Eastonmade Wood Splitter

[Waltzie]

I have a 22-28. It has almost 40 hours on it, and has produced well over 80 cords of wood. I don’t sell firewood, just split for friends/family, combined we have 4 OWB.

In 120 hours it should have produced well over 200 cords of wood. That sounds like a commercial operation to me, as we don’t have a website describing our operations.

Not sure how the OP is still in business with this kind of attitude.

Andrew has been nothing short of great to work with.

 

[sb47]

I’m betting the failure started with the phenolic sheet that was used as a buffer/spacer , composite resin board delaminates and becomes “mushy” when it comes in contact with certain chemicals. Just a guess.

Big John use to use rollers on there machines but they had issues with the rollers not turning and getting flat spots, making them slide (metal on metal) from then on.
Vermeer used brass slides on there machines. Then Big John switched to Teflon slides on all there tree spades. Teflon is some tough stuff. Even with dirt and sand falling on the lift track those Teflon slides lasted years.
I bet Teflon slides would hold up much better.

 

[sb47]

I tried and you decided it was best to part ways. I am only warning others, we tried emails and texts. I do not own a commercial outfit and don't have employees to beat this equipment into the ground. You know exactly to the day when I purchased this machine, approximately 7 or 8 months ago and have less than 120 hours, that does not justify a commercial operation. I have other splitters and unfortunately thought your equipment would be a little more efficient, I was wrong. I am paying the price, not you, I am dealing with downtime, not you, I have to pay people to fix this, not you. If you want to operate your business in this manner than you must deal with the criticism in this manner. Every time the machine has an issue, welds crack, steel begins to bend, I will post it for everyone to see. No more sending you texts wondering why bolts are being sheared off or hydraulic pins being sheared off daily sometimes hourly or why steel plate is bending. Had several people, engineers, iron workers, welders look at the machine and at first glance they were impressed and when questions arise and were asked why the difficulties and how to fix, that's when everyone started to scratch their heads, WHY??
You can compare it anyway you want, truck, trailer, sled.
I am only a phone call away, I am pissed, I am aggravated and I have every right to be. I borrowed $20k from a lender to purchase your equipment and I am far from being even remotely satisfied. I will do everything in my power to make sure this is either rectified or I will continue posting updates, photos along with videos on this forum and every other forum "currently 10 as of this moment" that I have access to.
I was advised by counsel that litigation would be to costly and would be easier to settle this dispute quietly "which you declined repeatedly" or document and post videos, photos, repair quotes to every social media outlet, forum, Facebook, YouTube for the sole purpose to cost you sales. The same media outlets you use to generate sales. I offered you insight that would benefit you far more greater than it will ever benefit me, you declined, not me. You told to me to wait till the end of January. I cant afford to take a month off while you fix your mistakes, it has already been a month if not more since our last texts about the grade of steel being used on your wedge and material being used for your slide since the last failure. I spend more time trying to prevent any further damage than I do in actual operating time.
I have other splitters with 60 + months of operating time with a fraction of issues or wear and tear, will post photos if you like. I will not post the brands or models. That should eliminate any commentary from the peanut gallery suggesting a newbie, nuber, youngster, teen or whatever is being referred to as an operator.

Bryan, It sounds like you only want Andrew to fix it your way and change the design. Maybe he is not interested in changing his design, or maybe your ideas are not to his liking. Maybe changing the design brings up legal matters.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I have a 22-28. It has almost 40 hours on it, and has produced well over 80 cords of wood. I don’t sell firewood, just split for friends/family, combined we have 4 OWB.

In 120 hours it should have produced well over 200 cords of wood. That sounds like a commercial operation to me, as we don’t have a website describing our operations.

Not sure how the OP is still in business with this kind of attitude.

Andrew has been nothing short of great to work with.

I'd be impressed to see 2 cords a machine hour out of a splitter. I have about 2000 hours on my processor. No way I've made 4000 cords. More around 1500. Hours get racked up... fire it up and warm up in the winter, let it idle while answering a call or talking to a customer, etc, etc.

 

[c5rulz]

Do all those other splitters have 6 way wedges too? Why would someone not commercial need so much gear? And why would someone not commercial be losing so much money from downtime on one of their 6 or 8 or whatever splitters they own?

I cannot imagine the folly of renting out a machine like this to the public. However a more clearer image is forming as to what happened and which side is closer to the truth and was the damage from abuse.

 

[NSMaple1]

Could be me & my eyes, but I see a lot of 'split' surfaces in this picture, that aren't split. They are cut or torn. Looks like there could be a knot or burl in the middle of the big one. There is also a big rub mark on the bottom leading edge of that one, sign of sideways or twisting stress. And looks like maybe the remainder of a crotch still stuck in the back side of the wedge. Which all looks like something that shouldn't have been run through a 6 way.

Manufacturers of gear (not just splitters like this one) are almost in a constant catch-22 situation. They build things that are very productive (usually also meaning more power) in the right hands. But at the same time if they get in the wrong hands or not used & maintained as designed, they are open to potential damage. More productive powerful gear usually also means or requires a more competent operator. If there is a mismatch, things that are not nice can happen, and I don't know of anything made on this earth that is truly unbreakable.

I think we have also seen a similar story (maybe more than one) on here about a 4 way wedge on another machine(s).....

 

[Andrew@eastonmade]

Big John use to use rollers on there machines but they had issues with the rollers not turning and getting flat spots, making them slide (metal on metal) from then on.
Vermeer used brass slides on there machines. Then Big John switched to Teflon slides on all there tree spades. Teflon is some tough stuff. Even with dirt and sand falling on the lift track those Teflon slides lasted years.
I bet Teflon slides would hold up much better.

The first couple of machines we built we used UHMW (teflon) they didnt last very long at all. They just arent stiff enough for this application

 

[Andrew@eastonmade]

Bryan, It sounds like you only want Andrew to fix it your way and change the design. Maybe he is not interested in changing his design, or maybe your ideas are not to his liking. Maybe changing the design brings up legal matters.

We completely redisigned the machine to accomodate him. Built an entire fabricated beam. He did not want it.

 

[sirbuildalot]

Bryan,

Was this machine being used as a rental splitter?

Everyone wants to know. If so, you should have disclosed that in the beginning. Makes a BIG difference.

If you rented it out, and it came back badly damaged/broken, you go after the person who rented it, not the manufacturer. You must have language in your rental agreement.

If your teenage sons friend burned out the clutch in your old Mustang, are you going to call Ford, and belittle them online, or would you go talk to the teenage sons friend?

Common sense man....

 

[Bryan Dodge]

I have a 22-28. It has almost 40 hours on it, and has produced well over 80 cords of wood. I don’t sell firewood, just split for friends/family, combined we have 4 OWB.

In 120 hours it should have produced well over 200 cords of wood. That sounds like a commercial operation to me, as we don’t have a website describing our operations.

Not sure how the OP is still in business with this kind of attitude.

Andrew has been nothing short of great to work with.

200 cords, that's funny. Your not taking into consideration idle time on the machine, warm up times as well as additional times to fix conveyor when the conveyor comes to a halt. If you think 200 cords is considered a commercial operation than so be it.

 

[c5rulz]

Bryan, answer post #129. You starting to prevaricate like a politician.

 

[sirbuildalot]

I researched some of Eastonmades youtube videos, to see if others had similar issues to Mr. Dodge. My findings were that the comments were overwhelmingly positive...aside from a couple of obvious sock accounts.

 

[Bryan Dodge]

Could be me & my eyes, but I see a lot of 'split' surfaces in this picture, that aren't split. They are cut or torn. Looks like there could be a knot or burl in the middle of the big one. There is also a big rub mark on the bottom leading edge of that one, sign of sideways or twisting stress. And looks like maybe the remainder of a crotch still stuck in the back side of the wedge. Which all looks like something that shouldn't have been run through a 6 way.

Manufacturers of gear (not just splitters like this one) are almost in a constant catch-22 situation. They build things that are very productive (usually also meaning more power) in the right hands. But at the same time if they get in the wrong hands or not used & maintained as designed, they are open to potential damage. More productive powerful gear usually also means or requires a more competent operator. If there is a mismatch, things that are not nice can happen, and I don't know of anything made on this earth that is truly unbreakable.

I think we have also seen a similar story (maybe more than one) on here about a 4 way wedge on another machine(s).....

Bryan,

Was this machine being used as a rental splitter?

Everyone wants to know. If so, you should have disclosed that in the beginning. Makes a BIG difference.

If you rented it out, and it came back badly damaged/broken, you go after the person who rented it, not the manufacturer. You must have language in your rental agreement.

If your teenage sons friend burned out the clutch in your old Mustang, are you going to call Ford, and belittle them online, or would you go talk to the teenage sons friend?

Common sense man....

Insurance wouldn't allow it, underwriting threatened to cancel all policies

 

[Bryan Dodge]

I researched some of Eastonmades youtube videos, to see if others had similar issues to Mr. Dodge. My findings were that the comments were overwhelmingly positive...aside from a couple of obvious sock accounts.

And that is exactly why I purchase

Bryan, answer post #129. You starting to prevaricate like a politician.

Bryan, answer post #129. You starting to prevaricate like a politician.

This is a forum correct?

 

[sirbuildalot]

I just want to make sure all the facts are on the table.

So you originally planned to use it for a rental machine, the insurance company you use said no. So it only gets used at your business residence to split wood for resale to customers. It is only operated by your employees. Is this all correct?

 

[NSMaple1]

200 cords, that's funny. Your not taking into consideration idle time on the machine, warm up times as well as additional times to fix conveyor when the conveyor comes to a halt. If you think 200 cords is considered a commercial operation than so be it.

Times for this & that have nothing to do with what he said, which was volume through.

So - what is your definition of commercial operation?

 

[farmer steve]

Could be me & my eyes, but I see a lot of 'split' surfaces in this picture, that aren't split. They are cut or torn. Looks like there could be a knot or burl in the middle of the big one. There is also a big rub mark on the bottom leading edge of that one, sign of sideways or twisting stress. And looks like maybe the remainder of a crotch still stuck in the back side of the wedge. Which all looks like something that shouldn't have been run through a 6 way.

Manufacturers of gear (not just splitters like this one) are almost in a constant catch-22 situation. They build things that are very productive (usually also meaning more power) in the right hands. But at the same time if they get in the wrong hands or not used & maintained as designed, they are open to potential damage. More productive powerful gear usually also means or requires a more competent operator. If there is a mismatch, things that are not nice can happen, and I don't know of anything made on this earth that is truly unbreakable.

I think we have also seen a similar story (maybe more than one) on here about a 4 way wedge on another machine(s).....

Yes this reminds me of a similar splitter story where the operator was given an almost complete new splitter by the mfg and still destroyed it because he was to dumb to understand the concepts of splitting gnarly wood. @Bryan Dodge 200 cords is a commercial operation.

 

[Bryan Dodge]

You don't mock

We completely redisigned the machine to accomodate him. Built an entire fabricated beam. He did n

We completely redisigned the machine to accomodate him. Built an entire fabricated beam. He did not want it.

That's upsurd, you had the mock up complete, welded and painted before I started complaining. I am more upset from the prior instances which have escalated tremendously over the last 2 months. October 31st 2018 @ 12:20pm, Andrew stated that they changed the material on the wedges and will send out new edges. Great, perfect, run down to the shop get a quote to remove, cleanup and weld in new edges. The fab shop looked at me and said why and the hell are you paying for all this, this is a brand new machine. Then the phenolic plates came into question, the fab shop says why and the hell would they do that? Then the frame came into question, again, why and the hell would they do that. At this point being stuck at a standstill and being told some ball park figures after paying 20k becomes a very, very aggravating experience.

 

[Bryan Dodge]

Times for this & that have nothing to do with what he said, which was volume through.

So - what is your definition of commercial operation?

Big John use to use rollers on there machines but they had issues with the rollers not turning and getting flat spots, making them slide (metal on metal) from then on.
Vermeer used brass slides on there machines. Then Big John switched to Teflon slides on all there tree spades. Teflon is some tough stuff. Even with dirt and sand falling on the lift track those Teflon slides lasted years.
I bet Teflon slides would hold up much better.

That was a point that was shown to me, there are alternatives, I offered these alternatives to him, he was not interested. Unfortunately time is money and nobody works for free.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Times for this & that have nothing to do with what he said, which was volume through.

So - what is your definition of commercial operation?

Exactly. If you sell ANY wood for money, you're commercial. If the business you "work" for is "owned" by your wife or girlfriend, you're commercial. You have "friends" , not people you pay, help you work up wood that "the people you work for" sell, you're commercial. Seems odd to me that an employee would finance a splitter himself for a place he "works" for. Was there more emails because the ones posted by the other party are pretty telling. Social media sometimes do help to see both sides when everything is shown. The picture being painted here is filling in the cracks.