Wood Splitters

It would be interesting to know the long name for DR brand. It is always interesting to look on-line and see what others are using!
Just thought it would be fun to throw in some pictures of a slightly different splitter.
The machine is a Beaver Chomper made in the early 80s. By ton splitting force it's not too powerful. You have to remember some of your manual splitting skills as it lacks brute force.
The winch was not part of the original equipment and was added for getting blocks onto the table .

...and real processors are Verticles???? We all know real men have the right equiptment. ( insert thinly veiled attempt at humor)

I could point out a few outfits that run nothing but super splitters, saws and manpower that "process" 2-300 full cords a year. Most of the processors around here speak Spanish...

Only a few volume splitters come to mind that are verticles and I don't seem to remember any that work off the ground sitting with your head near the business end of the machine.

Thanks for the great friendly banter. We both know we are both wrong and right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSKeHWtFWzQ

DR Rapidfire splitter.

That thing is pretty impressive. IF you had a ton of wood to process, that design (and price) would probably be the way to go.

I'm a small-time operator. I grabbed the Swisher 12 ton unit from the Sportsman Guide (for about $600) and it's been serving me perfectly. (review link on my sig line.)

Greg

That is some bad axe men! I wonder how many fingers they have left combined :lol:

Pete

This is for you BrotherBart enjoy http://youtu.be/te3FBhdqgK8

Pete

Still looks like a "horizontal" processor to me....

I particularly like to use of OSHA safety standards during the making of this video. The chaps, eyewear and hardhats were priceless.

Happy with my super split. I just noodle the big stuff. Sips fuel . Wood to fuel ratio is great. No hydraulics to worry about. Half speed on the motor gets through most of the wood as well. Nice thing, the splitter is always waiting on you, never the other way around.

While the inertia based machines can tear through the straight stuff that you can probably do by hand for $1500 less, I bought a hydraulic to process knotty, twisted, and just plain stubborn wood quickly. All videos for "fastest" firewood processing are made with ideal wood that splits on command, whether that be from a fiskars, maul, or inertia splitter. I'd like to see a worst case scenario comparison video between the inertia splitters and a hydraulic that showed total output after 1 hour.

As for the H/V debate? Dennis is right in that most people who split horizontally have extra equipment available. My extra equipment is that I split with a partner to keep the wedge moving. Nothing wastes time/fuel like idling while waiting to load the next piece. We DO split vertical for anything deemed to heavy to lift easily, so I guess we're not complete fools. ;-) But having a log table also enables the operator to keep the splitter producing while my partner rolls the next few rounds near the splitter. Moving the splitter is too time consuming for us because we'd also have to move the pickup we're loading at the same time. Everybody will have variations that work for them but to say one way or the other is the absolute best is a bit presumptuous I think.