Splitter conversion

[yooperman]

Just curious if anyone has converted one of the vert./horizontal splitter with the wedge on the ram to horiz. only by putting a plate on the ram and cutting part of the base off to affix a wedge or 4 way wedge? Seems there are alot of these type machines out there that homeowners buy and the "I'm a logger now" aura would wear off after a couple hours. Then turn around and sell the splitter with very little wear at an even cheaper price. I myself like the ability of a 4way wedge to push wood out the end of the splitter (onto a conveyor someday) into a pile without having to pick it up and throw it. Bill (snowed in) in U.P.

 

[Husky137]

A major concern would be if that style of splitter had the balls to make a 4 way work efficiently, at least in my eyes.

 

[ericjeeper]

I did just the opposite.

I took a spltter with a fixed wedge and moving plate and swapped em. Because I do not think a 4 way always fits the bill for the size wood you have on the beam. The worse part is the plate always pushes both halves off the end.. so one hits the ground (or both) and you have to drag it back onto the beam. So I cut the wedge off the beam and made a one inch plate and welded to the end of the beam(about 10 times). Long story. I would never go back to the old way. I added some 12 inch wide trays basically to hold the extra piece, while splitting the other half down.
The splitter started out ,close to 25 years ago as a 17.5 ton Brave. It was really low to the ground.. Dad used it that way for 20 some years before retiring from the wood burning world. Well me being as lazy as I can be. I unbolted the beam from the axle, and made a vertical post out of 2.5 inch heavy wall tube and welded plate to both ends. Bolted the bottom back to the axle assembly and welded the top plate to the beam. I had to extend the pressure hose. But it sure beats bending over to split.. Yeah I have to lift the wood a bit higher.. but that is life.

 

[triptester]

Yes the conversion can be made . You will lose some capacity unless the beam is lengthened to accommodate the wedge.

4-way wedges require more tonnage to operate . 5" bore recommended.

A fixed 4-way wedge is most efficient when all the wood being split is the same diameter . A 4-way wedge that that will split a 12" round into 4 equal sections will split a 8" round into 2 nice pieces and 2 pieces of kindling . That same wedge on a 24" round will produce 2 nice pieces and 1 big piece that will need to be re-split.

4-way wedged on a horizontal machine often make re-splitting difficult.