Splitter Issue

[babybart]

Hey All,
25 ton County Line splitter with the captive wedge. Splitting red oak yesterday and my last round jammed a sliver under my wedge. I disconnected the wedge from the ram but could not beat the wedge to the spot where the beam would release it. Any redneck engineering ideas out there? In the past if a sliver got underneath the wedge I just kept splitting until it worked free but this time the ram is struggling to return the wedge to full retract because the captive edges of the beam are tighter.

 

[Syflan]

Got a couple of very redneck ideas... don't know if any would work, or make things worse.

• Heat the wedge... it expands and allows the splinter to work loose. Or it wedges tighter. Or the lubricant catches fire.
• Spray penetrating oil into the gap where the splinter is... it allows the wedge to slide enough to work the splinter loose. Or it makes the wood swell and wedge tighter.

See... neither of these strikes me as a great idea... Can the baseplate be removed and let the wedge slide completely off the rail?
Hopefully somebody will come along with a better idea. Good luck.

 

[babybart]

Well it was already very wet as the wedge was squishing water out of the splinter. I won't use it again until the weekend so maybe it will dry out and come out. Thanks for the ideas though.

 

[Yarz]

Burn it?
If you can get the flame of a propane torch to it, perhaps you can get it to dry/burn/deteriorate just enough to allow the ram to move more freely so you can get it to come out like usual.

Use a hook to shred/pull it?
I don't know how much room is in there, but can you get a tool like a dental pick (or even sheetmetal with a hooked point cut into it) to pull out some of it? Again, just trying to get a little bit of it destroyed so you can move the ram again.

 

[cantoo]

Recip saw to saw it out or heat it up with the torch to dry and burn it out. Next time you slit keep a spray can of oil and give it a shot once in awhile.

 

[kevin j]

This won’t help you with the immediate problem, but I had that problem with my home built. Wood wedged underneath and actually bent the top surface of the rectangular tube. Ended up unbolting the sides and put a 1/8th inch strip across the very front, and added a 1/8 shim to the sides such that once it clears that 1 inch area further backward there’s more of a gap underneath the main part of the wedge bottom plate.

 

[babybart]

On this type of splitter there is nothing to unbolt as the beam sorta wraps around the wedge. I have noticed the beam/wedge gap growing over the past few years. I guess I pushed past the limits of the steel. I have looked into a replacement beam but pricey. A sawzall never occurred to me so that's the next try. I have considered heating the flanges and beating them down a bit but figured that would weaken the temper.

 

[Yarz]

I have considered heating the flanges and beating them down a bit but figured that would weaken the temper.

Do you think it is made from something other than mild steel?
I have no idea if it is... But, if it is mild steel, everything I've ever read said it cannot be hardened/tempered (Example from a quick search)

 

[cantoo]

babybart, my buddy has a splitter with the same style of rounded top on the beam. His was bending apart pretty good and was only a matter of time before it wrecked other stuff. I heated the heck out of it with a torch and worked my way down the beam with a 5lb ball peen hammer. I then welded small pieces of scrap steel as a brace on it.

 

[JRM]

I'm pretty certain the rounded edges are cast steel, as is the foot.

 

[GrizG]

Is there enough splinter wood exposed to get a long screw, or two or three, in it that you could grab with a crow bar, or some other tool, to lever it out? Alternatively, can you get a flat blade cabinet style screw driver into the wood such that you can break the splinter into pieces and break the integrity of the splinter?

 

[cookies]

get a section of 16 gauge steel approx 10 inches by 2 inches. bend or weld a L on one end, slide that under the sled from the back side and hammer it until your sliver stats coming out. Next you need to check/repair the sled rails and check/repair the sled for wear.

 

[babybart]

It sounds as though the rolled edges can be heated and remolded (@cantoo )( possible pics of your repair?)
There is no exposed edges of sliver and with what I was able to remove at the time of the incident leads me to believe it is all wet bark, maybe why it compacted so much under the wedge.
I like the idea of the l-shaped bar from the cylinder side of the wedge ( @cookies )
Thanks for all the ideas and info guys! or whatever you identify as...

 

[cantoo]

I don't have any pictures but a nice hot torch, beating hammer and a couple of good prybars to bend it where you need it to go will work. I disconnected the wedge so I could slide it back and forth to make sure the beam wasn't crushed to much. Use the big pry bars to open it back up.

 

[babybart]

I don't have any pictures but a nice hot torch, beating hammer and a couple of good prybars to bend it where you need it to go will work. I disconnected the wedge so I could slide it back and forth to make sure the beam wasn't crushed to much. Use the big pry bars to open it back up.

I was more wanting a better idea of where you added material to prevent this in the future. I suppose a piece of angle welded the length of the splitting area would suffice.

 

[babybart]

Just an update for everyone,. Had a chance to fart with the splitter yesterday and got the foreign material out. Well, it removed itself by freezing to the beam. As I had suspected it was wet bark. I still have to fix the beam but it split all day without any issues. Thanks again for the help.