What is your sustained splitting rate?

[genesis5521]

Help me out guys. I'm thinking of buying a new log splitter and would appreciate your input on how long it takes you to split your firewood.

I'm curious about a sustained log splitting rate for one person doing all the work with any log splitter. How long does it take you to split one full cord? I don't wanna know some theoretical split rate based on your humping super fast for 20 minutes, then extrapolating that in to a theoretical rate. I just wanna know how long it takes you to split one full cord at your normal/sustained pace.

Please list your normal time to split one full cord, the make, model, and price of your splitter, and your age. I use a little Ryobi electric splitter, $299.00, and it takes me a good 4 hours to split one full cord (mixed hardwood, rounds average about 12 inches in diameter, but some are over 20 inches). I sit on a small stool behind the Ryobi and have the rounds lined up next to me. I keep moving the little Ryobi down the line of lined up rounds. I throw the split pieces in to my trailer as I'm splitting. The little Ryobi is OK, but sloooow. If you want something cheap that will still get the job done, I can recommend it as long as you have lots of time on your hands. It's well built, and easy to move around. The specs say it will split a 12 in diameter log, but I have routinely split much, much larger rounds. I've split well over 30 full cords with my little Ryobi over the last 5 years with absolutely no maintenance what-so-ever on it. I'm 64.

Also what do you like and what don't you like about your splitter? Knowing what you know now, would you buy the same splitter, or would you buy a different one (staying in the same price range).

Thanks Guy, and Merry Christmas to you and yours,

dON <><

 

[avalancher]

splitting time is going to vary a great deal depending on a lot of factors.Size of rounds to be split,ability to clear your area, size of machine, and above all else type of wood.
Easiest I have found has got to be red oak.Pops apart and rarely needs the full stroke to make it bust.Hickory has got to be the worst.Shreds apart, lots of stringers and heavy to boot.

I have a Troybilt 27 ton with a table, 4 way wedge, and in red oak I average a cord an hour.Drop that in half for hickory.Im 43 years old,and most of my rounds average in the 24 inch plus,every once in awhile I get treated to some smaller stuff that goes a lot quicker.I also stack while I split, which can seriously cut down on your time if you have to travel many steps to the stack.
If i am in red oak with little crotch wood and few knots, I feel like I am really taking it easy if I cant generate a cord an hour unless the rounds are large.

 

[Kong]

So many variables.

Maybe it is best to follow Avalancher's lead.

Until recently I rented splitters (MTD units in the high-20T range) and we would do the year's wood (10+ cords) in 3 working days following the routine I'll detail below. Its not how we do it anymore but it will answer your question.


I rarely cut or split wood alone anymore. Both tasks are potentially dangerous and as I age my propensity to accidents increases, I'd be a fool to work alone. I work with my (adult) son. We set up with the pile of wood to be split to the right, splitter in the middle, and the truck parked to the left. The wood pile is about 10 feet from the splitter, the truck about the same.

We roll up a round of wood in front of the splitter as a seat for the operator - this will be the last round of wood we split at the end of the day. One of us will operate the splitter from the sitting position. The other person has two things on their plate. First they have to feed rounds of wood to the operator from the pile so that the operator never has to get up and second they have to remove the split wood (toss it into the truck) to keep the working area free. We alternate postions. After a while sitting there splitting you simply have to get up. So we switch places pretty frequently. The guy who is up running back and forth feeding wood to the splitter and loading the truck gets to work the kinks out pretty quickly so the rotation works out really well and the work flow isn't interupted.

OK, here's how it goes, because we only have to move the split wood about a quarter mile from where we split to the house we really overload the truck. I have broken 2 rear springs on it in the last couple of years moving wood. Because of the way we stack ours I can tell you with some certainty that we are putting about 0.8 cords on the truck (tight stack 16'x5'x16") per load. The trip to the house and unloading acts as our break time. Generally around the noon time load my wife will have a couple of sammiches made for us and we'll eat them while we push wood off the truck. My wife will do the stacking while we go back to split and load more wood.

So now you can picture our process. We do 5 truck loads a day and if its a particulary good day we might do a bit more but we'd just toss it into a pile as a head-start on the next splitting session.

Could we do more? Sure. First thing is that by the time he gets out here and we get set up in the morning and then tear down and clean up when the splitting is done we're only putting in about 5~6 hours with the motor running. Also, we do not kill ourselves but we don't screw around much either.

So for us that's has been it. We don't cut and split at the same time - when we cut we cut, when we split we split taking out time only for the short trip to the house to unload. We worked a steady day but not an overly long one.
We have followed this routine for some time now, it will leave you sore at the end of the day but it won't get you hurt.

I'm 62 and my son is 35. We are both in good health and what I think of as average size (I'm 5'8" and about 165, son is about the same). Our splitter is a Huskee 35 Ton model (15 second cycle time) that is always run vertically. Our wood is Elm, Maple, White Oak, with some Red Oak, Hickory, and other hard hardwoods. Most of what we split is 12~24 in diameter and 16" long.

 

[getwood]

Before I got my splitter I split the wood so it would fit through the doors. Not a very efficient use of for a Fisher insert. I now split my wood to 4 inch pieces and have much better control of the temperature coming out of the stove.

I have a 15 ton speedco and estimate about 2.5 hours per cord. When I have straight grained wood I love useing an axe (similar to Fiskars) and an old tire to hold the wood. It is much faster (though there is a limit of how long I can do it.). My neighbor will stop by and ask me why don’t you get the splitter out, that still looks like work. That being said I wish I would have gotten my splitter 20 years ago it would have saved a lot of labor.

 

[r8ingbull]

I usually cut, split and load 1/2 cord per hour. Split by hand with a Fiskars. My trailer holds 3/4 cord. When we cut it gets filled and out of the woods and unloaded in under an hour. Two guys working at a decent pace...could speed it up if we needed to.

Mostly for us it depends on how close we can get the trailer to the tree.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I split about one cord every two hours then take an hour break. I usually do no more than two cords per day. I season my wood in whole rounds and the two hours includes tossing the wood on a dump truck as I split it.

+1. Avalancher must be a diesel tractor in disquise.

I usually stack the wood as I split or load the truck, so that has to be included in the elapsed time. Sure, you can throw it in a pile as you split, but then that pile has got to go somewhere. Also, two guys will just about double your output because one can feed the splitter operator with input and then stack or load the output.

Seasoning the wood in whole rounds is also smart. If cut green and seasoned a year in the round, most species still need time to dry after being split. Maple and cottonwood may be about the only exceptions.

 

[Mike Van]

It takes what it takes to split a cord of wood. 2 hours? 3? Does it matter? Unless you have some big time business going where you have to micro-manage every second of the day, who cares? If you're just doing your own 4 or 5 cord of wood, or even a few cords for sale and you like [or don't mind] doing it, does it really matter if you did it all in 22.63 hours or 23.88? You get it done too fast, I'm sure the wife has some crapo job that needs doing [so she says]

 

[Wood Doctor]

It takes what it takes to split a cord of wood. 2 hours? 3? Does it matter? Unless you have some big time business going where you have to micro-manage every second of the day, who cares? If you're just doing your own 4 or 5 cord of wood, or even a few cords for sale and you like [or don't mind] doing it, does it really matter if you did it all in 22.63 hours or 23.88? You get it done too fast, I'm sure the wife has some crapo job that needs doing [so she says]

+1, Mike. It also makes a huge difference what species you are splitting and whether you cut the rounds or if someone else left you with a batch of crotchwood to "play" with. umpkin2:

 

[Boike]

splitting time

I typically average about 1 cord every hour or half hour. This is based on having everything set up and ready to go. I was working on a large red oak this summer, and all the large rounds(28") had already been at least quartered with the saw. I am using a 20T Brave/Iron and oak, and work alone most times.

 

[ray benson]

Most of my wood comes home on a p/u truck. I (58 yr. old) need 12 to 15 loads per year.
So I know my homebuilt splitter( 8hp,4"cyl,16 gpm pump) will need to run an hour per p/u load. Some days a couple hours up to 6, depends on if you get into it or not. An Ipod with headphones and over 200 songs helps .

 

[Turkeyslayer]

I figure I split about 1 cord in 2 hours by myself. Surge Master 31 ton splitter. 33 years old. I pile the rounds high with my tractor loader, than park the splitter close to the pile. I throw the splits into a wagon. My wood varies in species (all hardwood) and diameter, but anything much over 24" gets cut in half with the chainsaw while bucking.

 

[Boike]

whoops, that should have been cord every hour-1.5 hours!

 

[Ductape]

I split a minimum of 1 cord / month. opcorn:

 

[BigE]

I have a Troybilt 27 ton with a table, 4 way wedge

Just wondering where you found a 4-way wedge that fits your splitter. I have the same one, and have been looking for a 4-way wedge for it.

By the way, that splitter just got recalled by MTD. See
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10062.html
Check your serial number against the above site.

Thanks,

-Steve

 

[chucker]

everything right at hand with no jumbos(over 20") useing a 20 ton 2 stage spliter ? on an average of 2 hours on red oak, and elm maybe 3 hours by my self for a 4x4x8 cord. oh yeah im 53 with a bad back from the maullllllll.

 

[SWI Don]

By myself I have done two half cord piles in different locations (like a city block away from each other) in less than an hour. This was going from a pile to a pile, all rounds were under ø20", mixed species mulberry, elm, cherry,etc from a fence row and a short break in between piles. My splitter has a 8-9 sec round-trip cycle time with a four way wedge and log lift. Everything 6" and over was split at least once, 8" and over 4 ways, and 16" 6 ways. I usually shoot for ~ 4 x 6 chunks.

I figure I should be able to to a cord an hour easy if I don't have to stack.

If I have help then things get exponentially faster. It takes 3-4 guys to keep my splitter running at peak efficiency.

Don

 

[Steve NW WI]

If I have help then things get exponentially faster. It takes 3-4 guys to keep my splitter running at peak efficiency.

Don

Very true Don, I can split and stack a cord of oak in 2-21/2hours, with one helper its a little less than half the time, say 1 hour, with 3 people the ram never stops moving and I'm looking at close to 2 cords an hour.

If the splitter's on break every time you are grabbing a round or tossing splits, you're losing efficiency, no matter how fast or slow your splitter is.

For the OP: my splitter is homemade, tractor PTO driven. At a full 28" stroke, it's about an 18" cycle, but generally cut most of my wood around 20" so in practice, a 15 second stroke. 18" high wedge is a poor man's 4 or six way, just stack rounds or slabs on top of each other to get more work per stroke.

The most it's ever done in a day was 10 cords in 4 hours, splitting for a friend's mother. About 6 people working rotating between hauling to the shed, splitting, stacking, and moving blocks to the splitter. "Many hands makes light work" is the old saying.

 

[Ol' Brian]

Very true Don, I can split and stack a cord of oak in 2-21/2hours, with one helper its a little less than half the time, say 1 hour, with 3 people the ram never stops moving and I'm looking at close to 2 cords an hour.

If the splitter's on break every time you are grabbing a round or tossing splits, you're losing efficiency, no matter how fast or slow your splitter is.

For the OP: my splitter is homemade, tractor PTO driven. At a full 28" stroke, it's about an 18" cycle, but generally cut most of my wood around 20" so in practice, a 15 second stroke. 18" high wedge is a poor man's 4 or six way, just stack rounds or slabs on top of each other to get more work per stroke.

The most it's ever done in a day was 10 cords in 4 hours, splitting for a friend's mother. About 6 people working rotating between hauling to the shed, splitting, stacking, and moving blocks to the splitter. "Many hands makes light work" is the old saying.

10 cords in 4 hours on one single wedge machine??? Wow, that's quite a feat, especially for a hydraulic splitter... Heck, even a Super Split would be envious of that! That would be quite a sight to see :jester: opcorn:



As best I can figure, I can split a cord of wood in about 3 hours, give or take... a little less if it's easy splitting, a little more if it's elm or sycamore. But, that's just a guess... never timed it... I'd probably be disappointed in myself if I did...:monkey:

 

[bobt]

For me this summer, 5 full cords of hard maple 8" to 24'" logs sawed into 16" lengths with my chain saw and split with a maul and half of it piled outside and half hauled by wheelbarrow into the basement,,,,3 weeks. I took many many rests on the tailgate of the truck, and didnt work myself to death at my age. Some days I didn't work at it all, just when I felt like it. It was fun! It always has been fun!

 

[Beefie]

For me , as I split mostly Elm , It takes 2-3.5 hours. That's with borrowing one of my neighbor splitters. I am in the processes of getting enough materials to build my own.

Beefie