Well as a professional welder i took my in-laws Junk splitter, bought a new cylinder, used their motor, pump, control valve, axle and most of the hoses. I had a bunch of steel laying around, and although it turned out pretty good. It took alot more time than i had originally had planned. I was lucky engough to be able to do all the machining i needed at work. I still wish maybee that i would have sold it and bought a manufactured one. but at the time i always wanted to build one and no one else seemed interested in helping or putting any money into it. Then after its all done i noticed a small leak in the Pump and it cost like $125 to get that rebuilt. so in all i spent countless hours and about $650 out of my pocket.
My suggestions to you, if you are going to build one i would look more at other designs and try and pick good ideas from other people's. include them in your design.
You are going to need some machining, so a machine shop would have to around you and it wouldn't hurt to talk with them first to see what they charge on an hourly rate.
Make sure you buy a BIG cylinder atleast 4". With atleast 18" stroke.
I would also put a rubber tire that swivels on the front and a nice big handle so you can move it around the wood pile easily by hand.
make sure your Wedge and control valve are mounted high enough that you are not bending over constantly. try and make some extensions around your wedge so you have almost a table around it so you can pile up some wood on booth sides.
And depending on what you are splitting don't be like me put a log lifter on the side. so the machine can do all the heavy lifting.
But still you can buy one already done for not much over a $1000. and all you have to do is open a beer put some gas in and start splitting. It is one of those things that will pay for itself in time anyway.
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