New splitter ?

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wellbuilt home

Minister of Fire
Jul 6, 2008
532
NY
I need a faster wood splitter and i have a few bucks saved up . Any one have a supper splitter or split fire I'm leaning towards the medium sized super splitter with the 5.5 Honda . I have 2 27 ton V/H splitters now and will keep one to 1/4 large rounds . The supper splitter looks very fast. The split fire looks good also. John
 
wellbuilt home said:
I need a faster wood splitter and i have a few bucks saved up . Any one have a supper splitter or split fire I'm leaning towards the medium sized super splitter with the 5.5 Honda . I have 2 27 ton V/H splitters now and will keep one to 1/4 large rounds . The supper splitter looks very fast. The split fire looks good also. John

I've used a Supersplit, and didn't particularly care for it, but it IS very fast, almost scarily so - you have essentially NO room for error as the machine will chop off a mispositioned finger far faster than you can respond (unlike a hydraulic) The other thing I've noticed at least on the machine my friend has, is that it seems to be far more finicky and maintainence intensive than a hydraulic unit. When we are splitting together with me on the hydraulic, and him on the Supersplit, it is a "hare & tortoise" situation - he splits far faster when he's working, but has to spend a lot more time working on the machine while I just keep banging out the splits slowly w/o stopping...

If you use the search, you will find lots of additional comments on both machines...

Gooserider
 
Gooserider said:
wellbuilt home said:
I need a faster wood splitter and i have a few bucks saved up . Any one have a supper splitter or split fire I'm leaning towards the medium sized super splitter with the 5.5 Honda . I have 2 27 ton V/H splitters now and will keep one to 1/4 large rounds . The supper splitter looks very fast. The split fire looks good also. John

I've used a Supersplit, and didn't particularly care for it, but it IS very fast, almost scarily so - you have essentially NO room for error as the machine will chop off a mispositioned finger far faster than you can respond (unlike a hydraulic) The other thing I've noticed at least on the machine my friend has, is that it seems to be far more finicky and maintainence intensive than a hydraulic unit. When we are splitting together with me on the hydraulic, and him on the Supersplit, it is a "hare & tortoise" situation - he splits far faster when he's working, but has to spend a lot more time working on the machine while I just keep banging out the splits slowly w/o stopping...

If you use the search, you will find lots of additional comments on both machines...

Gooserider
It looks like you could whack off a finger pretty easy . but a chain saw is really dangerous all so .
I am a builder and do lots of dangerous stuff all the time . I was hoping my sons would take over the wood splitting . It mite be to much for them.
What type of maintenance is he doing ?
What size dose he have .
What HP is it .
Dose your freined like the supper split?
 
wellbuilt home said:
Gooserider said:
wellbuilt home said:
I need a faster wood splitter and i have a few bucks saved up . Any one have a supper splitter or split fire I'm leaning towards the medium sized super splitter with the 5.5 Honda . I have 2 27 ton V/H splitters now and will keep one to 1/4 large rounds . The supper splitter looks very fast. The split fire looks good also. John

I've used a Supersplit, and didn't particularly care for it, but it IS very fast, almost scarily so - you have essentially NO room for error as the machine will chop off a mispositioned finger far faster than you can respond (unlike a hydraulic) The other thing I've noticed at least on the machine my friend has, is that it seems to be far more finicky and maintainence intensive than a hydraulic unit. When we are splitting together with me on the hydraulic, and him on the Supersplit, it is a "hare & tortoise" situation - he splits far faster when he's working, but has to spend a lot more time working on the machine while I just keep banging out the splits slowly w/o stopping...

If you use the search, you will find lots of additional comments on both machines...

Gooserider
It looks like you could whack off a finger pretty easy . but a chain saw is really dangerous all so .
I am a builder and do lots of dangerous stuff all the time . I was hoping my sons would take over the wood splitting . It mite be to much for them.
What type of maintenance is he doing ?
What size dose he have .
What HP is it .
Dose your freined like the supper split?

I agree there are lots of dangerous tools, it just seems to me like the SS is a bit above average in that direction given that the use most people will do (regardless of what the directions say) will involve positioning the round w/ one hand (or at least holding it in place) while working the trip lever with the other. A hydraulic generally moves slowly enough that you can get your hand out of the way pretty easily, or at worst reverse the lever before doing extreme damage - The SS is so fast that it will have finished the stroke and be on the way back before you realize you screwed up...

While a chainsaw can do far more damage, at least the proper, and most common use case requires keeping both hands on the handles, away from the chain...

What is the age / maturity level of your sons? I would say that a hydraulic can be operated with reasonable safety by a relatively young kid, but I would not want to let a kid that wasn't at least mature enough to be a GOOD driver (i.e. has aquired brain in gas pedal foot) anywhere near an SS.

My friend is mostly having to constantly clean and lube the track that the ram rides on - if it builds up much crud at all, it starts having trouble retracting. There is also a bearing he has to grease very frequently, and even so it tends to wear a flat on one side and need replacing often. (Some people in the other threads said he was over lubing, he claims to be using the drill he was given by the mfgr...) Another frequent problem is if he is doing wood that makes a lot of slivers, the machine is very sensitive to getting a fragment between the ram and the track - jams things up, where a hydraulic just keeps on chugging w/ maybe a little bit more pressure on the guage...

His is a Honda engine (not sure if it's original) I think 5 or 5.5 HP

Despite this, he likes it, however he has also said that if forced to only have one splitter he'd keep the hydraulic...

Gooserider
 
Sam's Club has a deal on Swisher splitters. I just picked up their 34 ton splitter with a Briggs 12.5 for $1500. Totally overkill without a 4-way wedge. I ordered the Nothern Tool 4-way wedge. It will likely need some modifications but we'll see.
 
Meauran said:
Sam's Club has a deal on Swisher splitters. I just picked up their 34 ton splitter with a Briggs 12.5 for $1500. Totally overkill without a 4-way wedge. I ordered the Nothern Tool 4-way wedge. It will likely need some modifications but we'll see.
Cool I'm going down to Sam's club now ill check it out . Ive never seen a swisher John .
 
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