My son and I bought a 7-ton Harbor Freight electric splitter. The manual could be more complete. The instructions say to open the bleed valve, but not how far. There are a bunch of splitters that look nearly identical. One of them has a manual that says to turn the screw for the bleed valve counterclockwise 4 turns. Is that the right procedure? Also, do you store your splitter with the bleed valve open (as some sites suggest)?
Today, we had the valve nearly completely open (about ready to fall off) and didn't have any problems. Works great. We had some twisted cherry and gnarly maple, including some pieces on which my Fiskar's just bounced off. There were a couple of pieces that we gave up on and consigned to the uglies pile, but not many. Very impressed with the splitter's performance. It saved a lot of work.
Today, we had the valve nearly completely open (about ready to fall off) and didn't have any problems. Works great. We had some twisted cherry and gnarly maple, including some pieces on which my Fiskar's just bounced off. There were a couple of pieces that we gave up on and consigned to the uglies pile, but not many. Very impressed with the splitter's performance. It saved a lot of work.
