One Mean Splitter!

[Biker Dude]

I saw this splitter for sale during my travels yesterday and so I stopped in to take a closer look.

It has a 6" ram with 34" of travel, a massive hydraulic filter and a mean push plate.

Powered by a 19 hp Briggs twin and it looks like he incorporated the whole lawn mower frame into the splitter. The fuel tank sits under the canopy above the engine.

Homemade wedge looks pretty hefty and the log table wings are a nice touch.

 

[Biker Dude]

I'm not so sure about the homemade hydraulic tank, looks like a lot of potential leak spots but the temp gauge is a nice addition. I wonder what the circular cover in the side of the tank is about?

He even added a chair on the fender so you can be comfortable while you split wood! I wonder if that means it is super slow to cycle?

The guy wants $1250 for it and its tempting because my OWB is 36" deep and this baby will split 34" and cutting my wood at 34" would mean half the bucking labor since I cut at 17" now. On the other hand, I keep telling myself I could build that cheaper myself.


He did a good job on it, very nicely done.

 

[leon]

wood splitter

The circular cover on the end of the tank is a clean out port
to use when the tank has been emptied.

Are you sure that is not an oil level guage rather than a temperature guage?


The chair on the side of the splitter is an invitation to a world
hurt with a wood round that could get away

if you look under the end of the cylinder it is leaking from the
stuffing box which is why you see all the junk and dirt stuck
under the cylinder barrel.

I would hold off on this one if it were me.

 

[CJ1]

That is actually not a homemade tank and the sight gauge has a temp indicator in it. The return port is added and if it does not have a drop tube will foam the oil. For that kind of money I would figure it should be cleaned up and painted and the leaking cylinder fixed. I sold the last splitter I built for $1600 with a liquid cooled 16hp on it and almost all new parts. Just a FYI. CJ

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

As others have said it's a factory made tank. They normally have an electric motor bolted to the top with a hydraulic pumphooked up via a Lovejoy. They are basically a stand alone hydraulic pressure supply. Cylinders of that size and length are VERY pricey. You'd need a big GPM pump for a decent cycle time. I'd want a demo first for sure. By the pics the beam might be the weak link on tough stuff.

 

[Fifelaker]

The wedge looks suspect to me. The two pieces between the angle and the main wedge look like blades off a belly blade the welds don't look like they were done with the correct rod very little penetration. I played with 6011 and 6011 but a welder told me 7018 and pre heat made a world of difference. Just me but I would not pay 1200 for it.

 

[zogger]

Home made one here

I was using one my boss built in 1951 (I thought that was cool, it is as old as me) (the splitter going back into the shop for hydro overhaul and new carb sometime this winter). Very similar to the one in your pic with a huge ram, has a hydro log lifter (I've put well over 400 lbs on that, will lift multiple big chunks at a time), table on it, etc. Long stroke. big tank, with a thermostat. No seat though... What is spiffy about that is, for just a heater at normal 16" pieces, you can stack two rounds at a time. Helps to compensate for slow cycle time. Of course if you are fast on the control handle, it doesn't matter, i can bust, flip around with one hand do the handle with my other, retract it just enough, then rebust and so on. I got fast using the thing.

Back to the fiskars and maul for now though..(I actually like that better for most wood) He built it to feed 36 inch chunks into two fireplaces. It will *bust* some mambo chunks, tell ya whut...and I mean mambo. If you can get it on the thing, it will bust them.

For 1200$, compared to what I see for around that amount, that one you have there looks a right fair deal. Looks to have decent tires/wheels on it as well, not those joke little teeny sub trailer tires I see on a lot of low end cheap splitters.

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

For the dollar amount that is pretty cheap,consider the cost of steel a engine and the ram. For a extra few hundred dollars and some sweat equity you can have a nice large block splitter. A new splitter near the tonnage of this machine is over 3 k to buy new.

 

[Biker Dude]

I called the guy to get the scoop and it turns out this is the 4th big splitter he has built. I said " since you have built so many you must know the calculations for hydraulic flow and pressure so the system is balanced, right?" He replied "No, I just buy the biggest of everything" I asked about the pump and he couldn't remember for sure but he thought it was a 2 stage 18 gpm/4 gpm pump. He also said it cycled slow. He said I could try it out if I wanted to but I'm not so sure I want the thing if the hydraulics aren't matched properly. He purposefully left the ram leaking so it would lubricate the beam & pusher. I'm going to do some price checking to see how much I could build a splitter for but this one doesn't seem to be a great value.

 

[Schinny]

it looks heavy, no moving it around by hand ! if a log is 34 inches long and 20 inches across that is a lot to lift on to the splitter. You could always put a log lift on it

 

[mga]

it's not that bad...if you can get the price down maybe to $800 or so.

you can always make improvements.

 

[HILLBILLYREDNEC]

MGA is right. If you can get a good price out of it you could upgrade the pump and fix the ram,could also be a pressure regulator not set up right.

 

[moose5180]

For me i would pass unless you can get a real deal.
I know it could be raised up but, it sure sits close to the ground.
My back is hurting just looking at it.

 

[brisawyer]

The beam is the weak link there mine has a 6"bore cyl. I have a 8x8x7/16 or so beam. I got into a nasty oak crotch 48" dia. I wound up bending the end of my beam down 4" and twisting it about 30degress and ripping the wedge off. It actuallyseperated the web from the flange on the beam. With a cyl that size somthin is gonna give you gotta figur out when to back off you cant just keep cramming like with a lil splitter.

Looking back i wish I had built a smaller faster splitter and just noodle the really big nasty stuff. The 394 dont care how nasty it is it splits them all. A super mean splitter is only needed prob 5% of the time.