Help me dream up my 3 point splitter

[motownbrowne]

Thanks Rob, that's a huge help!

I'm torn on the auto-cycle valve, but because I'm gonna be splitting a lot of 32" material (hopefully 10-20 cords/year) I think I'll be happy to have it. Since these splitters require the wood to go all the way through the wedge, it seems handy to throw the levers into detent and step away for a moment.

I think the legs might be unnecessary, like you say. It would be nice to be able to get the beam right close to the ground on some occasions.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Hey Motown,

I cut some firewood today and put my TW3HD to work splitting it! Some of the rounds were pretty good sized,

And, The TW easily had the nuts to push those big rounds right through the 4-way,

grabbing the top piece and rolling it back over onto the beam, makes re-splitting them much easier,

Sure glad I had the 4-way, it saved a LOT of time!

SR

 

[motownbrowne]

Hey Motown,

I cut some firewood today and put my TW3HD to work splitting it! Some of the rounds were pretty good sized,

And, The TW easily had the nuts to push those big rounds right through the 4-way,

grabbing the top piece and rolling it back over onto the beam, makes re-splitting them much easier,

Sure glad I had the 4-way, it saved a LOT of time!

SR

That's awesome! Thanks for snapping the pictures and taking the time to post them.

Is that sugar maple that you're splitting? I don't split too much of that, but it's tougher to split than oak in my experience. If my unit can manage pieces two thirds that size without bogging down my little tractor I'll be very pleased.

A big percentage of what I split is stuff that I've thinned, or tops from logging operations, so most of it is quite a bit smaller than that. A lot of it could be cut to 32-36" and pushed through a 4-way one time and turn into perfect wood for my syrup cooker. Currently I have to buck wood into shorter lengths because even ash and red oak get a little tough to split over about 24". Right now I've got a couple cords of ash logs between 8-15". Thinking about the time required to buck them to 18" and split by hand versus buck to 32" and send through a wedge makes me want this thing ASAP!

Thanks again!

 

[motownbrowne]

Alright, I pulled the trigger. Ordered a 36" three point splitter with a 5" cylinder, 4 way wedge, out feed table, auto cycling valve, 20 gallon tank, and brackets for a log lifter (that way it's a bolt on addition if I want it later. Looks like it's gonna be $3000 not including the pump. And a get to choose my color scheme. I've got it picked out, but I'm gonna wait until I have a picture to show off.

On the pump topic, anyone ever used a Dynamic pump? Surplus center sells a 20 GPM pump for $279 or I can buy a Prince pump for $599. Is the Prince better? Twice as good?

The splitter will be ready in two weeks. I can't wait to put it to use. Time to put some nails on the wall for my splitting maul.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'd be looking at the warr. on both pumps...

As far as I'm concerned, Prince is top of the line...

I'm looking forward to seeing some picts...

SR

 

[motownbrowne]

I'd be looking at the warr. on both pumps...

As far as I'm concerned, Prince is top of the line...

I'm looking forward to seeing some picts...

SR

Good call, thanks for the tip. I'll definitely be posting pics when i bring it home!

 

[Piston]

Sorry I'm a little late with this, but I was going to suggest a 36" stroke Split-Fire Splitter. Since you want your splits 4" or less, you'll be re splitting a lot, so double handling the wood. The reason I mention it is that they have a demo model at their factory that I ALMOST bought but went with something different instead. They may still have it, it was considerably less than the 3k you mentioned.

Regardless, it sounds like the splitter you've ordered is going to be a nice one!

 

[motownbrowne]

Okay, I got some pictures from the builder. Still waiting on the auto-cycling valve to come in, so it's not ready to test yet. Hopefully it'll be tested by this weekend and finished/powder coated sometime next week.

Here's what I've got so far: