Eastonmade splitter

[cantoo]

You know, that's a couple times now fellows have said I'm not efficient with my splitting. I'm open to construction criticism on improving that.

Cracked open some maple the other day with the EastonMade.

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-view-details.html?adId=1439415597

Hey Jim I think JK means joke.
But now that you asked. On the maple video I noticed that you move your 4 way up and down a lot. If you look at the pic above this post of my orange splitter you will see that I'm about to do the 2nd pass on those rounds. The 1st pass is under the wedge wings and will be pushed down the chute and onto the conveyor with the next splits. That 1st round was about a 16" round to start with, the 2nd round is 12" high. The splits will all end being just under 6" when done. ( the top round is about 7" and will just be split in half) When you do it you move your 4 way and split that 16" round into 4 pieces and then you split those 4 pieces again, this gives you a bunch of small pieces ( splitter trash). If you look at my splits ( yes it's straight grain ash but same idea with knarly stuff) you will see that there is very little splitter trash going to be made. In fact I will end up with 8 splits that are about 6" triangles, 2 rectangles that are 6x8" and 2 pieces of 7" half rounds and no trash. I never move my 4 way wings above 6" off the beam or I would have to pull those bottoms back lower the wings and split them again. It's difficult to explain by typing but I hope you can understand what I mean if you look at the picture. I also have about 24" of wedge above my wings so that's cheating abit too. Yeah, now that you have that fast splitter you need a conveyor. It's a slippery slope this firewood business. The last 2 pictures are 32" long splits, if you look at the end of the conveyor you can see how little splitter trash I have. Again it's mostly nice straight ash so not a real comparison to your maple. For scale that is a 16" long split under my 4 way wings and 32" long rounds strapped to the front for weight.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Very much agree with Cantoo, leaving the four-way wing low for splits. I would raise it to pull large lower pieces back to re-split, but lower the wing again before splitting the upper, larger portions of the round.

 

[VirginiaIron]

"JK" to my knowledge means just kidding and is also what i meant to say regarding my failed humor exclaiming you needed more horsepower. Now that i have responded, it should have been more "HP" horse power, but for some reason the sight would not let me edit my post shortly after posting it. Im sorry if my mistake caused any second thoughts on your process. Please accept my apology.

 

[KiwiBro]

Very much agree with Cantoo, leaving the four-way wing low for splits. I would raise it to pull large lower pieces back to re-split, but lower the wing again before splitting the upper, larger portions of the round.

I'll just leave this here:


Tim's got an auto return on them now. He's oh so close to my completely automated splitting ideas where one person just keeps it fed and clears the outfeed while it auto-cycles, not standing at the controls pulling levers.

 

[cantoo]

KiwiBro, I like that splitter but I also need to be able to split 32" long wood and a box splitter just doesn't work good pushing a 32" long piece. I also don't like the amount of splitter trash a box wedge makes. I sell some 16" splits and I like to sell nice clean consistent wood. When I split I throw the knarly stuff off to the side and burn it in my owb or my firepit.

 

[KiwiBro]

Hi ya cantoo. Talking trash (ha) my suspersplit produces next to zero but doesn't do the production these sorts of splitters can. So for a while now my biggest concern has been if the extra volume more than makes up for the trash a box/closed wedge design produces. I think they are right on the cusp of that equation and much of my frustration has been the box wedge could well and truly produce more than enough extra to justify the trash, if only someone took the next logical step and automated the cycling so the same labour units each day produce far more merchantable firewood even given the high volumes of trash wood. The box wedge is absolutely key to this but nobody has automated it, but I'm confident that is coming.

I don't think there's a single splitter out there that would or should ever try to, fit everyone's needs. 32" would sure pile the firewood up quick, but down here12-14" is about the norm. Horses for courses.

The other thing apart from trash, is still having to manually handle/roll or noodle big rounds that are too wide for the box wedge.

But, as a sole-operator here, I have, for about two years, been dreaming of the day a manufacture puts the pieces of the box wedge puzzle together so a sole operator can be cutting rounds or clearing the piles of firewood while the machine splits automatically. I may have scribbled down some very vague ideas in a PM to Sandhill probably over a year ago now. I don't think such machines are too far away now. It will be a significant shift in productivity and also keep the safety police happy.

if I ever won the lottery and could afford the fabrication and time, Id make what's in my head. It'll be a tractor FEL-mounted magazine style splitter feeding an automated box wedge. Gravity in and out-feed. The operator is just concerned with cutting rounds to load into magazines ready to be positioned above the splitting chamber.

 

[muddstopper]

Personally, I think a continuous cycling splitter would come at a hugh risk to anybody operating it. The hydraulics of such a design isnt that complicated. I would question the continuous cycle if a difficult round is encountered that didnt want to split. Something would have to give, probably use a pressure switch to cut off the cycle to stop the cyl before something breaks. I have seen videos of a revolving loading tray where you place each round and it is loaded into the splitting chamber as the tray rotates. That would keep the operator away from the pinch point of the splitting cyl. The biggest problem I see is size of rounds. No two rounds will ever be the same size. Does the splitter need to split 2 ways, 4 ways, 12 ways. One can design a splitter with size sensing, already seen that done too. At some point one has to justify the final results with the final cost. That is the hard part.

 

[KiwiBro]

Circuit breaker/relief valve absolutely crucial. Box wedge doesn't care about round size. If the round can't fit in the magazine, it's too big for the box wedge and needs to be noodled or put aside so can manually rotate it (tongs above splitting chamber) to nibble it down to size. No high tech/costs sensors.

Someone will make such a beast, and soon. Then we will all say "why didn't someone think of that before". Or we'll say " Like heck I'm paying that price for a splitter, I'll build my own".

Same as it ever was.

 

[NSMaple1]

I'm not sure I would want something that cycled continuously.

Aside from a safety factor, and even if there was relief designed in so it would stop before it could break itself, it would surely jamb itself semi-regularly when a round or split gets or drops in the wrong way. Unjambing stuff off a wedge can be quite frustrating and time consuming.

I think the Eastonmade cycle is a pretty decent setup. It only takes one quick touch of a lever to start it thru the cycle - just after you quickly double check that things settled in place for it. You could maybe add remote controls to control it & start the cycle with a remote button somewhere close at hand - so you wouldn't be restricted to standing next to the levers?

 

[muddstopper]

I guess I am just gun shy when it comes to full automation. I worked with it for 40 years. The goal with developing equipment has always been bigger, better, faster. Then you see someone with there foot pinched in a hyd clamp, Or someone fiddling with a electric switch and getting their fingers cut off, and one dummy actually get his ear cut off because they put their head where it didnt belong. Then there are all the "accidents" I didnt actually see, but read about on the safety reports. It can and does happen. Something about pushing a lever to operate a function, instead of relying on relays and switches, just seems safer to me. Then you have the whole maintenance issue, there is a reason someone would place their foot, hand and head in a deadly pinch point. Of course, it is possible to lay a log on a conveyor, hit a switch and watch it come out the other end in even size splits and even bundled and wrapped in plastic and packed on a pallet. I can envision this happening, but dont think I can afford it.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I think Easton made splitters are probably well made, but have only seen one really in action. It seemed quite slow to what I am used too. That does not mean that it is slow. It appears to be a purpose built piece of equipment for a certain need. Here where I operate any multi blade wedge will not work. The knots are as big as some logs. To overcome that problem the splitter would need to be massive. The equipment here needs to be lite with suspension to travel over very rough roads. As Mudd pointed out too much automation will probably result in an serious error. To suggest that some of their models are worth more than $10,000 with resale value holding at 20% a year in depreciation seems fictitious. A six month old splitter would be lucky to bring in 40% of purchased price. I company that I worked with awhile back had a custom guillotine with two 6'' rams for $25,000 including a nice diesel motor. It still struggled to penetrate larger eucalyptus rounds. So I am hoping to fabricate a specific custom splitter for my needs to be well under $3,500. Yes will take pictures. It will not happen for a few months though. Thanks

 

[NSMaple1]

Used splitters here seem to go for almost as much as new ones.

 

[muddstopper]

Good used splitters around here are pretty high also, when compared to the price of a new similar machine. It seems TSC and Lowes sell out every fall. As the winter gets colder, the splitter sales get bigger. I suspect it is all the new folks moving in and thinking they will heat with wood. They go out and buy all the equipment and then find out just how much work is involved. Come spring, they are all trying to sale their almost new splitter and next winter they buy their wood. Now all those folks moving here are not young folks, most have retired from somewhere and a lot just dont have the health to cut and process wood. I dont sell wood for that very reason, I am not phyically able to actually work at processing firewood. I dont plan on selling my splitter anytime soon. I spend my time trying to figure out how to make the processing of my wood easier. I work in spurts, I gather wood when its easily accessable, I buck it into rounds 30 mins at a time, some today, some tomorrow and wait on help to split and stack.

I plan on starting work on my new house in the next few months. I got a offer on my current house yesterday and we are saleing my deceased MIL house. My new house will have as much as possible to make it energy efficient so I hope to reduce the amount of wood I use each year. Once in the new house, I might consider buying my wood and then I might sell my splitter.

 

[cantoo]

I bought another Smyth vertical at the Amish sale last weekend, unloaded it off the trailer and dropped it at the end of my driveway. Not sure how many splitters I have laying around right now but it's at least 7 or 8. I gotta get some advertised for sale soon. Bought some roofing steel too.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

To heck with firewood. I just want to go to these sales/auctions with Cantoo... I'd have to get a trailer first though, to bring stuff home.
My Top Kick 5500 truck is DOT registered 'intrastate' so I don't think I can drive out of MI with it.

 

[cantoo]

Sandhill, lots of auctions over your way too. I used to buy stuff from Repocast for awhile. @ really good sales tomorrow but it's my annual bike ride with buddies and inlaws so I better go there instead. Supposed to rain most of the day too. I'm sure there will be a few Americans at our final destination.
http://www.dungannontractorpull.ca/

 

[Sandhill Crane]

New granddaughter last Thursday and out of town this past weekend.
I'm on very light duty to nothing actually.
Minor skin cancer on my nose, and reconstructive surgery a week ago. Very sensitive to changes in blood pressure, as in can not bend over, kneel and stand up, even slowly, or exert period. But, it doesn't hurt. Itches a little now and then.
Up till then I had been helping our other son put down a new laminate floor. Vinyl plank actually. Up and down a lot.
Got the stitches out, but not pull starting a saw for another week at least.
I heard it might rain through June anyway. The dock fisherman may have to put waders on soon.

In keeping with the thread... a box wedge seems the way to go if your going to run a big splitter and big wood. Otherwise re-handling big splits to re-split is a pain. The other option is a flat work area as shown in Cantoo's post, or my avatar, which is a very basic machine. Once a huge split gets past a four or six-way wedge it is time consuming, if not physically difficult because of its size and weight, or there is simply to much equipment obstructing a smooth flow back to the splitter beam. If it is boiler wood, no problem.

In short, I modified my TW-6 for better flow of re-splits, which was an improvement.
I was not aware of Eastonmade splitters when I bought the TW-6.
If I had been I probably wood have of made a different choice than I did because of their box wedge option.
I sold the TW-6 and took a hit.
That might not have happened either if I started with Eastonmade.

 

[cantoo]

Sandhill, my wife and I laid 400 square feet of clik vinyl plank on Friday night after work. Painted the walls and ceiling of a house too. I will never install laminate flooring even again, the stuff is junk.

 

[moonboy]

I made a conveyor 20ft long 20 inch wide it like a hay conveyor.

Let me no if you want to sale it?

 

[cantoo]

You Okay gunny?