Jig to shorten log splits

Here is what I made, works well for splits or branches.
Hint: make it out of PT wood, the first one I made was not and became rotted.

I screwed a 5 gallon pail laying on its side to a pallet. I believe a standard 5 gallon pail is ~15-16" tall. It works decent and the price was right.

Chop saw works well

Here is mine. I don't know the dimensions off hand but my splits end up 16" and my 20" bar goes from side to side. Works really well. I can cut a weeks worth down in 15 mins.

You should consider cutting them in half and loading front to back (north/south) rather than sideways. That way you don't end up with a bunch of tiny cut-off pieces. With my stove, a split slightly too long to put in sideways can be cut in half and be just right for north/south loading.

If i get a few cut to long, I stack em with the rest, but leave the but end sticking out an extra 2-3 inches. Then when the row is fully stacked I come along with the saw and cut the long butt end off whichever pieces were a few inches too long.

Wood Duck said:

You should consider cutting them in half and loading front to back (north/south) rather than sideways. That way you don't end up with a bunch of tiny cut-off pieces. With my stove, a split slightly too long to put in sideways can be cut in half and be just right for north/south loading.

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Exactly what I do also

Hogwildz said:

Chop saw works well

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Every chop saw I've looked at has a blade for cutting metal, i.e., more of a grinder than a cutting blade with teeth. Also, the diameter of the blade doesn't match wood blade diameters. What are you using? Is it commercially available, or did you rig it up yourself? Thanks in advance.

I have a 10" Makita saw that you can put whatever type of blade you want in it.
I also use a 12" compound miter saw, can out any blade I want in it also.
May no go through the largest splits, but will go through most others. And the back fence makes holding the split from splitting out real nice.
You can change the carborundum blades, and use a toothed blade.

I like all the small left over pcs. They work great for shorter hotter fires. I often use them when it gets real cold between my normal 12 hr burn cycles.

DanCorcoran said:

Every chop saw I've looked at has a blade for cutting metal....

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No need to be pedantic. Wood cutting mitre saws are often referred to as chop saws. The problem with most of them is the depth of cut. Been there, tried that, ended up using a sawzall with a long enough blade due to the narrow kerf. I hated to use my chainsaw cuz of all the waste to saw dust (chips).

LLigetfa said:

No need to be pedantic. Wood cutting mitre saws are often referred to as chop saws. The problem with most of them is the depth of cut. Been there, tried that, ended up using a sawzall with a long enough blade due to the narrow kerf. I hated to use my chainsaw cuz of all the waste to saw dust (chips).

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I wasn't intending to be pedantic. Seems that saws advertised as "chop saws" tend to cost a lot less than miter saws. I'm only intending to use it to cut smaller pieces into 12" lengths, which I put on each side of the floor of the stove (NS) beneath the EW splits. Gives a lot better burn, imo. Hard to cut smaller branches into 12" lengths with a chain saw.

This one is 2 HP, 14" for $74.99. HF, but for light duty I wouldn't hesitate. 14" saw blades cost as much as the saw, though.

DanCorcoran said:

I wasn't intending to be pedantic. Seems that saws advertised as "chop saws" tend to cost a lot less than miter saws. I'm only intending to use it to cut smaller pieces into 12" lengths, which I put on each side of the floor of the stove (NS) beneath the EW splits. Gives a lot better burn, imo. Hard to cut smaller branches into 12" lengths with a chain saw.

This one is 2 HP, 14" for $74.99. HF, but for light duty I wouldn't hesitate. 14" saw blades cost as much as the saw, though.

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I'm meaning more like a miter saw. Although that would work. You would have to get a toothed blade for it though, the carborundum will smoke more than anything and will be spent after cutting through a few pcs.

Wood Duck said:

You should consider cutting them in half and loading front to back (north/south) rather than sideways. That way you don't end up with a bunch of tiny cut-off pieces. With my stove, a split slightly too long to put in sideways can be cut in half and be just right for north/south loading.

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The princess box is square, I used to just throw in a pail full of the cut offs on top of some big splits in shoulder season, they burned well.

When I bought my former home and installed a wood burner in it, I needed seasoned wood right away. I had a friend that had the misfortune of a chimney fire that the fire marshall condemned so he gave me his stash of firewood. They were all about 4" too long and so I recut them. I just put the 4" pieces end-to-end like Rolo candy in the wrapper.

I say chop saw too, you can do a few at a time in the garage and immediately put it in the stove......

Most of my spits are too big to fit on my 12" chop saw. I'd have to turn them over to finish the cut.

Now for some odd reason I'm having a hankering for Rolos.

Here's mine, kind of bare bones set up, I've been planning to widen it so the cart fits underneath.
I mostly use it on over long splits and zip them in half.

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I assume that those who have a problem with splits being too long for their stoves must not be processing their own wood? I buck my own rounds to my preferred length before the rounds hit the splitter. No need for trimming later.

Well some times when you're out in the woods working a score and its getting late, you get that 25" instead of 24" you just got to do what you got to do, better than missing a score.