building wood splitter,(looking for ideas)

[MOE]

Thanks for the great input. I hadn't considered turnkeys idea of tying the front of the cylender down. How would a flatbar collar work? this would hold it but allow some movment.
Should I put the motor/pump on rubber mounts? The motor is very smooth but I've seen pumps vibrate and hammer on other splitters.
I have a 20 gallon hyd tank with a temp guage.

 

[stihlwoodcutter]

my engine and pump are rubber mounted.....and it works fine, 20 gallons should be plenty for any pump you use

 

[turnkey4099]

Thanks for the great input. I hadn't considered turnkeys idea of tying the front of the cylender down. How would a flatbar collar work? this would hold it but allow some movment.
Should I put the motor/pump on rubber mounts? The motor is very smooth but I've seen pumps vibrate and hammer on other splitters.
I have a 20 gallon hyd tank with a temp guage.

Yeah, that is how to do it. Just a strap over the top and welded to the armature. It doesn't tie the cylinder down firmly, just keeps it from lifting.

Harry K

 

[Mange]

Many here has a hinge to raise the beam up. This way the big ones does not need to be lifted.

Why I don't have it on mine?

I have a crane instead! :Eye:

 

[Gravely Grinch]

Avoid that oh-nonan like the plague. Even simple parts like carb kits and points are incredibly expensive. I sold a starter for a 17 Onan yesterday, it was over 300 bones. K or M series Kohlers make the best splitter engines, gobs of torque and parts are reasonable.

 

[turnkey4099]

Should I put the motor/pump on rubber mounts? The motor is very smooth but I've seen pumps vibrate and hammer on other splitters.
I have a 20 gallon hyd tank with a temp guage.

Mine is only a 5hp 6x1 reduction running a 13 or 15gpm pump (don't recall now). It is mounted solid, both the pump and motor, no noticeable vibration. The connection between them is the flex roller chain type (double row chain over two sprockets - requires very carful alignment before bolting down.

Harry K

 

[scottr]

Wood Splitter

Have any of you guys ran or built one of these ?http://www2.primushost.com/~logsplit/principle.html

 

[Mange]

Some ideas for you, I got these pic's of ad's on internet!

 

[Saskman]

Mange could you post more info about where you found these pictures there interesting

 

[Patrick62]

My thoughts (experience)

I have read some excellent replies already on this thread!
I have made 2 (somewhat crude) splitters.
Mostly using what I have around at the time. Lessons learned thus far:
larger pumps mean you can run engine at a sane speed.
Larger engines provide more torque at a lower speed than small ones do.
Large capacity oil tank is necessary. It is the radiator of the system.
There is no such thing as overkill when selecting the beam.
I have been using a double detent valve, and there really ain't that much difference between it and the standard valve (speed/time wise). It is a little more dangerous, but with in reason.

Do your own calculations radius squared times pi gives square inches of cylinder bore. A 4 1/2 cylinder might make a perfect compromise between speed and power. I have 1 with a 4" and another with a 5". The 5" machine is likely to get rebuilt with larger pump/engine as it is kinda slow right now. But it will do an honest 22 tons.

Little splitter poops out at 14 tons, but it will split most of the stuff I have here (no hard woods).

My $0.07 worth

 

[ajc4]

The biggest complaint I have with my purchased wood splitter is that the engine is mounted rigid to the frame. As a result, everything vibrates like crazy, and the engine has managed to self destruct with very few hours of use (lost fasteners, cracked sheet metal, broken welds, etc.) I would definitely mount the engine on some vibration isolation mounts!

TonyM, A trick I use on small engine powered equipment: use a hole saw to cut rubber disks out of an old tire. Preferably a bald tractor tire, ATV tire, or sidewall that doesnt have steel belting. The little disk left inside the holde saw makes a great isolation mount.