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[mlappin]

I know u guys generally don't care what someone like me says because I'm new and don't have a heatmaster but for as long as I've lived my father and now I run rounds in our owb as big as we can fit them through the door.  I've lofted some 15" 3 foot long rounds that have been drying for 2 years usually 3 at a time and can see upwards of 24 hour burn times.  Only thing is if I don't have a good hot coal bed it takes a long time to get them burning and I'll loose 20-30 degrees before it catches back up. No way have I ever been able to accomplish that with splits.

I built all of my boilers (when I was still building boilers) with 20x30” doors, I’ve had a few pieces I had to let fall back out and take the chainsaw to knock a few high spots off so they’d roll thru a 30” tall door, get it in, roll it towards the back then make sure it had plenty of smaller stuff not as not to loose the coal bed. THEN I outgrew young and dumb and built an inverted log splitter for the big stuff. A 30” round of burr oak or something is mighty heavy…..

[BIG AL]

  I used to think bigger is better too now with my back injury and a little wiser I try and cut down the stuff that needs to be split once or twice.I will be building a boom with a winch or a log lift for next season too on my splitter. Thank god for chiropractors and back braces.

[mlappin]

I used to think bigger is better too now with my back injury and a little wiser I try and cut down the stuff that needs to be split once or twice.I will be building a boom with a winch or a log lift for next season too on my splitter. Thank god for chiropractors and back braces.

Haven’t used either yet. Muscle relaxers for spasms and keep up on my exercises my cute little physical therapist showed me. I’m actually more flexible now than before the accident, before the accident I could bend over and place my hands flat on the ground, now on a good day I can do the same put place em flat on the ground by or even behind my ankles.

I’ve seen a few splitters with a small jib boom and a electric winch, that’s the way to go in my opinion. I’ve seen a lot of the vertical splitters and never figured how either bending over that far to get the piece in or working on my knees to do it is any better than just picking it up.

[Crow]

 My splitter has the vertical option and found the same, awkward moving a big piece in just to have it only split one side. Then have to spin it around to finish the job. Now if I have something that I can't lift, I split with the Fiskars axe.

Any pics of your therapist Marty? 

[BIG AL]

My dad has a jib boom on his with an electric hoist and he likes it. I was thinking I might try and see if I could use the boom from my wood trailer either next to the splitter or make it so I could move it between both pieces. Or find another piece of pipe and make another one or box tube and make it way easier to fab. Only reason I used pipe last time was I found a 20' length of 3" galv pipe at a farm down the road and he gave it to me for $20 and my buddy let me use his big band saw to cut the angles.Otherwise in my opinion box tube is much easier to work with.

[aarmga]

I know u guys generally don't care what someone like me says because I'm new and don't have a heatmaster but for as long as I've lived my father and now I run rounds in our owb as big as we can fit them through the door.  I've lofted some 15" 3 foot long rounds that have been drying for 2 years usually 3 at a time and can see upwards of 24 hour burn times.  Only thing is if I don't have a good hot coal bed it takes a long time to get them burning and I'll loose 20-30 degrees before it catches back up. No way have I ever been able to accomplish that with splits.

I built all of my boilers (when I was still building boilers) with 20x30” doors, I’ve had a few pieces I had to let fall back out and take the chainsaw to knock a few high spots off so they’d roll thru a 30” tall door, get it in, roll it towards the back then make sure it had plenty of smaller stuff not as not to loose the coal bed. THEN I outgrew young and dumb and built an inverted log splitter for the big stuff. A 30” round of burr oak or something is mighty heavy…..

You're right that is mighty heavy!  15" around is about all the bigger I go.  If I can't loft it in through the door then it gets split.  I refuse to fight a long in a burning hot firebox that won't quite fit and we all have been through that at some point.

[schoppy]

The size of my pieces are determined by my wife. She says if she can't lift the pieces she's not tending the boiler when I'm gone.

I bought a 31 ton vertical/horizontal splitter from a friend of mine who moved to Arizona. $400 and he threw in a platform he made that is about 2'x3' and is cut out to fit around the end of the splitter when it is in the vertical position. It's the same thickness as the end of the splitter and has a 1/4" thick piece of plastic attached to the top so when you are splitting large rounds you can easily slide the pieces back into position. Not nuts about big pieces but won't waste them either and this makes handling them a lot easier.

Making some log cradles for it now for less bending and lifting on the medium size pieces. I will be doing a lot less splitting for me but enough to keep the wife happy when I'm gone. May have to keep a wood pile inside just for her.     

[hoardac]

Yea schoppy I split my wood Amy size to keep the wife from hurting herself.