My Vertical Log Splitter with Table and Log Lift

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Spent a little time on the splitter over the weekend. Will be picking up the foot, tubing, and wedge metal on tues after work.

Did some CAD drawings on the thing to figure out the motion of the beam from splitting mode to transport mode. I have a 2" bore 14" stroke with 1" shaft for moving it. I decided to put a 12" long lever off the back of the beam. It is tricky to get it to move exactly 90 degrees with what I have. It is almost laying flat when the cylinder is fully pulled in. I will make a cradle for the beam to rest in during transport mode. IMAG1076.jpg IMAG1077.jpg
 
Does anyone have any input on the beam movement? Do you guys think that it is mechanically safe or sound?

The hole at the very bottom and hole on the lever are mounting points for the cylinder. The cylinder isn't drawn in there yet.
 
Mounting the cylinder to the 12" lever seems like a weak point. The lever will be subject to a lot of force. With the short stroke of the cylinder there will be a lot of stress on the pivot point and the cylinder mounts due to the leverage of the beam length and cylinder weight.
On your first conversion I believe you went with a retractable cylinder with a fixed beam instead of the full beam.
 
triptester said:
Mounting the cylinder to the 12" lever seems like a weak point. The lever will be subject to a lot of force. With the short stroke of the cylinder there will be a lot of stress on the pivot point and the cylinder mounts due to the leverage of the beam length and cylinder weight.
On your first conversion I believe you went with a retractable cylinder with a fixed beam instead of the full beam.
Click to expand...
What do you suggest I do to move this 90deg or close to it with a cylinder that strokes 14"?
Keep in mind it will only be moved twice in an outing for splitting. UP and then back down to store or transport. It will be pinned in the vertical position and set in a cradle for storage.
 
splitter lift.jpg
iowa said:
What do you suggest I do to move this 90deg or close to it with a cylinder that strokes 14"?
Keep in mind it will only be moved twice in an outing for splitting. UP and then back down to store or transport. It will be pinned in the vertical position and set in a cradle for storage.
Click to expand...
i think something more like this would give you better results and allow it full 90 deg. movement. i dont have cad so this is my great "paint work" haha
 
I don't think that it is really going to take that much force to raise the beam. A setup similar to a scissor lift for a dump trailer would also work. What CAD package are you using? 2D?
 
dump trailer.jpg
iowa said:
I think that if the mounting location of the base was moved towards the beam and the beam mount was moved up it would be better mechanical advantage.
Click to expand...
not really... the way you have it drawn is about the same, from the beam piviot point to cylinder base piviot point is about the same distance (if drawing is to scale or close to scale) as what i drew from the cylinder rod piviot to the beam piviot, which in BOTH configurations is the downside of the design...
im looking at it as a dump bed and to give it the full 90 deg. motion, you could make it a "scissor" type lift but thats alot of unnessary moving parts and extra work...
heres a pic of how most non scissor type dump cylinders are configured weather 1 or multiple cylinders
 
nathon918 said:
View attachment 371177
not really... the way you have it drawn is about the same, from the beam piviot point to cylinder base piviot point is about the same distance (if drawing is to scale or close to scale) as what i drew from the cylinder rod piviot to the beam piviot, which in BOTH configurations is the downside of the design...
im looking at it as a dump bed and to give it the full 90 deg. motion, you could make it a "scissor" type lift but thats alot of unnessary moving parts and extra work...
heres a pic of how most non scissor type dump cylinders are configured weather 1 or multiple cylinders
Click to expand...
So I messed around with mounting the cylinder that way for an hour when I got home today. I couldn't get it to work right and come close to laying the beam down flat that way. Not without having the beam mount about 4" from the pivot point which would be a really bad thing. The only way I could do it is having the cylinder mount dropped down below the trailer, which would end up being a ground clearance issue.

I ended up drawing it up very similar to my first attempt. However, I shortened the lever from 12" to 6". Much more sturdy and beam will come close to laying down flat.
 
4 inches from the beam pivot? that would only equal around 5.75" of stroke out of the cylinder...
 
Cylinder extended between pins is 38". Retracted it is 24". Beam pivot point is 12.5" above trailer rails. There is no good mounting points on beam or trailer to make it work well UNLESS you drop the cylinder mount point below trailer deck. Ground clearance becomes an issue and also hyd lines dragging.

Notice in the picture you posted. The cylinder mount points are well below the deck bed.
 
Isn't the pivot point being 12.5" above the trailer rails the equivalent of mounting the cylinders below the deck bed on the dump trailer?
 
I struggled with this for a long time with my splitter and finally gave up on the idea of using a cylinder to raise the beam. I was using Solidworks 3-d modeling to try and find a solution. I finally decided to make a turnaround pulley for the reaction plate and use the splitting cylinder to raise the beam by hooking a chain on it and going around the pulley to the frame below.

JT
 

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