Anyway, so my husband cut a large portion of the tree up into "donuts" and we carried them to the house and set up a big piece as a cutting stand and I went to work on splitting. Nothing fancy, just with an axe. Canaan came in behind me and split the pieces that I had trouble with. Quite a bit of what wouldn't split with an axe did split with the help of a wedge, but still there was a mountain of pieces that would require a splitter.
The debate was on - to buy, to rent, or to borrow? No one we know locally owns a splitter, so that was out. Our local Home Depot rents one, but knowing that there would be more wood to split down the road, I wasn't sure that this was our best option. I started looking around to buy one, but they looked out of my price range. Even the ones I saw on Craigslist were too much!
And then I found this beauty:
The price was awesome! Just $120 at our local Harbor Freight. They are also available online.
I picked it up Tuesday but didn't get a chance to take it out and try it until yesterday. Super easy to use, it's essentially a 10-ton bottle jack mounted to a stand. It lays down like shown, you put the wood pieces between the jack and the wedge point, and pump the handles to engage the jack. Easy peasy.
The directions say it won't split anything larger that 6 1/2 inches in diameter, but I powered through pieces much larger. I just had to turn it a few times and resplit it.
I'd recommend it to anyone on a budget that needs a splitter. Since it's manual it doesn't require gasoline or electricity to use, so it would be perfect to use anywhere.
That's how I spent about 4 hours of my time yesterday, and how I intend to start my morning.
Have a fantastic day!
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