I like scrounging parts off old equipment like the loader you found. Only thing is, most the valves and stuff are to big, worn or obsolete to be of much use for a normal log splitter. Obsolete stuff works as well as new as long as your not sourcing parts to fix or rebuilt it with. The cyl on the other hand are usually heavy duty and will have large rods, pins and ports. All good for splitter cyl use. You still have to watch what your getting. Big old greasy cyl's that have been sitting around for a long time might have rust and pitting on the rod shaft. If the hoses have been removed, the cyl bore may be full of water and the inside of the bore be rusty beyond repair. If the cyl is all dirty, but around where the rod seal is it looks pretty clean, well, probably has bad rod seals and the leaking oil kept the dirt and grease washed off. This wouldnt be a real deal breaker when it comes to buying the cyl, but some cyl might have specialty seals and stuff that can be very expensive to replace. Usually tho you can source the seals from a hyd shop without going to the original equipment manufacturer.
The problem with using control valves off large equipment is physical size. Valve banks might have multiple spools and have multiple configurations, such as float, you wouldnt need on a wood splitter. Also, if the equipment is in a scrap yard, chances are the valve will have some leaking around the spools. Most of those multi spool valves can have sections removed to make them more user friendly, such as if the valve body has 10 spools and you only need two spools, you can remove the extra spools you dont need. You would just need shorter bolts and maybe new O-rings. Even if the extra spools are not removable, you can remove the control levers and just cap off the sections you dont need, but you might endup with 50-75lbs of extra weight setting at your control station.
Another thing to watch for when using recycled parts of questionable service life is what are you going to do if you have to replace a bad part. It usually isnt as simple as just swapping in something new, and finding new used exact fit replacements might prove hard and expensive to find. My cyl's I bought for my processor are obsolete old stock I got basicly for free. To buy new replacements from the Case dealer they are over $5000 apiece. I would never pay that kind of price, but finding good used ones might be pretty hard and just as expensive. What will I do if they go bad and cant be fixed. Well it aint so simple, I would endup cutting the cyl mounts off, relocating and rewelding on new ones to accept what ever replacement cyl I decide to use. Lots of major work and a lot harder than just removing a couple of hoses and pulling a couple of pins.
If it was me, I would be all over that used front end loader looking for salvageable parts, but sometimes, even free parts aint the bargain you might think they are.
