long it takes to split. Time is money! Also, staging the wood beforehand takes up plenty of time, on a work day Nick will be staging while I’m splitting. When he gets caught up, he takes over the splitter and I get to take a break and look for bugs and neat stuff! Loll... Then he goes back to staging and breaks over. I find ALL kinds of fancy critters and stuff!!! ~Lissa
Your video shows exactly what I was writing about on the movement of the wedge. No wasted time moving it the extra length up or down. Even you could save some splitter time by stacking the wood before rather than just throwing it in a heap. Perhaps the time would balance out but at least you would save just a bit of splitter time which means less wear and also less gas. A small point but it adds up.
Depends upon how old and worn out you are! For me, unloading off the end of my trailer and pivoting with a step to the splitter and then two steps to stack, I am good for a cord. It's fun, I take my time, after a cord I'm done! I'll do the next load tomorrow!
All fun and games until you get distracted and fatigued and split your finger.......or twist an ankle.
