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Maggie’s The Woodchuck and Firewood Hoarders Thread

Ok, everyone here seams to be wetting their panties on the Stihl 026.

I have a Stihl 029 Farm Boss that quite frankly, impresses me every time I use it and all my buddies are hassling me to borrow it. Had it forever, cuts up four or five full chords of firewood every year. Couple of simple repairs, no big deal.

What makes the 026 so desirable?

Regards,
Crankster
As said, power to weight. It makes a good firewood saw for home owners and a great limber or all around for most people. 261 is more powerful but a little heavier.

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what would? cut the lengths down from 36" help" or look for what power splitter in tonnage?
I'm not nearly the expert that some are on here, but I've never seen a 20 ton splitter that would even accept wood that long. I'd say cut them in half to save having to buy a massive splitter unless you have a commercial operation that requires that kind of equipment. But again, WTF do I know anyway?
My Speeco-built splitter (County Line from Tractor Supply) that hooks up to my 3 pt hitch and runs off the tractor hydraulics is rated at 25 tons and the stroke won't come close to handling any 3' long wood.
 
I'm not nearly the expert that some are on here, but I've never seen a 20 ton splitter that would even accept wood that long. I'd say cut them in half to save having to buy a massive splitter unless you have a commercial operation that requires that kind of equipment. But again, WTF do I know anyway?
My Speeco-built splitter (County Line from Tractor Supply) that hooks up to my 3 pt hitch and runs off the tractor hydraulics is rated at 25 tons and the stroke won't come close to handling any 3' long wood.
makes sense... I can cut the length down to 18" and re-ask the question.... but I am not sure any of the rental centers around me have even a 30 ton splitter for hire... the cut length is easy, but the knots are the issue, there are numerous... and hand splitting is out of the question... my chain is a Stihl MS 362 C... but would rather have a splitter than chainsawing them down...
 
makes sense... I can cut the length down to 18" and re-ask the question.... but I am not sure any of the rental centers around me have even a 30 ton splitter for hire... the cut length is easy, but the knots are the issue, there are numerous... and hand splitting is out of the question... my chain is a Stihl MS 362 C... but would rather have a splitter than chainsawing them down...
Knots should not be a problem for a hydraulic splitter, just know that your final product ain't gonna be straight. A properly sharp chainsaw should have no problem with knots either, just maybe a little slower. Finding a splitter that'll accept 36" wood would be the biggest problem I would think. It's not so much tonnage but length of stroke on the cylinder.
ETA: Looks like Twins82 may be sending out subliminal messages with his pictures above. That looks awfully knotty to me.
 
makes sense... I can cut the length down to 18" and re-ask the question.... but I am not sure any of the rental centers around me have even a 30 ton splitter for hire... the cut length is easy, but the knots are the issue, there are numerous... and hand splitting is out of the question... my chain is a Stihl MS 362 C... but would rather have a splitter than chainsawing them down...
Are you just wanting to rent a machine ... or... Are you going into the fire wood business ?
3 questions:
1- What do you want ?
2- What do you "need" ?
3- What can you afford ?
Your answer lies within these questions.
__________
A run of the mill 40 ton splitter works for 95% of consumers.
For a business something like this would do:

As you can see, he is splitting some longer pieces.
 
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question for the knowledgable..... will a 20 ton splitter be able to deal with heavily knotted black walnut (green) that is 24 inches in diameter with chunk lengths of roughly 36 inches?

Not 36in long. Most consumer home splitter max going to be 24in length.

Cut to appropriate length and if it's somewhat dry 20T will probably split but will make it work imo.

If it's green, how knotty we talking about? We don't have walnut here so im not as familiar, but if it's fibrous like elm or hickory then it will be much harder to split wet.

For logs that big I might step up. I got a 34T this fall and have yet to stop it with oak, locust, elm, or hickory and a variety of other misc stuff. Including the knotty nasties. I ran everything through it. It also goes vertical so you don't need to lift the really big pieces.

What's your budget?

I have split by hand for so long,...man the splitter I should have done long ago. Just can process much faster. I still split plenty by hand usually after I chunk up the bigger stuff. If you have a lot of firewood you will be very happy.
 
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Here near the SW Oregon coast we have had a lot of rain and now strong winds. Neighbor had a tree go down overnight, probably about 30 inches in diameter at the base. Will be summer before another neighbor and I can work on it as this yard has water flowing through it all winter.
While the wind and the rain are nasty, it was 60 degrees yesterday and is 51 this morning.

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My Christmas present to myself is a Husky 550XPG 20” pixel. Was debating between it and 562xp. Anybody have both by chance? If yes which one do you grab first 90% of the time? Will probably add a 572xp this spring if the cutting business is good. Now to wait until the brown truck arrives….
 
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My brother built a pretty slick hydraulic wood splitter that goes on the excavator.
p7mZwYViGY55iYlOaP7CUFRSrM-SA9UY-7Ebs9nkY6fUAEcqbwqxMnpELtGefGIEDMlc3PLXyPOBFXWWDYKPMb-6acaozCcOV7UPCyBl_MRA2KHiMG23KhfwxrCyNGq20bheTjyWjjY=w2400

He's also got an old processor head that he bought for scrap price and fixed up for bucking it up.
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Depending on the winter, the outdoor wood boiler heating two houses and a 40x60 shop on the farm burns between 20-30 cords, so the old fashioned way of cutting wood was taking a bit too much time.
Kristian
 
My brother built a pretty slick hydraulic wood splitter that goes on the excavator.
p7mZwYViGY55iYlOaP7CUFRSrM-SA9UY-7Ebs9nkY6fUAEcqbwqxMnpELtGefGIEDMlc3PLXyPOBFXWWDYKPMb-6acaozCcOV7UPCyBl_MRA2KHiMG23KhfwxrCyNGq20bheTjyWjjY=w2400

He's also got an old processor head that he bought for scrap price and fixed up for bucking it up.
m2IOrYs7iXRM7ap9bznCmMKzkBPV4SIac3WT3-c5ANIRRrtISjNl3_KkrWpFXhcPMd4h450PQfrIOzcQ6LOvUizkwM0WRdgTrlLN9y04UQzYqOU7Ptuv_tmCaCdXokBy3LQTmFBhPw0=w2400

Depending on the winter, the outdoor wood boiler heating two houses and a 40x60 shop on the farm burns between 20-30 cords, so the old fashioned way of cutting wood was taking a bit too much time.
Kristian

@oneshot86

Check this out. 😎
 
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Well amidst all the bad weather, celebrities tipping over and Covid variety xxx… I put new dogs on the 550 and 572. The factory ones they come with are totally useless. Now for the snow to melt enough to go try them out.
 

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Labour shortages, tree company's being slower and my back surgery slowed up our wood production but we are back up to speed.
I'll have another truck load like this, from yesterday, to add to the pile in a few hours, hopefully 2 by the end of this evening
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Labour shortages, tree company's being slower and my back surgery slowed up our wood production but we are back up to speed.
I'll have another truck load like this, from yesterday, to add to the pile in a few hours, hopefully 2 by the end of this eveningView attachment 8051744
Better keep crackin’ so those poor TB folks don’t freeze to death. 😉 Nice lookin’ Wood @oneshot86 👍🏻💪🏻
 
I've got an 026 that is getting new seals and bearings. The case gasket is back ordered. I have the old gasket and it "looks" ok. Would you reuse the gasket with sealant on both halves? If yes what sealant? I've checked on the tree forums and loctite 518 seems the best. What do you all think?
 
I've got an 026 that is getting new seals and bearings. The case gasket is back ordered. I have the old gasket and it "looks" ok. Would you reuse the gasket with sealant on both halves? If yes what sealant? I've checked on the tree forums and loctite 518 seems the best. What do you all think?

Wait.

Could probably find one on EBay.
 
No real wood cutting around here this year, just weed whacking……😁
Cut out a handful of Mulberry trees. Damned things have the foundation of the building behind them all jacked up. Going to have to break up the floor inside and cut out the roots that run under and between the blocks.
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No wood to be salvaged here, so we let the tractor do the heavy lifting…..
 
Anyone want to take the time and attempt to count the growth rings on this one? Old growth fir blow down cut where it fell
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across a trail. This is about 50’ from the stump, approximately 4 1/2’ in diameter.
 
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