Building up firewood for the cold winter days can be an uphill battle and a backbreaking chore. Ideally, you should have your wood chopped and stowed by the end of the summer so it will be at least starting to dry when the chill sets in.
When it comes to chopping those thousands of wooden logs, you have three main choices. You can spend many hard days doing the chore yourself, you can pay someone else to do it for you, or you can purchase a log splitter, or wood splitter as they are sometimes known.
Of these options, the most pain free choice is to buy a log splitter. A splitter utilizes a hydraulic rod to create enough pressure to split logs. To put it simply, the rod pushes the log over a stationary blade, thereby chopping it in two.
Log splitters can be powered by a gas engine, by electricity, or some can be driven manually, and each option has its pros and cons. A lot of gas models have wheels so they can be taken to remote places and the chopping can be done on site. Electrical log splitters are ideal for low-volume use and can even be used indoors.
A newer development is the manual wood splitter. They are normally powered by foot or hand using levers and, while there is some effort involved, it is a far sight easier than using an axe or a maul.
The pressure created by log splitters can range from in the region of 10 tons to 25 tons. Ten tons is normally enough for home use. Larger log splitters are mostly used for commercial use and are often powered by, and attached to the back of, tractors.
As with any kind of hydraulic machinery, log splitters can cause serious injuries if misused so certain safety precautions must be taken when they are used. Wood splitters should only be used by trained adults and people should not stand too close while they are splitting wood.
However, wood splitters can save endless hours of hard graft with an axe, a hammer and a maul, and with a few simple precautions can be an invaluable tool.
In light of the amount of time and work they can save, log splitters are not too pricey. A good manual splitter can be bought for around $200, while small electric log splitters start around three hundred dollars. For a full-size gas-powered log splitter with wheels you can expect to pay from $1,300.
Wood splitters are for sale in many stores online and on main street. If you just need enough logs split to heat your home for the winter then you will not need anything too expensive. However, if you have a lot of logs to get through, then a quality gas-powered unit might be the right choice for you.
Tags: air conditioning, fuel, garden, Gardening Articles, Gardening Articles, gardening tools, Heating, log splitter, wood splitter, wood stove
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