About time we had a Firewood thread

[matt walker]

Haha. I love the analogy Guy. I too hope I can keep it up, I really would love to get there. I'm gonna give it my best shot.

[rjdudley]

Can we please put to rest the "Bigfoot/Lockness monster" theory I've seen espoused that you can burn "just sticks" and survive a winter?
My God! Unless you own Yellowstone National Park AND have a warehouse the size of Gillette Stadium it just won't happen.
I've tried. Believe me, I've tried. I've burnt sticks, then more sticks, then more sticks and then went out got some more sticks and then burned them.
Seriously? It takes me 4-6 hours of burning to create enough residual bench heat for a nice 18-24 hour release. Has anyone else tried to burn just sticks for 6 hours? Not to mention the fact that after about two hours I practically burst into flames approaching my RMH.
Two feet of cob DOES NOT HEAT UP QUICKLY! That's for the newbies.
Honestly, I almost need a Hazmat suit to add wood because the bench is like 70˚ while the house is 120˚. This is insane!
Sticks? They vaporize upon insertion. Trust me on this, sticks for the first 30 seconds and then you better have something thicker (furniture, stumps, anything) to feed that beast.
My RMH is without a doubt the finest thing I've built, used or showed in my life.
Thanks again to Matt/Manny/Oddmar/pa for all the help. A learning curve awaits.
Raynman

[matt walker]

[rjdudley]

Thanks Matt! I was beginning to think I was crazy.
My wife kept asking me "Why do you keep building fires? It's unbearable in here!?" And all that I could say was "But, but, the bench is like 65˚"
It's now 44˚ outside, my house is almost 80˚ and that frickin' bench is barely warm to the touch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm glad she loves me (at least that's the front she puts on) because I'm thinking that we going to have to buy bulk thongs just to survive the bench build up!
There's times I think I see fireflies in my house only to realize it's houseflies spontaneously combusting as they go near the RMH.
Ray

[mannytheseacow]

I'm feeling you, Ray. I've been burning pretty hard. It's been down in the 20s at night and I'm pushing her as hard as she'll go.. New bench record tonight: 91*.

[Oddmar]

So, on the topic of splitting wood...

We started building that RMH 'fireplace' style unit around December 3rd. Glen took most of the pictures with his phone and posted them to his Facebook account. I'd have started a thread and shown y'all (note the transplanted Yankee's attempt to fit in) but my old laptop hates Facebook.

It's heating the living area in the shop fine. The space is 28'x24' with 12' ceiling, just 2" XPS sheeting on the upper 4' of wall and on the ceiling, no cellulose blown in the walls or on top of the ceiling yet. Been Broke for months.

2 concrete bells for the thermal mass, 8"x8"x16" foundation block mortared together and filled with clay-rich dirt. Bells are 32"x32"x60" OD and 16"x16"x52"ID. According to the meat thermometer embedded in a mortar joint, bells are getting to 140°F within 2" of the inside.

Waited until the last moment to cut wood, fortunately the property is full of standing deadwood. Still must be damp on the inside though, as the furnace is producing Alot of ash and the exhaust stack is smoking slightly. To heat that space we are burning throughout the day though. Unit was finished just before Xmas and we have cut/ split/ burned about 1/3 cord.

Dunno what ails me but my arms just are not up to the shock (impact shock) of splitting wood. Recently my elbows and wrists have begun to hurt alot, and it's painful just to move a (3 hole) foundation block. Had to lift a Toyota transfer case up and stuff it into the transmission the other day and it was all i could do to pick it up. Holding it up there was easy though, as i aligned the input shaft with the tranny. Just the lifting hurt alot.

Sitting Indian style under the truck, BTW, not standing under a truck on a vehicle lift. Tires were on the ground too... I only had to hunch my shoulders a little bit. I just got 35" tires on my 84 Toyota 4x4. 5:29 gearing to match in the axles, so the 22RE 4-cyl engine doesn't have to strain to move the truck. (stock is 4:10 with 28" tires) In case yer wondering, this all came off another truck on the property, i didn't win the lottery. In fact i only have 10 cents to my name.

Back on the subject of firewood, i've been wanting to build a SuperSplitter clone for a couple years but time/ money / space hasn't permitted me to. Has anyone seen one of these? It's super fast, and no hydraulics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpmuZwdlPrc
Mechanical vs Hydraulic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG7Ytb3M-B4

Trolls with negative replies really bother me, here's a guy actually splitting some tougher wood, and the reviews seem more knowledgeable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYIj3uv5sHA

It's pretty pricey though, so people have started building them at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=256rBriIT28

This guy shows the inner workings a bit better. I think he spent Way too much on the rack & pinion gear. He finally mentioned the pinion gear is 4-1/2" OD which explains why he sheared the teeth off it already. Having only one flywheel means less energy stored too. But a good video about a DIY SuperSplitter.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGIFYUfkhwE

I'd use a 2-1/2" OD pinion gear with a 1" bore. Available from Amazon Supply. Use 2 Toyota 22R timing gear sets for a 2:1 reduction between the flywheel shaft and the pinion shaft. (They are just laying around) Use old 31" tires on the rim full of cement for cheap heavy flywheels. Drill out cement with a masonry bit on an old-school bubble balancer to balance the cement-filled flywheels to reduce shake. The rack and pinion gears are the things that are the hardest for me to acquire, they cost money.

This one would be cheap and easy to build but (even though i have a respect for machinery) it would require only a moments inattention or fatigue-induced 'Oops' to lose body parts. And he's right, the maul is too wide, just a 3/4" thick sharp wedge would impart less side motion to the wood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92ejWHlPLaE

I'd seen this one first, looks like he's getting his fingers Waaay too close during some of those vertical splits, and he could definitely use a larger work table. Maybe a guard to keep from falling into it? But hey, everything can be improved on, right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40sCGb678sQ

[matt walker]

I hear you man, splitting enough wood to actually provide full time heat is a drag. I really like the Supersplitter, and hadn't seen the DIY ones. That last video of the nice DIY SS was great. He did a heck of a job. If I could buy any splitter I think I'd go for an electric SS.

Have you seen that big kinetic splitter video that's been making the rounds the last few years? Hold on, I'll go find it....

Here's a gif, there's a whole video on YouTube, but this is the idea...



Not sure how well it would work on tougher wood, but it looks like an easy project right up your alley with your skillset. Might be worth a try.

The truck sounds cool, love those rigs.

[pa_friendly_guy]

I like the SS design, and I like the home made varieties. I have to say that I am afraid of the circular wheel varieties, they look like you could loose a hand pretty easily. They work pretty well, and feeding the log so you hit the long end will keep your hands clear, but I still feel they are dangerous. Many years ago I went in on a splitter with a few of my friends. There were 6 of us when we started, people moved away and dropped out for one reason or another, we ended up with 3. The unit was a screw drive design. The 8hp motor was mounted on a pivot with a fly wheel, when you pushed the motor down the fly wheel engaged the screw drive toward the log and the fixed splitter head. When you lifted the motor up a belt was engaged and the screw drive retracted so you were ready for the next log. It was surprisingly effective and if it sort of stalled out you could pop the fly wheel and work your way through some pretty tough logs. I think we paid $75 each when we bought it. If you were the last one to use it, you had to store it until someone else wanted to use it. One of the guys put large wheels on it and a hitch so we could haul it around easily, and welded a larger metal plate to the back of the splitter edge so that once the log was started it would push apart with ease. I have never seen another splitter like the one we had, it was slow, but it did the job, and it was cheap, and it would get the job done with out swinging anything heavy over your head. It finally wore out and you could not buy parts to get it repaired, So we got a 4th guy in the group and bought a 27 tom hydraulic splitter. Same storage rules as before. This one is a lot faster return cycle and we welded an extra heavy metal platform to the side so that when you split a log it goes into the side area instead of dropping to the ground. I like the new unit a lot. It was a lot more than the $75 for the old one, but it was still split 4 ways, so the cost was pretty reasonable for each of us. Oh, did I mention that the splitter was used about one year old, so it was cheaper than a new one.

[pa_friendly_guy]

By the way Matt, That hand unit with the spring or counter weight and heavy splitting head seems to work extremely well. Even though he is splitting very straight grained wood, it looks like it is going through it like a knife through butter.

[Lollykoko]

Thanks for all the video links. The DR units impressed me, but I've priced their stuff before. This retiree can't afford it at half the cost.

Guy, I agree with you about those continuous circle log splitters. I used to stand inside a machine that could be closed up with 600 tons of pressure and 1400 degree metal just an accidental push of the button away; I don't think I'd want to use that Wheel of Debt!

Matt, now I have to go find the YouTube video that goes with your GIF. Then I need to call my millwright gf!