Hey guys. Sorry to revive a three month old thread, but we just found this and it made the boss' day. He's walking around the office now grinning from ear to ear about being famous on the internet.
I'm one of four people who regularly run that particular splitter. The fourth, after staring at it for three months and avoiding it, finally got curious and tried it. His comment: "it's not nearly as bad as it looks." As much as it looks like a widowmaker, it's strangely far safer than the hydraulic splitter sitting beside it.
I'd be happy to answer any questions about the device, or provide more pictures (or video) if people are still curious about it. This fall I added an extra safety feature - ran a second kill switch off the engine and mounted it at the splitting platform. Mostly, it's to keep from burning the belts when a log gets stuck such that it can't be yanked like Rick did in the video.
Additionally, the blue trackhoe you can see in one of the video shots? When the bucket comes off, that's our log loader. It's got a grapple on the end, so we don't have to have our tree guys chop the things into smaller blocks
Anything too large to put into the wheel, we halve first in the hydraulic spliiter. I do in fact have video of that running...
-- Derek Jacobs
Woodchuck
Rick's Home and Cabin Care