Hydraulic splitter with 40" capacity for baseball bats . . .

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sevensandeights

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A good friend of mine makes hardwood baseball bats. One man operation including home brew dehumidifier based kiln. He turns every bat by hand on a single lathe. Up until now, he has been splitting his 40" logs by hand to produce 4-8 billets per log. Ash, maple and birch are the most common species. Not sure exactly what his production numbers are but I think he is making 300+ bats per year. Sells locally to youth and American Legion teams.

He is looking for a hydraulic splitter due to a shoulder injury. Cycle time is not very important. Must be able to split vertically since he wants to avoid lifting 40" billets (hydraulic lift is an option but cost is a consideration).

Budget is about $1000-1500 all in. Doesn't have to be road towable. Any suggestions?

Current plan is to buy a new 22-25 ton and have a local fab shop extend the beam and footplate. Ram does not need to extend the full 40" since he will only be splitting straight grain wood. Just need 40" between retracted wedge and footplate.
 
Thanks for the reply - that's a very interesting prospect.

Unfortunately most fence post guys around here sell locust posts that are 4-8" in diameter and sharpened to a point on one end. I haven't seen any split locust posts for years.
 
Wallenstein makes a 48" one but your budget won't get you anywhere near a new one.
I would just buy a brand new one, extend the beam and put a new cylinder on it. Sell the short cylinder off it to fund the new longer one. Still going to be much more than your budget though.
 
Wallenstein makes a 48" one but your budget won't get you anywhere near a new one.
I would just buy a brand new one, extend the beam and put a new cylinder on it. Sell the short cylinder off it to fund the new longer one. Still going to be much more than your budget though.


They just had one on Kijiji around here for 600$ you could then go to Northern Tool and get yourself a Electric hydraulic pump and resovior. you would be tight on the 1500.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200673852_200673852

I've been thinking about the Nothern Tool one above for a kindling splitter
 
What dimensions are the billets? 40” long but how wide and high? Am wondering if better to either buy dimensional stock off a mill or maybe even find a used bandmill?
 
Well he was a little more motivated than I thought because he bought a used Huskee 28 ton splitter yesterday and dropped it off at the fab shop this morning. He will be less than $1500 all in but plans to use the existing ram, betting that the 24" stroke will be enough to split straight grained wood.

As for the size of the logs he is working with, I don't know for sure. I think they are usually in the 12-18" in diameter range. I'm not exactly sure how he goes from log to billet. Part of his business model is that each bat is created by hand. Each billet is inspected and chosen carefully by grain analysis. I think he avoids the heartwood and cuts from a specific portion of the log to insure the best possible bat. Buying from a mill would remove part of the inspection process and I don't think he is willing to give that up.
 
At least with partially splitting each piece off the billet, he can best read the grain by seeing how it splits along the grain. Something a baandmill won't necessarily tell him so easily.
 

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