how about a Oklahoma,AR,MO,KS,TX,+IA GTG thread?

Hedgerow said:

Nuthin a loader tractor and welder and some more pieces of scrap iron couldn't fix.
Can't hook a 13 HP motor to a 22GPM pump, pushing a 20-30 ton cylinder and not expect to break some *s-word now and then.

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Hinerman said:

fixed it for you...

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Workshop said:

I'll have to respectfully disagree.
It's got to be in the 60-100 ton range, or as Matt would say " Somewhere in the stupid tonnage range".

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Hedgerow said:

6" bore..
So 30 ish tons? I forget the calculation for that. It's the wide 4-ways that tear *s-word up all the time. Twists the hell out of the beam.

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Hedgerow said:

Quality is job Xiang...

Oops, Xiang was arrested last year and missed work..

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Hinerman said:

I am a little confused. Your "business associate borrowed it to try to turn this enormous pile of logs amassed over the year of tree work into firewood". Are you partners on the wood being processed? Is the wood yours? Is the wood his? Are you good friends? You knew there was an "enormous pile of logs" but you don't want your splitter used for "commercial firewood production"---doesn't make sense to loan the splitter.

Regardless of 8 hours of splitting elm, the splitter should not be leaking from the valve. Unless he accidentally dropped a log on the valve, I don't see how the leak could be his fault. Unless he loosened the filter on purpose, I don't see how the loose filter could be his fault. If the cylinder is leaking, I don't see how it could be his fault. Splitters are built to take some abuse; but, sometimes chit just happens.

Maybe you should thank him for finding the faults while you are within the first year. DHT is well known for exceptional service and standing behind their product. If you think he is actually "abusing" your equipment then don't let him use it again; and I wouldn't blame you. Personally, if at all possible, I would not let a broken machine come between a friendship.

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Workshop said:

Personally, I can see both points of view here. In my previous statement about mine being borrowed and coming back with a broken muffler, in actuality the muffler wasn't his fault, nor was a broken fitting that happened later. If these things had happened under my watch I would have fixed them and moved on. What irritated me about mine was the fact that it was used without my permission.
I don't know all of John's story, but I too Would be miffed about getting something back that didn't have any problems when it left my possession . I have the equipment I have is because I don't like borrowing things to do a job. With that said, I also don't like loaning my stuff because someone else is too cheap to buy the tool themselves . I have a nephew that's this way. He would use my stuff and bring it back broken, if I didn't have to go get it back first. He doesn't get to borrow stuff anymore .

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Locust Cutter said:

I have to agree a bit with both Steve and Hinerman... Splitters are generally designed to have a good amount of hard use, BUT, abuse is different. I'm honestly not sure sure how many cords of Wood that Dad and I have split on the old 35 ton Speeco, but it's probably north of 100. The toe plate is now bent, the exhaust has come loose once, I've blown 2 supply hoses and 3 return hoses and rebuilt the recoil start once. BUT, given it's usage and price-point (versus the actual Pro stuff), I can't complain. Having said that, there are only 4 people I'd loan either of the splitters or any of the saws to and one of them is Dad. I am incredibly picky about that as with money being tight, all of these investments have come very deliberately with much sweat equity on our part. I will happily go lend someone a hand with my equipment, but not lend it out and I've always been upfront about that. I did make the mistake awhile back of trying to be a friend and letting a former neighbor borrow a 6' deck diesel mower. It was returned un-ceremoniously, with massive combustion blow-by and likely heavily damaged rings. It will cost more to rebuild it than to find a running take out and swap the engines (still not cheap) and he will not even answer the phone to tell me what the hell happened, much less offer to even help fix it. But, he also walked out on his wife and kids, after cheating on her, 3 days after he returned my mower and moved back to Northern KS... Some day he and I might have a "chat" behind a barn...

From the sounds of it, you had a few issues with your unit that needed some hard use to find, so while incredibly frustrating, he did you a favor. I would suggest rather than blowing up at Him, (which is in my nature as well), that if He's going to "borrow" your splitter again, you be there to "help" out. Then you can ensure that it's being used responsibly, without endangering the deal of getting the knowledge you're looking for. Then again, most of the people I've ever met who were good at a trade, took pretty darn good care of their tools. This may be an indicator of his work ethic and the quality of education that he's able to give you. Just a thought.

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teacherman said:

All good points, and thanks for taking the time to make them.. You know, I try to be a good guy and helpful and so forth, and I want my associate to be successful. And yeah, he is my friend. It's his wood, his business. He has a buddy on whose land we offload wood and brush. We work on jobs together, we each have our own business. I suppose my boundaries might not be all that great, but he keeps borrowing my splitter, what started out as helping out his buddy with a bit of firewood splitting has become a regular occurrence of "can I borrow your splitter again?" It just seems a bit much, esp. now that it's leaking. Not that much, and I don't know enough about hydraulic stuff to know what is "normal." It still works. I just don't want it to get torn up to where I don't have it to split my own wood, is pretty much it in a nutshell. There is a hydraulic hose place nearby; I'll ask them, and maybe it warrants a bit of part replacement.

It's hard to gauge the relative worth of each of our contribution to our shared undertaking; I have more equipment; he has more knowledge and far more energy, being 28 vs my 59. I have to watch for covetousness or lack of generosity on my part. I changed the oil in the engine and topped up the fluid, greased the beam slot a bit. Maybe it'll be fine.

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teacherman said:

All good points, and thanks for taking the time to make them.. You know, I try to be a good guy and helpful and so forth, and I want my associate to be successful. And yeah, he is my friend. It's his wood, his business. He has a buddy on whose land we offload wood and brush. We work on jobs together, we each have our own business. I suppose my boundaries might not be all that great, but he keeps borrowing my splitter, what started out as helping out his buddy with a bit of firewood splitting has become a regular occurrence of "can I borrow your splitter again?" It just seems a bit much, esp. now that it's leaking. Not that much, and I don't know enough about hydraulic stuff to know what is "normal." It still works. I just don't want it to get torn up to where I don't have it to split my own wood, is pretty much it in a nutshell. There is a hydraulic hose place nearby; I'll ask them, and maybe it warrants a bit of part replacement.

It's hard to gauge the relative worth of each of our contribution to our shared undertaking; I have more equipment; he has more knowledge and far more energy, being 28 vs my 59. I have to watch for covetousness or lack of generosity on my part. I changed the oil in the engine and topped up the fluid, greased the beam slot a bit. Maybe it'll be fine.

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Hedgerow said:

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teacherman said:

All good points, and thanks for taking the time to make them.. You know, I try to be a good guy and helpful and so forth, and I want my associate to be successful. And yeah, he is my friend. It's his wood, his business. He has a buddy on whose land we offload wood and brush. We work on jobs together, we each have our own business. I suppose my boundaries might not be all that great, but he keeps borrowing my splitter, what started out as helping out his buddy with a bit of firewood splitting has become a regular occurrence of "can I borrow your splitter again?" It just seems a bit much, esp. now that it's leaking. Not that much, and I don't know enough about hydraulic stuff to know what is "normal." It still works. I just don't want it to get torn up to where I don't have it to split my own wood, is pretty much it in a nutshell. There is a hydraulic hose place nearby; I'll ask them, and maybe it warrants a bit of part replacement.

It's hard to gauge the relative worth of each of our contribution to our shared undertaking; I have more equipment; he has more knowledge and far more energy, being 28 vs my 59. I have to watch for covetousness or lack of generosity on my part. I changed the oil in the engine and topped up the fluid, greased the beam slot a bit. Maybe it'll be fine.

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Locust Cutter said:

Please understand, I didn't mean to lecture you or sound parochial. For me it comes down to three things:
1 - What boundaries did you set for Him and where do his actions fall within that circumscribed pretext?
2 - ROI: What do you ultimately stand to gain (tangible and intangible) by continuing the friendship vs the assessed financial and intrinsic worth of that tangible object?
3 - With you being His senior and his past mentor-ship being very possibly lackadaisical, what could you both stand to gain by putting your experience to work, by teaching Him, while He's teaching you?

I ask because that's literally the definition of my daily job now, (plus about 5.8 trillion other semantic and pedantic details); to put my knowledge, experience and wisdom gained from my 19 years in the A.F, as a Senior NCO, to work in the mentoring of those who will replace me, and hopefully do a much better job than I have. I have always been a fairly straightforward and upright person (recently described by a friend as righteous, though I hadn't thought about it from that angle) and have long maintained that what's good for the Goose is indeed good for the Gander. And, there are times that I've let my temper get the better of me when I was pissed, (even though the anger was well-founded and justified in my mind), but it took losing out on some potential opportunities because I was too' concerned about being right or fair, to see the larger picture, (under the axiom of win the battle to lose the war).

The older I get, the more I grasp just how astutely observant (and right) my (Late) Great-Grandmother Kent was, with many of Her sayings, Her favorite being: "You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar." I do miss that lady greatly and wish I could thank Her now for all of the pearls of wisdom that She granted me, while I was far too young, infantile and immature to understand them, but I know that in Her quiet, unassuming way, that She was planting seeds and hoping that they'd grow with at least one of Her Great-Grand Children, and they did.

I apologize for the novel, but thought I ought to clarify my reply, lest the wrong tone be received. Take care, and I hope it works out well for you regardless of the path you choose.

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Hedgerow said:

TL;DR

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Hedgerow said:

TL;DR

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teacherman said:

All good points, and thanks for taking the time to make them.. You know, I try to be a good guy and helpful and so forth, and I want my associate to be successful. And yeah, he is my friend. It's his wood, his business. He has a buddy on whose land we offload wood and brush. We work on jobs together, we each have our own business. I suppose my boundaries might not be all that great, but he keeps borrowing my splitter, what started out as helping out his buddy with a bit of firewood splitting has become a regular occurrence of "can I borrow your splitter again?" It just seems a bit much, esp. now that it's leaking. Not that much, and I don't know enough about hydraulic stuff to know what is "normal." It still works. I just don't want it to get torn up to where I don't have it to split my own wood, is pretty much it in a nutshell. There is a hydraulic hose place nearby; I'll ask them, and maybe it warrants a bit of part replacement.

It's hard to gauge the relative worth of each of our contribution to our shared undertaking; I have more equipment; he has more knowledge and far more energy, being 28 vs my 59. I have to watch for covetousness or lack of generosity on my part. I changed the oil in the engine and topped up the fluid, greased the beam slot a bit. Maybe it'll be fine.

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Hedgerow said:

View attachment 151127

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