Buying a Wood Splitter?

[gggGary]

a tarp from Vinyl Billboards and I am very satisfied with it. The only thing is that it is clearly used, has some slight tears in it and no eyelets. I have an eyelet installation kit and wondering if it is going to work. I guess I could always sharpen the piece that is made to penetrate the tarp. I saw people using them on YouTube and it looks like it takes several hammers to get it through paper thin stuff you buy at Harbor Freight. This stuff is noticeably tougher. I was worried it was going to weigh a lot more but it doesn't.

Sign tarp; I bought several "freeway sized signs" 30'x 100'? decades ago when redoing roof lines on the house, and they are STILL in use, cut up into smaller sections now, many having tarped wood piles for years. I have a large 3/4" ish hole, american made grommet punch set and it punches right through that sign tarp doubled up. I fold over 4" at the tarp edge for the line of grommets.

 

[Hexa Fox]

Sign tarp; I bought several "freeway sized signs" 30'x 100'? decades ago when redoing roof lines on the house, and they are STILL in use, cut up into smaller sections now, many having tarped wood piles for years. I have a large 3/4" ish hole, american made grommet punch set and it punches right through that sign tarp doubled up. I fold over 4" at the tarp edge for the line of grommets.

This is good to know. I am pretty sure my kit is from Harbor Freight, regardless it is nice to know there is one that can punch through without much headache. I was recently there so I ended up caving in and buying one of their crappy tarps for $5. I only needed one. I have a bunch of others laying and others covering stuff. So after these start giving out I will be buying replacements from Billboard Vinyl. I guess we have successfully revived this thread. So I will start posting pictures.

 

[blades]

The used tarp/ bilboard industry has changed quite a bit over the last few years. Much lighter tarps ( 9 oz) and not as plentiful as days gone by ( course prices are higher also) big driver on/in this is the electronic billboards. The revenue stream from one of these is unreal- do to being able to sell the same space to mutiple customers based on display time and # of times in a fixed time slot.

 

[VirginiaIron]

I need one of those pickeroons

Well my health has gotten worse and I finally picked one up. I should have done it earlier but I didn't know they even existed till not long ago. I would recommend one to everyone.

 

[fields_mj]

If funds are tight, a pickeroon or hookaroon is pretty easy to make, especially if you have a worn out axe, maul, or sledgehammer handle laying around already.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Well my health has gotten worse and I finally picked one up. I should have done it earlier but I didn't know they even existed till not long ago. I would recommend one to everyone.

My pickaroon cut my ibuprofen consumption after wood cutting in half. Reach extender. Force multiplier. Zombie apocalypse weapon. If I had to choose between bringing work gloves or the pickaroon, I'd bring the pickaroon.

 

[Hermio]

If funds are tight, a pickeroon or hookaroon is pretty easy to make, especially if you have a worn out axe, maul, or sledgehammer handle laying around already.

True. But I paid about $40 for the Fiskars version, and it works very well for me. I had previously made one from a length of pipe and a bult through it that I ground to a point. It did not hold onto the logs well. You really need a curved tip to do that. I guess if you ground most of an axe head away you could put a curve on it. But that is a lot of grinding!

 

[OM617YOTA]

This is what I grabbed. Behold, the Peavey Penobscot Pickaroon.

https://lifting.com/pickeroon-36.html

 

[fields_mj]

True. But I paid about $40 for the Fiskars version, and it works very well for me. I had previously made one from a length of pipe and a bult through it that I ground to a point. It did not hold onto the logs well. You really need a curved tip to do that. I guess if you ground most of an axe head away you could put a curve on it. But that is a lot of grinding!

I wouldn't grind away an axe head to make a pickaroon. I'd use a sharpened grade 8 bolt and figure out a way to attach it to the end of a broken handle. Putting a curve on the bolt makes it a hookaroon which is what I prefer. The main goal is for the point to be traveling perpendicular to the surface of the wood when it makes contact. The curved shape helps with that since the wood is normally in front of you instead of behind you. Just heat the end of the bolt up, bend it with a hammer, and quench it in some used oil. Lightly sand/grind some of the scale off so you can see the bare steel, then re-heat slowly until the bare steel starts to discolor and let it air cool. That should give it a decent temper.

Or spend $40 and end up with an even better tool

I made my own just because it was fun. I used a piece of 3" x 1/4" hot rolled 1018 to create a wrap around what was left of an axe handle. I had some 4"x18" drops of 3/4" 1085 steel so I used a cutoff wheel to slice off a piece that was about 3/8" thick, and then used a torch to forge it into a shape I thought would work well. Unfortunately, I forgot to temper it afterward and snapped off the first 1/2" after using it a few times. I went ahead and tempered the end at at that point, and then ground it down so it was reasonably sharp again. It took about 4 hrs which is a lot longer than I had planned, but I enjoyed the process and learned a few things along the way. The pic below is before I broke the tip off. I've since cleaned the metal wrap up quite a bit so it looks better.

 

[Hermio]

I wouldn't grind away an axe head to make a pickaroon. I'd use a sharpened grade 8 bolt and figure out a way to attach it to the end of a broken handle. Putting a curve on the bolt makes it a hookaroon which is what I prefer. The main goal is for the point to be traveling perpendicular to the surface of the wood when it makes contact. The curved shape helps with that since the wood is normally in front of you instead of behind you. Just heat the end of the bolt up, bend it with a hammer, and quench it in some used oil. Lightly sand/grind some of the scale off so you can see the bare steel, then re-heat slowly until the bare steel starts to discolor and let it air cool. That should give it a decent temper.

Or spend $40 and end up with an even better tool

I made my own just because it was fun. I used a piece of 3" x 1/4" hot rolled 1018 to create a wrap around what was left of an axe handle. I had some 4"x18" drops of 3/4" 1085 steel so I used a cutoff wheel to slice off a piece that was about 3/8" thick, and then used a torch to forge it into a shape I thought would work well. Unfortunately, I forgot to temper it afterward and snapped off the first 1/2" after using it a few times. I went ahead and tempered the end at at that point, and then ground it down so it was reasonably sharp again. It took about 4 hrs which is a lot longer than I had planned, but I enjoyed the process and learned a few things along the way. The pic below is before I broke the tip off. I've since cleaned the metal wrap up quite a bit so it looks better.

The curve also helps hold onto the wood.

 

[VirginiaIron]

This is what I grabbed. Behold, the Peavey Penobscot Pickaroon.

https://lifting.com/pickeroon-36.html

I went for the "combo". No drinks and fries, just a mini-me. Both seem to work very well for my skill set.

 

[Hermio]

I went for the "combo". No drinks and fries, just a mini-me. Both seem to work very well for my skill set.
View attachment 1152676

That way you can fight the zombie apocalypse with both hands!