Greetings To All

[afivecents]

I am brand new to this site and by just clicking through it, I can see there is a wealth of experience here. I cut and sell firewood for the Wisconsin Trapper's Association for fund raising. Some of the wood we get into is fairly large and tough to split in the woods. Someone told me about the screw type wood splitters. I was also told that there are very mixed feelings about the safety of them. One thing I agree with, is that connecting them to an axle of a vehicle is not the best option. I can see all kinds of things going wrong there. What I am looking for though, is how do I go about finding one of the screw wood splitter cones? I have checked on EBay and have found a large selection, but they are all from people from all over the world. 1) I do not feel comfortable making an overseas transaction. 2) I would rather do business with products, any products, made in the USA. Can anyone help me find a place where I can buy one? Thank you for any help. Allen.

 

[stumpy75]

Welcome to the site. As you mentioned, the safety of those wood screw splitter cones is a real problem. Possibly the reason you can not find them in this country is in fact due to the safety concerns... I used a friends One time. Scared the crap out of me when the piece of wood screwed into the screw and knocked the vehicle off the blocks it was on.

That said, maybe check on E-Bay. I have seen them there before, but I have not looked in quite a while.

There are a lot of good hydro splitters out there for under $1000. Watch Craigslist in your area for used one, but be ready to act fast when one comes up.

Good luck!

 

[svk]

We had a screw type splitter that was ran from a small Briggs motor, maybe 5hp. It definitely had it's limitations.

You are much better off getting a small electric or hydraulic splitter.

 

[Hinerman]

I am brand new to this site and by just clicking through it, I can see there is a wealth of experience here. I cut and sell firewood for the Wisconsin Trapper's Association for fund raising. Some of the wood we get into is fairly large and tough to split in the woods. Someone told me about the screw type wood splitters. I was also told that there are very mixed feelings about the safety of them. One thing I agree with, is that connecting them to an axle of a vehicle is not the best option. I can see all kinds of things going wrong there. What I am looking for though, is how do I go about finding one of the screw wood splitter cones? I have checked on EBay and have found a large selection, but they are all from people from all over the world. 1) I do not feel comfortable making an overseas transaction. 2) I would rather do business with products, any products, made in the USA. Can anyone help me find a place where I can buy one? Thank you for any help. Allen.

Here you go:

http://www.thestickler.com/index.html

 

[TimberWolf530]

The screw type have a very narrow margin for error. Much narrower than I would feel safe with. I don't really see a situation where you could get one of those in where you couldn't get a hydro in. The screw type has to be run off a car/truck hub or a PTO on a tractor, and you can get 3 pt mounted hydros for pretty cheap, and you can pull the horizontal/vertical ones with a motor behind an ATV if you need to. I pull mine around with a garden tractor. Oh, and welcome!!

 

[Oldman47]

Welcome to the forum.
Just one more person here encouraging you to find another way to split. Those things scare me to death. They require something to control the wood or it will flop around on the end of the cone and not split. If you want a very portable splitter for work in the woods, how about a nice maul like the Fiskars X-27 or the Husky S2800? They are both faster than the cone and pose far less risk of injury. If you have access to bring in a larger tool a nice brand spanking new 22 ton hydraulic splitter can be had for under $1000.

 

[babybart]

Just an FYI, just looked at Tractor Supply flyer I got in the mail today, 22 ton County line splitter, free assembly and filled with Hyd. fluid for $899 Jan 13-17. Screw the screw if ye know what I mean...

 

[cantoo]

afivecents, I have one of the 3 point hitch ones. Barkbuster model. I buy them once in awhile at auction sales and resell them. Every one that I have bought has the arm on them all bent to heck. You can see the bent one on this one. Usually only takes that one accident and the guy sells it. I paid $10 for my last one. I try every one I buy and they don't work worth a crap on anything that has any type of difficult grain on it. Might work for an easy splitting softwood or a softer grain wood. Even ash is difficult to get started and usually ends up with wide eyed operator.

 

[zogger]

Howdy! Much easier to pack in a variety of quality splitting axes and mauls, and some steel wedges and a good stout sledge. I usually carry in an 8lber truper, the original light weight fiskars superplitter, and my generic utility axe, and several steel wedges. Then there is always noodling to get the real behemoths down to a size you can get into the truck or trailer to get back home and split there.

I think the lightest decent gas splitter you can get to tote in with you is the logboss. I also think, never saw it done, but it might be possible to carry one on the front of a truck with a modified snowplow mount, unload at the cutting site. Then you can carry in the bed, tow a trailer, and still have a powered splitter with you. I know I would like one.....

I forget what they weigh, but not much, BRB...only 200 lbs! They also will pivot adjust around big rounds to start splitting from the side, chunks way too big to pick up.

log boss manufacturing

 

[svk]

afivecents, I have one of the 3 point hitch ones. Barkbuster model. I buy them once in awhile at auction sales and resell them. Every one that I have bought has the arm on them all bent to heck. You can see the bent one on this one. Usually only takes that one accident and the guy sells it. I paid $10 for my last one. I try every one I buy and they don't work worth a crap on anything that has any type of difficult grain on it. Might work for an easy splitting softwood or a softer grain wood. Even ash is difficult to get started and usually ends up with wide eyed operator.
View attachment 478189 View attachment 478190

Mine was a bark buster as well. I may even have a spare tip somewhere. If I find it I'll give it to you.

 

[cantoo]

No thanks, svk that would just make me want to try it out again. I've always been going to mount on on my loader bucket for big rounds but decided it just wasn't worth the effort or risk.
I might as well set it beside my climbing spurs like Unc.

 

[svk]

No thanks, svk that would just make me want to try it out again. I've always been going to mount on on my loader bucket for big rounds but decided it just wasn't worth the effort or risk.
I might as well set it beside my climbing spurs like Unc.

Probably wise.

We retired ours when it broke a chain. My BIL snagged the motor for a go cart.

 

[USMC615]

OP...curious, how have you been splitting in the past for this Wisconsin Trappers Association? I think the consensus so far is what it is...go another route. Great points were brought up previously about not only the safety of a screw splitter, the logistics of getting such a contraption in the woods to do the splitting...seems a hydro or kinetic possibly, is a helluva lot easier to negotiate. I think I'd enjoy playing with a baler flywheel death contraption about as much as I would this screw splitter you're interested in. Go get either a new or used hydro or kinetic/flywheel splitter, be done with it, and go split wood. My .02 cents anyhow.

 

[olympyk_999]

Welcome to the site. As you mentioned, the safety of those wood screw splitter cones is a real problem. Possibly the reason you can not find them in this country is in fact due to the safety concerns... I used a friends One time. Scared the crap out of me when the piece of wood screwed into the screw and knocked the vehicle off the blocks it was on.

That said, maybe check on E-Bay. I have seen them there before, but I have not looked in quite a while.

There are a lot of good hydro splitters out there for under $1000. Watch Craigslist in your area for used one, but be ready to act fast when one comes up.

Good luck!

same here... one and done!... my FIL had 2 and said they work real good and offered me one, (he splits all his wood with it), i was splitting by hand at the time and figured i would try it out...bolted it on my 1 ton diesel with manual trans...it was lifting itself off the jackstand, as the diesel just chugs along at idle...scared the **** out of me, jumped in the truck and slammed the clutch down...been sitting in my basement since...
he has his mounted to an old wilies jeep, it just stalls out if it gets into something tough...
i wouldnt mind one like svk had, something that has its own small engine, (self contained unit) with relatively low power, if thats the only option i had...

 

[svk]

same here... one and done!... my FIL had 2 and said they work real good and offered me one, (he splits all his wood with it), i was splitting by hand at the time and figured i would try it out...bolted it on my 1 ton diesel with manual trans...it was lifting itself off the jackstand, as the diesel just chugs along at idle...scared the **** out of me, jumped in the truck and slammed the clutch down...been sitting in my basement since...
he has his mounted to an old wilies jeep, it just stalls out if it gets into something tough...
i wouldnt mind one like svk had, something that has its own small engine, (self contained unit) with relatively low power, if thats the only option i had...

I did a Google search.

This is identical to what we had. My grandpa built a little table out of rough sawn lumber that the unit set into so you split at arms height.

 

[olympyk_999]

I did a Google search.

This is identical to what we had. My grandpa built a little table out of rough sawn lumber that the unit set into so you split at arms height.

View attachment 478248

would much rather that, nothing real heavy or expensive to break...not my 7500# truck taking off, or smashing the bedside up, when it hits a knot...

 

[afivecents]

I am brand new to this site and by just clicking through it, I can see there is a wealth of experience here. I cut and sell firewood for the Wisconsin Trapper's Association for fund raising. Some of the wood we get into is fairly large and tough to split in the woods. Someone told me about the screw type wood splitters. I was also told that there are very mixed feelings about the safety of them. One thing I agree with, is that connecting them to an axle of a vehicle is not the best option. I can see all kinds of things going wrong there. What I am looking for though, is how do I go about finding one of the screw wood splitter cones? I have checked on EBay and have found a large selection, but they are all from people from all over the world. 1) I do not feel comfortable making an overseas transaction. 2) I would rather do business with products, any products, made in the USA. Can anyone help me find a place where I can buy one? Thank you for any help. Allen.

 

[afivecents]

Yup. That's pretty much what I heard about them. The way we put up the first 120-130 cord was with a maul. I could really split up a bunch if I got to arguing with my honey bunch. Anger management.
What I thought I would try is mount it to an old ice auger power head. I was not aware that there would be so much trouble holding things in one place. With the power head, there is hands on throttle and a centrifugal cluth. The whole unit would be very portable and used for the great big blocks that tip the scale equal to my x-mother-in-law.
We put up three cord on Saturday when it was a balmy -9°. Temperatures like that encourage lots of wood hauling.
Well. I thank you folks for helping me out. It would appear I need to do some rethinking. I will be looking through all of the great forward ms and threads here. I enjoy reading about how other wood cutters do things. If only I would have had the same hunger for knowledge when I was in school!!

 

[Backyard Lumberjack]

afivecents, I have one of the 3 point hitch ones. Barkbuster model. I buy them once in awhile at auction sales and resell them. Every one that I have bought has the arm on them all bent to heck. You can see the bent one on this one. Usually only takes that one accident and the guy sells it. I paid $10 for my last one. I try every one I buy and they don't work worth a crap on anything that has any type of difficult grain on it. Might work for an easy splitting softwood or a softer grain wood. Even ash is difficult to get started and usually ends up with wide eyed operator.
View attachment 478189 View attachment 478190

- Usually only takes that one accident and the guy sells it. -

I bet!!! in early ski days, ski slopes were rode up with ropes running off Model A rims... seems a natural to add a screw and split wood, too to that 'technology'. scary is the word. one only has to check out the many vids on utube showing the screw splitters in action to be amazed and gaze in awe! DANGER!

 

[Jere39]

Well, first, good for you splitting for your Trapper's Association fundraisers.
I've seen one of those screw type splitters, and that was enough for me. If you want to split in the woods, I'd seriously consider splitting an extra couple cord and buying a sturdy hydro splitter you can pull with a pick-up or ATV to your splitting site.
But, I'm not sure how much you are splitting, so, I'd start out with a good splitting ax, an ugly old maul and two or three wedges. When you run into an absolutely impossible old crotch piece, noodle it into submission.

Best bet, by far, let another member of your association who already owns a hydro splitter, loan it to the fundraiser crew.

Enjoy the outdoors!