Yeah, its always blamed on the people moving firewood! Never mind the logging companies driving from Mi to Mn with their truckloads of wood day after day after day......
Their in the Midwest also. St. Louis City just cut down over 15,000 ash trees in 2016. Some of the trees date back to the 1950's to give shade on the walkways overlooking the riverfront. They lined up in a row all the way to the St. Louis Arch. Very sad how a little bug can destroy such beauty. Many memories sitting under a big ash tree in the 1980's at the Fair of St. Louis watching the air show over the river with the arch in the background.
I stand corrected but this is a general statement as firewood and lumber does cross state lines and isn't processed correctly. Whats dumb is that they see $$ burl but a small section is infested and folks who brought it over are like "shrug" guess thats not my problem anymore" How careless!
Unfortunately I believe it originated in the states in Michigan. From Chinese wood pallets iirc. Since then, all internationally shipped wood, pallets, crating, etc needs to be certified treated. That we there can be no more bugs moved. The damage has been done though.
OK, still not done. It's a lot of work, but having the splitter lock up is not helping. I'm pretty sure the valve's high pressure port locked up. I'll crack the fitting loose some time this week. Oh well, I have nearly everything cut up. I'll noodle the stump piece a bit to get it manageable to throw on the splitter. The other view... Here's the elm round that made me hold the valve lever down too long, locking the pump. It's supposed to bleed pressure out if this happens, but the valve's been acting up, and I wasn't able to get my hand off the lever quick enough. The one in the center with the couple of cracks. Hmmm I don't know if it was the tree service's saw that found this, or mine. I think it was not mine. I don't know what it is exactly, but it was soft enough to get sliced. It's about 3/8", and metal.
OK, OK, I'll turn around and start heading back your way! I think I would try popping that metal out just to see what it is, no?
OK, on the splitter, I just undid both hard lines, high pressure, and nothing happened. Other than a drip from one line, and the recoil is still locked up on the motor. Next step, take the motor off and see if it spins freely. Then it'll determine if the pump lunched, or the motor.
I unbolted the motor from the splitter. The motor is tight. Locked up. The pump spins freely. So, it's Tecumseh time. We've got an 8 HP Tecumseh from a snowblower. I'll need a different Lovejoy coupling for the motor as this motor is 1" shaft. The 5hp Briggs is a 3/4" shaft. I'll look at fleet farm or Menards, but if we have one at work, I'll buy it from work instead. The center of the shaft is the same 4.5" on the Briggs and the Tecumseh. Tecumseh's start better in the cold, so that will be a bonus. Also, the max pump GPM for a 5hp is 11gpm. An 8 HP can run a 13 GPM pump for future use.
So I finished bucking, and noodled some rounds. I used the dolkita. I like it. I like it a lot. It's definitely got more grunt than my 029 super. That stock trilink chain is kind of crappy, but it's good for ripping through trees that could be filled with all sorts of things. I noodled the locust stump into about 4 pieces, and noodled a couple bigger rounds of elm and maple so they were a little easier to move once the splitter is operational again. We just need the larger ID Lovejoy coupling for the motor side. Should be here any day. A closer look at the new saw. I needed to cut a cookie off of the maple round to make it fit in the stove when that time arrives. I didn't time it. My buddy dropped off a couple of full chisel chains to try. Maybe I'll time the difference on a long round or 2?
Nope. Not anymore. We've got a good 3/4" of snow on the ground as of this post. It's dumping out now. We might get 10" of snow the guessers are saying.
Lol, yes, I didn't mention that, but that's really what is holding up the Tecumseh from going on. The filter will be in this week. The Lovejoy can be found off the shelf at fleet farm.
I feel really bad cuz I caused it all.... Last weekend I pulled off the plows and hauled the blower to my shop. Put some linseed oil on the shovels....
Ok no real progress on the actual pile in the driveway, but I will work on it tomorrow. Here's what I did today. So the Tecumseh was too wide to fit on the splitter chassis. Predator 6.5 HP, $99 at harbor freight with coupon. Stuff to work on today. It looked like it would just bolt up. And it did. With a new 3/4" L075 Lovejoy coupling. It started on the first pull. Amazing. Time for a new glarus cabin fever. Then on to the next project. Finishing the new u joint for the front driveshaft on ATV. My buddy started it, took the old one out, we just had to finish the job and put the new one in. All done. Then to start on the LED lights for the ATV. I think it'll work great. I just cut out the light housing that was missing, and mounted the light on the factory bracket. And on... The 18w LEDs are very bright. All set to split tomorrow...
