Log Splitter REbuild

[Kevin in Ohio]

I mostly cut fir and alder(both split pretty easy). I think I am going to cut an 1 1/4 out of the wedge down 5 inches. Make a 2 stage splitting wedge, if that makes sence. It should help with the force by making the lower section start to split then the upper section comes into play. The new plate is 8 inches long, that is as long as I can make it without a full rebuild of the entire splitter.

I hear you with as much as you can do for a plate. Sometimes you just have to go with what you can. By the pic it looks like your current one has angled allready?

I redid the slide on my Dads splitter years ago and converted it to a box slide on the double H beam as his was moving and bending. He ran it too long with too many flexes and ended up braking the cylinder end off at the last thread. He wanted to keep going and called me to see if I could reweld it on so he could keep going till a new cylinder arrived. Penciled both sides and kept welding till it was to OD size again. Used it to finish the job till New Cylinder came in. Rebuilt the slide and he said leave the old cylinder on till it breaks. It never did!

You're probably fine with what you say you are splitting. I'm used to hardwoods, knots and twistys so we have to overbuild for it.

 

[cutforfun]

Yes the old wedge was bending up, the old plate was only 4 inches long and had 2 bolts per side. The wedge stuck out past the plate 4 inches. I now have the plate even with the front of the wedge and placed 5 bolts 1 1/4 apart down each side. Does moving the upper part of the wedge back make sense? It sounds better in my head.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Yes the old wedge was bending up, the old plate was only 4 inches long and had 2 bolts per side. The wedge stuck out past the plate 4 inches. I now have the plate even with the front of the wedge and placed 5 bolts 1 1/4 apart down each side. Does moving the upper part of the wedge back make sense? It sounds better in my head.

Your basically crating a 2 stage split as you eluded to before. It will still have to take the twisting force of a taller piece. You just want to have as big of a mounting base as possible if your going with a wedge on the ram. The guy Whom I bought my parts from, James at Splitez, said the max you want for a wedge on the ram is 10 inches high. From there the fulcrum generated from more will work it too much. Again, the longer mounting base you have for the wedge the better. It will cut out the side to side movement or binding that may occur as it's stress or wears.

With only 2 bolts per side it's amazing you weren't popping those. I remember as a kid a couple of local guys built a splitter with an 8 inch ram. They ran it off a John Deere excavator. They had huge bolts on the rams push plate and it would pop them before stopping. They put guards over them as the shot like rockets when they let loose. Scary strong.