I've only started watching your videos yesterday, and I find them very interesting and informative. I cut and burn 10-12 cord a year. My equipment is a 1700lb capacity skid steer with pallet forks inverted splitter and frostbite grapple, two saws, a bucket full of wedges, several axes and mauls, and a wood gasifier OWB. I use collapsable industrial steel crates to haul processed wood. My OWB can take up to 30" pieces, but I keep them about 24" for convenience. I only split them if they're too heavy to pick up. I barely use the inverted splitter because it's a PITA to bother mounting it. It really only gets mounted if I get into some gnarly elm or pin oak or a burr oak trunk.
We have a lot in common. I noticed over the years my logs for the OWB kept getting shorter and shorter LOL. I used to cut them long but around Feb when my knee and back was killing me I started cutting them shorter. Now everything is cut at 16". Thanks for watching Bill. Joe
I love that little machine. Wish I'd had something like it in the seventies up to the early 2000's when we heated almost entirely with wood. Loggers here don't bother with the tops -- too crooked, I guess. Smaller limbs I just cut up, but I split all that needed it with a six pound maul and two wedges. Since it was the from canopy part of the trees, there were lots of knots. As I recall, elm was about the worst workout. Have been enjoying a geo-thermal heat pump since 2006.
Thanks for sharing this Marvin. I did my fare share of swinging a maul. It's not for me anymore! I do have a Fiskars that is fun to use for about 5 min. lol. One of my first lessons with firewood is "elm don't split!" Joe
I hear ya Marvin. I started burning around 79/80 when oil sky rocketed and was hard to get. I started out with a mall and steel wedges. No wonder my back and shoulders hurt every day now. Still doing around 6/7 cord for my home, camp, and boiling sap. Nothing better than your own maple syrup.
Joe, you have a great attitude to your work, I wish I had your wood processor, I only burn about 3 cord a year but with my back and being 80 the wife says don’t go in the woods with a chain saw., which I love to do. I have a pretty big Mahindra front loader and backhoe so bring the log out mono big deal. I did notice you had a six way splitter on your wood process, keep the videos coming.
Great to see you are still at it Duncan! The Japa has an 8 way knife too. There are some more current vids where I am using it. You have to fuss with the logs a little more but it works pretty good. I'm glad you are watching the vids. We have a live stream tonight. Click subscribe at the bottom of the screen and you will see more of my vids. Joe
Wow, I sure wish I would have had this when I was a youngster. My Dad cut and we loaded hauled, unloaded, then I split by hand with a splitter maul and ax, and stacked. Then I hauled to the stove, after they burned, hauled out the ashes. Repeat the process. 5 to 6 cords a winter.
Thanks for sharing Dave! Sounds just like me until recently! I have learned there is a difference between "making" firewood and "Producing" firewood lol. The first things that broke when I became a "producer' were my elbows, shoulders, and back. lol. Then my saws, then my truck. Those all conspired to limit my ability to produce firewood and if I wanted to grow to where I could make a living and NOT wear myself out in the process I would need a processor. Funny, of all my equipment I ever purchased, the JAPA was the easiest to pull the trigger. Zero remorse...I needed it to exist. Joe
Like Snowmaker indicated, feed your next log out whilst the previous one is being split, a good 5 second savings there, over 6 cuts, half a minute, do the maths on a days run. Just say!!!
No doubt. On the smaller logs I can fly with them. I think with the larger logs I like to make sure they get thru the knife before I advance the next cut. Joe
Try used pavers concrete & bricks it would be a hell of a lot cheaper you have your own dump trailer to transport it for the big trucks don't sink 😁 🇺🇸
It is VERY fun Rofl! I think the one thing missing from my set up is a live deck. I wouldnt have to jump off the platform as much as I do now. The joystick reminds me of my Atari days playing space invaders. Joe
I have a guy across the lake that does my chains. I just can't get myself to sharpen them. No explanation why...just don't like doing them I suppose. Joe
@@ohiowoodburner i’ve been in the tree industry for just about 30 years, seven guys that I work with for the past 8+ years . do not sharpen their own chainsaws.. it’s usually me. It took me many years to sharpen by hand I’m not as good as a machine, they may do a better job at repetitive motion. kind of like the Japa 🙂
After a closer look at the splitting chamber I think you can load it with 3 cut pieces and the ram will sort out one to push. cut and split with out any delay IE full auto Give it a try and see. Why cant the log lift dump the log on to the conveyor belt with out you touching it?.
In fairness to the Japa I don't work the controls at optimum effeciency. I tend to watch the splittng before I advance the next log. I think if I were to split three at a time the ram would not permit any of the logs to miss the ram. As for the infeed there are some quirks that revolve around the length of the log, its balance, and any curve. It seems the log, if curved, tends to lay with the cuve down but I am always having to ensure the lead end is high enough to creep onto the infeed belt. The next step for me would be a live deck but that costs $$ and i would need another machine to load it. Joe
@@ohiowoodburner Your machine will not split 3 at one time, your hopper will hold more than 3 and the ram will only push one at a time each cycle. try loading the hopper as fast as you can cut and drop chunks with the ram on auto cycle.good luck.
Curious what you do with the saw dust? I worked in a lumber yard in the mid 70's. We would take a five gallon bucket, compress the saw dust in it and add water? Makes for a good floor sweep.
I have been using it to build the base of my work area. I have a drainage prob here and the ground gets soggy quick when it rains. I have been building it with the dust and chips before I lay my pallets on it. Joe
@@ohiowoodburner that will make some good mud. We hauled a guy 15 or 20 loads of chips for his road and it sure looked good and was smooth as butter but next winter after they broke down he would get stuck every day and so he took tractor and pulled all of out to the field
I don' t always use the platform and that seems to work better with my working position. The only times I am hunched over is measuring an off cut or messing inside the splitting chamber. The thing that has been killing me lately is my knee from stepping up onto the platform. It makes me feel old. Ugh. Joe
Ok you win. lol. I will become subscriber #45 I find to kill bees I use brake cleaner much more effective than other stuff I have used over the years..
The whole process is too slow to me as you cut the log and it falls down to split and retracting I'd have another log dropping on the ram to go next and so on,to slow for me. I see you're leaning over running the logs through this system . That would be something I would fix, maybe cut the standing platform down so your not in a leaning over position.
Thanks Snowmaker. I only use the platform when I'm running the 8 way knife. I get bigger rounds that won't go thru the knife and I have to pull them out. As for the speed I can say that this machine is about the fastest of it's size. There are other very comparable, Hakke Pilke, Tajfun et al, some a little faster, some a little slower, but this is pretty much as fast as they get. Those big circular saw massive machines certainly crank out more cords per hour but they also cost $100,000 more than mine! Joe
