Here is my Christmas decorations I put up this year. So, if you have about 8 minutes to waste, take a look. Video isn't that great, but I'm not very good using a phone as a camera and trying to walk in the dark and not tripping over anything! Anyways, enjoy!
Today I decided to try and mount the trailer jack on the wood splitter. I didn't even know if it would fit or work, but I was hoping it would. As it turned out, looks like everything will work out ok. I did have to remove a 12.5" tube from the tongue which was no big deal being all it did was hold a rolled-up instruction book and a spark plug wrench. If I go anywhere, I can just grab the tube and take it with me, otherwise it was in the way for the trailer jack.
Yep, been busy as hell as of lately! Remember I got the YardMax 9-ton electric log spiltter working again after putting a new motor on it? Well, I kind of messed it up. Nothing serious, but... I was splitting some logs and I didn't notice that when the log was splitting, a piece of the split went between the beam and the cover on the one side, and it bent it pretty good. It doesn't hurt the machine any, it still works like it should, as a matter of fact I split a lot of logs without it on.
I took the side cover off and took it to a guy hoping her can straighten out some with a hydraulic press, which I don't have. I was going to try and beat it with a heavy 3-pound hammer, put its pretty heavy steel and probably wouldn't do a good job, if I could do anything with it at all. So, for now I'm waiting to hear from the guy to see how he made out with it.
I ended up buying a trailer jack with a wheel on it to tray and mount on the 38-ton log splitter. It's just too heavy at the tongue picking it up and moving it. So, I'm going to try and mount a trailer jack on the tongue like the one I put on my utility trailer. It's almost impossible to hold the tongue up while at the same time put a pin through the jack stand. With the jack, I can get it where I want it, put the pin through the stand, then swing the trailer jack out of the way. Any way's I hope this works.
I also ordered a base attachment for the 38-ton splitter. The idea with that is when you split a log, you can move the one piece out of the way and split the other piece again without the other falling to the ground.
Well, I'm slowly getting my big pile of wood split, the problem was, or still is, where to put it all? The other year, maybe last year, I bought a firewood rack, but I don't expect it to last too long being it's made of metal that's not very heavy metal.
So I did some searching for firewood rack and ran across the one below which I made today. The thing is you really need no tools to put it together and you can make it as long and as high as you want! The one in the picture below, is 16 foot long and 5.5 foot high. I probably won't go to the top being the higher I go, the shakier the wood gets.
Then there is also the problem of the wood drying out which can cause it to lean and fall over. I had that happen a few times on different stacks of wood. Not the whole stack would fall over but you could see it start to lean at some point, and eventually a part of it falls over.
Even wood that I have stacked on a solid flat rock foundation eventually starts to lean at some point.
The rack I made below is about as easy as it gets to make and it takes no tool to put together! To make a rack like this, let's say an 8-footer, you will need 2-landscaping timbers (or 4x4's) I was going to go with 4x4's but there were about $4.00 more each... I'll see how landscaping timbers hold up. You'll also need 4-2x4's and two cement blocks. That's it, just put them together on a flat area and you're done. The only thing you might want to do is cut the 2x4's off to the height you want.
Yesterday I took off the old burnt motor off the YardMax 9-yon electric log splitter and put on the new one I was sent from it being under warranty. Today after getting up and having my three cups of coffee, I went and got 2 gallons of hydraulic fluid and filled it up (7 quarts).
I then plugged it in, hit the switch and it came to life and no leaks! Two things I noticed with the new motor, first, it's not as loud, though you can't tell it in the video. The second thing I noticed is that the new motor felt warm which you would expect, but the old motor felt really warm, getting close to hot. I spilt a good bit of wood today and the machine ran fine, and the motor was only warm.
What I'm thinking is the old motor was bad from the factory. If you look at the picture of the old motor in one of my last's posts, you'll see it burnt right where the AC connects to the motor windings. I'm thinking that there was a bad connecting where the AC connected to the windings causing it to get hot and eventually burn out. At least that's my guess.
It does seem odd though that the last time I used it (last fall), it ran fine, no smoke or anything at least I didn't see or smell anything. So, it was working when I turned it off, but this year when I went to use it, nothing.
Then I did explain everything I had to go through to get a replacement motor, such as make a video of what was happening which was nothing more than me pushing the start button. I did have the capacitor checked, I checked the switch, a reset button, check if current was going to the motor, which it was, and did a continuity test on the motor itself. My conclusion, bad motor.
That didn't take my word for it even when I told them I did this kind of stuff for years and I know what I'm doing. Still, they wanted me to take it to a shop, and have it checked out, which I did. Their conclusion, bad motor. That cost me $50.00!
So today I sent YardMax a picture of the burnt motor, as well as I had to send them another video of the splitter working as it should with the new motor installed, which I did.
The good news is the 9-ton splitter is working like it should and I'm also getting reimbursed my $50.00!
Below is the YardMax 9-ton log splitter with the new motor on it... works as it should!
Yeah, I've been pretty busy lately, from getting a place to sit a new shed, to putting Halloween stuff away, to cutting wood. Yesterday I finished cutting up the wood and towed to wood splitter over to split the big pieces that were to big to lift. Even then I had to cut them in half-length wise to I could at least moves them to get them on the log splitter. Some of these logs were around 24" in diameter, and about 20 inches long, way too heavy for me. So, I ended up cutting them in half then splitting them into big pieces to get on the truck, which I end up splitting the big ones yet into smaller pieces.
The original plan was to cut some up, bring it home then split the with the electric log splitter. Of course, there is no way the electric log splitter would split the big stuff, not alone trying to lift it up onto the log splitter. As I said in another post, the electric log splitter wouldn't work... wouldn't start. After going through a pile of crap with the warranty, I did get a new motor sent to me about a week ago and just now had really a chance to try and change it.
Changing the motor wasn't too bad, after seeing what I was doing. Besides the motor being heavy, there are a few hard places to get into to get the motor and pump off. Once I got the motor off, then the pump off the motor, I seen right away what the problem was, just as I expected, a burned-out motor.
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