Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Among other things I have piles and an piles of logs. Some of which I've cut to length and have been splitting it by hand over the last couple of years. A friend stopped by and watched me split wood and said I was crazy for not having a log splitter. So I started looking at new and used ones.

To make a long story short I bought a used Champion 27 ton, gas powered splitter out of my gun money fund. Champion is sold by Home Depot, Rural King, Tractor Supply etc, etc and are currently running in the $1500-1600 range. I looked at a bunch of youtube videos and on facebook marketplace. The one I bought is 3 years old and the guy threw in Dewalt 20 volt electric drill, 2 batteries and a charger which he used to start it, instead of a pull starter.

It works pretty well and I split a pile of wood on Friday. It runs either horizontally or vertically. Helluva lot easier than splitting by hand but still a lot of work picking up the log, splitting it 3 or 4 times and then throwing the pieces on the pile, not to mention having to re-stack it somewhere else. I was pretty tired after doing it for 4 hours. I currently have hundreds of rounds I have to split and dozens of big logs I have to cut into rounds and dozens of trees that are down that need to be cut into logs. So yeah, I pretty much have that to do the rest of my life to keep me busy.

sounds like fun...

At my age, splitting more than 2-3 rounds per day with an 8lb maul is enough.

Was in the upper 80s all weekend. I put up a pop up shelter to protect me from the sun but it's still exhausting work in that kind of heat.

One thing I dislike about splitting wood is that much of the logs have been laying on the ground and are full of ants. When you start splitting they come out in droves and attack you. Crawl up your pants legs and sleeves and bite you.

May have to start spraying the logs first before splitting.

Was up at the woods house from Wed last week until this morning (Mon) trying to get everything done.

It was cooler this weekend so I cut up some logs that have been laying next to the driveway for 2 years.

Those logs will be moved to the "to be split" pile.

Starting raining yesterday (Sunday) so I went up and fired up the splitter under the shelter. Starting to make a dent in the cut pile of logs.
The pile on this side of the shelter is for the fireplace. The pile on the other side are longer and won't fit in the fireplace, so they are for the fire pit outside.


The fire pit logs...


Still have piles of downed trees that need to be cut and split



Pretty much a lifetime supply of wood to work on.

While it was raining I fixed my 2 Stihl chain saws. The big one had a broken chain tensioner, which I ordered last fall then misplaced it. Found it this weekend in a box. The small saw would run but would lose power and bog down. Finally got around to checking youtube to see what the problem was. Turned out there is a screen that covers the exhaust/muffler. It was completely blocked with carbon. So while it would start, the blocked exhaust limited performance.

My big one doesn't have a screen so I was curious as to why the small one did. Turns out newer saws (my big one is 35 years old, little one is 5 years old) have a screen as a spark arrester. I cleaned and replaced it but it's not really needed. She ran good after it was cleaned. I've been looking at electric chain saws. Just lighter and easier to use than a gas one for small limbs and trees.

Had to remove those pesky spark screens on several of my 2 stroke machines... threw them away.

For spitting, I sometimes hit the rounds just after a freeze... the frozen wood splits easier with a maul
Now days, most of my 2-3 cords for outside fireplace are pre-split and delivered, I only split now what I pick up after local storms.

One of my saws is a Stihl MS170 which is a small saw. I bought it for cutting limbs when I don't need my big saw. That's the one with the screen. Lots of video online to modify it by opening up the exhaust, removing the screen, adding a bucking spike thingy and side chain tensioner. It's a good little saw but can be improved.

Also thinking that my next saw will be an electric one. One of the deer plot forums I'm on has a thread about changing to a battery powered chainsaw. They tend to be lighter and less messy.

I'm goi g to start another thread on chainsaws