Anybody use a screw/cone splitter?

Isnt there a guy on here named unicorn?

No way I would build or run one of those??? Can't be faster or easier than a hydro?

No way you can make one cheaper than those splitter that maynard's had on sale for black Friday!!!

 

I have enough resources that I could have one running for a couple hundred, if I needed to. Not that I plan to, if I do decide to build one. It's a tinkers' dream. It's the novelty that caught my eye. With all of the "NO !!!" votes, I'm going to thing it through, again. May still do so, as the engine (the spendy part) would work fine on a hydraulic, as well.

 

If you have the resources , build a kinetic.

 

Back in the 70's Dad made one of those. He tore apart a manual transmission and restacked the ears to a cone. then welded it all up. Then used a circular saw with a metal cutting blade and spun the screw on it. Then welded that to an axle and bolted that to his old car.



Here is the old '61 Biscuit where he split. He never let me run it as I was pretty small but it did work. We had a length of flex tubing running the exhaust outside and a string to the throttle for the tough ones. I can remember a few kicking the dirt out and flopping and put some dents in the side. He used it a couple years till he decided to make a hydraulic and never used it again.

You can get hurt with anything but they are higher on the probably scale in my opinion. I can also remember it drilling a hole in some tough knots and having to put the car out of gear and knock it off with a sledge. I don't know if it's still around or not. Knowing Dad, it probably is!

It may also take more HP than you think unless you are geared way low. I can remember it trying to stall the car and we'd rev it up.

 

Kevin thats sounds about how I would expect one to work.

The danger I see is not falling on the cone and it drilling right through your heart or anything. I see it ripping the wood out of your hand and spinning it. Or a glove getting hung and breaking your hand or pulling your arm in. Or slapping you in the head as you fall over and the wood comes around.

Sure you could have a table or something that would keep bit from spinning but I think that would hamper the way they operate??

I am no veteran on a hydro with only 10-20 cords max on a hydro and just a few tens of hours run time total, but I have never had a log come close to ripping out of my hand?? Nothing close!! Dont hold your hand on the TOP of the round and you won't cut a finger off.

 

It's not as bad as one might think but I STILL would not recommend it to anyone. Your hands are on the outside when you push it in and it self feeds itself. Nothing really to catch the wood once it splits. BUT like you said, loose clothes, gloves sweatshirt strings can suck you in.

I learned that when I was working on the farm. I was always careful working around PTO's and such. I was unloading dry Potash from semis and putting it in the storage bin. Working around the boot and felt something tug at my neck. Look down and hoodie sweatshirt string wrapped around the universal on the PTO. Learned my lesson. ALWAYS took them out from then on.

 

Screwy


I'm still not too sure about them. Lol!
Eeek

 

If you want to put only a couple hundred into a splitter, you could end up buying a decent used hydro splitter, my buddy only laid like 225-250 for a perfectly fine running didier. I've seen motorless started hydro splitter projects for sale for around $100. Those were beam with cylinder and wedges.

 

I bought the HF splitter and sold the screw splitter for a profit. The HF is much safer and faster. Also much easier on the back.

 

I use to look hard on CL for spliters. Nothing less than like 60-80% of retail ever came up. But I am not in big burning country. Less burn today than 40-50 years ago due to lifestyles, motivation, and where lots of folks live.

 

Sounds like a "nice" way to say...."people are just too damm lazy now a days ...."

 

If I were still employed rather than retired there is no way I would be burning for the economics. My hourly wage was far more than I could ever begin to earn splitting wood or feeding a stove. I worked long hours at that job but would have no way knocked off early to get home for wood splitting.

 

a friend had one of those car mounted spliter cones in the late 70's. I happened to be teamed up with him for a few years cutting wood. Scary device in that you cannot stop it's motion when something goes wrong. I stayed away from it. My friend quit using it after the first year - i guess it scared him as well.

 

Yep your right.

And old man I think most of us make more at a job that sitting around. But I can only work so much. I dont have an option of working whenever I want at my day job for extra money. So for me its either sitting around the house or doing something to save money.

 

It wouldn't be too much difficulty for some here to create one of these "bad boys" in a "vertical" orientation IMHO. Screw pointed downward.

 

That would be a smart move!! With a half cradle to keep it from spinning the wood on one side and a long lever to move it down like a drill press?? Just thinking out loud?

But if you do something like this are you not getting close to the performance of a vertical hydro splitter?

 

That's the exact thing I was thinking.............................a drill press type thing so that you can keep your hands, clothes etc. away from that thing!!

 

I had a PTO powered one until recently. I didn't have the balls to sell it. Afraid someone would die and I would somehow be at fault. I would certainly feel bad if it ripped some boy's arms off.

I ran it with my 30 HP diesel tractor and it stalled the engine on occasion. I split about everything with it so I know that the small diameter straight grained species popped cleanly but not as fast as I can do on a hydro. Also the handling of wood is much harder. With a hydro you split a round and then resplit it. With the unicorn you have nowhere to rest the other half so you drop it to the ground and then have to bend over to repick it over and over.

Not only ridiculously unsafe but also inefficient way to split anything that needs more than one split. I don't regret going to a hydro for a second.

 

A rookie with a sharp Fiskars is probably safer than a rookie using one of them amputators!!!

 

Yeah, I was pretty set on putting one together. But, this unit is intended to be my one go-to splitter. If 9 of 10 replies are various versions of 'EEK !!!', perhaps that kind of experimentation should be left for a later date. Back to the hydro. I'm fine with one of those. It'll just take a bit more time and effort to build.

Think I'll be patterning it off of a TW2-HD, maybe with a bit more oomph. That'll be fun, too. Time to start sourcing parts.