Thread: Tonnage?

I was thinking about the requisite tonnage for a splitter in trying to decide how large of a cylinder is necessary (trying to reduce cycle time). Two thoughts came to mind

First, does the stroke length affect the tonnage required? I know that the diameter of the piston ultimately determines the tonnage of the ram, but my thought was that shorter pieces of wood may require less force. An example is probably the best way to explain this idea. On a very short log, say 10", the wedge quickly "pops" the wood. On longer wood of 26", the wedge takes longer to "pop" the log in half. In essence, the ram is being used to pry the log in half. If the length of the log is decreased, the amount of area that is exposed in the splitting process (i.e. the areas of the two split sections that used to be in contact with one another when they were part of the log) is also decreased. I would think that each unit of area requires a certain amount of force to separate. Is this accurate? Would a decrease in wood length decrease the amount of tonnage needed?

Secondly, it seems farily obvious that the length of the cutting edge is also fairly important in determining the tonnage required for a splitter; more edge length, more tonnage. Does anyone know if this is a direct relationship (i.e. a 12" wedge will require 50% more tonnage than an 8" wedge) or if the force required per inch of wedge decreases or increases with an increase in total wedge length? Also, by what factor is this increased (or decreased) when a more complex wedge, that splits logs 4, 6 or 8 ways is used?

I read in another post that angling the top of the wedge into the wood helps to reduce the initial strain on the splitter, which makes sense, but I wonder to what extent.
Thanks for the input

When I made mine I decided I didn't want to "slice" the wood all the way to the bottom. Most of the splitters I used had a narrow wedge requiring a full stroke to get a clean split. With my wedge the narrow part starts the opening and the quick flare blows the wood apart. In dry wood it does blow the wood apart if you aren't careful. With the large wedge I only have to make a stroke of about 8" into good wood and it's apart, very quick cycle. I used a 5' cylinder and with this type of wedge it works great for me.

Probably depends on what wood ya got. The 1" blades will split anything, but it is going to take a full stroke on most of it. wide angles are going to require more pressure to split, but it is going to happen with a shorter stroke.

With a single blade I do incline it a touch, not to lessen the load but to keep the log from creeping up out of the split.

One that I built was made out of leaf springs. Welded up to form something that looks like it belongs on front of a ice breaker. The arch of the springs made a very effective splitter wedge. \/

-Pat

Pat? how about a picture?

Smokin? is that a JD4430 in the background?

Unfortunately, that is the best pic I have of my wedge. It looks like it's a 45 degree wedge but it isn't. The first three inches of it is only 2" wide tapering out wider after that. I took two pieces of grader blade and put them back to back which is very similar to what Pat did with the leaf springs. Pat how well are the welds holding up the leaf spring? I never could get a weld to last on them

It's my fathers early 4020 with a Hiniker cab. Not pictured is my 4320, Pops sometimes gets tractor envy