K9-Handler
ArboristSite Operative
Meet Brutus -- the answer to the question everyone has been asking me since October -- "Where have YOU been?"
OK, so it's not a saw. But it's what the wood goes through AFTER the saw!
I decided to build my own splitter after the neighbor's machine that I'd been borrowing proved to be frustrating and unreliable. So I started by digging around in the weeds in the back field where the corpse of an old '76 Wheel Horse was trying to quietly return to the earth. After ripping out the engine and instrument console it took about six weeks to tear the engine down and restore it, including replacing the head that had become one with the spark plug. The lower fan shroud had rusted to nothing.
Then it was trying to find a suitable I-Beam, and nothing could be found. A local supplier could only get a 10-foot minimum piece that the market said was worth over $400. No thanks. So plan B was to get two C-channels and a plate, weld it all together and make a box frame.
This is what it looked like at Halloween:
So today was the big roll-out! He's officially done.
Specifications are:
Engine:Ancient Kohler 16-hp Thumper
Pump:22 gpm two-stage
Cylinder: Prince 3000 psi, 4.5" dia., 24" stroke
Crane winch: 3000 lb. (that aughta do it...)
Wheels and tires: 15" alloys, 50-series radials
Core splitting blade is 12" high, 1" thick, with angle-iron wings to 5" wide total.
Cycle time: out and back, no load @ 3400 RPM = 10 sec.
Frame members, crane, slide and log-catcher all sandblasted and powdercoated.
Crane held my weight (265#) at full extension without deflecting. As a design sample I had a piece of 20" diameter X 16" wide piece of 2-year dried red oak that weighed in at 146#, so I have plenty of room to go larger without stressing the crane or winch.
More photos below...
OK, so it's not a saw. But it's what the wood goes through AFTER the saw!
I decided to build my own splitter after the neighbor's machine that I'd been borrowing proved to be frustrating and unreliable. So I started by digging around in the weeds in the back field where the corpse of an old '76 Wheel Horse was trying to quietly return to the earth. After ripping out the engine and instrument console it took about six weeks to tear the engine down and restore it, including replacing the head that had become one with the spark plug. The lower fan shroud had rusted to nothing.
Then it was trying to find a suitable I-Beam, and nothing could be found. A local supplier could only get a 10-foot minimum piece that the market said was worth over $400. No thanks. So plan B was to get two C-channels and a plate, weld it all together and make a box frame.
This is what it looked like at Halloween:
So today was the big roll-out! He's officially done.
Specifications are:
Engine:Ancient Kohler 16-hp Thumper
Pump:22 gpm two-stage
Cylinder: Prince 3000 psi, 4.5" dia., 24" stroke
Crane winch: 3000 lb. (that aughta do it...)
Wheels and tires: 15" alloys, 50-series radials
Core splitting blade is 12" high, 1" thick, with angle-iron wings to 5" wide total.
Cycle time: out and back, no load @ 3400 RPM = 10 sec.
Frame members, crane, slide and log-catcher all sandblasted and powdercoated.
Crane held my weight (265#) at full extension without deflecting. As a design sample I had a piece of 20" diameter X 16" wide piece of 2-year dried red oak that weighed in at 146#, so I have plenty of room to go larger without stressing the crane or winch.
More photos below...
