Changing wedge from cylinder to foot on Speeco 25 ton

[cantoo]

I've finally started getting ready to cut up my Speeco 25 ton splitter. I bought it a couple of years ago and it has spent very little time here because everyone is always borrowing it. I was gonna build my own but after getting some prices I couldn't beat TSC new sale price. So now I'm cutting it up and changing things around to what I want, when I get it right it'll be a prototype for a custom built more powerful one ( if I get the time) . I had a local machine shop build me a wedge and because the guy "knew" what I wanted I ended up with something I didn't ready want but sowhat I will use it somewhere. Lesson learned just build it yourself instead of trying to save some time and pay a "professional" to build it. I am changing it to a foot mounted wedge so it will dump the splits onto my conveyor instead of having to throw each piece onto it. This should speed up the splitting abit. This will also make it easier to add a 4 way wedge onto it. The wide wedge is 12"high, 9" long and 4" at the wide point, don't ready need a wide point because the next piece will push it all the way thru anyway. The other wedge I built is 15" high, 7" deep and 1 1/4" at wide end. Anybody have an opinion on which wedge would work better for my application? The last pic is where I plan on cutting the foot off and welding on the new wedge. If it don't work I'll just sell it and buy another one.


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[wndwlkr]

I would use the 11/4" wedge. I put wings on mine on the back and wish It was straight. a work table off the end is real handy.

 

[gulity1]

This has been discuessed multi times I think and the end result was thinner wedge was better because even if it didnt pop it apart you can always cut/sheer through it.

 

[ponyexpress976]

A thinner wedge would be the one thing I would change on my tw6. Then I might be able to use the 6 way more often without making so much trash.

 

[cantoo]

I'm thinking thinner is better too and that's what I wanted the welding shop to build. It seemed pretty simple to me, take a piece of 1" thick x 10"x10" piece of steel and mill a cutting bevel on it. I'll be putting a table on each side that goes past the wedge abit to hold up pieces that need to be resplit. The 4 way will slip over the top and be a loose fit so it's on and off easy.

 

[cantoo]

Finally did it. I cut up my new splitter and did some changing.
1st pic is heading to the shop to the torch and grinder. Next is cutting off the foot, damn do they build it good. 2" thick with bracing. Kind of messing looking when I ran out of oxygen.
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[cantoo]

Lots of grinding to get things smooth, I still need to do some more where it catches in the log cradle. Looks like I screwed up a picture, the last picture is of my other splitter, I cut it up too.
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[cantoo]

I decided I might as well extend the table while I was playing. It's pretty tippy now but it sits on my conveyor so it can't flip anyway. I wanted to keep the original wedge so I just bolted a push plate onto it. Tack welded it 1st so I could drill the holes.
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[cantoo]

It splits nice and it's much quicker than having to handle every split piece. I sheared thru some really tough stuff just to see if the welds would break. Cut them clean but made the splitter work. Next on the list is to rig up some type of rod to make the lever into kind of an automatic valve. That'll likely take me a year too.

 

[cantoo]

Here is my old splitter before I cut the wedge off it. The stroke was too small for splitting my wood so I extend the beam abit and put a new wedge on it.
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[cantoo]

I had the wedge made at a local shop, not quite what I wanted but whatever, weld it on.
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[cantoo]

The push plate might be a little overkill but I only wanted to take the time to build it once. I've bent the bolts but at least they are easy to replace. I picked up Grade 8 bolts to replace them with but changed my mind. The last few pics are of the storm downed poplar from my lawn. I cut them for my OWB and split them vertically on that splitter just to see if it would work.
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[lotsoknots]

Nice welds! So which style of wedge do you like best?

The push plate might be a little overkill but I only wanted to take the time to build it once. I've bent the bolts but at least they are easy to replace. I picked up Grade 8 bolts to replace them with but changed my mind. The last few pics are of the storm downed poplar from my lawn. I cut them for my OWB and split them vertically on that splitter just to see if it would work.
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[cantoo]

The narrow wedge works great on pieces that only need split in half but if you need to split it into 4 pieces it has to go all the way thru the cycle to split so you can pull it back for the 2nd split. Takes a little more time for that. Still a lot quicker than the wedge on the foot.

 

[lotsoknots]

Do you mean it's faster than having the plate at foot of rail and wedge on ram?

Thanks

 

[angelo c]

Do you mean it's faster than having the plate at foot of rail and wedge on ram?

Thanks

with a table or conveyer it should be. without it wont. once you work with a table you wont ever go back. ever.

 

[cantoo]

I meant to type the wedge on the cylinder not the foot.
I split onto a conveyor so for me it's faster because it falls onto the conveyor verses me having to "toss" each split onto the conveyor. Less handling of the splits.