Under 7 seconds: real world cycle times for my Speeco 22 ton splitter

[DodgyNomad]

Finally had a bit of time, and decided to have the wife time me on some cherry and ash that was bucked and needing to be split.

By watching my length of the up and down stroke, as I always do, I averaged 6.7 seconds per piece.

I have my beam marked @ 16" and again at 20" for reference on the return stroke so as not to waste time with over-travel up with the wedge, and I tend to rip the wood apart with my hands right after the secondary part of the wedge makes contact with the wood and pops pops it open. So the ram is only moving a few inches in each direction.

As I suspected, I'm the slowest part of the process, reaching for the wood and setting it on the beam takes me longer than the actual splitting portion, but the splitter was under 7 seconds per split consistently.

These were "friendly size" logs averaging between 8" and 16", so they were popping quickly, and were pretty easy to split.

 

[Bad LP]

Chop off another 5 seconds and you will be Super Split territory without the need to mark the beam or short stroke it.

 

[maple1]

If you tie or fasten or whatever a block (or short round) of appropriate size to the face of the foot, you can just let the return kickoff work as it usually would and take the watching of the return stroke out of your equation. Might gain you another second, but moreso be one less thing to watch.

 

[Ashful]

I upgraded my Speeco 22-tin with a 16 gpm pump, 344cc OHV engine, and larger plumbing. It increased the speed by a third. Something to consider, if speed is your game.

 

[Sconnie Burner]

It sure is nice to have straight grained wood that pops open like that! Unfortunately many of my scrounges were/are yard trees and have twists and knots. Thats where I like to take my time and read the log to get the best normal size split I can out of it. Then again is nice to crank out a half cord or two in minimum time for a sense of accomplishment!!

 

[DodgyNomad]

If you tie or fasten or whatever a block (or short round) of appropriate size to the face of the foot, you can just let the return kickoff work as it usually would and take the watching of the return stroke out of your equation. Might gain you another second, but moreso be one less thing to watch.

I usually don't look at the handle when returning it, as I do it by feel and muscle memory, and as I have the timing memorized, when it splits, I push the handle back, reach and grab my next round round, load it then pull the handle back for the next split cycle. I've thought about it, and almost bought one years ago, but I don't really need a return kickoff, as I can usually stop the ram within an inch or 2 of perfect on the retraction stroke without ever looking at it, just based on experience.

I'm not bragging about the speed of the little 22 ton Speeco's, they are what they are, was just posting what I found. I've used much bigger and faster multi-wedge splitters in my youth. As I've said before, for me, there's a lot more time to be saved in the felling, bucking and bringing wood out of the woods to my processing area by having big and fast saws, huge log jacks, and a large bucket for my front end loader, a large dump trailer, in addition to having an efficient landing area and stacking routine, than there is time to be saved using a quicker splitter. The couple of seconds I can save at the splitter are easily made up or lost in other areas of the processing. On bigger trees, using the Mingo wood marker to get fast and perfect 16 inch marks, and super sharp chains is where I can really pick up some time.

I've used bigger and faster splitters year ago, but now that I'm in my 50's, I don't feel the need to have that wedge flying back and forth at breakneck speed, when I'm easily the slowest link in the assembly line process anyway. I only split about 12 cord a year now, as it's not how I make a living.

After an hour or so, I find that as I tire and slow down a bit, I'm actually glad that the splitter give's me a few seconds to rest between splits.

I still think the little Speeco splitters are fine units for the money, and I feel safe and am comfortable using mine. With now over 100 cord split, mine still runs like new and has never needed even a single adjustment or repair. Just my experience.

 

[maple1]

I usually don't look at the handle when returning it, as I do it by feel and muscle memory, and as I have the timing memorized, when it splits, I push the handle back, reach and grab my next round round, load it then pull the handle back for the next split cycle. I've thought about it, and almost bought one years ago, but I don't really need a return kickoff, as I can usually stop the ram within an inch or 2 of perfect on the retraction stroke without ever looking at it, just based on experience.

I'm not bragging about the speed of the little 22 ton Speeco's, they are what they are, was just posting what I found. I've used much bigger and faster multi-wedge splitters in my youth. As I've said before, for me, there's a lot more time to be saved in the felling, bucking and bringing wood out of the woods to my processing area by having big and fast saws, huge log jacks, and a large bucket for my front end loader, a large dump trailer, in addition to having an efficient landing area and stacking routine, than there is time to be saved using a quicker splitter. The couple of seconds I can save at the splitter are easily made up or lost in other areas of the processing. On bigger trees, using the Mingo wood marker to get fast and perfect 16 inch marks, and super sharp chains is where I can really pick up some time.

I've used bigger and faster splitters year ago, but now that I'm in my 50's, I don't feel the need to have that wedge flying back and forth at breakneck speed, when I'm easily the slowest link in the assembly line process anyway. I only split about 12 cord a year now, as it's not how I make a living.

After an hour or so, I find that as I tire and slow down a bit, I'm actually glad that the splitter give's me a few seconds to rest between splits.

I still think the little Speeco splitters are fine units for the money, and I feel safe and am comfortable using mine. With now over 100 cord split, mine still runs like new and has never needed even a single adjustment or repair. Just my experience.

I am completely on your page re. splitter speeds - my splitter is not the slow link in my chain either.

 

[Tar12]

They are indeed fine units for the money..had one I abused for years feeding a boiler and selling wood....hard telling how many cord I ran through that little splitter....never once did it break down on me...upgrade to a large commercial splitter and sold that little 22 ton to a local guy a couple years ago...he is still running it and loving it!