wood splitter for pine

[bfunk13]

I am in the market for a new splitter.
For years i used a friends home made splitter that works great after you get it tuned up and running every summer.
In our area all we have is pine so i am looking for recommendations on splitter size.
Will a 13 ton do the job? A 20 ton? I dont see me getting any hardwood so i imagine the smaller tonnage would be ok.
I definitely dont want just good enough but probably dont need a 35 ton. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[begreen]

Pine is easy to split, but full of knots, which require a bit more umph. How large are your rounds and what length are you splitting. A decent 20 ton unit will cover most everything. We were splitting huge rounds of fir with it last summer and it only balked on a couple big knot pieces. Instead of extra power, go for quality in the motor, hydraulics and overall construction.

 

[RNLA]

I fully agree, The overall quality. The 20-25 ton area is what you want, then you cover most everything you want to deal with. I have a 34 ton Iron & Oak brand and it is actually a bit over kill for me and I do this more than most people. I run into some huge wood and the splitter does not care.... Lots of power with 11 gpm. pump, 13hp motor...

 

[bfunk13]

Thanks for the replies.
My stove takes about a 18" piece so i try to cut real close to that.
As far as rounds, i have cut some 36 inchers before. But average size would be 12" to 20" or so.
I usually cut all wood early and let season outdoors for a couple months. Then split and season again. I split the 36 inchers with my friends splitter with no problem,
split in half them eat away with smaller chunks. Like i said its a home made unit so not sure of what ton it might be. I have welded for over 20 years and looked into building my own, i am finding it costs just as much to build one as it does to buy one. I would definitely go with a quality tool, any brands or models to stay away from? Thanks!

 

[ROBERT F]

If your splitting a lot of strait grained pine (not knotty and wind twisted) a wedge with a wider/faster taper works well. a thin knife like wedge handles the knots real well, but requires more travle to get the strait grained peices apart. Ya cant go wrong with the honda powered 22 ton huskee/speeco splitter. the wedge is a little thin and making it wider is a pain due to the beam style and the log kickers at the ram end. Being that you have welding experience, you will probably find many piss poor welds on the beam. I know I did. but I ran 20+ cords thru one this year with no problems.

 

[bogydave]

13 ton should do the job well.
Maybe post the specs of the borrowed splitter, some guys here can figure out the splitting force
Ram size, pump gpm & pressure etc.
Travel time on a 13 may be faster than a 22-25 & burn less fuel.

 

[thinkxingu]

The pine here (NH) splits if I look at it the wrong way. There wasn't a single piece, including knotty pieces, that my 5-ton electric ever had an issue with. Especially if the wood is the least bit dry.

S

 

[Naandme]

A 20 ton would handle about any of your pine, But back to the building I built a nice spliter that figures out to be around 30 ton. I built it for at least half of what I could have bought it for. It took some scourging for the steel and found a 5" cylinder for free from a farmer, had a horz. shaft motor B&S 10hp already so big cost was pump 16gpm 229.00 for that at tractor supply plus mounting. made it to be vertical or horz. on a old boat trailer that I reworked. After some hoses, love joy coup. and welding and assembly I have under 500$ in it and it works like a champ. Just alot of fab work and welding but it is rewarding to build it yourself.
P.S. By the way steel came from scrap yard at .12 a pound when I bought it, I beam plus misc. steel.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Pine is easy to split, but full of knots, which require a bit more umph. How large are your rounds and what length are you splitting. A decent 20 ton unit will cover most everything. We were splitting huge rounds of fir with it last summer and it only balked on a couple big knot pieces. Instead of extra power, go for quality in the motor, hydraulics and overall construction.

I fully agree! Our little 20 ton MTD has split many dozens of cord of wood; some easy to split and a lot that split hard and yes, we've even split pine (mostly scotch). It has a cheap 5 hp Briggs & Stratton engine too. So far with well over 100 cord of wood split they only problem we've had is that we now have to add a little bit of oil to the engine. Zero problems otherwise.

 

[bfunk13]

Thanks fellas!
I will do the figuring again on building my own, my Dad has tons of scrap and new steel.
Maybe i could save a few bucks and do it myself. If i do i will definitely post pics.

 

[jlove1974]

the hydraulics alone will cost you half of a 22-ton Huskee splitter, made in the US and sold at Tractor Supply