Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[calamari]

Took a couple of months but the new radiator for my Chevelle showed up today last corespondent was it may ship the 26th of February and if I wanted to I could cancel the order with a full refund . I’m sure it because the rad is now $250 more .
Dewitt HP 2 row with 1.25 inch tubes good for up to 700 horse. Dual Spal fans View attachment 965537View attachment 965538

I've seen guys on TV shows, and done it myself, while I was installing a radiator or working close to it, bend the fins over. It never occurred to me to put a sheet of cardboard over both sides of the radiator and hold them in place with masking tape. Stops all but the most gross damage and when you complete the installation and remove them it looks marvelous. Another forehead slapper for me it's so obvious.
I had a 66 Chevy II Nova SS with the L=79 options 327 cu in 350 hp engine. I raced you guys with the Chevelles and 396s all the time and would always be caught about midway in the race. When I put Rochester fuel injection from a Corvette on it, it took them a little longer but when we were supposed to have the same horsepower and my car was significantly lighter, I think the factory lied about the power that 396 made. More like 400 plus.

 

[turnkey4099]

Tree location has more affect on splitability than type, the lone tree in an exposed position won't split like a middle of the forest tree.

I expected the stacks in less space comment to cause the argument... I'm surprised!

It's been pretty well argued to death over the years.

 

[bob kern]

It's been pretty well argued to death over the years.

Sometime when someone is bored we should do a scientific experiment! Make a 4x8 frame , stuff it with rounds then split them and put em back in the frame! Problem is I haven’t been bored since high school! Lol

 

[501Maico]

Last summer I got a load of live 24" dia. red oak that was cut the previous day. It was so heavy that I couldn't move it so I tried to split it smaller with wedges. Water was shooting out and the wedge got so deep that I had to stop or I couldn't remove it.
As a side note I didn't have a place to store it at the time, so I finally found a use for the 20' house support "I" beam left over from the row of houses that has been sitting in my woods for 40 years.
At the moment I'm quartering it with wedges and splitting the quarters with my electric torpedo launcher (splitter). It's splitting pretty easy but I'm fighting with strings on just about every split. I have 3 rounds left to split and 2 need to be sawed because of dual trunks. There is also some dead glass hard ash mixed in the row that I recently burned because I ran out of split wood.

 

[bob kern]

Last summer I got a load of live 24" dia. red oak that was cut the previous day. It was so heavy that I couldn't move it so I tried to split it smaller with wedges. Water was shooting out and the wedge got so deep that I had to stop or I couldn't remove it.
As a side note I didn't have a place to store it at the time, so I finally found a use for the 20' house support "I" beam left over from the row of houses that has been sitting in my woods for 40 years.
At the moment I'm quartering it with wedges and splitting the quarters with my electric torpedo launcher (splitter). It's splitting pretty easy but I'm fighting with strings on just about every split. I have 3 rounds left to split and 2 need to be sawed because of dual trunks. There is also some dead glass hard ash mixed in the row that I recently burned because I ran out of split wood.

View attachment 965659View attachment 965660View attachment 965661View attachment 965662View attachment 965663

I finally started keeping a hatchet with my splitter for the stringy stuff. Hackberry etc.

 

[501Maico]

I finally started keeping a hatchet with my splitter for the stringy stuff. Hackberry etc.

I tried a hatchet first but the strings were all the way to the bottom and the head would get stuck and not reach them. This is when I was quartering with wedges. I got the 6' digging bar out to pry the quarters apart, and thought about using the wide chisel end of the bar to take care of the strings at the bottom. The bar is heavy and I just had to lift and drop the bar which worked well. When using the electric, I was able to pull them apart by hand. I don't recall any strings on previous large diameter red oaks I split.

 

[SS396driver]

I've seen guys on TV shows, and done it myself, while I was installing a radiator or working close to it, bend the fins over. It never occurred to me to put a sheet of cardboard over both sides of the radiator and hold them in place with masking tape. Stops all but the most gross damage and when you complete the installation and remove them it looks marvelous. Another forehead slapper for me it's so obvious.
I had a 66 Chevy II Nova SS with the L=79 options 327 cu in 350 hp engine. I raced you guys with the Chevelles and 396s all the time and would always be caught about midway in the race. When I put Rochester fuel injection from a Corvette on it, it took them a little longer but when we were supposed to have the same horsepower and my car was significantly lighter, I think the factory lied about the power that 396 made. More like 400 plus.

Yes they all fudged the numbers for their highest performance cars . My 496 dyno'd at 540 and had some fuel starvation . Threw a 770 Holley on it and the air fuel leveled out nicely . Didnt record the hp on the last dyno run but it was over 560 at the crank .

 

[MustangMike]

They lied about HP for insurance purposes, and to be more competitive at the track in the classifications!

Don't know what your top RPM is, but it seems to me that an engine that large could use more carb.

I liked the 800 double pumper Holley on the 390 and an 850 on the 427. Both went to 6,800 RPM.

 

[MustangMike]

Red Oak and Black Birch, etc are often very stringy. The X-27 takes care of it fairly well, sometimes going in from the side to cut the fibers.

 

[farmer steve]

Last summer I got a load of live 24" dia. red oak that was cut the previous day. It was so heavy that I couldn't move it so I tried to split it smaller with wedges. Water was shooting out and the wedge got so deep that I had to stop or I couldn't remove it.
As a side note I didn't have a place to store it at the time, so I finally found a use for the 20' house support "I" beam left over from the row of houses that has been sitting in my woods for 40 years.
At the moment I'm quartering it with wedges and splitting the quarters with my electric torpedo launcher (splitter). It's splitting pretty easy but I'm fighting with strings on just about every split. I have 3 rounds left to split and 2 need to be sawed because of dual trunks. There is also some dead glass hard ash mixed in the row that I recently burned because I ran out of split wood.

View attachment 965659View attachment 965660View attachment 965661View attachment 965662View attachment 965663View attachment 965664

Big rounds like that are noodling size. It will also help with drying until you get to splitting.

 

[Woodsman_26]

Got a new work truck. It should be alot more efficient at hauling since I built this removable firewood box for it.

 

[Woodsman_26]

Before I built my firewood box.

 

[SS396driver]

They lied about HP for insurance purposes, and to be more competitive at the track in the classifications!

Don't know what your top RPM is, but it seems to me that an engine that large could use more carb.

I liked the 800 double pumper Holley on the 390 and an 850 on the 427. Both went to 6,800 RPM.

Under 5500 rpm’s is where the power is in this motor .

 

[bob kern]

Red Oak and Black Birch, etc are often very stringy. The X-27 takes care of it fairly well, sometimes going in from the side to cut the fibers.

I have put a block on the dead end of the splitter with a gap in it for the wedge to go in at the end of its travel. It lets the wedge go past the end of the log finishing off stringy stuff.

 

[Brufab]

Under 5500 rpm’s is where the power is in this motor .

Nice and torquey!!!

 

[Lee192233]

Holy ****! This thread has been dead for over 12 hours!

 

[Dudders]

Some years ago, a 'friendly' tree surgeon dropped me off a tipper-load of logs from some kind of conifer he'd just brought down. Very pleased, coz I thought it was Leylandii, which is my all-time favourite burning wood, on account of the beautiful smell when it's burning, even though it's pretty lightweight stuff and doesn't last long. When that's in the stove, I have to lift the lid from time to time, just to let a little smoke into the room - love it!
The time came to split it, up to 24" dia. rounds. I worked up quite a sweat with the trusty splitting axe but couldn't get even a sliver off it. The axe just sank in a half-inch. Tried every which way, even cutting the rounds down to just 6" thick, no chance. All had to be loaded up and chucked on the next bonfire. That was some gift.

 

[Dudders]

Crazy high winds in England today. Just been standing (on the upwind side!) beside an old yew tree that's dying back. Weird sensation as the roots lifted me up several inches, every time there was a big gust. Trees and branches are coming down everywhere -

Guess you'd call that 'firewood'?

Wind gusted up to 122mph in the South this morning. Look at this idiot taking his child for a walk on the sea-wall:

 

[Dudders]

Been for a walk around today to assess the wind damage. Got some clearing up to do. Like this:


Never known what it is - the leaves are large oak-leaf shape, but the bark is pretty smooth. Completely rotten at the foot, as can be seen. Fungal attack has turned it all into a sponge.

This oak was riven in a big storm in October 1987. Still standing 35 years later, and even today's high winds have only managed to pull a high branch off it.

 

[Cricket]

Yea dry maple with no knots splits easily. I hand split 2 cord of mixed hardwoods oak ash maple popple birch, wood was a couple years old oak and popple was the worst maple ash birch was super easy.

So I'm a five foot tall, kinda crippled up old lady, living alone in a somewhat dubious area - looking a little badass occasionally never hurts. I do as much target practice in that back yard to that end, as to being a better shot. I also for a long time kept some clear straight maple (from one that came down on my roof) next to my splitting block, for doing a "one whack does it" split when the occasional weird passerby wanders in.