Good Morning
We'd been talking on another thread off topic about firewood log-splitting.
Until this year all of my life I've enjoyed hand splitting. Knots and crotches that wouldn't split were ripped with a chainsaw. And yes, due to the amount of energy needed and the sometimes unpredictable nature of wood popping apart I've managed to injure my self more than once. But now due to age I'm just not able to keep at it longer than 2 hours a day. Needed more productivity.
Researching power splitters I came up with three types:
Spiral/Screw  seeÂ
http://thestickler.comHas a playable vidio. Was too slow and in my judgement too dangerous. That demo round he was working on was only a nine whack(swing) to chunk up and I would not have had to be bent over to do it. What I needed was something to do knot wood, crotches and 150 pound 1/4 block butt chunks. I just see could see a chunk screwed on and swinging around off center and off balanced while I ran to shut down the motor. All of the wood has to be moved to the splitter. To much wood movement.
Flywheel type. You can find video and plans to make these out of old square bale hay balers. A commercial version at:
http://www.supersplit.com  Has a playable vidio.
The hay baler types are scary. The splitting ram is coming around once per revolution whether you are ready or not.
The commercial version is engable /disengable, and small and light enough to move to the wood. All of the wood blocks have to be lifted up onto the table. And it does seem kinnda expensive.
The gear rack and pinion teeth look to be the weak point and proprietary parts.
Hydraulic type. There are many types and brands. After renting/trying different brands and sizes I bought a 10.5 HP, 34 Ton, 15 Second cycle time with both a vertical and horizonal bed from SpeeCo manufacturing:Â
 www.speeco.com/products/
Anything slower was too slow. Needed this much force to cleave through the 6" limb knots, works great. I can do the heavy blocks on the ground vertically and the fine splitting horizontally while standing up with a wheel barrel positioned as a catch basin.
Yeah, it is capable of mashing, smashing, amputating fingers and hands.
Did a great job crushing wheels out of the insides of junk tires. I like it.
SteveU.