I found the rental deal now I need to find the time!

[lowroadacres]

So I checked out a rental shop that I had never stopped at before.

They rent a splitfire that can handle up to 36 inch wood, has both the four way and the normal splitting head.

Best part is... I can pick it up Friday evening and have it friday evening, all day Saturday and all day Sunday, return it Monday morning...

For $75......

Now if I can only find a weekend without football, hockey, choir, swimming, etc etc ...... and with my knee healed up enough to be able to handle the load of hard work long hours weekend.

 

[Shipper50]

Sounds like a deal, if you can get someone to help hand and stack or pile while you run the splitter. I did this with a buddy with 3 guys handling the wood and I ran the splitter. We were doing this for a widow he knew.

One thing to watch for, standing on a leg that's had surgery will get stiff or sore fast. Just ask me. ;-)

Shipper

 

[lowroadacres]

Having had two cartilage surgeries on the knee that is giving me trouble means the specialist and I have decided for now that we will not do surgery.... for now. You are so right in saying that an injured knee stiffens up in a hurry when one i putting weight on it in one place such as running a splitter can do to it.

We are going at the issue with fairly aggressive physio, ice, rest, elevation, etc.

Manpower for stacking and working together? We have lots of that which is why I need to set up on a weekend with minimal interruptions.

When we get all hands on deck we have 4 adults, two teenagers, a 9 year old and a 12 year old who all live on our acreage. The challenge is not having hockey, football, swimming, choirs, etc etc etc on a given weekend for us to go at the pile of 2011-12 and some wood that has been in short rounds for up to 4 years that will be ready for late winter reinforcement of our existing 2010-11 wood piles.

if the knee continues to improve then I will also have time and access to more beautiful standing dead, bark fallen off, ash wood that will also be added to the "back end" of 2010-11 piles.

 

[basswidow]

That is a great deal.

Mine works the same way and is $ 60 cash get it Sat and return it Mon morning.

It does not have a 4 way - and that would really step up production.

Please post pics when you get this done.

 

[lowroadacres]

I will definitely post pictures when we get to it. It will be at least a couple of weeks away due to our son's football season going for two more weeks.

It will be interesting to see how it works to use both a longer stroke splitter as the split-fire splits both ways and the unit we are looking at renting can handle 36 inch blocks.

We will try the four way wedge but I am not certain that it will actually speed things up as alot of our firewood isn't big enough to need the four way. We also like to make our splits fairly small as it speeds drying.

It is becoming more of a habit to take pictures of our woodcutting as we go.