"HeyBub" wrote in
m:

As an aside, I scored about a 1/4 cord of oak. I then bought the cheapes HF
log splitter ($100.00), a ten-ton unit. The damned thing requires someone
MUCH stronger than I to split a log. It got returned.

SWMBO and I have an apparently identical log splitter that we bought at Sears a few years
ago, and used it most recently to split about half a cord from a fallen cherry tree -- I used a
maul to split the rounds in half, and she used the hydraulic splitter to split the halves into
firewood wedges.

I *was* going to call this a case of "operator error" and ask if you had read the instructions,
but then I looked at HF's instructions, and either (a) the HF splitter isn't actually the same as
the Sears splitter I have, despite their virtually identical appearance, or (b) the instructions
on the HF unit omit a critical fact: the two handles don't perform the same function, because
the two sides of the hydraulic jack are not symmetrical. One handle is a "speed" handle to
advance the ram rapidly; the other is a "power" handle to actually split the wood. If you were
using only the speed handle, yeah, you would've had a lot of trouble.

I need to make a trip to our local HF store in a few days. I'll have a look at the unit then, if
they have one in stock, to see if my conjecture is correct, and post a followup.