Help with ideas for 1st log splitter build

[firmwood]

Could we have more info on this.......

Oil quenching

Heated iron swells and becomes more porous. Dipping in oil not only hardens it a fuzz, also saturates the surface so many thousandths deep, wont sweat and nearly wont rust. Huge difference.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenching#section_2


I'd Google and type more and hook up links, but this phones a bastard to type on


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[Zeus103363]

That is gonna be a good one!You've already fixed the biggest problems most splitters have, making your tank plenty big enough.Nice job.

I sure hope so! Tank capacity is 22.5 gallons according to my math anyways. I set the baffles at 9" tall so the fluid would have to fill up one chamber and spill over to the second chamber. When it's full it will spill over into the third chamber...and through the process again. 18 gallons should fill it up enough to work as designed. I did cut some relief holes in the bottom of the baffles so the fluid level will equal out. I didn't seal weld the baffles in either so some fluid will get past there too. All this is to keep the hydro fluid all stirred up and disapate heat...hopefully. With some luck she will be cracking some hickory this coming Sunday.

 

[Patrick62]

awsum tank dude

I love it :smile2:

There was some suggestion a little bit ago about moisture getting into the tank and creating a rust or corrosion situation...
I have your solution!!!

Try this one on for thoughts. Eliminate the air from the tank! Fill the oil tank in the normal way. then pull a partial vacuum on it and refill it with inert gas from the mig. Put about 1/2 of a psi on it, and close it up. Hmmmm... nitrogen be even better!!

Maybe have to top it up once a year if it leaks a little. Use a cap with a tire valve on it....

I am gonna do this to my splitters, eventually. I have much less problem with humidity for some reason :hmm3grin2orange:

-Pat

 

[George G]

Oil quenching

Heated iron swells and becomes more porous. Dipping in oil not only hardens it a fuzz, also saturates the surface so many thousandths deep, wont sweat and nearly wont rust. Huge difference.

Quenching - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I'd Google and type more and hook up links, but this phones a bastard to type on


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I would like to see some pictures of just how you do it.

 

[triptester]

I love it :smile2:

There was some suggestion a little bit ago about moisture getting into the tank and creating a rust or corrosion situation...
I have your solution!!!

Try this one on for thoughts. Eliminate the air from the tank! Fill the oil tank in the normal way. then pull a partial vacuum on it and refill it with inert gas from the mig. Put about 1/2 of a psi on it, and close it up. Hmmmm... nitrogen be even better!!

Maybe have to top it up once a year if it leaks a little. Use a cap with a tire valve on it....

I am gonna do this to my splitters, eventually. I have much less problem with humidity for some reason :hmm3grin2orange:

-Pat

This method could lead to major problems because the fluid level changes when the cylinder is extended or retracted. A sealed tank could cause a vaccumn starving the pump.

 

[firmwood]

I would like to see some pictures of just how you do it.

No pictures needed. Just set the tank in a big tub of oil, and get the oil super hot, and leave it for a few hours., I guess it doesn't have to boil, but get it hot enough to,drive moisture out of the iron.

Dads friend, said his dad was into dredging. He had a 855 cummins direct drive with 1ton drive shafts. The whole rig sat below the water a couple feet to remove tthe need to prime the system. Worked good. Somehow he boiled the whole tub so it wouldn't sweat oror rust while sitting in the water.

I guess it was impressive moving material. His " clutch was the crank turning the 1ton drive shafts into twizzlers when a rock jammed the impellar... One day I asked what the pile of goofy driveshafts was and that was his response........

He said itd twist them at a slow idle. Gave hin time to reach over and kill the injector pump. He ran it with a straight pipe, he said the load was barely noticeable in the exhaust....

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[Patrick62]

This method could lead to major problems because the fluid level changes when the cylinder is extended or retracted. A sealed tank could cause a vaccumn starving the pump.

I will debate that. I said that adding 1/2 psi of pressure in the form of inert gas. Pump can't starve. Hoses are rated for 3000 psi, seals on cylinder are equal or higher. As long as the tank can take a small amount of pressure we are good to go. Cylinder extends and the pressure drops by 1/10 psi, temperature of fluid heats up, and the pressure increases by a small amount. If more "spring" is needed use a larger tank or pipe in a extension tank. Bonus points if the system was designed with a low pressure radiator cap on it.

-Pat

 

[Zeus103363]

Update

Update. Yesterday I fixed the misalignment problem with the cylinder holes being different. Now the cylinder is nice and straight! I finally got my pump mount bracket to fit the motor. Im gonna make my hydro hoses at work. I am waiting on a price for UTF fluid from a friend that works for a local oil distributer. I buy motor oil from them pretty cheap so I bet he can give me a better price than the parts store. I should have that by Friday. Last thing to do is mount the motor. I got my mounting brackets cut out. Tomorrow I am going to make the motor plate, cut out a couple gussets and fab it up. It will bolt to the tank so other than welding the flange to the tank, it should be down hill from here. I did pick up some more primer and paint. Im not gonna paint that stainless tank though. I got some 60 & 220 grit sand paper. Im gonna try to make that baby shine! Hope to be splittin wood sunday evening.:msp_thumbup:

 

[Zeus103363]

tank under pressure idea

I will debate that. I said that adding 1/2 psi of pressure in the form of inert gas. Pump can't starve. Hoses are rated for 3000 psi, seals on cylinder are equal or higher. As long as the tank can take a small amount of pressure we are good to go. Cylinder extends and the pressure drops by 1/10 psi, temperature of fluid heats up, and the pressure increases by a small amount. If more "spring" is needed use a larger tank or pipe in a extension tank. Bonus points if the system was designed with a low pressure radiator cap on it.

-Pat

Wouldn't that "vapor Lock" the hydro tank? I had a gas cap on my old lawn mower cracked and broke. I found a rubbermade lid that would fit and it ran pretty good for a few minutes until pressure built up in the tank it would quit running. It wasn't enough pressure to blow the lid off, but I guess it was enough to stop the flow of fuel to the carb. My fix was to drill a couple small holes on the lid and that let the tank "breath" and no problems after that, or atleast until the mowing deck finally just gave out. Probably should have kept that lawn mower. Could have made a pretty good yard buggy out of that thing.

 

[Patrick62]

I think it would work great

With your stainless tank, it is a moot point. You solved the problem before there was one

If the tank has 1/2 psi in it, then at rest, the entire system would have the same pressure. Start the engine, and it draws oil from the tank, and the return line then has the same flow. Pressure is still the same. Extend the cylinder and the pressure is going to drop slightly due to the displacement of the rod extending. Return it, and it will be back to the 1/2 psi. Run it for a hour and the oil is going to warm up and then expand. pressure would rise some... but not a whole bunch unless there is less air space in there.

I rather thought it was a clever way of eliminating the air exchange (and humidity contamination) from the tank.

As long as the splitter is run long enough to raise the temperature of the oil then water would evaporate anyway.

We have a really old splitter out here that has split thousands of cords and the cylinder seals are shot. It likes to suck in a ton of air and then overflow the little bitty tank on a stroke covering the operator with oil... vengeful little beast :jester:

-pat

 

[Zeus103363]

Update

Just an update. Got the splitter completely assemblied. Ran into trouble with the pump mount bracket. It's just too short. Gonna have to wait for the replacement to arrive before I can get her running. Mite be able to complete next week sometime...sounds like a good time to take a vacation from work! I will post some photos in a little while of the near finished project.

 

[Zeus103363]

photos of almost completed home built hydro slitter

Photos are of the splitter completely finished. I havent taken the hydro pump bracket back off yet. It probably would run like it is but I really need a little more clearance than a sheet of paper between the inside of the pump bracket and the pump shaft coupling. Should have the correct bracket by thursday so hopefully I will be slittin wood next weekend!

 

[sw18x]

Nice job. I've been following your re-build - just built a splitter myself and had to rebuild after bending some stuff on the first day out. I have a thread started for this but can I ask you: how much clearance did you allow for up and down play for your slide? I'm looking at two choices, .030" (about 1/32") or .060" (about 1/16") shim stock between the sandwich pieces for the slide. What do you think?

 

[Zeus103363]

Nice job. I've been following your re-build - just built a splitter myself and had to rebuild after bending some stuff on the first day out. I have a thread started for this but can I ask you: how much clearance did you allow for up and down play for your slide? I'm looking at two choices, .030" (about 1/32") or .060" (about 1/16") shim stock between the sandwich pieces for the slide. What do you think?

I actually started with about 1/16". I have some extra shims cut to different thickness so I can go out alittle if I have to. From playing with it before I put the cylinder on it needed less clearance. After painting, things changed, and I had to put a 14 ga shim in to give it a little bit more room I guess because I got more paint mills on the beam flanges than on the shims. This will probably change again when I get to fire it up and work it some. I will be watchin close to see if it bends up in the front of the bottom plate the wedge is welded to. If it bends, I'm gonna build a wedge plate out of some stronger steel. I do have a piece of 1/2" 5160 left from a different project that is probably just big enough. I mite go ahead next week and get the holes milled in just in case I need it.

 

[Zeus103363]

update

Just adding a few more pictures of the splitter.

 

[Patrick62]

incredible job dude!

I noticed a couple things.
I am not liking the return hose, is there a better routing?? Looks in the way if in horizontal position.
Your cylinder is hooked up backwards. Turn the hoses around.

Excellent work. You are going to enjoy this thing for many, many years. You gonna put a sign on it that says "you have to be this tall to split wood?" Your kid looks ready to learn the finesse of splitting!

-Pat

 

[Zeus103363]

I have had the splitter in horizontal mode...no problems with the suction hose. If the cylinder is backwards, then I will swap the hoses around, but looking at the hydraulic diagram, it shows to be right, if I am looking at it right anyways.

 

[Zeus103363]

The time has arrived!

Well, all the bolts tightened, tank full of hydro oil, oil in motor, gas in tank. Last night at 9:08pm was the first run. Ran like a champ! Took all 20 gallons of hydro fluid to fill up the tank. Didn't take but a second to get all the air out of the hydro system. I split one piece last night. This morning, I moved the splitter out to the wood pile. I had about 25 pieces to split. I cranked her up and got to work. Took about 2 hours to split that wood. Ended up with 2 decent piles of split wood. Mostly oak, with some hickory mixed in. One big round got the pressure up to 2400 psi but that piece poped open so no problems! Proud to have built a splitter completely from the ground up, and even happier to see it run. My wife videoed the action last night. I will post the video later tonight.

 

[Log Man]

Filter Caution!!!!!

Good job on the splitter. Word of caution on return filter!!!!!!

Pump 11GPM 4 inch cyl. 1.75 rod and 24 inch stroke.

Cylinder extension volume holds 1.306 gals. Retraction volume holds 1.056 gals. Retraction is 20% less than extension. This will make oil coming out of extension side at 120% of pump output. Make sure your filter housing and filter will handle this increase in oil flow. If not - this becomes a Restriction and pressure will go up at the filter and I have seen several blown off on the ground.

 

[Zeus103363]

Good job on the splitter. Word of caution on return filter!!!!!!

Pump 11GPM 4 inch cyl. 1.75 rod and 24 inch stroke.

Cylinder extension volume holds 1.306 gals. Retraction volume holds 1.056 gals. Retraction is 20% less than extension. This will make oil coming out of extension side at 120% of pump output. Make sure your filter housing and filter will handle this increase in oil flow. If not - this becomes a Restriction and pressure will go up at the filter and I have seen several blown off on the ground.

I am using a 16 gpm pump not a 11 gpm. the return filter assembly has 3/4" inlet/outlet. It is rated for 200 psi @ 20 gpm. I will put a guage on the input side and see exactly where the pressures are running. Thanks for the heads up.