Home-Built Log Splitter

Home-Built Log Splitter WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Wood Splitters 28-6-42 We have an outside wood burning stove and cut a lot of wood during the fall. It's something our entire family enjoys. To provide wood for the stove I built this log splitter, starting with an upside down piece of railroad rail. The rest was made from heavy channel iron and whatever was needed to beef it up. I bought the hydraulic cylinder, hoses, and cutting wedge new, along with a few pieces of metal that I didn't have in my scrap pile. The unit slips down to work in either the horizontal or vertical position. We usually use it in the vertical position so we don't have to lift pieces of wood. My younger sons are 9 and 11 and they can roll pieces of wood to me for splitting. Total cost of this heavy-built unit was about $400. We have a small, soft-sided swimming pool in our yard. My wife enjoys the pool but was reluctant to use it because the water was rarely warm enough. I remedied the problem by building a wood-fired heat exchanger. I wrapped 50 ft. of soft copper tubing around a chunk of wood to make the coil and left about 6 ft. of each end straight. The coil sets in a half barrel of water on top of a wood fire. Water is circulated to and from the pool by a submersible sump pump through a garden hose. I can easily raise the pool's water temperature 15 to 20 degrees in one day. This setup didn't really cost anything at all because I already had most of the components on hand. (Todd Hershey, 5076 Burr Oak Road, Freeport, Ill. 61032 ph 815 233-4830 or 815 541-8405)

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