How many cords per hour (or hours per cord) with standard hydro

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Just thinking about GWA's post and curious what others use as a standard time estimation for splitting.

By myself, making small to medium splits, I usually estimate 1/2 cord per hour on the hydro. Maybe a bit more wood per hour if the splitter is "wedge on beam" construction as it sort of clears itself until it piles up too high. If I am doing boiler wood (large splits) I figure cord per hour.
 
8 cords a few days ago in 6.5 hours.... started at 10:00 am and split the last block at 4:30 pm..... tree length stacked/piled/dumped randomly with a skid steer! dirty as in sugar sand and some frozen together. myself, my son and 2 employees help with one splitter. biggest butts were 20" and species was popple, jack pine. we didn't really bust azz as it was a lazy day enjoying one of the last warm fall days. blocked into 16"/18" and split to hand size thrown into a pile....
 
On a good day with dry wood in one of my trucks its 45 minutes per cord, but at that pace I can only do about two and then need a break. At the moment I have about six cords of larger 48'' damp pine which takes about two hours per cord. Thanks
 
What are we defining as "standard" hydro? To me it would be a 10-15 second cycle time and a single wedge, with maybe a slip on 4 way, no log lift, and a one man operation. Basically a hydro splitter your average guy may have and could afford. We're not talking 8-10 grand Timberwolfs here.

If that's the case, then i agree a cord every two hours sounds about right. Of course, the quicker it cycles, the more ways the wedge can split, adding log cradles, lifts, extra helpers, etc all speed up production.
 
Length of wood and size of splits makes a huge difference as well. I see guys making larger splits than I tend to for my customers. I think logs I split into 6, most are splitting into 3 or 4.
 
What are we defining as "standard" hydro? To me it would be a 10-15 second cycle time and a single wedge, with maybe a slip on 4 way, no log lift, and a one man operation. Basically a hydro splitter your average guy may have and could afford. We're not talking 8-10 grand Timberwolfs here.

If that's the case, then i agree a cord every two hours sounds about right. Of course, the quicker it cycles, the more ways the wedge can split, adding log cradles, lifts, extra helpers, etc all speed up production.
Correct, something in the 22-35 ton range, no log lift.
 
I have a newer 1.5 year old fleet farm lumber jack 25 ton single wedge 11.5 sec. cycle time one way /23 sec full trip on a 6.5 hp. kohler engine..... working with 4 people it never stops till it needs more go juice. $995.00 out the door!
 
I've never measured output using any of my machines but because I have a grinder, torch and a welder I might be cheating a bit. I know that cutting the foot off and putting the wedge on the foot of the Speeco that it almost doubled the output onto the conveyor due to not having to touch the splits once they hit the wedge. My 36" stroke machine with auto cycle and 4 way hydraulic wedge splitting 4 rounds at a time is also pretty fast. My Wallenstein processor is about the same output as the 36" but it's a lot less work on my body.
 
My old blue homemade job with 8 sec cycle, a cord an hour was easy. 45 minutes was possible.
The other splitter with 12 sec cycle time it would be tough to get a cord in a hour.... Both machines have 3 way wedges, which work quite well. Won't jam up like a 4 way, and you can rotate the block 60 degrees and get 6 splits in two strokes.... In larger stuff I can outrun the production of the supersplit kinetic because of the 3 way wedge. Smaller stuff the kinetic is fast!
 
With straight 16" wood I can easily do 2 face cord in a hour with my 22 ton DHT. I try to race myself without really thinking about it sometimes. Steady pace it's about 30 minutes per face cord.
 
If everything was running smooth, then I could fairly consistently split 2-1/2 cord or so in 3-1/2 hrs.
1/2-3/4 cord per hour.
No log lift, 22" pcs, all sizes of rounds up to 30" or so, 25 ton machine.
 
  1. timberwolf - tw5 - 4 way head ,log lift and 3 people ( one running machine - one bringing rounds to machine and one clearing the table after wood is split) can produce a ton of wood per hour. The biggest wild card is the wood being split. I have several 5 ft round oak rounds that i need to split and that really slows you down on the spliter. 16 in round logs go through like butter
 
So, you still have to stack it all when you are done? It seems like splitting is the easy part.

Says who? I push wood through my wedge and into a pile. Don't handle it after the splitter. It can stay in a windrow for a year and then get loaded into a pallet or truck or wherever it's going next.
 
Says who? I push wood through my wedge and into a pile. Don't handle it after the splitter. It can stay in a windrow for a year and then get loaded into a pallet or truck or wherever it's going next.[/QUOTE7

I was asking, I didn't know how you all did it. I have to stack mine, and the wedge is on the cylinder. But most of you cut a lot more wood than I do.
 
Says who? I push wood through my wedge and into a pile. Don't handle it after the splitter. It can stay in a windrow for a year and then get loaded into a pallet or truck or wherever it's going next.

My wood goes into a stove. So stacking is part of the deal.
 
thats some great productivity, after you pop a few disks in the back and turn old and grey productivity goes down a bit
just saying
 
thats some great productivity, after you pop a few disks in the back and turn old and grey productivity goes down a bit
just saying
I am old and grey. No back problems, but a touch of pnemonia has me at a stand still. I'm exhausted from coughing.
Photo: taken a year ago at the Grand Rapids Kids Museum IMG_5666.jpg
 

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