building wood splitter,(looking for ideas)

[oldwild]

if you look at the size of the square tubing that is being used for the hydraulic tank and calculate it out, the tanks are fairly small. Here in a packing plant we use a 3:2 ratio on the size of the tank, every 3 minutes the tank is turned over twice. Allows use to keep the heat down by not doing a 1:1 ratio. We also have alot fewer pump and cylinder failures even with the limited skill of most of the maintenance men. I have a 30 gallon tank already for when I get ready to start building mine with a Vickers 11 gpm pump!

 

[turnkey4099]

Harry, All good ideas. Here is a couple more.

Make splitter so the wood is sitting at a comfortable work height.You won't want to be bent over the whole time your splitting.



I tried several types of motor to pump couplings. The least vibration was when using a Woods #4 coupling.

Ray

I have a tongue support - piece of pipe running through a bigger piece with several holes - I can lower the operating end to the ground or raise it to just below waist height. Adjustable height is nice but probably not pratical on a large machine.

Don't know the brand on my coupling. It is roller chain type. Does take careful line up but allows a bit of misaline. Have not noticed any vibration or problems with it.

Harry K

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Find a small rear drive differential and add a hydraulic motor to the input. With a little plumbing and welding it's an easy add-on. You should have plenty of power from the splitter pump.

 

[TimberMcPherson]

We had a kind of splitter that hooked up to the PTO of one of our tractors. It was unlike anything else i have seen around the place. It had a pinecone shaped threaded head that spun quite fast and a stopping block underneath it. It was sharp pointed and the thread was quite deep. what you did was take your block of wood and ram it against the sharp point of the spinning cone. The thread would worm its way into the wood and as the cone shape got further in, it would split the wood until it hit the very end of the cone which had small paddles that would beat the wood off.
You had to be very careful with it as it was alway ready to break an arm if you didnt get it on right. It would never be allowed to be made in these saftey conscience times.

The unit also had a 40 inch saw blade and swing table for cutting small stuff to length.

 

[turnkey4099]

We had a kind of splitter that hooked up to the PTO of one of our tractors. It was unlike anything else i have seen around the place. It had a pinecone shaped threaded head that spun quite fast and a stopping block underneath it. It was sharp pointed and the thread was quite deep. what you did was take your block of wood and ram it against the sharp point of the spinning cone. The thread would worm its way into the wood and as the cone shape got further in, it would split the wood until it hit the very end of the cone which had small paddles that would beat the wood off.
You had to be very careful with it as it was alway ready to break an arm if you didnt get it on right. It would never be allowed to be made in these saftey conscience times.

The unit also had a 40 inch saw blade and swing table for cutting small stuff to length.

Yeah, I checked into those when I first started burning wood. One look at it and I tip-toed away for fear of awakening the beast.

Harry K

 

[ray benson]

That's a 45 gallon hydraulic oil tank and an 11 gallon gas tank. 5 inch ram.

Dan

Dan, If you're splitting wood by yourself you will still have limiting factors - Lunch, dinner, washroom breaks unless.....

 

[jared]

we have had good luck wiyh our splitter. it combines a briggs 18hp running a belt to a 102 pound tractor fly wheel to run the pump and twin hydraulic cylinders

 

[ray benson]

We had some large Pushers at work that used a cylinder at each end to push steel off a roll line. The flow divider setup gave them fits.Repiped to a series setup and it worked much better.

 

[jared]

We plumbed the cylinders in series. one cylinder is smaller than the other. this speeds up the split time, escpecially in smaller easier to split wood were only the small cylinder is needed. the fluid fills the smaller bore cylinder faster than the larger one there fore moving the small ram first

 

[Gypo Logger]

The ideal splitter has at least a 36 GPM pump and a large enough cylinder to do the job. A short cycle time is what we are after, so an auto cycle valve is the way to go.
Also have a large enough push block to make it safe and a stroke not longer than 20" unless you plan on splitting fence rails. A 10hp Honda is a good engine to use.
Also, put the tow hitch on the opposite end of the vertical wedge. A slip on wedge is a good addition to make it a four way. The terminal parts are the log beam where the push block rides, so concentrate on a good roller setup there or hardenough metal to with stand the twisting and pressure that the pushblock exerts on the beam.
Hope this helps,
John

 

[Mange]

Here is one I like!

There is a saw in the front of it the woof goes down to the splitters and there is a conejer to get the splitted wood uou, but they are not in this pic.

 

[PWB]

Lots of good advice here. There's about 5 homebuilts within5 or 6 miles of me, most are horizontal I or H beam with at least a 4", sometimes 5" cylinder. Two are vertical, all are tractor mount and run off the tractor hydraulics.

Volume is an issue on the hydraulic pumps, as is bending the beam, and pushing the wedge right off of it. Cut the beam and run the wedge right through to the bottom, and weld it all the way.
As for bending the beam, possible solution. I just aquired a "Walco" factory built 3 point hitch unit, 4x24 cylinder. (price was right!). The "beam" consists of two parallel rectangular tubes, and the wedge is welded between them at one end. The push block extends down beteen the tubes and has a plate across the bottom to keep it square and centred on the push. I've seen similar stuff for sale at TSC.

Four parallel pieces of steel (in effect) to resist twisting as opposed to one big one in an I or H beam. Seems to work really well, split stuff already that would have been bending the beam on some of the local "I beam" types. Trctor is supposed to put up about 2500 pounds pressure, would bet on less because it's about 45 years old and was poorly maintained before I bought it. Volume is a little low but gets the job done.

The 2 parallel tubes seem to work really well, light too. Food for thought.

 

[MOE]

Here's an update as this is an older post. I'm finnally getting close to starting,(can't rush a good prodject like this). The e-bay parts ammassing stage is about done. I've got a new 9 hp briggs vanguard, 16 gpm pump, 4.5"X24 cylender, detent return valve, a beam that is way overkill and a rear axle,rims and tires from a 87 plymout voyager. I've decided to make it vertical/ horizontal. The beam is pretty heavy so I'm thinking of adding another valve and cylender to lift it with hydraulics. Here's another question. Should the wedge be narrow,(like the 1" thick ones form northern hydraulics) or wide? It will be splitting oak, ash, boxcelder, and tearing elm.

 

[turnkey4099]

We built 5 off of my design in a welding shop. Good thing the boss wanted one!

Each one improved on the last.

Mod 6 is mine. They were built using square tube and square slip tubing for the armiture. Seemed simpler than I-beam.

Things we learned. Weld it STRONG. Mod 1, even with professional welders and welded to our usual specs pushed the wedge right out of the tube (mod 1, follow ons had more gusseting, back plate and wings added - no more problems)

Make it STIFF - you want no flex in the armature.

Strap the nose of the cylinder down to prvent it lifting and bending the piston rod (happened).

Our oil tanks were rec tube mounted vertically. No chance of the pump running dry before oil begins circulating.

My mod 6 only changed from 4 & 5 in that I put the axle (with removeable power unit) at the rear of the armiture. Kept all the stuff out of the way of the operator. Every comercial I have seen has the axle/engine/pump etc. mounted right where I would prefer to stand while operating it. In a tip-up type that is unavoidable of course.

I used front spindles from a compact car plus throw-away tires carrying very low pressure (don't tow often or far).

As for 4 way wedge: Seems like it would be rather wasteful unless you had rounds just the right size. Bigger stuff of course needs running through again but eventually you come down to a chunk that is too big to use but if run through the 4-way will result in 1 right size piece and a very small stick. Rounds that only need halving would give you either two rather small pieces and 2 throw aways or 4 very small chunks. I Haven't used one but that is what it looks like to me.

Harry K

 

[Gypo Logger]

I would say the vertical wedge should be blunt like a maul. If memory serves me well the vertical wedge on my 105 Brute was 12" H x 8" deep. The leading edge tapered back to about 5- 6". I believe the leading edge may have been tool steel.
The weak link in the system are the hoses and the pipe fittings, so get the best grade possible. The hydraulics will overheat if the reservoir isn't large enough.
An auto cycle valve will cut work in half, but be careful with fingers!
John

 

[turnkey4099]

My first valve was a 'center return', i.e., let go the handle and it returned to neutral. Problem with that was it almost required two operators to get any speed out of it as I had to just stand and hold the lever while it returned to battery. I replaced it with a 'non-return', i.e., put handle in forward and let go it stays there, same in reverse. Allows me to be reaching for the next chunk and clearing prior while the ram cycles back. Yes, dangerous, so no-one but me will ever operate it. If I ever sell it, the original valve goes back on.

Harry K

 

[cuttinscott]

TIMBERWOLF splitters 5.5 hp through 49 hp with anything in between :blob5:
www.timberwolfcorp.com is their website
MADE IN USA Rutland Vt. to be exact

scott

 

[Saskman]

for the frame use an old crop sprayer frame for the rest of the splitter use an I beam and a hydralic ram say off of an old grain truck, find a pump off an old JD tractor a tank from a versitile combine and make a wedge out of grader blade and slame the wedge into the wood and its splits like crazy

 

[Saskman]

here is a picture if you want close ups let me know

 

[stihlwoodcutter]

JUNK YARD!!!!.....I built my splitter for 750.00 and 325.00 of it was hydraulic hose and fittings bought new...22 gal 2 stage pump brand new off e-bay for 200.00, hyd cyl from junk yard(off a bucket truck) 4.5x36 with a 2.5" ram for 40.00 hyd resvoir 15 gal..20.00 of same bucket truck at the junk yard, came with filter assembly.35.00 for the 11hp honda engine at a yard sale(which is plenty of engine btw) only 2 things i would do different next time , i'd use a little heaver I beam and i would make a removable 4 way wedge instead of a fixed one...only because i'd like to put a 6 way on it some times.