Log splitters - can anyone recommend one?

[tablet]

Hi,

I am a complete newbie to this site having come across it while trying to find reviews of domestic log splitters.

We have just installed a wood burning stove and a solid fuel Rayburn in our house and are now trying to get on top of the wood situation. We're not really green building but we're trying to do as much as we can to make ourselves as self-sufficient as possible and I wasn't sure where else to put this.

Anyway, with two small children and the third due any day we have had to accept that we just don't have the time to split all the logs we need by hand with our trusty axe and mallet so we're looking to get a log splitter.

The heavy duty log splitters are a bit beyond the budget we had in mind but one of the guys selling them has made me a bit wary of those available for less than £500. I'm hoping that someone will tell me that they're not all a waste of money, please

We're prepared to split or saw the really big logs but would like to be able to do some splitting a bit quicker.

Can anyone offer any advice, please?

Thanks,
Tab

Edited for some bad English!

[ina]

Hiya Tab,

Unfortunately I can't give any advice on log splitters - just wanted to say welcome to SSish!

[Millymollymandy]

Hi and welcome!

We have a domestic log splitter but you'll have to wait until I make more coffee and wake the OH up to ask him what make it is and how much it cost!

He's delighted with it and it works very well, although we aren't splitting loads of wood - just the logs that we've bought that haven't been split enough - plus some wood we've cut ourselves - fallen or dead trees etc. I don't know how it would stand up to splitting cord upon cord of wood though.

[tablet]

Ina - thanks for the welcome.

Millymollymandy - thanks also for the welcome and I shall wait patiently for the coffee to do its job.

I don't think we'll be splitting masses of big wood, we're planning to get most of it as offcuts from a timber yard so I think a domestic one should be able to cope.

[red]

welcome tablet
I cannot recommend a log splitter.. but have heard those 'grenade' ones are good. we use a bow saw and a long handled ax.

i love my bow saw.. really rips through wood, and you can change the blade when it gets too blunt.

[Stonehead]

Two different tree surgeons have said the Scheppach ones are robust — and fast if you get the six-way splitter attachment.

They're too expensive for me, though, so I continue using axe, wedges and sledgehammer. (Plus they don't use electricity.)

We have a couple of kids and the croft to run, but find that by religiously doing around 30 minutes sawing and splitting every day, we can keep up with our demand. I usually finish the day's chores, play a game of football with the boys, and then saw/split wood from before coming in to cook the dinner.

[wulf]

Are you talking about a machine to split the logs? Last time I was down at my parents', my Dad proudly show me his new splitter but I think that was probably more along the lines of what Red called a grenade - like an axe but more like a sharpened wedge expanding out to a rounded weight rather than the flatter shape of an axe-head.

I love splitting wood when I go down there and made good use of the new tool to help prepare them a good chunk more wood. Being a city dweller, it is still a fun novelty for me to go round swinging an axe and combining brute force with (attempted) intelligent cut placement to deconstruct the wood.... rather than an arduous chore.

Wulf

[Millymollymandy]

Well I'm talking about an electric one, yes!

Tablet - he can't remember what make it is but it was about €200 and is made in China - i.e. not a fancy one! We've had it for 2 years and it gets to split about 20 logs from each corde of wood (a cord(e) is 3 steres and a stere is 1m3). Umm so that means it's split about 20 logs from about 10 cordes and hasn't packed up yet!

The only thing he doesn't like about it is that it sits on the ground so that means you have to squat whilst putting the logs through it which he finds uncomfortable.

I can check what make it is later as he says the box is still in the barn, but there's always the likelihood that it isn't sold in the UK anyway (I'm in France).

[red]

oh if electric one you mean.. I have no idea

the grenade i was referring too.. which we have no experience of either! is somethig like this

[wulf]

The tool I was thinking of was a "splitting maul". It is not disimilar to a "grenade" with a handle attached and is designed so that you can drive it into the wood and then open up the split by hammering the back (a companion with a sledgehammer makes it much easier than trying to do it all yourself).

You can see one at the bottom of the page linked above... but it's not a bit of machinery, which is what Tab is after.

Wulf

[tablet]

Thanks for all the replies.

I have to admit that we were being lazy and contemplating an electric one.

I think that once we get our wood stores organised we probably would manage if we were disciplined about doing 30 minutes a day but I'm not sure we'd ever be that disciplined!

I'll have a look at the Scheppach ones and will also probably invest in a grenade or a maul of some sort as they look good.

We've got to build a log store of some sort as well and somewhere along the line I've got to get some veg seeds in the ground...

[ina]

Being a city dweller, it is still a fun novelty for me to go round swinging an axe and combining brute force with (attempted) intelligent cut placement to deconstruct the wood....

Wulf, I'm seeing you in an entirely new light!

[Millymollymandy]

Sorry, I forgot to look up the make of the log splitter! Will do so today.

[Stonehead]

Scheppach do both electric and hydraulic ones.

[Millymollymandy]

OK have the details now!

Handy Power FHP1500LS
Hydraulic log splitter
4 tonnes pressure
52cm long logs

Bought in April 2006 for €259.

Currently in same shop for only €229.00. !!!!!!

Here's a link (I do realise it's a long way to come to buy one )

http://www.castorama.fr/store/Catalogue ... 509203.htm