how big of a splitter

[blue924.9]

hey guys my grandma has a homemade splitter that she has used for years, it consists of a 16 inch industrial i beam with a frame underneath it and 14 inch car tires. i have no idea how big the cylinder is but i know it is bigger than i can find in my local northern tool. it is powered by a stand alone buckeye hydraulic auger-mate that is direct driven from an 8 hp briggs and stratton. when we hit a big piece of tough wood, the motor bogs down and dies if we dont let up on the lever, and that big 16 inch i beam flexes like its flopping in the wind, as a matter of fact last year it broke the weld on the wedge after years of flexing like that, the wedge is on the end and the ram pushes the wood to be split, i was wondering if there was a certain amount of tonnage that it took to flex a i beam like this unit does, i know without having numbers off the cylinder or the pump it is hard to tell but i have emailed buckeye to see what they say. just looking for ball park figures thanks

 

[jhoff310]

could be as little as 10 tons. You didn't mention how long the beam is, the thickness of the beam. If you could post a pic it would make it easier to gauge what kind of tonnage your pushing.
I have seen 8 tons bend a beam, so it's not unheard of

Jeff

 

[triptester]

Measure the outside diameter of the cylinder and subtract 1/2'', this will give you the cylinder bore size then we can figure the max. tonnage.

 

[mga]

what is a 16 inch industrial beam?

 

[UpOnTheHill]

Pictures please

 

[blue924.9]

dont have splitter handy put will post pics in near future