I bent my splitter's toe plate!!

I bent my splitter's toe plate today on an oak crotch!!!


There was a thread here a few months back where somebody posted a similar pic, and somebody else basically called him a liar.

Well, I had it happen today.

I've been gathering some standing dead oak that was felled recently, and it was some big stuff, and hard as nails. Been dead or dying a long time, I'd guess. Maybe 10 years? I've been aware of it standing there dead for about 4 years, and it was long gone then. It's dry right down to the bone, and did I mention that it's hard?

Anyway, there were some crotches, and one of them flat STOPPED my 35 ton splitter. Had to finish splitting it with the saw. Another one came close to stopping it.

When we were packing up, I noticed my toe plate:











I guess the wood was bearing on the toe plate out toward the end, rather than close to the beam. Got to watch that in the future. Now that it's bent that way, wood will tend to slip out there, making the problem worse.

I'm NOT happy about this!

One thing is for sure, the many folks who say they've got a 20 or 22 ton splitter that will split anything, just haven't been splitting really tough wood.

Saw your other post, http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=74150 that is a huge oak tree, good find for sure. To bad about your splitter!!!

Whats the plate made of, I have the older version of that same Huskee (SpeeCo) splitter and my toe plats a solid steel burn-out.

It almost looks cast?

Well, on the bright side, you cant complain about poor welds.

But, I feel your pain. If my splitter did that I'd be pissed too. I wouldnt hesitate to raise a stink at the place you purchased the splitter. From the photos the splitter looks somewhat newish. A splitters frame should be under warrenty for years. Good luck

35 ton is incredible force, especially delivered by a 2-stage pump. Looks like Huskee (MTD?) designed a splitter that could deliver more force than the foot could take on the end.

If the welding is still intact on the front of the I-beam, you could weld a 1/2" thick plate about 2" wide on the front of the toe to help square it up. Regardless, I would send these Pics to Huskee and ask them what they recommend.

it's funny how stuff bend's

ive seen 4" axels snap like you cut them

Wood Doctor said:

35 ton is incredible force, especially delivered by a 2-stage pump. Looks like Huskee (MTD?)

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Speeco. I wouldn't by anything MTD! They've ruined too many good names.

Wood Doctor said:

designed a splitter that could deliver more force than the foot could take on the end.

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Yeah, looks that way.

Wood Doctor said:

If the welding is still intact on the front of the I-beam, you could weld a 1/2" thick plate about 2" wide on the front of the toe to help square it up.

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Thought about that. We'll see what TSC & Speeco have to say before I try anything myself. Other than the bend, it's all intact. I can't see any cracking.

Wood Doctor said:

Regardless, I would send these Pics to Huskee and ask them what they recommend.

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I plan to!

Man, That really stinks. I would have never thought you could bend one. I have the solid one too. Maybe they need to go back to the solid ones. I have bogged down mine a few times on oak or sweet gum crotches and it is still straight. I would see if it's under some kind of warrenty. I imagine if it's staightened out it will not be as stong as before.

I have the 22 Ton version of that spilitter. Second time I used it, I bent the foot exactly like yours. It didn't break or crack, just bent....so I figured I could try to bend it back. At first I tried using a sledge hammer...no luck. Then out came the oxy-acetylene torches.....1 hour and nearly a full tank of oxygen, it was finally hot enough to bend with some serious hammering from the sledge. I've spit dozens of cords of wood since, but I'm much more careful about holding the wood tight against the beam and if the splitter balks at a really stubborn piece I stop.

I've used a 35ton huskee, seems it would benefit from better teeth on the footplate. The ones on there dont seem to hold the log much from sliding up and creating the leverage to bend it. Maybe owners could add different/more teeth to help grab the log better.

Sorry to hear about your problem. As I got the same kind of splitter, I'll keep an eye on mine. That should of never happened in a perfect world.

torch it up...bend it back then weld a solid thick plate behind it.

wouldn't that work?

Wow, Mark you've done it this time! I thought those where cast iron and the reasoning was so it would not bend!! In that second pic it looks like the beam is tweaked as well; in the top of the web by the flange?? If it is a cast you'll lose some weight trying to heat that up hot enough to bend back in this summer heat. Good luck man

Looks Like You Have Junk## Tom Trees

Tom, you're always so helpful.. thanks for being a contributing member here! :notrolls2:

How about building the face up with a wedge shaped piece of metal welded to the front of the existing toe make a flat surface again. You could build spikes into it to stop a repeat performance.

Ian

Mine has the solid plate as well,both plates that have been bent (on this site) have been the hollowed out cast ones...

I would guess they are cast steel. It would be much more weldable. If it was Gray iron it would be broken. If it were ductile iron it would bend but would still be more involved to weld on than a cast steel plate.

Good luck with Speeco on a solution. When I did the design for mine I designed for full tonnage at the top of the wedge (12" tall) with no damage. Apparently Speeco did not design for full tonnage at the end of the foot plate.

How thick is the solid steel plate? One solution if Speeco will not fix is to have one cut from plate and replace the foot you have.

Don

Find someone with an oxy acetalene torch, if you don't know anyone go to a repair shop and offer them a few bucks, heat it and bend it back in place. Should be easy enough, just hook a chain from the top of the plate to the head of your ram and pull it back with the splitter, but to reinforce it put a gusset 90' to the flat side, make it look like a "t" when looking at it from the top. Use 1/2(or heavier) x 2 x 8 inch flat material and that will hold more than placing another piece flat on the back of the existing one. I can't believe they would put a cast material there, to easy to break. Cast is very hard and is designed not to bend but the trade off is its very brittle and easy to break.

When I look at the pics BRM posted I can sure see how much SpeeCo cut corners building these newer models.

Frame looks like 3/16 welded plate with cast toe plate...my older version has a 1.5" thick solid steel plate and the I-beam is 3/8" flange and 1/2" center.

I have bent two wedges and currently have a bent one on the splitter now but I can guarantee you the toe plate area can't be bent with it's current pump/cylinder combo!

Definitely looks like some design flaws have been found with the newer models and if I was BRM I would let Huskee/SpeeCo know... make sure they know how close you where to getting injured when there inferior design failed!



If your resposable for fixing that I'd cut the whole toe plate off and head down to the scrape yard for a nice hunk of 1.5-2" steel and fab somthing much stronger.



Old style

Could be worse....

Mark at least yours didn't break!!!!

This is how mine looks after trying to split a tough piece of ash.




And I still have quite a bit to split yet....



Brought it to the welder so I'll keep ya posted on how they fix this fine mess.