# Homemade manual wood splitter



## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

This thing would be excellent for a prepper- no fuel and mostly unbreakable.


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## AdmiralD7S (Dec 6, 2012)

Sure looks like he's got some nice wood to split. Could probably quarter those rounds just by massaging them and talking nice. I'd be curious how well it works on something that's a little tougher to split.

That said, interesting concept and certainly looks like it makes the job easier. Not having to lift the maul 500 times a day could save a few blown backs, I bet!


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

This video has been posted before. But I like it. I think the poor thing needs a little grease lol


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## jnrdesertrats (Jul 3, 2010)

I was so expecting a teenage boy. :teehee:


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Does anyone have the ability to make one of these or have an idea how to make one?

I wonder if there is directions somewhere for how to do this?


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

here is another very similar one.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

I agree with Admiral. Looks awesome in good wood...I'd like to see it in some elm or knotty pine.


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## squerly (Aug 17, 2012)

LOL, the wood he's splitting is already too small. But I like the music.


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## Coastal (Jun 27, 2013)

squerly said:


> LOL, the wood he's splitting is already too small. But I like the music.


lol all I could think of is sexy sax man.


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## airdrop (Jan 6, 2012)

less see them split some good old American oak or ash then I'll get one lol


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

I went over to my neighbors house recently, I thought he was pounding a stake into the ground, which I had listened to for about 15 minutes. When I got over there I found that he was trying to split an Oak round with a splitting Maul and a Sledge Hammer. That round never did split, and he finally had to knock the maul loose with the Sledge Hammer. Those "cute" little spring loaded gizmos wouldn't have a chance with seasoned Oak.


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## hashbrown (Sep 2, 2013)

camo2460 said:


> I went over to my neighbors house recently, I thought he was pounding a stake into the ground, which I had listened to for about 15 minutes. When I got over there I found that he was trying to split an Oak round with a splitting Maul and a Sledge Hammer. That round never did split, and he finally had to knock the maul loose with the Sledge Hammer. Those "cute" little spring loaded gizmos wouldn't have a chance with seasoned Oak.


I was thinking the same same thing... I can't imagine trying to split elm or blackjack with that. You might split red oak with it on a 0 degree morning.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Come on, I try to find something to make your life easier for those of you who insist on living in the frozen north and I get all negatives. Sheesh.


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## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

hiwall said:


> Come on, I try to find something to make your life easier for those of you who insist on living in the frozen north and I get all negatives. Sheesh.


Actually I rather liked it and was wondering where I could get one or get plans for one. It looks like it would be useful in a world without gas or electricity to drive a splitter.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

Up here in our corner of the frozen north, pretty much all the average person will ever use for firewood (indoors) is birch. I can't blame them, it burns easy and clean, comes in nice uniform rounds, and splits nice. The main reason I burn other stuff is because I can sell birch :dunno: 

While back had a lot of elm, maple, and oak (bur) and would have had to give it away or at the very least split it and stack it for them. Even then it just isn't as pretty as birch and doesn't come with it's own fire-starter. I never tried to sell the elm unsplit though, for anyone who has never tried it that would just be mean


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Geek999 said:


> Actually I rather liked it and was wondering where I could get one or get plans for one. It looks like it would be useful in a world without gas or electricity to drive a splitter.


I think one of these could be invaluable in a SHTF situation, especially in a group such as a MAG. My guess is that someone who has fabricated other metal tools from basic metal could come up with a design and knock out some of these.

I knew a few guys in North Dakota who would get together on a Saturday, rent a splitter, and get all their wood split for the winter.


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## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

weedygarden said:


> I think one of these could be invaluable in a SHTF situation, especially in a group such as a MAG. My guess is that someone who has fabricated other metal tools from basic metal could come up with a design and knock out some of these.
> 
> I knew a few guys in North Dakota who would get together on a Saturday, rent a splitter, and get all their wood split for the winter.


I've always just rented one when I needed it, but the ones I have used all need fuel and would obviously be useless in a world without a ready supply of gasoline. That's what I liked about the manual one. If I had plans I could get the parts and set them aside until needed.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

I saw this video a few weeks ago. One of my nephews posted it on facebook and said he might build one. The very next day, I stopped at my mechanics shop for something and he was replacing front coil springs on a small truck. I asked if I could get the old ones and he gave them to me. 

I gave them to my nephew and told him I'll help him build his if we use it and improve it, then build mine. Good deal if it works out. 

I'll try to make instructions when we're building them.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

I doubt any of these were built with "plans" per se, but I could be wrong. Anyone with a welder and access to a junkyard or just some scrap could put one of these together without much trouble. Small car coil spring, or coil over shock is the only real "part" I see, everything else could be made from anything, heck you could make one out of wood easy enough with a couple bolts and an axe head or similar for striking. Making one out of steel without a welder wouldn't be too hard either, as long as you had a good drill and/or clamps.

Having some square tubing, sheet steel, etc is always great but if it comes down to it, scrap works fine too.


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## Geek999 (Jul 9, 2013)

cowboyhermit said:


> I doubt any of these were built with "plans" per se, but I could be wrong. Anyone with a welder and access to a junkyard or just some scrap could put one of these together without much trouble. Small car coil spring, or coil over shock is the only real "part" I see, everything else could be made from anything, heck you could make one out of wood easy enough with a couple bolts and an axe head or similar for striking. Making one out of steel without a welder wouldn't be too hard either, as long as you had a good drill and/or clamps.
> 
> Having some square tubing, sheet steel, etc is always great but if it comes down to it, scrap works fine too.


While I am sure many of the folks here who routinely work fabricating things could put together something functional, I'm not in that category. I also think there would be an opportunity to "optimize" one of these if it was actually designed, not just whipped together, so that it provided the proper amount of leverage, had the right amount of weight behind the maul, etc.

There is probably a small business opportunity here for someone who could design one properly, package it as a kit that didn't require more than a couple wrenches to assemble, for sale to guys who are all thumbs like me.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

Sorry Hiwall. I'm sure none of us meant to be negative. I liked the idea...I just don't see it as being especially practical for me here at my place at this time. I really do like seeing how others split wood, and there's no such thing as bad knowledge. Even for those of us who posted negatively, we learned something, and if it ever does go south, maybe somebody will remember the coil spring splitter that the guy from Prepared Society posted on the net years ago when things were still good and be able to rig something up.

Unlikely, sure...but it's always possible.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

> Sorry Hiwall. I'm sure none of us meant to be negative.


I was just kidding. I spent most of my life in Minnesota and I have split an untold number of cords of wood. I always burned mostly oak, elm, and hard maple just because that was what was available. I think this splitter does have merit but like anything it also has drawbacks. In the videos they are splitting wood that you could split with a hatchet but I think it would work on harder to split wood also. Don't know if you could split elm with it though but I would like to see.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

It is rather off-topic but ever since I posted here it has been bothering me. When I mentioned about potentially selling elm earlier that was awhile ago and I have been careful about elms for a long time now. Selling elm firewood is prohibited here now, and for about as good a reason as for any regulation. Alberta has supposedly the largest population of elms not affected by DED in the world and Saskatchewan has a lot too. Whether or not it is prohibited is not a big deal for me but I do take the precautions seriously, they are great trees with very useful (if under-utilized) wood that are also really good soil-builders with leaves that break down very quickly.

I really have no idea what it is like out east with elms as I hear most of the older elms are gone.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Where I was in Minnesota there was alot of both DED and Oak wilt.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

I did see your smilies. Just wanted to make sure everything was good. I didn't realize you were originally from snow country. I'll have a chuckle now when I fill up the wood furnace in the morning. It's already done for tonight.


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## squerly (Aug 17, 2012)

Jason said:


> I did see your smilies. Just wanted to make sure everything was good. I didn't realize you were originally from snow country. I'll have a chuckle now when I fill up the wood furnace in the morning. It's already done for tonight.


Not to get too far off topic but what kind of wood furnace do you have?


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Jason said:


> I agree with Admiral. Looks awesome in good wood...I'd like to see it in some elm or knotty pine.


The wood he is splitting splits with about 3% of the effort of the stuff around here I have to split!!

I would love to build something that I could use a spring sort of like that, plus my *entire* body weight, to split wood.

Think like a Pogo-stick concept. 
I have 225 lbs to work with, so I'd love to use my whole body - - and not just my upper body swinging a maul.


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