Repaired Log Splitter & Splitting Wood For The Homestead

In the morning I repaired the log splitter and got it running again. It had thrown its belt, engine was loose and the carb was fouled. I spent the day running the machine hard to see how long a tank of gas would last.

First thing in the morning I brought over the 11 HP Briggs and Stratton gas engine that will eventually power the log splitter. I got this old log splitter for free about two years ago. It had an old cast iron Wisconsin engine on it. The engine still turned freely and I have the original hand crank starter handle for it. But I wanted a more modern engine on the machine.

I found a 79cc engine at Harbor Freight and put that on for now. It ran but it could not split tough or larger logs.

While sitting through the summer the gas fouled in the carburetor and it needed to be cleaned. Also the engine had worked loose from its mountings and the belt tension was off.

I had found this huge 11 HP Briggs last summer at a garage sale for $50 and brought it home for the log splitter but never got it installed. Today I brought it over to put it on the lot splitter but realized that I did not have a pulley for the engine shaft. This is a one inch shaft. I will have to wait for my pay check to use this engine.

But I wanted to split some wood today so I got to work on the little engine. I first reset the engine bolts. The washers on the bottom of the bolts worked their way deep into the wood base which caused the engine to come loose. I found some larger washers and used them. Then I mounted the engine again while putting tension on the drive belt.

The drive pulley had also worked itself loose so I had to tighten that back on as well.

Next I opened up the carburetor and cleaned that out. It was a bit gummed up from the gas I used in the spring.

Now the test to see if it will all work again. I turned on the camera and pulled the starter cord. And pulled. And pulled. And pulled. It seems typical of the HF engines that you have to pull a lot to get them going. At least in my experience. But the engine fired up and ran perfectly.

I spent the rest of the day splitting logs for fire wood to heat the off grid tiny house on wheels this winter.

The engine has a half gallon gas tank capacity and I wanted to run it dry to see how long it would run while splitting fire wood. But it never ran out of gas. I worked literally all day and I wore out before the engine ran out of gas. It surely must have been near to being empty but I could not go on. At about 5:30 in the afternoon I turned the machine off for the night.

I was sore. The log splitter sits a bit low for my comfort. I will have to raise it up higher to about waist level for future use and better comfort. My back and shoulders hurt badly from an entire day of log splitting.

But I got a nice pile of fire wood split and put a good dent in our log pile.

I plan to clear out the area on the side of the goat pen and stack the split fire wood over there. We are running out of space for fire wood and I figure this is the best place for it.

Thanks for watching. Please Subscribe & follow my daily videos.

Troy
http://www.thedoityourselfworld.com
http://www.theoffgridproject.com

Note: Copying this video, in part or in full, is a violation of copyright unless the user has express permission from the owner. Violation of this copyright will be pursued to the fullest extent of the law.