I used it for a couple of hours on some sycamore, which was the only thing I had available. The cylinder extends and retracts faster than what I am used to and it is powerful enough that the second stage of the pump only kicked in once. It was very straight grained for sycamore. Actually for the amount of wood I split and the time it took, it didn't seem any faster. The auto cycle thing takes some getting used to. Most of the time I let it operate in auto cycle which means the cylinder is moving 30 inches out and then 30 inches back. The splitters I have used before didn't have autocycle and I would run it forward only as far as needed to split, and then I would retract it only far enough to fit another piece on. I think doing it that way is probably faster on small pieces, but autocycle might be faster on big ones. I think with practice I will get a lot faster, but the main benefit for me is that the working height is higher and much easier on my back. I'm over 6' tall and have to constantly stoop when using a horizontal-vertical machine.
It is nice also just working with such a a well built piece of equipment. Whoever built it was a perfectionist and I don't know exactly how I ended up with it but I am glad I did.
It is nice also just working with such a a well built piece of equipment. Whoever built it was a perfectionist and I don't know exactly how I ended up with it but I am glad I did.
