As a sheriff's deputy, I responded one time to a medical emergency at a remote cabin site. A guy was using a homemade splitter and a piece of a clutch assembly exploded into pieces. A piece struck his teenage son slicing off a large section of the right side of his head. The wound was so devastating the family thought the boy had died. When I examined his body it turned out the boy was still alive. I was able to stabilize him until he was eventually medevaced to a hospital. He did survive and about a year later his dad brought him by to thank us. He was paralyzed over most of his body and he lost 1/3 of his brain. Every time I see machines such as these it reminds me of how dangerous they can be. With some of these machines, they are just flittering with disaster.
Mike Henry reminds me of farm work when I was a kid. More ways to get killed or maimed for life. Silage wagon can rip your arms off in thirty seconds. A bull can gore you to death and then stomp on you which happened to my cousin. Tractors can kill you in any number of ways. Fall off the top of a silo and you are either dead or crippled for life. Loosing a number of fingers is common. I lost the end of my left index finger to a chain saw.
@@reginaldbowls7180 I understand your point. As a result of his injuries, the boy was mostly paralyzed below the waist and had lost most of the use of his left arm. However, when they came to visit and say thanks, surprisingly the son was able to communicate quite well and he was able to move himself in the wheelchair. He was far from being in a vegetative state, despite the massive head injury. With the extent of the injuries, I honestly thought he would not have survived, but God works in mysterious ways, as they say.
Some of these are just regular log splitters. the last one in particular seemed perfectly safe with 2 levers having to be squeezed together before it operates. When you consider that before they get to the splitting they had to fell the trees and buck the logs, the splitting probably isn't usually the most dangerous part of the operation.
I heated my home with firewood for two winters. For anyone who hasn't done it, you consume a LOT of wood. I cut up an entire downed tree with a chainsaw, a good 16 inches thick at the stump, and it only lasted like a month. I used a friend's hydraulic log splitter and it was still a lot of work. You might think these people are nuts, but try splitting enough wood for a winter yourself and you'll come up with whatever silly tool you can think of to make it easier. Wood is gold in the winter, and people get real weird about it too, like family after inheritance. The hydraulic splitter I used was really slow. Like you'd be at it for hours, just wondering if it would be faster to use an axe. That said, I really admire the spring-action splitter. No engine racket!
Back when I was still living at home with my parents before college days, my father and I spent many weekends cutting down, cutting up trees and splitting wood to burn in the fireplace that was in the new addition to our house. Some of that equipment would have been very handy during that time! After a few years and I had moved out, they finally sold that house to another party and had a new home built on my grandmother's land after she passed away. The new house did not get a fireplace. That wood cutting and hauling got old and expensive. Cost of chainsaws, maintenance, fuel, not to mention something to haul all that heavy wood to where it would then have to be stacked up and allowed to dry if possible. Hard to burn 'green' wood, plus causes excess creosote deposits in your chimney and the maintenance on that.
It usually is faster or just as fast with a splitting maul than with a hydraulic splitter. And with the knee-height of the hydraulic splitter, it's equally back-breaking, but the maul might be slightly easier imo
Impressed with the cross-splitting capacities of some of these machines. Splitting with the grain is one thing, but going 90 degrees to it is another thing all together. Torque is most definately your friend with the massive reduction gear boxes. Being forever aware of hand and finger placement is critical, unless you like the nickname; stumpy.
Agreed most I think are probably a little less dangerous than swinging an axe around for hours on end, trust me I know I have done it. Wood burning heating is great just time consuming!
These machines remind me of an "adventure" I had when I was a young boy. I was about 13 years old, and my job at home was to make fire wood using a self-constructed (by my father) buzz saw. I did a lots of woodwork that day, and it always needed a little power to press the wood pieces against the saw blade; but suddenly I got a piece of very rotten wood and the saw did cut it in milliseconds; I lost my balance and fell towards the uncovered saw blade; but in the last moment, my hands grabbed the edge of the saw table..plate; looking down I saw the saw blade turning just a few centimeters below my chest...that was horrible. I never did that again with this saw... Hope you all understand my English since I´m German :-)...
My uncle was a mechanic who had a service station and garage out in the boonies, starting in 1930. He had a stripped down Model T Ford, actually an old Yellow Cab, with a big wood-saw blade welded to the drive shaft. This is where he chopped his firewood. He could not have designed it any more dangerously if he tried. He had all ten fingers, but only one eye. He lost the other one working on a car, but not by sawing wood. The Model T is still sitting there to this day, or rather what is left of it.
I understand your uncle completely he was building it for him and he was pretty slick. Most modern consumer things are devised and thought up by a pretty smart person and sold to a not very smart person that's why they're so dangerous. I mean all three the smart person the not very smart person and the machine.
As as logging contractor for over 20+ years in the Sierra's I have seen a lot of homemade functional splitters. A few of these were pretty impressive. All of these tools can be dangerous.
A few of the splitting machines in the video were obviously commercial units. Unless very old, they are typically more safe because any manufacturer would want to avoid getting sued.
It seems anything that is designed to process wood has the potential to get you killed. That's why they mainly had me who were intelligent as the operators,and they had to put all those labels on everything when the common sense that was taught to children by their fathers, was eliminated from the society in the 60's. It's only getting worse and every generation is a little dumber. Now days they don't even know what bathroom to use.
@@devilselbow There have been cases of an employee losing fingers and the employer getting fined/sued because the employee apparently hadn't been instructed well enough in the use of the device. So, it's not always safe even if someone else is doing it.
@@marshallallensmith Dont worry grandpappy it won't take long for me to see you in the other side. You better be doing your exercises...you'll need it.
Only a splitter of death if you were an idiot, for anyone else with a healthy respect for a machine it's just a log splitter. Then again we have to have warnings on hot coffee cups that the coffee inside is HOT!
I love the way these woods split as soon as you look at them. most of the stuff I have been working with, the wedge has to go full stroke and even they will fight splitting. Half these machines would just fail.
@@zachdemand4508 IKR? He thinks this is bad, I wonder how he'd react to being in a steel mill? Ten Tons of molten Iron travelling over your head, held up by chains...
4:43 Texting not recommended while doing this. This is my favorite one, the one that splits the wood faster than any of the others, and also the only one that works when you have no electricity or fuel. Also the simplest, made from Parts you can scrounge from any salvage yard.
@@TurboDV8 Someone points out something obviously true and you go straight to calling them a millennial for no reason? Your name is TurboDV8, you're a trump supporter and you rant about millennials on the internet, you're a walking stereotype bud.
@@sherrycambridge1531 Haha, LOVE it! Some of these machines are stupid dangerous, most are as dangerous as the user is stupid. Get a city person who drives a new SUV to do this?, that's how stupid i am talking about.
3:15 I have the same setup. Homemade pull behind trailer style on an i beam frame with an old Wisconsin motor powering a hyd. cylinder with about a 20” stroke. It splits 30” dia logs up to 20” long and tears through the knottiest wood
Went back and rewatched it 5 times. If you'll notice when he bends down to clear or set up for the next piece, he bends at the knees which prevents his head from the work area. Plus after using a machine for a long time you know where is safe. I'd trust this chopper more than some of the others. Personal choice.
That second one looks a LOT like the transmission in my vintage New Holland hay baler. I've been thinking about using it to make a power hammer for my blacksmith's shop.
a few of these machines where quite reasonable, some even commercal products. But the home made spring cleaver was quite cool, would personaly have put a hydraulic break on it that was active all the time until you pressed the handel, that way you dont have to worry about smashing your hand while putting a new log on. and yes, like many i got randomly reccomended these videos, but also. i have worked in the commercial firewood business before and we used Dalen wood processing machines
We used to run a buzz saw mounted on an 8N Ford. Tossed blocks off of it starting at 10 years old. Never an injury but nothing gets respect like a howling buzz saw! Anything over a foot in diameter we split with maul and wedges. About 35 years ago finally got a big hydraulic log splitter mounted on a 3020 JD. I am retired but I still split wood by hand if it is frozen ash, oak or hickory. Splits like glass at 10 below!
The saw especially, how hard exactly is it to attach something to it so a person doesn't need to be there wrenching their back trying to catch the falling pieces :D
The spring loaded one is genius, the only issue I see is that the handle protrudes so much it gets close to the operators head. Just design the handle differently and it's frikking perfect and a far cry better then using a axe.
The one shown at 3:18 is no more dangerous than any commercially made log splitter. The keys to safety: NO pinch point between the pusher and the blade, low speed, single actuation each time a log is inserted.
4:40 That's pretty cool! There's always someone out there with a good head on their shoulders to come up with some clever things with scrap metal laying around
1) arm remover 2) skull splitter 3) hand detacther 4) log splitter - nice and slow, plenty of room to have hands in middle and not be on the pinching or cutting end
I've work in a can manufacting company almost thirty years ago. And believe me, the press machines I've worked on are far more dangerous than these. We were 40 or so newbies at that time, more than half lost their fingers before our six months contract expired, I'm one of the luckies with ten fingers still intact. The machines above are just child's play in my standards.
I just choked on my drink. Reminds me of seeing a guy at the store about thirty years ago with my dad. Dad said "oh look, it's old flying rim. He blew his jaw off overfilling a tire."
man a guy could really make a in depth detailed video comparing each of the different models shown here, whats the primary driver? whats the limitations of each one, costs to maintain. how effective it is.this is really interesting stuff
They're all made as cheap as possible from scrap. They're all dangerous, and if they break u probably just make a new one. Safest log splinters u can make are hydraulic, only linear movement, no spinning parts. Ones that are constantly running are the most dangerous
They used to sell a cone shaped log splitter that you would use with your car. You jack up the car, remove the tire/wheel, and use the lug nuts to bolt the splitter on. Then you start your car and let this device screw into the log and split it and hopefully you don't get caught in it. Anybody remember that?????
The spring loaded giotene looks to be most dangerous of all the "rigs" I saw. Idea is good but operator takes a lot of chances around the point of impact. Bending and hands close for two examples. Good idea, bit deadly. Thanks
None of these are any more dangerous than a commercially made splitter. And I think a few of them WERE commercial. The manual one with the spring is the one I want!!
Jim Beekman, small price to pay right? Lol By the way, do you have kin in New Mexico or Nebraska? I know Amber and have met her parents. I also met a man by the name of Jeff Jorde a long time ago near Willard, New Mexico. Amber told me she was related.
Scott Clark nothing more fun than knotty crappy wood that won’t split for nothing! You can either cut it up with a chainsaw or burn it in a pile outside lol
I need more information about the splitter in the frame 7:38 to 8:56. That machine is both quiet and efficient.Crazy in fact that machine is so quiet I think a newborn baby could sleep next to it
1:25 this is the safest one yet... The runway needs to be a trough or "V" shape to hold the wood more securely and prevent the user from having to steady the log. Also the blade should not get close enough to the die to do any damage to a hand.
Most of these are less if not no more dangerous than using a chainsaw or axe, but the 2nd and 7th are my favourites, the cut is coming from above and they are both bending down in line and height with it, a stumble or lapse in concentration and it's melon splitting time, the wreck of a work area is a helpful touch too.
That's how our grand parents did things. No corporate entity telling them it's safe because they manufactured it and sold it to said grandparents. But nowadays everyone needs corporate assistance for the slightest inconveniences.
Dangerous machine is one thing, but combine that with complacency and it gets really dangerous. Some of these people will probably get hurt. Some cool looking machines here. It's fun to reuse old things to make something new.
bout 35 years ago I met an old boy that had a contraption like that splitter at 5:00, he had it set up with a froe for making cedar shakes, it worked great.
The farm at the back of where I lived as a kid had one similar. This was before H& S ruled the world. My Saturday job at 11 was to be given a pocket full of dust shot, a .410 bolt action BSA single shot, and sent to despatch as many rats as I could see in the barns & yards...and got paid for it 5/=. !
