When to quit??

SmokinPiney said:

How do you know when to call it quits while splitting, before you totally exhaust yourself and do something stupid?

For me it's when i've got sweat runnin in my eyes and i sit down on a pile of logs to cool off. Then the entire pile decides it wants to take me for a ride and almost crush my thumb :shut: . Definately glad noone was around to see that one!



Moral of the story, don't push yourself to the point of getting hurt, especially with an axe. (yeah i did that this afternoon)

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I start thinking about quitting when my technique starts to suffer, and I start making little mistakes.

With a chain saw, I'm done after 2 tanks of gas. On the third tank, I can feel that my technique isn't as good as it was.
With hand splitting, after a couple of hours, I'm not driving through the wood like I normally do. I'll either quit or stack.

Hope you didn't hurt yourself too bad.

For me its when I start having a hard time swinging the sledge hammer. Then I stop and stack for
a while. Instead of trying to split the whole pile of wood. I started doing a little at a time. I don't get exhausted that way
and for some reason the splitting seems to get done quicker.

I quit when I'm too tired to go to the garage for another beer!

I usually fill the splitter with gas. When it runs out I decide if I have another tank in me. And so on. WOrks good and you never leave gas in the splitter long!

when i start to notice that my splits are getting quite large hh:

I quit splitting this morning when a. it was getting really hot and b. I hit the round three times and all three strikes were not close together.

when my aim is so far off I end up with little tooth picks everywhere

When to quit . . .

. . . when you manage to get your chainsaw stuck in the tree you're trying to fell . . . and then get the second saw you borrowed to free the first saw stuck as well.

. . . when you drop a tree on top of your dog. (co-worker)

. . . when you've attempted to drop 10 trees and only one has come down without using a winch, chain or rope.

. . . when you're cutting up firewood-sized pieces of wood and realize that for the last 20 minutes you've been cutting wood about five inches too long . . . although it would have fit into your old woodstove perfectly fine.

. . . when you're splitting wood and either a) drop more than one split on your foot within a 10 minute time frame or b) you find yourself nearly crushing your fingers as you impatiently try to split the wood apart rather than let the splitter split it apart for you.

. . . when Halle Berry shows up at the woodlot . . . Ok, that last one never happened to me admittedly.

Good topic... no should work with splitters or saws till exhausted. That's how accidents happen.

Myself I just putter away at splitting for 30- 45 minutes or so at a time, then do something else like cutting grass for 15 -20 min for a rest or straighten up a corner of the garage for 20 min. That way I get things done but don't over work. I really get tired of cutting grass but right after splitting or cutting it's a good sit down gig.

I learned when to quit the other day when I dropped a split of Shag bark hickory on my right foot, I thought I broke it at first, but its just sore and swollen. So the moral of the story is, don't drop your splits and stop when things are going wrong.

Shipper

If I'm renting a splitter, I quit in time to return the splitter to the rental yard (unfortunately, the local yard only does same day rentals for splitters). That is, except for the time a hortz. splitter spit a big piece of eukie at my shin and I kept splitting for about 30 minutes until I could barely move enough to hook up the splitter and return it early.

When I'm splitting by ax and maul, I usually work for an hour or two at the most. I quit when (a) wife calls me in for dinner; (b) I get through some portion of the pile that I can tell myself is an accomplishment; or (c) my arms and shoulders turn to rubber. This last one happens really quickly if I'm using Thumper (mega-maul clone).

Peace,
- Sequoia

I bought the full set of wedges from the 12 step program.
I can quit any time I want.

I call it quits when I'm so drunk that I piss on my boots. Oh wait, that's the drinking part. I quit the working part when I get thirsty and start the drinking part.

p.s. That was long ago... haven't been drunk in decades.

I always tell folks that if you start getting tired, stop immediately. 95% of the accidents happen when people are tired, not when they are fresh.

For sure the rule works with cutting and splitting wood. There is a real danger there, especially for folks that do not run the saw full time, which probably includes over 99% on this forum. Be careful out there.

After I've hurt myself.

When I'm finished. or when it's too dark to see what I'm doing anymore.

I quit when my wife yells out to tell me the neighbors called and are going to call the cops if I don't turn the splitter off.

I'm in the same boat with most of the replies: 1 or 2 tanks of gas in the saw, then cleaning up. Splitting (by hand) is a harder chore. If I can split and stack 1 tank's cutting, I'm doing well for the evening. Thank goodness for the longer daylight hours! I'm nursing a dented shin right now, though, because I got sloppy with a bouncing piece after cutting it from a log end on my pile.
But doesn't it feel great to see the work done!

About a Month ago I had been splitting / stacking for several hours . I needed just to go cut and split a few more rounds to finish the stack . I grabbed My saw and went at it . I was too hot and lazy to get My chaps . While cutting, I shifted my feet and lost balance . I put out my Right hand to catch Myself ,the saw swung left and hit the top of My knee cap .
I was lucky ! I only broke the skin ,it could have been much worse . That's the first time in over 30 years of doing this that I've actually been nicked . I just goes to show that being tired with a good bit of complacency thrown into mix can get You injured .

Except for the silly politicians in our capital, central NY is filled with brilliance. I frequently change chores just like savageactor7. Keeps me interested and alert.

John_M

I normally judge my splitting time via a tankful of gas in the splitter which equals about 4 buckets full of wood with the Kubota or about 1/4 to a 1/3 of a cord. I rarely have a big block of time to do chores so I fit them in when I can.

Scott in IN said:

I normally judge my splitting time via a tankful of gas in the splitter which equals about 4 buckets full of wood with the Kubota or about 1/4 to a 1/3 of a cord. I rarely have a big block of time to do chores so I fit them in when I can.

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Oh man, what a guzzler, and I thought my splitter was thirsty. I get about a cord to a tank.

LLigetfa said:

Scott in IN said:

I normally judge my splitting time via a tankful of gas in the splitter which equals about 4 buckets full of wood with the Kubota or about 1/4 to a 1/3 of a cord. I rarely have a big block of time to do chores so I fit them in when I can.

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Oh man, what a guzzler, and I thought my splitter was thirsty. I get about a cord to a tank.

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I used to throttle it down to get better fuel efficiency but recently I've said screw it and turned up the juice for shorter cycle times.