How much log splitter can a 5hp electric motor drive?

[muddstopper]

I guess the same could be said for a gas splitter working all day, the gas bill is going to go up. For my person choice, I will stick to gas or diesel simply because I dont have electricity to plug into in my woods, or even at my wood pile. If I have to carry a portable generator to power my electric splitter then whats the point. I can see the OP's desire to keep his splitter quite and his choice of using electricity to do this. I have often thought about buying one of those little electric splitters to put in my basement to whittle down rounds I dont split small enough with my gas splitter. I will also say that what few electric hyd pump setups I have been around are not exactly quiet either. I think if the engine has to be quite, I would just adapt a bigger muffler to the gas engine. I did that with a 60hp wisconsin engine. It had the small stock muffler and it would deafen you to work next to it. I mounted a small automotive muffler and it made a big difference.

 

[user 140828]

I have definitely thought about doing that. Buy a fully engineered gas splitter and try to quiet it down. Once again, uncertainties--I don't know how successful I would be. And certainties: it wouldn't fit through the side gates to get it where it needs to be, and from where it will never move. I would have to remove the trailer and hitch parts, which means I would have to find or make another oil tank, remount the engine and pump, etc, etc. So you could say I'm backed into an odd, unusual corner where the electric solution just happens to pencil out. I agree that in the vast majority of situations gas is best.

 

[muddstopper]

Or, you could just turn the gas splitter on its side and drag it in the gate until it clears and then lay it back down and roll it to where you want it.

 

[user 140828]

LOL! Yeah, still won't fit through the iron gates, and would still have to be disassembled and reconfigured to fit in the workspace. Then I'd have to find space to store the wheels/axle/tank/hitch til whenever.

> I agree that in the vast majority of situations gas is best.<
For larger splitters, I meant. There appear to be plenty of "5 " and "7" ton electric splitters sold. Their *actual* tonnage could be the subject of another thread, but I ain't in the market.

 

[4seasons]

Doesn't Super Split make an electric version?
I think I recall a DR electric/hydraulic splitter a while back as well.

 

[Mustang71]

The 5 and 7 ton ones aren't hydraulic. I agree that a quiet log splitter would be awesome. I have thought about the idea of electric too or pneumatic. Maybe your electric bill isn't high but not having natural gas my lowest bill is 140$ a month so the thought of running something all day that draws as much power as my water heater seems crazy. I'd rather buy 5 gallons of gas than raise that bill.

I dont own a splitter or live in the suburbs so my opinion may not be the best lol.

 

[user 140828]

Ha ha I don't know about that...the beer part works for me! I understand your concern about electric bills, juice around here costs plenty. But as I think someone mentioned much of the time the motor is just idling or moving up/down against air not wood, probably drawing just an amp or two. The big draw should be only moment or two for most logs, and much lower the rest of the way through. Just making up some number, let's say on average the motor's drawing 10 amps on average (a high estimate, I would guess) over the course of the afternoon. At 230 volts that's 2300 watts or 2.3 kilowatts per hour. If your juice costs a quarter a KW that's less than around sixty cents an hour. Anyway, I think that's about right. Dunno how much fuel a gas splitter would use in the same afternoon.

 

[user 140828]

Muddstopper, I read a few of your posts and you mentioned your splitter with a 6x6 beam a quarter inch thick (W6x15, I believe), is that right? I happen to have built my bottlejack splitter version with that beam and was figuring to add metal if I repurposed it for my hydraulic version. In the pictures did I see that you added more metal on top? May I ask what thickness and what other reinforcing you may have done? And did you say 5" cylinder? If so, I know that beam needed some reinforcing.

 

[muddstopper]

No 6x6x1/4 inch beam in any of my pictures. I used a 6x6x1/2 beam for my splitter. I capped the top flange with additional 1/2in plate and then added 3/4 plate to each side of the web. I did cap the end of the beam, where the wedge is, with 6x3/8 channel. My 5 in bore cyl will still twist the beam when I used a 24in tall wedge and am splitting 30in plus rounds. I have since removed the 6way wedge in favor of just a 4 way. Even with the big knotty stuff, it either splits it or smuches it. I do use a knife blade for a wedge instead of a spreader type wedge. I find that a narrow knife will just shear thru knots instead of trying to bind. My knife is 3/4 t1 steel plate 9 inches wide. I havent measured height since removing the 6way wings.

 

[muddstopper]

 

[user 140828]

Be nice to luck into one of those.

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

... and leave the motor running - as in don't shut it down between logs, even if it's a minute or 2 while you dig the next one out of the stack. The inrush current will burn more energy starting the motor back up than simply letting it run.

 

[Mustang71]

Ha ha I don't know about that...the beer part works for me! I understand your concern about electric bills, juice around here costs plenty. But as I think someone mentioned much of the time the motor is just idling or moving up/down against air not wood, probably drawing just an amp or two. The big draw should be only moment or two for most logs, and much lower the rest of the way through. Just making up some number, let's say on average the motor's drawing 10 amps on average (a high estimate, I would guess) over the course of the afternoon. At 230 volts that's 2300 watts or 2.3 kilowatts per hour. If your juice costs a quarter a KW that's less than around sixty cents an hour. Anyway, I think that's about right. Dunno how much fuel a gas splitter would use in the same afternoon.

Thats kind of like saying a v8 at idle gets the same gas mileage as a 4cyl. Even with no load you still have a big electric motor and there's some load keeping that pump pressure up. I get it that there's not a lot of draw until a load is applied. Here's another concern, what the plan for keeping the motor cool?

My interest in this is because all my splitting is right by the garage so if you can build a quiet efficent electric splitter for not a million dollars then I'm very curious about it. It's a very cool idea and I hope you can put it all together. I'd love to buy a blown up splitter for 100 dollars and make it run on an electric motor.

 

[user 140828]

As I understand it, the way log splitter hydraulics work is that when the control valve is in the "neutral" position, that is, moving the ram neither forward nor backward, the oil bypasses right back to the tank under virtually no pressure. The oil is just circulating around from tank to valve and back to tank, forcing nothing to move but itself. This should take very little motor power, I would think.

Well, I would very much like to build it. I expect I will reach a point of confidence where there will be nothing more to do but start. As to "quiet", which is a key issue for me, muddstopper's isn't the only mention I've come across that the electrics are not as quiet as one might hope. The common observation is that that pump whine becomes apparent once the noise of the gas engine is removed--it was there but masked. Lacking actual sound measurements I conclude the noise is significantly less, at least as far as my neighbors would be concerned. For instance, the whine of our other neighbor's pool pump, which is perhaps 14 feet from our bedroom window (though behind a block wall) used to be quite noticeable at 10pm, not so much during the day. When we installed dual-pane windows in the bedroom, we could no longer hear it. I am pretty certain that if the whine had been instead the roar of a 6.5 or 8 horsepower gas motor, we would still be hearing it! Unless it was specially muzzled as muddstopper describes, perhaps.

It will cost more to build than buying, say, a "25 ton" Countyline from Tractor Supply. I haven't had great luck scrounging stuff LA, so I expect to have to buy it all. Currently my list of known parts is hovering around $1200 if I reinforce the beam I have, perhaps $200 more if I get another. For that I would have a 7.5hp motor, 13gpm pump and 4.5"/24" cylinder producing an honest 20+ tons. Plus, and this is no a small thing, I would have the great pleasure of building it.

 

[kevin j]

i think you could run a 16 gpm pump easily. will check later.

 

[blades]

You could build a double box beam - lot stronger than the typical I or W beam in both linear flex and rotational torque.
Ram splitter makes an electric powered splitter , Marketing hype says 20t at 11-17 sec. cycle time $2000 Believe it or not it lists a 2hp electric motor on 220v 1p, apx 25amp line is required, pushing an 11gpm pump. they do not list rpm of motor. I would guess at the amp rating that it is 3000+ rpm ( pretty sure there are more efficient electric motors out there)
So in light of that your 5hp should be fine . rule thumb calc that i use is 1.5 x electric motor hp = gas hp in this case about a 8hp course they do not rate gas motor by HP any more so I think that would be around a 300cc? gas motor. Another thing with electric vs gas - no need to make the electric run constantly as it is convenient to shut it off and on vs restarting a gasser. No exhaust fumes, not ethanol destroyed carbs and fuel lines - electric does have it positive sides. Pump whine is going to be the main culprit noise wise as you already know with neighbors pool pump.

 

[user 140828]

>i think you could run a 16 gpm pump easily. will check later.<

16 gpm would be great. I did some checking and it looks good, but please let me know what you find out.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

5hp is about 15 amps, 7hp is about 22 amps. Granted probably 90% of the run time wouldn't be drawing nearly close to that much power.

If it ran for 5 hrs a day, 5 days a week for a month (750hrs) that's about $560 vs $780 a month... but again at high load.
I bet it'd be more around $200


Might seem expensive, but a gas engine at .75 gals an hour would cost about $1600 in that same time.

Gas engine splitters are more common because there is more demand.
Electric splitters means having to be setup with a decent sized 240v feed, which isn't common for the average joe.
And even if arlready setup, let's say an outlet for a welder, likely it's not close to the area that the wood is going to be split at.

So... can see where a gas engine would be much more popular.

 

[user 140828]

Blades, by double box do you mean two pieces of rectangular tubing joined along the long side? It's something to consider. I called all around, new and scrap places, trying to find a W6x25 piece but no one has or sells it except by custom order (which doesn't mean a six foot section don't you know). I have a piece of W6x15 (6x6x.24) but I would need to reinforce it--quarter inch plates on top and bottom and box it. Lotta work, and some expense for the plates. What size pieces would you recommend for a double box beam that would match my reinforced Frankenbeam?

>20t at 11-17 sec. cycle time...2hp electric motor...pushing an 11gpm pump<
Doesn't sound quite right to me. Maybe, somehow, in a marketing world.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Supersplit.com

Edit: (keep it simple)