homemade powersplit type splitter

[yooperman]

I have a few questions I think you guys can answer. I'm possibly looking at making a powersplit type splitter mounted on a steel plate on the back of a suburban. I split customers wood in one area and could drive home to split personal OWB wood. I split mostly maple.

1. I can pick up a 5&1/2" cylinder with 30"stroke and 3" rod for $75.00. Good deal? What size pump, engine, possible cycle times?

2. Is it possible to run a splitter using a car engine? I have an older Ford 300c.i. 6cyl mounted to 4speed manual. Burn too much gas to be worth it? Output to slow?

3. What I'm thinking is building a vertical splitter on the back of the suburban with a 4way wedge. I was thinking of mounting the cylinder a ways out from the beam so the back pieces of wood don't jam the beam when I center an 8-10" maple block. Large pieces 30"dia. and 24"-28" long (for OWB) I would split with the outer (of the 4) single blade. The cylinder would also be clamped to the beam toward the bottom. The wedge would also have slides attatched to the beam. I could brace the beam from the top 45deg to the base behind the splitter. Would having the cylinder and splitting that far out from the beam tend to flex the beam and rod?

4. I have a (homemade) horizontal splitter I want to re-fit for faster production as I'm getting more firewood customers. I'll pick your brains later about the re-fit. So the vertical splitter would not have to have super fast cycle times. Or would it be easier to just buy a vertical/horizontal splitter and mount it on the suburban? I was looking at the North Star 37ton in NH Northern, opinions on these? I could just use it as a single splitter then for big pieces. I like the idea of standing up-right and just turning a big piece as you split instead of having to re-pickup halves.

Thank, Bill Gordon Deerton,Mi.

 

[triptester]

I was considering a similar splitter using a Sasuki Samari. The compact 4wd would have been great in the woods. I was going to mount the splitter table over the rear wheels. In the end I made mine towable.
With a 16 GPM pump the 5.5 cylinder will give you 18 sec. cycle times.
With a 22 GPM pump the cycle time will be 14 sec.
With a 28 GPM pump the cycle time will be 11 sec.

I like the powersplit style splitter but if you use a full beam and a fixed cylinder the height will be around 9 feet. Which will be pretty top heavy for traveling.

Attached are pics of mine in travel position and in use.

 

[yooperman]

Thanks for the pics and info. Do you use an electric winch to pull up the log lift? Seeing that got me thinking I might be able to run a cable over the top of the beam and have a quick attach for the ram to pull a log lift up on the cylinder downstroke. Actually that looks like what you might have done when I looked at the pics again?

 

[triptester]

Yooperman,
You are right the cable is attached to the ram by way of a pulley. I used a cable rated for 800#. With some scrap pipe the lift cost about $15.00 for cable and pulley.

The Northern Tool splitter sames to be fairly well made but as with most splitters the tonnage is exaggerated.

A 4" bore@3000 psi =18.8 tons
A 4.5" bore@3000 psi =23.8 tons

A 5" Bore@3000 psi =29.4 tons
A 5.5" bore@3000 psi =35.6 tons

 

[yooperman]

I went and looked at the cylinder today and the thing is massive. It looks like it came off a large piece of equipment (loader or excavator). What can you tell me about the Barnes 2-stage 28gpm pump? What size motor would be needed for this 5.5" cylinder with 30"stroke? Thanks,Bill

 

[Tree Farmer]

For a hydraulic system to work well you have to have all the components sized correctly. Once you pick one component all the others have to jive with it.
For example you selected a 5.5 x30 cylinder, good choice lots of power from the bigger bore a little longer stroke. The flip side is you now have to run a bigger pump to make it practical. A bigger pump needs a bigger motor to run it. I would go with that 28 gpm two stage pump. I am not familiar with the Barns pump, but you will want to get HP rating from them. Match the motor to the pump. You may need 3/4 hyd lines at 28 gpm or the pump might be in the slow stage all the time. I hope this helps a little.

 

[ray benson]

Barnes pump.
http://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?UID=2007030921483477&item=9-4897&catname=hydraulic