Building a log splitter

[Nodak Andy]

Hello everyone. I've been lurking for a bit, but figured now that my wife and I will be building a new house and heating with wood I should make an account. I am going to be using an outdoor wood boiler, supplying BTU's to a radiant floor heat system and also a domestic hot water system. I have that whole system worked out in my head and on paper. What I need to do now is build a splitter. I've got my methodology down for hauling logs and stuff.

I've already started ordering parts. So far I have a 13gpm pump, a 6.5hp Predator engine, a log splitter valve, the mount for the pump/engine mating, and a love-joy coupler set with a couple extra spiders.
I know it's probably not gonna be a speed demon with a 13gpm pump and a 4" or 4.5" cylinder, but I'm ok with that. I'm no speed demon myself, and on top of that my 9 year old son will be helping. I made a deal with him that once we get ahead on our pile, we can cut and sell a few cords and split the profit.

I've got a plan for most everything about the splitter, the thing I'm questioning is the beam size. I understand something like a W8-35 would probably be preferable. I do have some 1/2" or 3/4" plate/flat steel around and was wondering if I could use a lighter beam (something like a W6-12?) if I welded some of that plate on top and then boxed the beam in on the ends and in the areas where the pusher won't be wrapped around the top plate of the beam. Any thoughts? I'm trying not to spend a ton of money because we will have a lot of expenses coming up with the house build, but I want to get a head start on building a wood pile... I understand that I'm already behind as I have zero wood cut/split for this upcoming winter if we are able to move into the house, but I know where there is an abundance of dead, standing trees that I can go cut for immediate use. The only things I have left to pick up are the cylider and the beam that it will all ride on. Thanks for any input you guys have to offer.

 

[firmwood]

I boxed my ram around the beam. 16" h beam with uprights along both sides.

Im using a 7" bore, 6" ram, 40" stroke. Returns like a rocket. Crushes like a monster.

Consider oil reservoir to double as an axle.

I setup mine with a snap couplers on another set of ports for running accessories if needed.

And make a log lift, with a table on the other side of beam. It's worth it.

Don't doubt and cut corners. I was proud after splitting my first piece of knotty oak.

Then walking back from garage with another beer, realizing from a distance the beam was God awful twisted, bent, and roached....

 

[Nodak Andy]

Thanks firmwood. Looks to me like you built a much larger unit than I plan on building. I'm not trying to cut corners, I just want to do this right and keep costs down. I have a buddy that works at a local scrap yard. Tomorrow he's going to look and see what he can find for a big heavy beam or some heavy gauge rectangular tubing for me to use. I asked him to keep an eye out for something approximately 8"x8"x 1/2" thick or so.

I am planning to include a log lifter and also a table at the business end. I work at a gas plant, and also have a brother that works as a pipeliner in the oilfield. I have fairly easy access to larger chunks of pipe, which is what I intended to use for a reservoir. I figured a piece of 8" pipe 4' long would make a good reservoir with an approximate capacity of 13 gallons+ the oil in the lines/cylinder , and it would be free and no stress on it.

My dad offered up a set of bolt on spindles that he has and says he'll never use, so I'd planned on using those, with some 3/4" plate welded on to a section of some 160 wall 2" pipe that I have laying around for an axle. I have no intentions of this thing ever leaving my property and on the off chance that I need it to, I'll use my 4 wheeler to put it on my car trailer and haul it with that.... To be honest I'd kinda rather it not be "roadable" that way I have a legit excuse to not let people borrow it....

 

[firmwood]

I'd double the oil capacity. Nasty wood bumping high pressure circuit, oil is going to get warm. Gear pumps and gear motors do not like warm.
13g @ 13gpm, no cool fresh oil to mix with, or a chance to hangout in the steel box to shed heat.

Double the oil or find a way to cool it. Should put a baffle inside between pickup screen and return port. Something to deflect any air bubbles so they'll float out instead of recycling and causing cavitation (spelling?)

I followed low pressure flow rate x3 = size. Anything over 40 gallon I figure to use a cooler.

Mine is a bit on the small side, after an hour of running mid summer, tank gets mighty warm to the touch..... The pump was only $126 new. The cost of ATF, it's cheaper to use old motor oil, and take the risk of ruining the pump.

13 years later I'm still waiting...little guy immediately bumps 2500psi without a hiccup.

/me shrugs

And I was making point how misleading pi is....
A 4" bore is NOT twice the power of a 2" bore @ X pressure. ...

 

[Nodak Andy]

what would you say to installing a small radiator in the supply line from the reservoir to the pump? My thinking on this is that If I use a piece of pipe(or two)for a reservoir and mount it vertical so I get say 30" or more of head that should be enough to offset the little bit of restriction that would be caused by putting an atv radiator in the line between the reservoir and the pump. I have an extra 12v fan that came out of an old windstar van dual fan setup that I used to do an electric fan conversion on my old square body truck. I'm thinking that if I go this route, and have the fan mounted on a temperature controller of some sort I should be able to keep the hydraulic temps fairly well under control.

Thoughts?

 

[firmwood]

Needs to hold some pressure.

After the valve on return line, there is still minimal pressure.

I went hill Billy and bought a 50ft coil of 1c copper , flared the ends, brazed the wraps around a 5 gallon bucket, removed bucket.

Presto. Oil cooler. No fan to go bad..

Murphys law. What can go wrong, will go wrong.

K.I.S.S.....

'nuff said.

 

[alleyyooper]

I use a axle from a old New Idea sickle bar mower, a I beam made angled shims for the bottom slider, Semi tractor front spring razor sharpe, oil tank, cycilander, pump and valve came from Northern hrydrlics (1970 era)
Started out with a well worn 6 HP brigs and straton engine. When that was kuput My dad had the splitter so added a 8 HP engine to it.
I got it back and the engine had issues, was replaced with a 212 6.5 HF Predator engine then the orginal viking pump puked so it was replaced with a Northern Hrydrlics 13GPM pump.
Works great all these years latter.

As for people asking to borrow I tell them I charge the same as the rental shop in town but I charge a lot more deposit.
Like double.

Al

 

[Nodak Andy]

Anyone see a reason why this cylinder wouldn't work? https://www.surpluscenter.com/Hydra...2-75x27-5x2-DA-Hydraulic-Cylinder-9-20188.axd

It may not be super duper powerful, but it'll be fast... with a thin stationary 4 way wedge on the business end do you think this cylinder would be up to the job?

 

[firmwood]

All I can suggest is some reading of pressures, square area, gpm, hp, torque, research hydraulic circuits, and how dangerous they can be. etc etc. Something installed wrong, over pressured, etc will result in hoses blowing in your face like a 10gauge shotgun, or a cylinder case busting.

You can build a strong frame with no power.
You can build a powerful ram with no frame strength.
You can build a strong Frame, too small of cylinder, with incorrect pressure, and actually (I've done it) banana curve the ram inside the cylinder case.

A cylinder is at its strongest point only when half extended.

I would do alot of reading, and try and find log splitter failed builds.

You won't know how it's done right until you know how it's done wrong. That's my quote. Best to not do it wrong yourself.


Good luck.

 

[alleyyooper]

That cylinder would bow like a cooked noddle on a real knot hunk of wood.
If you are just going to split the easy stuff save some money and buy a Huskvarna splitting axe. Or as so many here like a fiskers, just remember the fiskers is a lot of hype.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/281134806054


Al

 

[Nodak Andy]

That cylinder would bow like a cooked noddle on a real knot hunk of wood.
If you are just going to split the easy stuff save some money and buy a Huskvarna splitting axe. Or as so many here like a fiskers, just remember the fiskers is a lot of hype.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/281134806054


Al

Thanks Al. I'm guessing your saying the one in my link would bow because of the 2.75" bore size and the one in your link is going to be better because of the 4" bore size right?

 

[sundance]

A cylinder is at its strongest point only when half extended.


Care to explain the engineering behind that?

 

[firmwood]

......... You can build a strong Frame, too small of cylinder, with incorrect pressure, and actually (I've done it) banana curve the ram inside the cylinder case.

A cylinder is at its strongest point only when half extended.
.

I did explain it. Just vaguely.

It bent in the middle of the ram, while fully retracted. I know this because it chewed the efff out of the brass collar a half inch egg shaped.

I was grumpy and turned up the pressure.
So from that MIT experience, I'll assume exerting pressure with center support, which would in my mind be half the stroke, give or take how the piston is anchored/offset, would of be of some type of aid. The outer case is supporting the piston, the beam, assuming it's not *****, would support the other end of this fragile oil bomb Balloon about to pop if its curved too far out of its line of geometry. Any motion is now a heavy slow grinding of such nice case hardened into (hopefully) soft brass, (hopefully).



SO! At this point all faith is in how stiff the frame is against this tremendous force of expanding oil, assuming the ram with extra support helps.

Well, my experiment is with a stuck half out bent ram. I gambled it. After two hoses I stopped. I couldn't get it to retract. Luckytwice told me next is the pump housing.

 

[milkie62]

I built my splitter 30 yrs ago and have had ZERO issues with it. Mine is a 4" cylinder,8 hp engine and only an 11 gpm pump. Seems fast enough for me and I still have all my fingers. If I were going to build mine over I would add a log lift, and a taller stance since I am 6'2" and stoop a lot. And a split wood holder at the end would be nice.

 

[kevin j]

2.75 bore is too small.
2 inch rod would not bow with that force and that stroke. It is designed for the column strength to match the bore and force.
Most consumer splitter are 4 inch bore.
I made my ‘Bantam’ splitter with 3x20 cylinder because I wanted speed. 13 gpm pump and it is 3 seconds out, just under that retract. It was specifically built to do oak rounds up to about 16 inch diameter at a charity cut I work with. It handles everything I can physically lift onto the table anymore.
I do have a 4 inch with log lift, but find that I like the SPEED to get maximum wood in the trailer. and I can’t wrestle he big rounds anymore.
You will have to weight the type of wood and size. I would either go with 3 inch and make it small and light, or 4 inch but 22-28 gpm and more hp to get the speed back.
I rarely complain about insufficient force, I am always ADHD waiting on speed though.

 

[alleyyooper]

Yup that is what I am saying the 2.75 inch shaft is to whimpy for the real tough knots you can't split with a maul or wedges.
Those are the ones I really use my splitter for.
Plus my ram just pushes the wood into the wedge.

Only thing I would change is a log lift. OH ya and the color.

Al

 

[firmwood]

Let me simply this.

No smaller then 5" bore. You'll need a stout beam, but it'll push anything through a 2 way wedge.

I use my 4" for straight clean stuff with a 4 way wedge.

Anything ugly goes on the 7" bore. That has an overhead cable/lift and log tongs.

I used a 12v solenoid and my kids rc controller car electronics, a solid state relay, so it's wireless now. Super easy to lift/drop as I steer/handle the hanging piece. The controller is held in my hand almost like brass knuckles. I 3d printed a small housing for the two thumb buttons.


Did the same idea on my skidder.

So nice walking behind a log bumping the button , steering the 10ft log out of the woods with a 400ft cable lead, making sire not to bruise any younger trees.


Im soooo cleanly thinning out the squags and ugly trees for the nice lumber cutters in the future...

Cost to go wireless? $10. Two used kids rc electronics, spool of plastic for 3d printer.

Baily hydraulic has the same idea for like $1000.

Probably same range too.

 

[Nodak Andy]

Ok everyone, Thank you very much for the information. Looks like I'm gonna need to go with a 5" cylinder I guess. I'm thinking either this one or this one. Unless someone can point out why either wouldn't make a good choice? The titan one only has a 1.75" shaft, but it's $30 cheaper... Don't know the shaft size on the NT unit. can't find it listed anywhere.

Anyways, I've sourced all the steel that I will need. The H- beam is probably a bit on the light side, but I will be reinforcing it with some fairly heavy channel Gussets(I guess thats what I'd call them) in the web area every 6 inches on each side of the web, and then I will be boxing it in completely with 1/2" steel. A Piece of 3/4" flat steel will be the rail on top that the pusher mounts and slides on. I know it seems like I'm making a lot of extra work for myself by having to do all the reinforcing instead of just buying a bigger beam, but so far the only piece of steel that I'm actually going to have to buy will be the 3/4" x 8" (approximately $100) flat steel that the pusher will ride on. Everything else is free. I don't mind putting in a bit of extra work to save a few $$$.

 

[nathan4104]

i have a 'splitfire' splitter, it has a 3" cylinder.
my firewood processor has a 3 1/2" cylinder with an upsized rod (2 1/2" i believe is all the shop could get in it)
both have no issues with 16" round knotty Birch or poplar which is as nasty as we have here. The splitfire has a 2 way wedge, it's fast enough (4 second for 24" stroke) that the 4 way wedge is not really needed.
the processor has a 4 way and it rarely has trouble pushing through it. the biggest knottiest i'll lower it to save the headache if it does jam up but that is not often.
Size your machine for the wood you'll be working with. If you have an OWB, will you really need a 4 way wedge? most folks up here don't split their OWB wood.
have fun with your build!

 

[Nodak Andy]

i have a 'splitfire' splitter, it has a 3" cylinder.
my firewood processor has a 3 1/2" cylinder with an upsized rod (2 1/2" i believe is all the shop could get in it)
both have no issues with 16" round knotty Birch or poplar which is as nasty as we have here. The splitfire has a 2 way wedge, it's fast enough (4 second for 24" stroke) that the 4 way wedge is not really needed.
the processor has a 4 way and it rarely has trouble pushing through it. the biggest knottiest i'll lower it to save the headache if it does jam up but that is not often.
Size your machine for the wood you'll be working with. If you have an OWB, will you really need a 4 way wedge? most folks up here don't split their OWB wood.
have fun with your build!

I live in North Dakota so my tree options are somewhat limited as we have a grand total of 12 trees in the state.... 4 of which would probably actually qualify as telephone poles....

All kidding aside, Cottonwood, elm, some oak, ash, and probably some pine trees will be my options. I've got a couple places to go for trees that will probably account for 90% or more of the wood that I will use in our OWB. I do plan on leaving most of my logs full sized for the OWB but on the off chance that I'm not around to load it and the wife has to go out and load it up I need to have some more manageable sized pieces around.. Another reason I'm wanting to be able to make some smaller sized chunks is to sell for recreational burning. Just found out a good buddy of mine is most likely going to be taking over a baitshop that serves a campground with 200+ camp spots that is pretty well packed all summer long. My wife and I own a walleye fishing tackle manufacturing business that we run on the side of our day jobs, so my buddy will be putting our gear in the store, and if I can make more money by supplying him with firewood, I'm gonna.