"It sure beats swinging a maul," says Edwin Ruff, Moses Lake, Wash., who made a simple portable wood splitter out of scrap metal and a bottle jack.

He used heavy 3-in. sq. tubing for upright which is welded to a sturdy base. The splitter rides on 8-in. pneumatic wheels.

Ruff welded two pieces of angle iron together to make a square slip-tube that welds to the 6-in. splitting wedge.

An 8-ton bottle jack, attached to the top of the wedge, powers the splitter. The jack pushes down against and adjustable stop at the top of the frame. A 7/8-in. bolt holds the stop in place, depending on the size of the log.

A pair of springs lifts the splitting wedge and jack back up after the log is split.

All Ruff has to do to split wood is pump the jack downward to crack the log then release the hydraulic pressure in the jack so the spring pulls it back up.

Ruff says you could put a pump on it with hydraulics or use a tractor's hydraulics to power it.