Anybody using a Wood Mizer splitter?

[KiwiBro]

Much appreciated post.
Until you run something it is hard to really know. I bought a big Timberwolf, high dollar machine, and as I posted before it worked me pretty hard until I had the wedge modified. It also made a bit of junk, though probably not as much as a box splitter. Big wood in general is just much more work, and often more difficult, knotty pieces. Not faulting Timberwolf, just not how I work, rolling chunks around.
I'd have to rent a processor before buying, to see first hand what they do and don't do, and if one could be run by one person.

Timberwolf are working on a new box wedge model. I haven't been told when it will be released but sounds pretty good. I'm hoping the use of high grade steel means the knives can be thinner without sacrificing strength, thus less lateral pressure on the vertical knives. Also, a somewhat open box-wedge design.

 

[Flatbed Firewood]

Yes, Woodmizer bought Tempest a while ago.
@Flatbed Firewood thanks for that info. Could you please take a few pictures of your wedge, noting in particular the staggering of knife edges, knife thickness, knife offset angles and the type of steel used? Like just about everything, sometimes a properly optimised wedge can make or break the performance.

Sure can and will by the weekend Kiwibro.

 

[KiwiBro]

Sure can and will by the weekend Kiwibro.

Thank you. I'm looking to purchase a splitter soon and researching who is doing what. Much appreciated.

 

[VirginiaIron]

Eastonmade seem pretty stout. I think it is new, they have a new inverted box wedge.

 

[KiwiBro]

When it first came out I was very pleased someone had done it, but I think Andrew at Eastonmade has lagged behind the development of competitors' box wedge designs since then. I did ask recently what if any plans he has to push the development further but haven't had a reply yet.

 

[Waltzie]

When it first came out I was very pleased someone had done it, but I think Andrew at Eastonmade has lagged behind the development of competitors' box wedge designs since then. I did ask recently what if any plans he has to push the development further but haven't had a reply yet.

Kiwi,

What do you consider the advancements needed? I have not seen any competitors that have that open design.

Waltzie

 

[KiwiBro]

Kiwi,

What do you consider the advancements needed? I have not seen any competitors that have that open design.

Waltzie

Thinner, stronger steel, more knives, better support for larger rounds, drag-back arm, greater degree of automation unless even an auto-cycling valve makes the lawyers wet with anticipation up there.

What he did very well in my opinion was the angled rather than horizontal knife, and the open design. But he hasn't pushed on from there or his market hasn't asked him to so he isn't wasting time doing so.

 

[Flatbed Firewood]

Let see if these photos work....

Kiwi, I have the 5 way wedges with a dimensions of 3.5" x 4.5" on the front and the out is wider at 5.2".

It came with a 3 way wedge and to change them out is a task. They are heavy as hell, which is a good thing.

<a href="https://ibb.co/nsSCWBh"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/zhwJkFK/IMG-0156.jpg" alt="IMG-0156" border="0"></a>
<a href="https://ibb.co/NSpX1m4"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/q59z0WZ/IMG-0157.jpg" alt="IMG-0157" border="0"></a>
<a href="https://ibb.co/G3HM34t"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/VpwCpcQ/IMG-0158.jpg" alt="IMG-0158" border="0"></a>
<a href="https://ibb.co/qymjRH1"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/6nDw4Ks/IMG-0159.jpg" alt="IMG-0159" border="0"></a>
<a href="https://ibb.co/8cRp0Ks"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/NSkPsVC/IMG-0160.jpg" alt="IMG-0160" border="0"></a>

 

[Jakers]

just click the links... they open just fine

 

[KiwiBro]

Thanks for that Flatbed. It's great to see these in some detail. You certainly are not wrong about it being solid! The steel is thicker than I would have thought, the knife edge angles flatter than I would have thought, and it's interesting to see the vert knives staggered slightly forward and not aft of the horizontal knife. Interesting scalloped shape in the horizontal/main knife too. I'm surprised to see a 1/2" offset for the angle of those two middle knives, considering their edges are pushing the load outwards not inwards. This means the next set of knives out from them have to have even greater offsets and this coupled with the shallow knife edge angles make me see the knives wanting to push the wood sideways and do a heap of side grain cutting and putting more than optimal lateral loads on the sides of the knives.

It would be great to get inside the heads of the designers who came up with that approach and what else they tried. I can't help but feel that wedge is inviting rather than shedding load though.

One things for sure though, it looks solid as heck

 

[VirginiaIron]

Thanks for that Flatbed. It's great to see these in some detail. You certainly are not wrong about it being solid! The steel is thicker than I would have thought, the knife edge angles flatter than I would have thought, and it's interesting to see the vert knives staggered slightly forward and not aft of the horizontal knife. Interesting scalloped shape in the horizontal/main knife too. I'm surprised to see a 1/2" offset for the angle of those two middle knives, considering their edges are pushing the load outwards not inwards. This means the next set of knives out from them have to have even greater offsets and this coupled with the shallow knife edge angles make me see the knives wanting to push the wood sideways and do a heap of side grain cutting and putting more than optimal load lateral loads on the sides of the knives.

It would be great to get inside the heads of the designers who came up with that approach and what else they tried. I can't help but feel that wedge is inviting rather than shedding load though.

One things for sure though, it looks solid as heck

Yes, well said. It looks like major torque is controlled within the center opening and along the beam.

 

[KiwiBro]

Here's one that I quite like. It might not hold up in our timber, produces splits smaller than we need, but it shows so many of the things that make a box wedge concept really sing:

 

[VirginiaIron]

Here's one that I quite like. It might not hold up in our timber, produces splits smaller than we need, but it shows so many of the things that make a box wedge concept really sing:

View attachment 695056

 

[KiwiBro]

That's it. Look how thin the knives are. Must be hardox 400 or the like. They slice not wedge = less trash, less lateral loads. The angled main knife and block supports help center the block = less trash and helps guide the returning block as it's dragged back (especially if the round isn't cut square), maximum number of full-sized splits and the ability to automate the splitting - not just single auto-cycling, but as many cycles as it takes to finish the block.

I'd want to go to about 4.5 to 5" wide between the knives but could, just, live with 3" height. Ideally a bit higher but if it turns out to be less loads with shorter knives such that an extra one or two knives could be added so it becomes a wider chamber then great, that's a compromise I'd accept for a wider chamber. The one in the video does up to about 430mm but I'd want up to about 650mm. This would mean I would only have to noodle bigger rounds into 2, not three most times.

Notice the way the knives fan out from top to bottom, away from the main knife, allowing a load-release pathway for the splits, such that there is no actual forward to aft offset of the vertical knives required.

See how the push plate has packers to ensure a complete split. Without that the returning portion of the round may not drop cleanly into the splitting chamber.

What I'd like to see is this concept but the wedge reciprocating back and forth through a central chamber that is gravity-fed rounds and gravity-exhausts the splits. The knives would split out and back. The chamber could be configured to take a magazine that the operator loads with rounds and pivots onto the top of the chamber so that many rounds in one batch can be gravity fed into the machine without any further operator involvement. The machine could have the option of an operator pulling levers alongside it, a single auto-cycle like some splitters offer now, or the complete 'walk away' auto-cycling like the Japa 435 shows. The operator always has a remote kill switch and the machine shuts down if the operator gets either too far away or the cage to the splitting chamber is opened.

I think i may have PM'd Sandhill Crane with a rudimentary image or two about a year ago on this subject but I don't think I made my ideas very clear at the time. Manufacturers are getting very close to what's been in my head for a while now. Another year and I think someone will nail it.

I originally envisioned it to be a double flywheel machine (imagine a 1.5-2s cycle time that splits on both strokes!) but now think hydraulic would be safer to control.

 

[MirekTrees]

I bought a Woodmizer FS500 in 2018 for 22-23k CDN.

Pros:
It makes uniform wood squares with the box splitter setup.
It is heavy-duty built.
Log lift is very strong.

Cons:
Makes a mess splitting with the box splitter. (extra work to clean it up).
Does not split knotty wood, you need another splitter.

80 hrs in, the box wedge broke. Bad design, Updated design and replaced by Woodmizer Lindsay, ON, after the warranty ran out. Works great. I had ***** to get them to fix it. I had to ship both ways.

103 hrs currently
Hydraulic fittings or ram is leaking.

Conclusion:
Fixing the leak and selling for $18k CDN.
I would keep this wood splitter if I had a forest on my property.
I could split the wood, take the good large pieces and leave the small scraps in the forest to decompose.

Woodmizer bought this design from Josh Larrabee who started Tempest Wood splitter.
https://www.pinterest.ca/tempestsplitter/tempest-ef-4/
Great design, just not for me anymore.

 

[MirekTrees]

I bought a Woodmizer FS500 in 2018 for 22-23k CDN.

Pros:
It makes uniform wood squares with the box splitter setup.
It is heavy-duty built.
Log lift is very strong.

Cons:
Makes a mess splitting with the box splitter. (extra work to clean it up).
Does not split knotty wood, you need another splitter.

80 hrs in, the box wedge broke. Bad design, Updated design and replaced by Woodmizer Lindsay, ON, after the warranty ran out. Works great. I had ***** to get them to fix it. I had to ship both ways.

103 hrs currently
Hydraulic fittings or ram is leaking.

Conclusion:
Fixing the leak and selling for $18k CDN.
I would keep this wood splitter if I had a forest on my property.
I could split the wood, take the good large pieces and leave the small scraps in the forest to decompose.

Woodmizer bought this design from Josh Larrabee who started Tempest Wood splitter.
https://www.pinterest.ca/tempestsplitter/tempest-ef-4/
Great design, just not for me anymore.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

That's very disappointing.
I lost a bit in the two and a half years I had the TW-6.
Things change. I no longer had good access to big wood at a reasonable cost.
The fat wedge design wasn't so good for smaller stuff.
On another note, I saw the Japa 435 Kiwi Bro mentioned last year, running a year ago at the Paul Bunyan Show in Ohio, 2019.
Almost $100k.
It made very nice splits, has a chip separator/agitator, and vacuum system for saw chips. Clean set up.

 

[MirekTrees]

That's very disappointing.
I lost a bit in the two and a half years I had the TW-6.
Things change. I no longer had good access to big wood at a reasonable cost.
The fat wedge design wasn't so good for smaller stuff.
On another note, I saw the Japa 435 Kiwi Bro mentioned last year, running a year ago at the Paul Bunyan Show in Ohio, 2019.
Almost $100k.
It made very nice splits, has a chip separator/agitator, and vacuum system for saw chips. Clean set up.

Hey Sandhill, I like the Japa as well because it can be electric, but more so because I am looking for a wood chunk processor. I don't need the $100k version.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I would like a Hakke Pilke 43 Pro to replace my SuperSplit, and a stand alone power plant.
A Japa 405 is nice too, and has the box wedge option.
Just picked up a dump trailer, so the processor is going to be awhile.

 

[nathan4104]

If a smaller processor like the hakki and Japa’s are what you’re after, take a look at Blacks Creek, they are close/another option and made on this side of the pond at least