Masport 8 Tonne Kinetic Log Splitter

[@mattdennis7683]

Nice video Ian. I'd be very interested to hear if this splitter is still working well for you and if you've found anything it struggles with?

[@ianmoone2359]

Matt Dennis Sure Dennis, I’ve found that it does struggle with a local species of wood (Eucalyptus wandoo). It’s more dense than our usual Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) & wandoo also has a more interlocked grain. You can see that Jarrah is straight & short grained and splits reasonably easily. Not so Wandoo, it’s notoriously tough to split. I’ve found I had to hit some wandoo rings up to 3 times in a row to make them split. This gives an idea of its hardness. “As most wood workers and firewood collectors will know, Wandoo is legendary for its hardness. While dry Marri and Jarrah are normally considered pretty hard at around 7.1 and 8.5kN respectively, Wandoo is off the scales with a whopping dry hardness of 15kN.” That’s the only timber I’ve seen that makes the masport struggle & it would be one of the hardest timbers in Australia. I think US walnut for eg is around Janka hardness 8 so around half as dense / hard.

[@mattdennis7683]

@@ianmoone2359 Great info, thanks Ian! Having that Janka rating as a reference for victorian species is very handy!

[@Adrian_Anderson]

Hey Ian, by any chance, do you know how many kg the flywheel weighs? I plan on getting a kinetic splitter, and one of the most important spec's to me is its weight. Thanks mate

[@ianmoone2359]

@@Adrian_Anderson I don’t I’m sorry, the splitter resides with my eldest lad in the country nowadays so I couldn’t even hazard at a guess sorry.

[@adriananderson261]

No worries, thanks​@@ianmoone2359

[@Adrian_Anderson]

​@@ianmoone2359 I just found out they have twin 9kg flywheels spinning at 450rpm.

[@Bailey001]

How did you make that table. Looks great. Did you mount it to the machine ?

[@ianmoone2359]

salash1976 I used 1inch x 1 inch angle iron to replace the two factory rails, drilled matching bolt holes using the OEM rails as templates! Added a piece of 3x3 inch angle that I fitted to the end of the RHS by drilling holes & installing 4 nutserts. Then some 1 inch x 1 inch RHS tube welded crossways to the 3 x 3 angle, diamond plate for the table itself, and some 1 x 1 angle for reinforcing underneath. The whole table while welded together can still be unbolted from the machine & the original OEM rails bolted back on. I just used what scrap steel I had in the shed. With the original rails it’s designed to be used sitting on the ground, bending over, and the wood when split falls to the floor. I’m too fat old & crook back to stay bent over all day & to bend & pickup wood one piece at a time. Mounting it at a comfortable standing working height, (adjustable via electric motor & screw jack mechanism) the old computer bench it sits on) seemed to make sense. Extending the computer bench so that any split wood that did happen to fall off the steel table never made it all the way to the ground also made sense. The only time I lift a ring of wood is once to get it up on top of the machine! After that the woods travel is all downhill with gravity into bags! I admit, I’ve even been scouting for a old exercise treadmill to use as a conveyor / elevator so I can shift rings of wood from ground level up to table height without me doing any manual lifting! Adding a bagging off chute is also on the agenda to save having to hold bags open while dropping split wood into them, it’s one of those tasks you basically need 3 hands. I remain very impressed with the capability of this Masport Splitter. I really can’t fault it. I grease up the rack & pinion at the start of each days splitting. Pumped the grease nipples / zirk fittings on the bearings for flywheels while I had the covers off designing / fitting the table. Other than that I haven’t had to do anything to it yet maintenance wise.

[@charlesclarke8470]

Mine has failed!The rod does not return after splitting and has to be pushed back each time that I use it .Possibly the spring has stretched,where can I get a replacement?

[@ianmoone2359]

Eventually mine shed 3 teeth on the rack under the splitting ram. It was understandable, I split 2 whole trees called Wandoo, which is about as hard as timber comes, (15 on the Janka hardness scale). The ram would bounce back off the rings 2 or 3 times before it would split them. So it really was abusing it to the max. A new rack I bought through my Stihl dealer where I bought the splitter - it was only $80, and I just unbolted the broken one and bolted the new one in and it hasn’t missed a beat since because I haven’t split any more Wandoo, just stick to splitting Jarrah now and that splits like butter. I’d imagine you could always source a new spring from Masport in NZ. Just check that your rack under neath the ram isn’t missing a few teeth.

[@charlesclarke8470]

@@ianmoone2359 Thank you Ian for that info.I contacted Masport and they advised me of a dealer near me who could get any parts that I need so hopefully I will get things going soon

[@gokhanyildirim7853]

Hey mate how does this go splitting redgum?

[@ianmoone2359]

It’s still running all these seasons later. The only part that’s been replaced so far is the toothed ram underneath. I managed to break 3 teeth off that ram, splitting Wandoo (Janka 15) - which is twice as hard as Jarrah (Janka 8). With the ram replaced it’s still going. Red gum & Jarrah are both reasonably easy splitting. Don’t know anyone splits red gum if they have Jarrah available, because red gum burns down to a white ash while Jarrah gets those glowing coals.

[@gokhanyildirim7853]

@@ianmoone2359 thanks for your feedback

[@trip-tracks806]

Thanks for the video. I notice this was posted 4 years ago. How is this log splitter holding out? Still working? Anything broken? Still happy with it?

[@ianmoone2359]

Yes still going like a champ. Has had a replacement rack fitted is the only repair. I split one tree of rings of a particularly hard species called Eucalyptus Wandoo, which is 15 on the Janka hardness scale, so one of the hardest Timbers known anywhere in the world. The ram would just bounce off at least 3 hits before it would split. I managed to break 3 teeth off the rack, however the pinion remained fine. Just bolted a new rack under the ram and it’s never missed a beat since. It still worked while missing the 3 teeth on the rack but I just figured I ought to fix it. The new rack was ~$70 through my local Stihl dealer. Dead easy to unbolt the old one and bolt the new one on. “While dry Marri and Jarrah are normally considered pretty hard at around 7.1 and 8.5kN respectively, Wandoo is off the scales with a whopping dry hardness of 15kN.” & “The wood of this species is extremely dense, with a air-dry density of 1,100 kg/m3 (1,900 lb/cu yd) and a green density of 1,100 kg/m3 (1,900 lb/cu yd)[12]: 46  and is used for a range of heavy duty construction purposes, including as railway sleepers, poles, wood flooring[45][12]: 46  joists, beams, girders and by wheelwrights.[46] Wandoo was renowned as being the most suitable timber for the production of railway sleepers.[47][46] There was once an industry in the extraction of tannin from the bark and wood. These days the wood is not much available, as the wandoo forests are preserved for recreation and watershed protection.[45][12]: 46  The wood and bark contains 10 to 12% tannin.[10] In the 1960s over 68,000 long tons (69,000 t) of wandoo was used to produce tannins for the petroleum, leather and fishing industries.[6] The wood has a yellow to light reddish brown colour is textured with a wavy to interlocked grain and is considered extremely durable and resistant to termites.[12]: 46  The wood also has no chemical reactions with metal fastenings.[10] In the 1960s 2.7×106 cu ft (76×103 m3) mill logs of the wood was harvested.[6] Demand for the wood was such that sawmills in Narrogin and Boyup Brook, Western Australia were entirely dependent upon the supply of wandoo.[46] When dried, E. wandoo is among Australia's hardest timber when measured by the Janka hardness test.[48] At 15,000 kN, E. wandoo is twice as hard as Jarrah, and of comparable hardness to Grey ironbark making it Australia's second or third hardest timber.[49] E. wandoo has a density rating of 1280 kg/m3, making it Australia's densest species of true Eucalyptus.[50] “ I think it’s important to understand just how hard Wandoo is as a timber to try and split. Axes and “block splitters” typically “bounce back” off a cut ring 2 or 3 times in a row, when the ring is green - before a split will even start. It’s one of the two or 3 hardest Timbers in the world. So yes, the Masport did lose 3 teeth off its rack, BUT splitting Wandoo on a 8 tonne kinetic splitter probably counts as “abuse” of the machine on my part. On any other timber it works a treat without complaint. Ohh how hard is Wandoo? Even termites can’t eat it, it’s that hard.

[@trip-tracks806]

@@ianmoone2359 thanks for the prompt reply. Great feedback.

[@charlesclarke8470]

Still having problems!The spring is almost impossible to replace .do you have any helpful suggestions please ?

[@ianmoone2359]

I’m sorry, I don’t have any helpful suggestions with that. When the rack arm is retracted, there’s almost no tension on the spring. Are you trying to install the spring with the arm extended or retracted?

[@charlesclarke8470]

@@ianmoone2359 retracted

[@ianmoone2359]

@@charlesclarke8470 I could be wrong but in my fading memory, did I attach the spring and use the pulley on the motor to engage the pinion on the rack to pull the spring into place? I really can’t recall sorry.

[@charlesclarke8470]

@@ianmoone2359 My problem is fitting the plastic rollers in place, they seem too big once removed.I do have the splitter working ok in a make shiftway

[@Mrpl3973]

I bought this exact model, was splitting Jarrah mill ends smaller than shown here and after 20 minutes there was a pile of metal bearings underneath, Masport warranty were useless. didn't want to know. Threw it back to local dealer who then said he thought the units weren't much chop! After selling me 1! And gave me a 7 ton Hydraulic with a $30 discount. When I returned my unit to the shop happened to see another 1 lying in bits looking rather new? Wouldn't buy any Kinetic splitter no matter who made it or any Masport product ever!

[@ianmoone2359]

Mrpl3973 I can only ask if you greased the bearings? There are grease nipples for the flywheel bearings underneath the covers, that I pumped full of grease before using the machine when new. I also greased the underside of the rack & pinion. I do that rack & pinion with grease at the start of each days splitting. It’s done a whole winters splitting of Jarrah now, for commercial supply, so more than 10 tonnes & hasn’t missed a beat. I’m confident it will do the same for next winters supply as well. The manual tells / shows where to grease it up each season. I sent Masport an email saying how impressed I am with the machine & they sent me a Masport hat & stubby holder gratis! The local dealers been great to deal with, zero complaints here! 👍

[@Mrpl3973]

The roller bearings under the ram were sealed bearings. They basically shattered due to the impact process which they not designed to absorb.Dealer said as much on return, Living in country WA it was a costly waste of time paying for freight to get then a 200km trip to take back to resolve issue, it's left a bitter taste when it comes to Masport product's!

[@ianmoone2359]

Mrpl3973 That’s understandable, I’ve lived remote rural in WA for almost 30 years (Narrogin then Nannup) and yes the inconvenience of getting parts can be a real issue when anything breaks down. Those little sealed bearings underneath, they can be matched up at any bearings supplier here in Perth and are a few $ each. The weird thing is, in amongst my Jarrah Firewood supply (from Collie area) there were 2 trees that were Wandoo, not Jarrah, and while Jarrah is hard at 8.5 on the Janka scale, Wandoo is almost twice as hard, at 15 on the Janka scale & the scale doesn’t go any higher than that - basically equal to the hardest timbers in the world! Now those blocks had the 8 tonne ram literally bouncing back off the blocks when it hit! But all it took was 2 or 3 successive hits and the ram pushed the blocks through the knife every time! Would have been a good 2 tonnes of Wandoo rings it’s split without issue of any kind. Really surprises me that you had any issues, because this far I’ve been elated with mine. There’s no way I could process the volume of wood I do each year, into bags, with a hydraulic splitter purely because of the time factor. I opted for the Kinetic from Masport due to the high speed of processing each ring. I went & looked at a much larger Kinetic Splitter from Forestwest, but they are Chinese made & the people selling them quite literally were Chinese ass holes, who I wouldn’t deal with if they were giving Log splitters away. I figured I’d sooner take my chances with Masport being a kiwi crew, they had a better chance of being good to deal with. I bought mine through my local Stihl dealer here in Perth, who I buy a fair bit of gear through each year & he looks after me pretty well. Like I said the Masport folks have been great to deal with, above & beyond thus far. I’ll make a point of taking a good look at those bearings on mine & maybe get a spare set in just in case before I start next splitting next winters supply, just in case I guess. Can’t hurt to be prepared ahead of time just in case. 👍

[@Mrpl3973]

That`s all well and good but when you pay over $750 for a piece of equipment, you expect not to be paying for new parts after 20 minutes and backed up with shit ticket warranty you`d be pretty pissed like me.

[@ianmoone2359]

Mrpl3973 Warranty is all well & good, but if like yourself your remote, and your dealer doesn’t honour the warranty, then there’s something not quite right. Did you contact either Masport in Oz or over in NZ? What was their response? No one I know walks away from a $800 piece of equipment after 20 minutes use that fails and settles for $30 off a hydraulic splitter as “compensation”. Fair Traiding, ASIC, and the small claims tribunal would be all over that like white on rice, dessicated coconut on a lamington, if a claim were lodged. Who walks away from $800 for the sake of 2 x $5 bearings? Your beginning to sound like a dealer who can’t sell hydraulic log splitters coz the Kinetic ones are so much faster! 😂