Under my nose I beam

[kyle1!]

AS is my favorite site. Love cutting trees down and splitting the wood up to use around the campfire. The past couple of years the stubborn pieces that cause the maul to bouce off leads to frustration. Like most on this site I love a new project. If others can build a splitter why not me?

One day I was walking through my shed and noticed an I beam with winged wedge. A local farmer stores misc in my shed and this beam was on his old hay rack. Beam is 4 to 5 ft long. It is formed in the shape of a T and knowing the farmer it fit on a tractor somehow.

I wanted to ask if this would be a suitable beam to use. Didn't plan on making a large splitter just one for the tough pieces. This I beam seems kind of thin from reading other posts. I have a 5hp and 11hp engine available and a pickup box that I could use as a platform. I'll scavenge for the other items as well. Thanks

Brian

 

[triptester]

From the pics it looks like the farmer planned on a splitter attached to the 3-point hitch.
The beam looks pitted and a little narrow but if the price is right and it's half complete give it a try.

 

[ericjeeper]

I would not waste my time on it

Buy a stronger wider beam. I would hate to see you invest any time in that mess and then to see it twist and fail.

 

[drmiller100]

that thing is plenty stout. if you are worried about twisting, just don't make the push platform very high.

 

[ShoerFast]

I'm with EricJeeper here.

Look at the last picture, the end view, that is a structural I-Beam, not a heavy duty one for equipment.

Maybe the picture is deceiving, but it looks very thin?

Hope this dose not sound like I want to burst your bubble, but I would hate for you to spend all that time and have something that will twist on you the first time it hits a knot just right.

Look at the steel they use here: http://www.splitez.com/log_splitter_wood_splitters.html

 

[ShoerFast]

To thin here I think?

Iron is fairly easy to find, relativity cheep if you can buy it from a salvage yard. A lot of salvage yards buy scrap by the truck load, so much a ton, but toss the better "cool" stuff to a side, and a good chunks specifically for a splitter are sometimes keep. Most yards would really like to sell you some iron for so much a pound, it has been a few months, but last time I bought some scrap steel it was like 25 - 30 cents a pound, that is more then twice what they paid for it.

Here is what I think will haunt you, marked by the arrows: