Log splitter

[Corley5]

I got tired of splitting wood with a maul last season and splurged on a woodsplitter this year.  It's a Husky like Ron's only 25 tons and a Honda engine.  I love it.  Except for the kill switch on the engine.  It quit working immediately.  TSC got me another switch that also didn't last.  I got a self grounding switch at Car Quest that is heavier and fixed the problem.  I like the horizontal/vertical capability.  Most of this years wood I split horizontally but I had one BIG beech tree that required vertical action.  Other years I've stacked all the wood in the shed and as I needed it I'd split what had to be split.  This year I cut everything then went around to the trees that needed splitting with the splitter hooked to my B Farmall and did the job.  It made picking the wood up nicer as the split stuff was thrown in pile and there were no big chunks to wrestle into the wood trailer.  All the wood in the shed is ready to burn no splitting required this winter 8) 8) 8).  I had thought about building a splitter to plug into a tractors hydraulics and also considered buying one of Husky's 3 point models.  In the end I decided that for the money and especially the time involved I'd be better off buying one.  Getting one with its own engine also meant that I could pull it to the woods with a smaller more manuverable tractor.  I didn't used to mind splitting wood but every year my trees get bigger and more needs to be split  I've got a bunch of wood in my Grandma's barn that's been in there for years.  She still burns wood and needs it split into more manageable pieces.  There is a lot of big elm and maple that was cut green and thrown/stacked in one of the mows.  The maple splits really easy by hand but that dried out elm is almost impossible to split with a maul and wedges only get stuck.  Some of those elm chunks gave the new splitter real work out.  I haven't come across anything in there yet that it won't split but it makes it work.