Uniform size of the split pieces always seems to be a problem with these multi wedges. It will interested to see how it holds together. A least you have some movement that the wedge can do before it starts breaking or twisting things. I keep thinking I would like a box wedge but so much of the locust and hedge I split is so twisted it doesn't even like the four way on my processor.
Log Splitter Build
- Thread starter JakefromCharlotte
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JakefromCharlotte
ArboristSite Member
I'm a bit nervous about the design also. Especially after the test run. If it snaps off the blades, I will move them closer together.
This video shows the mechanism I designed to hold the log horizontally so that it is released and drops in the chamber without tilting which can lead to jamming
Also I only have a couple of extra vertical blades which are staggered behind the main central blade to allow the split wood to go sideways.
I think on your pictures that there is not enough room for expansion
It will work but there will be more ripping and more pressure needed
The forces involved here are tremendous and can easily snap a weld. Also I made my main knife arrow shaped to give maximum pressure on difficult Elm logs just to start them opening up
If an Elm log was to encounter three or more blades at the same time it would take a lot of pressure and strong metal work to go through!
I think on your pictures that there is not enough room for expansion
It will work but there will be more ripping and more pressure needed
The forces involved here are tremendous and can easily snap a weld. Also I made my main knife arrow shaped to give maximum pressure on difficult Elm logs just to start them opening up
If an Elm log was to encounter three or more blades at the same time it would take a lot of pressure and strong metal work to go through!
JakefromCharlotte
ArboristSite Member
Thats awesome!
This box blade might end up being v1.0. I don't like the pressure it is seeing or the size of the wood coming out. Any pic of your blade set up?
Bill you have a well thought out set up there. Thanks for posting details about it. I always love to see this homemade stuff.
The main blade is 30mm steel and arrow shaped and sits on another 30mm which is drilled with a series of holes so that a pin can be inserted for different heights in one inch increments
I have it set a 4 inches and the blades are also 4 inches apart so although I can cut any length up to 22 inches, 16 inch suits our woodburner
The two knives behind are made from the worn wear plate of a D7 Cat, and they are welded to the main blade and rise up and down with it. They are set at a slight angle inwards so that they meet the pieces split by the main vertical blade head on. I think that is only slightly important but what is really important is to not allow the wood to expand between two blades as it is split
Like all splitters, it works well by itself when you have nice accurately cut rounds of Ash or Beech or other easy woods but difficult wood like Elm needs watching, a bit like a bad child, as it will always try to cause trouble when your back is turned!
First photo is from the right side with the log being pushed right to left. You can see how there is daylight between the back of the first vertical knife and the two rear ones
The second photo is from the rear and it is not easy to see the angle of inclination inwards but it is there. The two tines were left there from a previous attempt to make a trash grid
I recommend reading James Dyson’s autobiography, the English guy who made the vacuum cleaners.
He mortgaged his house even though he had a young family and the amount of prototypes he made and the hours of research was unbelievable
My small attempt was only possible because of our lockdowns in the Covid., and I only had the materials lying around the farmyard here as all the main dealers were shut, hence the roughness unlike yours which looks well engineered
The main objective of mine was to bring wood up from fallen trees on the farm to my back door with no heavy lifting. I managed to do this in this video with the help of the Teleporter with its electro hydraulic controls allowing the use of a remote control.
Here is another attempt at log splitting using the wonderful United States engineered Caterpillar D7 from 1956
I set a knife into about a ton of concrete and started the D7. Something had to give and it wasn’t going to be the steel knife, the concrete or 20 tons of D7!
I set a knife into about a ton of concrete and started the D7. Something had to give and it wasn’t going to be the steel knife, the concrete or 20 tons of D7!
Bill its easy to see you don't give up on those hard to split pieces. I used to be that way but in my older age those just go in the brush pile and get burned. I hate repairing splitters. I have spent many of hours on a D7 cat doing dirt work on my farms in my younger years.
saint18z
New Member
This was a great build thread! I am in the process of building a splitter and am contemplating a box wedge. Wondering how it is holding up after almost a year of usage, anything you would change?
Thank you.
I would rather not have built it in Lockdown with nothing open and only the scrap I had lying around the yard!
I was planning to build a complete processor , perhaps with a circular saw blade.
With a box wedge it is very important to make the angles of the secondary knives correct, otherwise the incredible side forces will be strong enough to bend or break the weld
I have abandoned the crowd and tip pickup of the logs as our trees here are mainly Ash and Sycamore which do not grow straight. So now have made a conventional log lift and use it to lift the rounds ten at a time.
I am very pleased with
1. The arrow shaped horizontal knife
2. The log grab mechanism which drops the log into the splitting chamber without tilting.
3. The remote control
4 The ability of the Telehandler to lift over boxes/ trailers/ heaps without the need for an elevator.
5 The power of the Telehandler hydraulics.
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