Clownfish99 said:
So I'm new to the wood burning world this year and have learned a ton from this site/forum. In trying to learn from the experiences of other it occured to me to ask you all this question:
Knowing what you know now, if you could, what would you have changed about how you burn/harvest wood now?
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Some obvoius points for old hands but maybe newbees could benifit, I hope.
First,
i would have bought an new EPA secondarty burn stove , sized properly for my house, instead of the 1960 smoke dragon that I have now, which BTW I am in the process of refitting to secondary burn because it was eating a cord a week on me. I hope to get that down to 1/2 a cord a week with the same heat, after completing modifications, but we will see what I have when I'm done with it.
Second,
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Excuse, sorry,I'm ranting below, a bit, but I already paid for it, in hard work & dollars, and every time I see those 4 cords of rotten wood, I just get steamed all over again. Its a real sore spot with me; shouldn't be, but it is. And I didn't much care for wasting 475.oo either, on a piece of junk splitter.
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i would never have bought an electric (log) LIMB splitter 2hp ,4 ton, but is that rating truthfull, I doubt it. because (they)?/ mine wont split anything over 4 or 5 inch diameter without taking two inch slices off the log until you drop the diameter down to 4 or 5 inch for one stroke splitting.
I figure that the electric log splitter caused me to loose 4 cords of good wood my first year, because it was too slow & couldn't do the job, even though I spent all spring,summer & fall, clear through nov & two weeks in dec 2005, because it just couldn't handle the 20 in, 24in & 26 in logs. They ended up going rotten, because I had no wood sheds then & could not split them by sledge & wedge. At least, not more that 3 a day, then sleep for 6 h
If I had the 22 ton huskee, back then, I could have split all that wood, making it light enough for me to carry down the stairs to the basement, and probably saved most if not all of it.
with a weak electric splitter ,like mine, you end up doing 20 strokes to split what a 22 huskee $1000.oo from tractorsupply.com
will split in 1 stroke.
Maybe the riobei splitter is more powerful than mine,I don't know, but I suspect it might be.
But 22 ton or nothing.
Who wants to work hard for 45 minutes just to split up one large log & you end up with a lot of small splits that burn up really fast when what you might really want is a larger split for a all night burn.
Compair that to the 2 minutes it takes the huskee to do the same job.
The electric splitter is just too weak to do the job. 66% of the time the ram just goes up to a larger log & stops dead in its tracks while the electric motor & hydralic pump runs uselessly.
Instructions say to release the spring loaded motor on switch after 5 seconds of motor humming with ram stopped up against too tough a log & to reposition the log & try again. Sometimes , but not often, maybe 5 % of the time, you might,maybe, be able to split the log if you find a weak point in the grain of the wood.
The 22 ton huskee is about the most bang for the least bucks & already preassembled with engine oil & hydralic fluid installed. No assembly whatsoever, required. Just check the engine & hyrdalic fluid dip sticks to see if they really are full & you are ready to split wood.
Similar log splitters frequently cost up to 500.oo more, come unassembled in a wooden crate,so that you cant tow them home behind your car without your own trailer & you have to buy seperately engine oil & hydralic fluid at an added cost of $100.oo and have fun, with lots of friends to help, assembling parts onto a 350 pound I beam. It is not a one man job. or some stores may assemble it for you for only an extra $75.oo or $100.oo
Third,
I would have modified my basement with a wheelbarrow roll in sized door, to bring in the wood, the first year I started burning, instead of the second year.
Fourth,
I would have built 3 wood sheds, close to the abouve mentioned basement door , the first year I burned ,instead of the second year. I'm thinking about yet another wood shed,
you can never have enough dry seasoned wood.
Fifth,
I prefer the electric chain saws for ease of opperation. The electrics don't vibrate my hands numb like the gas saws do. Even the gas saws with anti vibration mounting handles still vibrate too much for my liking & cause me to stop cutting before the day is half done.
Lucky to be able to cut 45 minutes with a solid handled gas saw, if that.
I'd rather spend a little longer cutting with an electric saw that have my hands hurt all all day & half the night.
Voice of experience, I have 4 elecritics & 5 gas saws, 3 with anti vibration handles & two solid
handles. I have not cut with gas since early 2006, when I got my first electic.
I'm sure there will be some arguments about this, so yes, gas is way faster but hard to maintain the carbs & fuel systems, & gas is way more powerfull so if you are young & your hands can take it , go gas. They cut faster & some might say better, but not for me, maybe so, for some one else.
If your old and have circulation problems, forget gas & go electic. Your hands will thank you.
Or try them both & decide for yourself. It is after all ,personal preference.
Remember that an electric saw needs a cord , that can be plugged into a dc/ac inverter powered from you car altinator or a small generator. So, electric can go portable, but gas is easier & better for deep in woods applications.
For me, lack of vibration is the key factor I look for. Everything else is a poor third.
Going on 60 , and 3d year of my wood cutting & spliting career.
I probably just mananged to point out the obvious for many of you readers ,but if this helps only 1 person, it was worth all the type
