How long to split and stack a cord of wood?

Treestuff
Rugged made
Advertise with us
Wesspur
Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
If the logs are already bucked into 18 inch pieces it takes me 3hrs without stopping to split a full cord. I have a hydraulic splitter with about a 10 second cycle time.
 
Damn, I'm slow. It takes me about 4 hours.

Update: Just split and stacked a 1/2 cord last night after work before it got dark. Worked for 1.75 hrs, so it looks like about 3.5 - 4 hrs is about right for a full cord.
 
OK. I have to think this one through a little bit.

With my splitter, I can split and throw a full 8' bedfull into my truck, about 1/2 cord, in 1 to 1-1/2 hours. If I don't get tired, I could do that twice, which is 2-3 hours.
Then 30-45 minutes per load to unload and stack each 1/2 cord (1 to 1-1/2 hours).

So my range would be 3 to 4-1/2 hours I think. That is for wood already bucked and piled. A little quicker if I had bucked and stacked in a windrow, a little slower if it's warmer than 40 or colder than 0 outside.

Yes, my ideal firewooding weather is 0-40 degrees outside. I'll tolerate up to 50 if it's breezy, or even 60 if I have to, but I don't like the heat.
 
muddstopper said:
Single split wedge? Multi split wedges do make a difference
Click to expand...

That's with a single split wedge, I have a four way but the splitter in some cases is not strong enough because it slips over my single wedge making it fatter and the initial contact angle is not as sharp or the diameter of the wood is wrong so it doesn't save me any time. I'm still tweaking it but don't want to waste a lot of time or money on it since I'm considering a TW-5 or similar processor.
 
zogger said:
Way too many variables. Twisty knotty wood takes forever and two days to get a cord. Super straight grained no knots I can fly through the stuff.
Click to expand...
Species of the wood and how long it's seasoned plays a big part, I do black oak and madrone. If you can hand split and stack a cord of either of these in 4hrs, even if they are already cut to length, you're one tough hombre! Takes three pickup loads ( shortbed 1/2 ton pu ) stacked in rounds to make a cord, that's a lot of moving to get done in a short time, and I'm 62 years young. It'll take me about 8 hrs of continuous work to accomplish this, but I am retired so I may take 2 or 3 days of working a couple of hrs. a day.
 
I like getting my wood done, all at one time, if I can. Thats the reason I built my splitter with the 6way wedge and 5in bore cyl. The splitter will work a person to death trying to keep up with it so I dont try. A few things I do before splitting is stageing the wood. I do seperate the extra large rounds because they will need resplit, but If i have help, I split them as I come to them. I found that to be the one thing that can speed up splitting more than anything I can do. Now, I dont stack rounds in neat stacks beside the splitter, but I do windrow the rounds using the FEL. I then connect my splitter to my ventrac tractor and start at one end of those windrows of rounds. As the wood piles up behind the splitter, I just pull the splitter ahead a little. When I am done splitting, the splits are in a nice neat row, which I scoop up with the FEL and just hall into the wood shed. I can keep the bucket at waist level and just turn and stack. Cuts down on the carrying and lifting and speeds stacking a bunch. Now if I have lots of help, I will back the splitter wedge just inside the shed and scoop the rounds up in the bucket and just drive up beside the splitter. Take wood from bucket and split and stack as it comes off the wedge. The less lifting you have to do, the longer you can work before getting tired. Nothing to pulling levers, you can do that all day in the hottest of weather. I also use the fel when bucking the logs. I need a grapple, but I use a set of log tongs to lift the logs off the ground. I can pull up to a pile of logs, lift the log off the pile, back up a few feet and buck the log without having to stay bent over, or worry about hitting the ground with the saw. Saw stays sharp longer and I aint slipping and tripping and climbing on top of other logs. I can carry the big logs off to one side for separate bucking and splitting. Keeps me from having to sort the big rounds from the small ones. Tractor dont care, and doesnt take but a minute to push the rounds into piles for splitting. While it might seem like a lot of extra work, it really makes things easier and faster because you aint wearing yourself out carrying. bending. and lifting every individual round.
 
muddstopper said:
I like getting my wood done, all at one time, if I can. Thats the reason I built my splitter with the 6way wedge and 5in bore cyl. The splitter will work a person to death trying to keep up with it so I dont try. A few things I do before splitting is stageing the wood. I do seperate the extra large rounds because they will need resplit, but If i have help, I split them as I come to them. I found that to be the one thing that can speed up splitting more than anything I can do. Now, I dont stack rounds in neat stacks beside the splitter, but I do windrow the rounds using the FEL. I then connect my splitter to my ventrac tractor and start at one end of those windrows of rounds. As the wood piles up behind the splitter, I just pull the splitter ahead a little. When I am done splitting, the splits are in a nice neat row, which I scoop up with the FEL and just hall into the wood shed. I can keep the bucket at waist level and just turn and stack. Cuts down on the carrying and lifting and speeds stacking a bunch. Now if I have lots of help, I will back the splitter wedge just inside the shed and scoop the rounds up in the bucket and just drive up beside the splitter. Take wood from bucket and split and stack as it comes off the wedge. The less lifting you have to do, the longer you can work before getting tired. Nothing to pulling levers, you can do that all day in the hottest of weather. I also use the fel when bucking the logs. I need a grapple, but I use a set of log tongs to lift the logs off the ground. I can pull up to a pile of logs, lift the log off the pile, back up a few feet and buck the log without having to stay bent over, or worry about hitting the ground with the saw. Saw stays sharp longer and I aint slipping and tripping and climbing on top of other logs. I can carry the big logs off to one side for separate bucking and splitting. Keeps me from having to sort the big rounds from the small ones. Tractor dont care, and doesnt take but a minute to push the rounds into piles for splitting. While it might seem like a lot of extra work, it really makes things easier and faster because you aint wearing yourself out carrying. bending. and lifting every individual round.
Click to expand...


How many cords do you process like that a year? What is a FEL?
 
FEl is just the front loader on a farm tractor. I try to do about 4 to 5 cords a year and stay at least one year ahead.

I am not in the firewood business so I am not doing wood day in and day out. My work used to take me out of town for the week. I did that for 40 years. I only had weekends to scrounge and process firewood. I have always tried to gather all the wood I needed in just one or two days. Years ago, my dad and my wifes dad both owned pulpwood trucks. I could easily get all the wood I needed in one day, if I could find the wood. As they, and time, passed, both trucks got sold, which left me to having to haul my wood in a pickup. That meant sawing and bucking the wood before I could even load it. Over the years, I have have found better ways to scrounge. I built a dump trailer and started hitting the logging sites and getting their culls, which they would load for me. I could haul the wood home and dump it off for processing later, when I had the time to do so. Usually I wouldnt split anything until I had everything bucked. I would buck a little each week until it was all done, then rent a splitter, but the wood was usually left in a big pile and never stacked. Later, I build my own splitter, I had built a few over the years, but always used them that winter and sold them when done for the season. With several splitter builds under my belt, I built my current splitter using mostly salvaged parts and steel. Looks like crap, but splits like crazy. Anyways, old age is catching up so I keep on looking for ways to improve my wood processing. Still not looking at getting into the firewood business, but I do want to be able to get my wooding done as fast and with the least amount of physical work as possible. Been working on a full blown firewood processor for the last couple or three years and have a few modifications I want to add to my dump trailer for bringing the wood home. Going to add a tilt loader, with a electric winch to the tongue of the trailer. Hopefully this will allow me to load log lengths without needing some other support equipment to scrounge wood. I keep a long cable and snatch blocks on the truck and use it to drag trees out of the woods, to cut down on the hand carrying. With a loader on the trailer, I should be able to load logs without bucking first. My methods might not work for everyone, some folks enjoy cutting their wood, personally, I would rather be fishing.
 
Ok, I guess I have a FEL too then. It makes life easier for sure. It's much easier to pull my skid steer up to the pile of splits and stack them in the bucket then drive over and dump into the truck and trailer, especially with the high sides I have on everything now.
 
lknchoppers said:
Ok, I guess I have a FEL too then. It makes life easier for sure. It's much easier to pull my skid steer up to the pile of splits and stack them in the bucket then drive over and dump into the truck and trailer, especially with the high sides I have on everything now.
Click to expand...
OK I am going to poke a little fun at ya. You stack the wood in the fel and then dump into the trailer. I just scoop the wood with the fel and dump in the trailer. Actually, I just scoop the wood and then stack in the shed out of the fel. I have been know to back my trailer up to the splitting wedge and let the splits pile up in the trailer as I split. I get a bunch of splits in the trailer, I might take the time to stack them so I can get more in the trailer, just depends on how far I have to haul the wood and how much I have to split. I only like to handle the splits the least number of times possible to get them in my wood shed.
 
Just last week I delivered a cord of rounds to a customer. She asked me if I would split and pile it. I said ok if you help me and for an extra 40 we can do it in 90 minutes or less.
She stood the blocks on end and I split with a 6# Collins and helped pile a bit.
We were done in exactly 55 minutes including one smoke break.
She called for a high 5 when we were done. We both bonded over that firewood situation and what an inspiration it all was. Women Rock!
I don't know about you guys, but I'd vote for Hilary Clinton if I could, mostly because I think she's pretty.
 

Similar threads

W
Hand splitting
2
Replies
20
Views
2K
calamari
C
vtfireman85
One of my wood splitters
Replies
3
Views
1K
axel207
A
sb47
When it rains everything goes wrong.
Replies
12
Views
935
sb47
sb47
husky455rancher
Wolfe ridge 28c first thoughts
Replies
19
Views
3K
Sandhill Crane
Sandhill Crane
isaaccarlson
I converted the splitter to electric and added a 4 way wedge
2
Replies
35
Views
4K
isaaccarlson
isaaccarlson

Latest posts

Back
Top