Li'l Stumpy - A truly fine piece of flatwork...

Brent Dowell

Administrator
Staff member
Messages
16,540
Location
Reno NV
Had a devil of a time trying to find a nice piece of log out here in the desert to use for a chopping block, so I resorted to making my own...

What you see is 2 10' 4x4 chopped down and glued up. Sharon said I made an artificial log, so I'm calling it stumpy...

Basically, it's the heaviest cutting board I've ever made...

attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • stumpy.jpg
    stumpy.jpg
    52.9 KB · Views: 142
Myrna and I have heated our home with a woodstove for 39 (maybe more) years. I have a real stump. You may discover what I did...the darn stump jumps when you chop. The ground acts like a trampoline.

My solution was to dig a trashbarrel size hole, Insert a trashbarrel with a piece of 2 inch pvc pipe placed vertically in the center and fill it with 300 pounds of cement.

What's the pvc for: The cutting log has a 2 1/4 inch hole in it. It fits over the pvc in the cememt. That keeps the cutting log from traveling. I have been using the same log for years. It has really been beat on. I have wedges and split logs up to 30" using wedges and sledge hammer. I have regular axes plus an eight pounder.

The wood heat is great. Our forced air furnace is literally new.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
That's some fine, fine woodworking there, Brent. :clap: Did I mention fine? Looks like you sanded that sucker to 800...maybe even 801, whatever it takes. :thumb: Where'd you get the plans from? (Don't tell me you designed such an awesome piece yourself.) :rolleyes: I tried drawing it up in Sketchup but it was just too dang complicated for me to grasp. :huh: :p

Seriously, that looks like it'll do the trick just fine. Beats the dirt, for sure, huh?
 
Hey Brent, I could've mailed you a stump! Probably wouldn't have cost three or four times what your materials did. ;)

Nice piece o'work there. Looks like it'll lead to more work though.

But come to think of it, if there isn't wood enough to find a stump, then what are you going to be splitting? I see you called it a chopping block - is it for chopping off parts, not splitting?
 
Myrna and I have heated our home with a woodstove for 39 (maybe more) years. I have a real stump. You may discover what I did...the darn stump jumps when you chop. The ground acts like a trampoline.

My solution was to dig a trashbarrel size hole, Insert a trashbarrel with a piece of 2 inch pvc pipe placed vertically in the center and fill it with 300 pounds of cement.

What's the pvc for: The cutting log has a 2 1/4 inch hole in it. It fits over the pvc in the cememt. That keeps the cutting log from traveling. I have been using the same log for years. It has really been beat on. I have wedges and split logs up to 30" using wedges and sledge hammer. I have regular axes plus an eight pounder.

Great advice from someone with Experience! I did notice it likes to move around a bit, I'll have to see about doing something about it.

Looks like you sanded that sucker to 800...maybe even 801, whatever it takes. :thumb:
All the way up to 80 grit! :D
Seriously, that looks like it'll do the trick just fine. Beats the dirt, for sure, huh?

Or better yet the concrete or gravel!

But come to think of it, if there isn't wood enough to find a stump, then what are you going to be splitting? I see you called it a chopping block - is it for chopping off parts, not splitting?

We had 4 cords of wood delivered. The delivery charge was 50$ weather they delivered a face cord or 4 cords, which was the max they could deliver for one load. I probably could have asked if they had any rounds they could have thrown on the truck, but forgot to. This just seemed to be a fairly quick and easy way to accomplish the same thing. It would cost me as much in fuel to go find one as it did to buy the materials for this:thumb:

We've got 2 cords of Almond stacked up so far. Still have one more cord of almond, and one of pine (primarily for kindling) left to get stacked up.

attachment.php
 
Top