On Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:37:28 -0800, Jeff Strickland wrote:

Must be the effects of Global Warming...

and I'm looking for a log splitter. I know absolutely nothing about these
machines. I've never used one, and when I'm done I'll likely not use one
ever again. This probably makes me a rental yard customer, but I don't know
a good machine from a bad one.

I'm hoping some of you guys with a northern exposure can tell me the key
points to look for, or warning signals that tell me to walk away. Seems to
me that snow and trees are things that people with experience with log
splitters might have in abundance. I have no snow, ever. (Well, we did get
an inch in an hour once, but I'm pretty sure that falls into the Freak Storm
category.)

The wood I have to split is some species of pine. The logs are 20-ish inches
in diameter. I have to cut them to 12 or 15 inch chunks so they fit my
fireplace -- and the splitting machine. I expect that by the time I'm done,
I should have about a cord of firewood, maybe a cord and a half (I'm not
experienced in converting uncut logs into cut ...)

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlrjeff (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote


Do you plan on using this wood for an indoor fireplace, or what?

"JoeSpareBedroom" <newstrash (AT) frontiernet (DOT) net> wrote

Didn't I say that I had to cut logs to 12 to 15 inches so it would fit my
fireplace?

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlrjeff (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote


There are indoor and outdoor fireplaces, at least around here. You are not
supposed to use pine for indoor fireplaces. It deposits too much pitch
inside the chimney and can cause the kind of fire you don't want. Some
people say they've gotten away with it for many years. Our local fire
department says otherwise, as did fire departments in three other locales
where I've lived.

But go ahead & try it if you like.

Jeff Strickland wrote:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96071

"badgolferman" <REMOVETHISbadgolferman (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote


I have one of those. I was hoping for a little more automation, and less
physical participation on my part.

badgolferman wrote:
Do they come in pink?
It's good exercise for the wife, honey, run down to the store and get
me a 6 pack and split the wood after you get the dishes done.

"Fatter Than Ever Moe" <HardTimes@TheFarm> wrote


After getting her so involved in making the firewood, I suppose it easier to
get her to shag several armloads every night ...

"Jeff Strickland" <crwlrjeff (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

I'd recommend against using pine for firewood.

I'd suggest checking around at local rental places like:
http://www.sunbeltrentals.com/equipment/equipment.aspx?itemid=0700060&catid=s456.
See what they have - the selection is likely to be limited, so I doubt
you are goign to have much of a choice to decide between.

In Raleigh, firewood is so cheap, I wouldn't bother splittign it
myself, I would just buy a pre-split cords. At my farm, I have ash
trees growing all over the place and I need to to remove them, so
since I ahve to cut them down for other reasons, I often use them for
firewood. These are so easy to split, I just use an axe. I can spit a
12 inch diameterash log with an axe faster than I can load it into the
splitter. We have a splitter, but I have not used it in a decade. If I
was goign to split oak, I'd dust it off, but ash is so much better for
"prettty fires" I don't know why I'd bother with oak. And for sure, I
would not burn pine. If you don't get the fire hot enough, pine leaves
a sticky tar residue in the flue. Eventually this will ahve to be
cleaned out, or it will eventually build up to a point and then catch
on fire which might lead to a house fire. The only time I have ever
burned pine was when we lost power for a week after an ice storm. By
the end of the week we were burning almost anythign we could get to
and pines were the closest.

Ed