Hey guys, just wondering if anyone has a Yardworks 4 ton wood splitter (or different badge, same thing). The better half bought me one for Christmas so I'm a pretty happy camper. Here in Canada, you can find them at Canadian Tire. | Canadian Tire So far I busted up about a 1/2 cord of unseasoned poplar with ease. Anything from 4" to 12". Some of the pieces hang together due to being wet and stringy, but it busts them no problem. Now for the problems. It's a push a button/pull a lever at the same time affair, and looking for ideas to get around this. But the more important problem, how to safely stop (mechanically speaking, not personal safety) or block the travel of the ram to prevent it from fully retracting. The splitter is good for 21"? wood, but I have 15"-16" wood. The extra ram travel time eats up about 4 seconds, where as the time in wood is only about 2 seconds to bust it good enough to pull apart. Any thoughts or ideas appreciated.
Put a block of wood behind the push block or learn to not worry about the few extra seconds. Either works just fine. See if there's a stand for it. I have a stand for my small electric splitter and it's nice bringing to working height. Lastly..enjoy it. They are a lot more effective than the look. I'm single so I have one in the den next to the stove for splitting down big pieces or making kindling but I'd still rock that thing outside if I didn't have my DHT for regular splitting.
Comgrats! I am debating getting one as well. If you go to YouTube and search Yardworks splitter you will see lots of videos on making it more efficient. One of the channels named GoGreenPM has a few videos about blocks to shorten the cycle time and increasing the power. Pretty impressive for the price. Oh yeah and they sell a stand for it for $30. Pretty hard not to at least think about that
Forgot to mention I got the stand to go with it. It brings the height to 29-30", so pretty much perfect. It performs much better than I thought it would with unseasoned poplar too, so that's a bonus. I'll have to go chainsaw some stubby rounds for block now.
Glad to hear it doesn't need the power boost. I don't want to void the warranty right off the bat. Keep me posted as I plan to pick one up next month when I order my logs. Happy splitting.
About the only thing I might do besides cutting some 4" blocks to take up the ram slack, is add a handle with a bend to the ram activator lever. I'm not quite sure the mechanics of it yet, but it needs to pull towards a guy, and down. That way I can use one hand to lever the ram and push the power button at the same time.
In one of the videos I watched a guy added a longer handle to one. Can't remember if it was the Yardworks or another brand.
I have an electric 5 ton yard machine splitter. It works awesome but I have same problem with having to push a lever and a button at same time and a slowwwwww retraction and extraction time. I use a block as long as I can til it gets ruined to speed up the process time of the wedge going in and out. I've cut several cords of wood and have had prolly less then ten logs total out of hundreds that haven't been able to split
Great idea saskwoodburner I will have to rig up a rope the next time I have mine out and running. Pretty impressed with this little guy so far. It has split all of my stringy maple that wasn't worth wacking away with the X27. How are you liking yours?
I've only had it in use 3 times so far, but it hasn't skipped a beat yet. Made it groan a few times but haven't kicked a breaker. I know it sure saves a lot of work with unseasoned poplar (technically aspen). The little rope makes it way easier to use. Enough slack to slide your hand in easily, but not too easy, and then it's just like turning a door handle to push the button with your thumb. Then you can hold your round and make whatever perfect pieces your heart desires.
Here's what I did with my Homelite. I've had it for over 8 years and love it. It looks like yours has similar controls. A 3 in. Tee hinge for the electric actuator, connected by a nylon cord thru the eye on the foot pedal and up to the hydraulic actuator. The foot pedal is attached to the frame with a 3 in. leaf hinge. Before I built the stand, I just had 2 individual pedals (pieces of 1x4) hanging from nylon cord. Here's my stroke limiter, a piece of ABS drain pipe, cut away so it is wide enough to slip over, narrow enough to snap and stay.
