The ultimate project

Nice! Reminds me of the sorts of machines my grandfather used to build.

Pete

maple logs.

Nice, but it makes me wonder whether you are using more energy running the machine than you are getting from the wood...

Maybe ditch the diesel and convert it to steam power and see if you have an excess of wood after using the split wood to fuel the splitter.

If it was steam powered you could easily run it on the sawdust like many sawmills were 100 years ago

I am sort of amused in how much effort people put into machines that break up logs to just throw into some fire.

The wood has to stack well and burn hot instead of smouldering. Wood stoves can be fussy.

jsw

I'm not that old (:

The town sawmill fired a pair of boilers with sawdust, scraps and bark. The steam powered the carriage saw directly and ran a turbogenerator that was phased to the utility power.

I think it closed around 1964.

Are the people with 80,000 tons of engine driven equipment, including log splitters really dependent on their wood stoves?

In other countries, I've seen homes that were heated with the kitchen stove, which was also the hot water heater and the garbage incinerator- and yes, all meals were cooked on it.

Those people don't seem to need log splitting machines either as they just go out back with an axe.

My sister in Maine used one until it deteriorated beyond practical repair a few years ago. I'd made parts for it.

I do that myself to fill the wheelbarrow with a few day's worth, last year until the deep snow came in January. I used to split everything by hand until a friend dumped off a large free load of swamp maple(?) that I couldn't even pound a wedge into. I built a hand-pumped splitter for it, which seeded a lead on a gas powered one that needed "a little" work, for $200. Someone had put on a new engine with a leaky carb float and apparently given up in disgust. It ran fine for 5 minutes and then died, and needed a week to recover. Basically I paid for the new engine, with the splitter thrown in for free. Since I have it I use it to refill the shed or tow it out to the stump to reduce large wet trunks to manageable size.

Getting old hasn't slowed me down too much yet, but I have to plan ahead.

jsw

I do the easy stuff by hand

do the hard stuff with a hydraulic splitter I do the NASTY stuff by ripping with a chain saw.

Yup, good firewood heats TWICE.

This may be of interest.

So in 1922 he designed an all-in-one cooker/water heater and laundry dryer to help mitigate the stress that having a blind husband had caused Elma, his wife.

The first solid-fuel Aga cooker featuring a black top with white front panels was introduced to Britain under licence from Aga in Sweden in 1929.

The Aga is known for its longevity, with many cookers still operating after more than 50 years. In 2009, in conjunction with the Daily Telegraph and to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its foundry, AGA set up a competition to find the oldest cooker still in use. There were thousands of entries, but the winning cooker was installed in 1932 and belonged to the Hett family from Sussex.

Around 750,000 households globally have an Aga. Surprisingly they have become increasingly popular in France. More than

1,500 French kitchens bought an Aga between 2002 and 2006.

These are still manufactured and are available in the US [for a price]

the high priced spread They still make it the way they used to in some places.

My father told the story about one mill, where, when setting up for the start of the summer's operation, the millwright installed the sawdust blower belt straight rather than crossed, thus reversing the blower and sucking embers from the firebox and blowing throughout the mill when the engine was started. Needless to say, that mill did not operate that summer. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

The New Hampshire version is three times, when you cut it, split it, and burn it.

jsw

Would this be one of these "Terry turbines" which now has a niche use as the emergency power backup in a nuclear power station?

As in you can't shut-down the heat of radioactive decay if you stop the nuclear reaction, but you can use the heat and steam to drive a turbine and pump for cooling water for as long as that heat persists...

RS

A Francis turbine drove our town's sawmill.

it as a little kid made me realize that people could create what they needed and didn't have to depend on a mysterious invisible force delivered from far away.

jsw

Northwoods version is it heats you 7 times: when you cut it down, when you haul it out, when you saw it up, when you split it, when you stack it, when you you it in, when you finally burn it.

I have a friend who used to have a local pulp cutter drop off a load on non pulp grade trees (mostly black ash and basswood) for a modest price.

7 full cords of 8' logs, green. 35,000 pounds a load. Roughly one winter worth of heat.

This one is easier to load logs into: