More Accessories for my Firewood Equipment

[Adirondack case guy]

I have been watching lots of U-Tube videos of current wood splitters. When I converted mine to 3pt hitch I had to build a block lifter to get the big blocks up onto the splitter bed which was then waist high. My solution was a gin pole with a 12V winch and grapple to lift them. Much cheaper and simpler than buying a 2 spool valve and doing all the plumbing for a lifting leg. It has served me well, but after watching the videos, I could also see advantages to the lifting leg on modern splitters as well. Not so much to lift the real heavy blocks, because the gin pole does that very efficiently, but to also use the leg as a tray to hold a number of smaller rounds that I can lift by hand, rather than running back and forth to grab another block each time I split one.
I built a telescoping leg, as the splitter can also be used setting down on it's wheels. The leg can also be switched from side to side by removing 2 pins. It can telescope out to 44" long at the heel of the forks, and retracted. to a length of 28". The gin pole still will do all the lifting, so still no need for a 2 spool valve, and I plumbed my hydraulic driven elevator so it only runs when the splitting cylinder is completely retracted and control lever is held back. One lever and the winch fob control the complete lifting, splitting and loading operation, and my back no longer suffers.

I also utilized a broken splitting maul handle that broke at the head to become a handle for a home fabed pickeroon. I built one several years back and it is a real handy tool, but it seamed that it was MIA back at the woodshed where I use it to grab blocks at the front of the trailers, when I needed it, so a second one was in order. This is what I formed out of a piece of 12G steel and the 25" long piece of the maul handle. The pickeroons alow me to grab and lift moderate sized blocks without bending over.

-----Loren

 

[larry@stinescorner]

Amazing work,,really nice,,,///Merry Christmas!!

 

[lee little]

Loren I am always amazed by your innovation. I have thought about you a lot lately because I am behind in my wood cutting . Its been a rough year and I spent last week in the intensive care unit with my wife. I got to cut some wood today and thought about you and your inventions. Keep up the good work you inspire me. Lee

 

[Philip d]

A friend of mine has a 3pt splitter with a lift table.it mostly gets used as a table but it?s nice for lifting the heavy blocks too.

 

[Russ from MN]

I have thought about making a pickaroon with an axe blade on the back. We split a lot of Elm and sometimes there is one string hanging on that I would just like to hit with an axe.

 

[Adirondack case guy]

Sorry to hear about your wife. Especially this time of year. I hope things get better for you. Making firewood is good mental relief. Take care. ------------Loren

 

[lee little]

Thanks Loren.

 

[johnlobb]

Nice subject, Lorne. I think of you and your neat, tightly stacked wood pile when I am looking at my pile. I mostly have Box Elder, and it does not generally split straight like your wood does. So my pile does not look tightly packed like yours, there are a lot of gaps. Sometimes I get some Michigan Cherry, and that splits straighter.

 

[JK-NY]

That sure is a great improvement on your splitter. Just when we thought you thought of everything you surprised us again. The pickaroon is a handy tool, I have one that was my fathers and use it kind of like a hay hook to grab and pull bales of hay out of the wagons.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

Loren, you are more creative than I.
If I made something like that the wood would roll off the other side and land on my foot.
Geo

 

[Adirondack case guy]

George, That is one thing that I noticed with the commercially built splitters. They use a much smaller diameter cylinder on the lift linkage, and most are very quick and jerky, so it takes a steady hand on the control lever. The winch that I used is much smoother.------------------Loren

 

[Adirondack case guy]

That could be easily done with this pickaroon. Just need to weld a small blade on the backside. You have my wheels turning now, because I have the same situation with my splitter, but I also have a hatchet hanging on the splitter for that situation.------Loren

 

[timcasbolt]

I've always preferred vertical splitters. Here's an 8 minute video of the one I built a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYauMBbj9bk&t=20s

Now that I've cut down all my trees, it's for sale in case anyone's interested. Located in Cecil County, Maryland.

 

[Adirondack case guy]

As a multi brand farm machinery dealer for 55 years we sold American brand wood
splitters, made in Black River, NY. The majority of them that we sold were vertical
3pt hitch mounted units that could handle up to 36" blocks. Personally I hated using
them because you were always bent over at the waist using them and most of the time
on your knees manhandling the blocks. Yea, I know people say they just set on an
unsplit block and use it, but, They forget to mention that there is some other grunt
there to wrestle the blocks onto the foot of the splitter and then bend over many
more times to toss all the split blocks onto a trailer. That is what I call Yo-Yo
wood. Pick it up drop it on the ground and then pick it up again and do it over and
over. That is BS in my mind. Just pick up a block once and watch the split pieces
fall off the end of splitter and drop into an elevator, and then fall into a
trailer, and then to stack it, pick it off the tailgate of the trailer without
bending down and picking all those blocks off the ground again. Work smart, not hard
on your hands and knees lifting wood only to drop it on the ground again to lift it
again!!!! If you want to see a real nice commercially built firewood system, Google
"Outdoors With The Morgans" and watch Mike and Melisa on their U-tube channel,
handle firewood from standing tree to delivered firewood.-----------------Loren

 

[Billy NY]

I finally got to some large blocks in my yard, like 40" and I have one that is 48". Once I bucked them, I moved them with the backhoe using it's mechanical thumb. A friend showed up and was the "grunt" on the ground. Using the splitter vertically definitely is hard work. These blocks were so much larger than anything I typically handle. It worked, but I prefer horizontal with a comfortable work height. I now use the backhoe front loader bucket for lifting larger blocks, split and stack in gardenway carts then to my stacks. Nowhere near as elaborate as that wonderful hand crafted equipment you did such a fine job of making for your operation, but with the same intent, not working off the ground. Larger blocks that I can maneuver by hand, limited amount, ok will go vertical, just won't do a lot of them. I can work all day the way I do it here and that is the most important thing, makes it enjoyable, even with all this elm I have.