I see a couple of possible problems with the hopper design. First, I think loading the wood in the hopper is going to be mighty hard on the ole back. Every stick of wood you place in the hopper is going to make each lift higher and higher. I dont like the ideal of having to lift anything over waist high. Second, different size wood is going to fall out of the hopper onto the beam at different heights. Meaning if you have a small round fall out of the hopper, the next round can fall partway out, which would interfer with the pusher plate of the cyl. Even with a plate on top I think you will have problems because the cyl would have to be fully retracted before the next round could drop and if the round that drops is smaller than the push plate, well the next round will drop part way out also. You could possibly put the wedge on the cyl and make it work, This way, evn if the next round does drop, the wedge would just split it also. But then you could have pieces falling out that need resplitting but you cant put them back on the splitter because the next round has already fallen into place. The hopper can be made to work, but I think it might take a little more fabrication than it looks like it would.
