I had to correct that. The common chisel angle is 25 degrees and planer angles are usually 42 degrees. :blush:That is an interesting theory and using a quickie CAD program I drew up what my old splitter had for a wedge angle (from my memory) and it came out to 38 degrees. Knowing the welder that made my splitter and the fact that he was a machinist for over 50 years by the time he built my splitter, I bet he was shooting for that angle of 42 degrees. I am willing to bet that is what the angle was and my CAD skills are not good enough to get the angle right.
That same welder/machinist proposed to us that we make a wedge that was curved on the front much like an axe, but he said it was too much of a PITA for him to make, and as he pointed out we had never stalled our's only about 3 times, so why screw with it.
Homeowner woodsplitters with the wedge on the ram have the advangtage of being able to be tipped down, but commercial splitters made to handle big wood have a lift. Two different categories of splitters homeowner's vs commercial, apples to oranges. Commercial operators want the split wood to be gone from the splitting area so they pass it through a wedge and it drops off onto a conveyor and is taken away. A commercial splitter with a wedge on the ram would require an operator to handle every piece of wood to get it onto a conveyor. That is wasted energy.
I also note that splitters using a fixed position wedge and running horizontally tend to have a slant angle (B) that exceeds 90 degrees. But if the wedge moves, they go the other way--between 75 and 80 degrees, similar to my OP diagram. Maybe the idea is that if less than 90, less force is required and the lift up you describe might be appreciated for big logs? Just a thought.
Anyway, the splitter I am now operating has a 42-degree wedge angle and an 80-degree slant angle. This little dream operates on a 6 hp engine, 2-stage, 16 gpm pump, and a miniscule 3" cylinder. It will outsplit a bigger one running on a single-stage, 16 gpm pump, 4" cylinder, and an 8 hp engine. That one has a 35-degree wedge with no slant. I'm starting to think that the better wedge design has a lot to do with it.
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