1st impression was that this is a solid piece of equipment. I put it to work right out of the box and split about a face cord into pretty small pieces in a matter of a few hours. I would not buy this if you're planning to start a firewood business but for home use it is great. I was only splitting pine but I was splitting logs with a diameter that may have exceeded the specs by a tad (17" logs), went through them like butter. I did have a few maple logs and it handled them no problem.
