Frankensplitter

[Buckethead]

My neighbor purchased an OWB last year and only burned about 5 cord of wood due to the fact that it was all that he had.:censored:

This year he started early and has lots of wood...it just needs to be split. A commercial splitter isn't really an option as he's using 45" long pieces. Over the past year he's been collecting "pieces" and will be building his own in the next few weeks.

So far the "pieces" consist of a 13hp Honda horiz. shaft engine, a 22/6 gpm 2-stage pump, and a 5"x48" ram. The beam will be a pair of 6" I-beams welded on top of each other for a total of 12" of height. For a little added strength the beam will be topped, the entire length, with 3/8" flat stock. The splitter will be mounted on adjustable legs. The entire setup will be rigged to be moved with the 3-pt. hitch on his JD tractor. He hasn't decided on a wedge design yet but something similar to the style Timberwolf uses is a likely option and an adjustable 4-way wedge is possible.

The plan is to set up the splitter and then use his loader to get the logs to the splitter and remove the firewood to his shed.

I'll try to post some pics of the build and final product. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[ericjeeper]

I think he is nuts..

for handling 45" firewood.. I have a 48"deep firebox myself.. Even 2-3 inch limb wood is more pain in the arse than it is worth to me.. Cut it 20 inches long and load the box east to west front to back

 

[paulthepunk]

I'm with Eric, 45" logs, man thats insane!! :jawdrop: I bet you get some decent burn times with that volume of wood loaded!

 

[trialanderror]

I'm in the process of making a 40" splitter.

I would suggest H beam instead of I beam. If your going to try and split 45" length, anything with a twist in the grain, with a 5" bore doing 3000 or more PSI, it's gonna twist that I beam without a problem....

Another problem is going to be the ramslide, don't make it cheap and bolt it to slide across only the top lip of the beam, i think it's stupid and wasteful of the strength potential... if you get into a twist grain it'll peel one side up and push the other side down, ive already ruined 2 beams from that....

Solution: build the ram to box around the beam. that way it needs to twist the entire beam, including the web AND the the bottom. Also to add even more strength and not get into the way is to weld some C channel full length on both sides. It's heavy, but i it's miserable to try and take the tweak out of a nice piece of material....i plan on doing with with mine.

On my 8" H beam, i boxed it in with 1/4" stock. about 8" wide, and 22" long top and bottom, held together with 8x3x1/4" stock; 6, 3 on each side.

For wear purposes i also welded some flat stock full lenght top and bottom, and also on the sides of the beam, some tiny 1/2" x 1/8" thick stuff full lenght.Also on the 'inside' of the rambox is some matieral also welded. Just cut it off and replace, the beam and rambox never touch each other.

for the bottom plate i welded up a 12"x12"x1" flat stock.
for the rambox, i havfe some hilo stock i plan on using to sort make everything interchange able. pull some pins, lift off the 'splitting' head, and drop in something to do press work with,(as this is going to be horiz and vert), all the work involved, i'd liek to make it do more then just split wood....

1.5l toyota, 28gpm 2stage.
don't think im' missing anything, i'm about 1/2 through buidling the splitting frame. #1 reason cylinders bend: the beam begins to arch a little bit, the cylinder follows out of center, and it bends. Also

If you split, always try and make the cylinder do it's hardest push it's it's only 1/2 extended, that way the piston is dead center of the bore, and the center of the ram is supported by the cylinder case, and the end of the ram is supported by the ram guide, NEVER try to sequel the relieve valve when the cylinder is fully retracted or fully extended ,the center of the cylinder ram isn't supported when it's like that. Yes, I have bent cylinders when they are INSIDE the case fully retracted... Only way aorund that is to get a much thicker ram. on 5" bores i would never use anything smaller then 3". 2" is very questionable, and gets nasty if the beam beings to bend under a hard push.... i've bent 2" shafts with 4" bores with only 2000PSI, poorly made and reinforced beams....

sorry if i rambled, just pointing out problems i've made and had to fix in the past, and pointing out what i'm doing to prevent those problems.

If i finish it and it turns out good, then i'm onto building a 14" H beam with a 6" bore 5" ram, 32" stroke...