Your favorite log splitter design features

[tanker]

HI Josh!

No I didnt say that.

A 35 gpm pump is a HUGE pump on a logsplitter. You need a tractor PTO to turn that pump, very high torque AND low rpm. HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO POWER THAT PUMP? a 10hp HONDA or a Tractor PTO???

You can use a 35gpm pump into a 25 gpm valve but 40-50% of input power will be wasted to push oil thru an under sized orifice in the valve....OVERHEATING!! QUICKLY!!

When you look at pumps, DON'T look at the advertized "22gpm" or"35gpm", because it don't tell you everthing you need to know.

You need to know following:
Pump Displcement in cui/rev like 0.61 cui/rev
max Speed recommendation like 4000 rpm
Max pressure like 3500 psi.

From this you can figure flow in gpm. For every 1000rpm this pump will make 610 cui=2.64 gpm

It's the same thing with the cylinder. You need to know following:
Bore diam, like 4" bore
Rod diam, like 2" diam
stroke lenght. like 24"
Max pressure, like 3000psi

The valve.....
Max flow rating, like 25gpm
max pressure, like 3500psi

I have an Excel spreadsheat I use to calculate this.....I dont know if you are familiar with Excel, but you are free to use my spread sheet...

Off the top of my head,I would guess that 35gpm pump would need roughly 45-50 h.p. to run it.I have ran a single stage vikers vane pump with 11h.p. for roughly 20 years and get along great with it with decent speed but will probably inthe nearfuture go with a 16gpm barnes 2 stage..With the motro and pump combo that i have,I get along good splitting with it but when others use it,we seem to go through lovejoys very quickly.I also am set up as horizonal only and have split 40-48" in wood with very little trouble and even easier now that i put a loader on my tractor 2 years ago.I designed it to be tailgate height or a little less and the tounge is long enough so that a 26" peice will split and not get my tailgate.I prfer to split where i cut and leave all the mess there,bring it home and stack off the truck then it is done nice and neat.My wedge is on the beam.I have used both and my own preference is to have the push plate on the ram.My bil just bought a new swisher 26 ton splitter and we gave it a workout last weekend on some 46" white oak in the vertical position and after 2 days of this we both decided that we had never worked so hard to split wood.Had to turn the rounds 3-4 times to get them apart.finaly ended up using both splitters together,his to chunk the rounds apart and mine to split up the chunks.If I was to build another,I'd still go horizonal only.I still find it easier to move even the large rounds on the round side versus the flat side.

 

[AKKAMAAN]

What cubic inch single stage pump is ideal for a splitter with a 4 inch cylinder?

Depends on what engine power and rpm's you have availbale.......
What system pressure you decide to use.....
What valve you choose, flow rating......
If I say 0.61 cui per rev, you will ask why so little pump??.....and I say it's because I choose a high system pressure and high rpm.s on a 10hp engine...
and a pressure sensitive regenerative valve for automatic 2 speed, I also choose a 2" rod diam and a 18 inch stroke on the cylinder, that will make my day here in "easy split" douglas fir country..........18.8 true tons and 2.4 inch/sec low speed...and 4.7 true tons and 9.7 inch/sec high speed.....90% OF THE SPLIT CYCLE WILL GO ON HIGH SPEED, 10% ON LOW SPEED HIGH FORCE TO MAKE THE INITIAL SPLIT CRACK....opcorn:

 

[drmiller100]

my splitter has following:

4 inch ram, 2 inch shaft
30 gpm pump
4 way wedge, all knife edged, set up to be staggered contact points
ears 6 inches higher then base I beam
3 way detent valve with doug's bungy custom autocycle
fixed knife, movable pusher.
conveyor
engine, pump, and tank are in separate powerpack placed 20 feet away.

7 second full cycle time.

to do it all over again, i would consider a pair of 3 inch rams set up so both rams crack, one ram runs it in and out. and, i would weld the ears 5 inches up off hte base I beam.

 

[savageactor7]

One thing I like about my 25yo American splitter is that it's only 10-12 in off the ground and the lever is above the most forward part of the ram. Very comfortable to use.

90% of the time I'm sitting on a log while splitting. Cause the rail is low is very easy to make a ramp for the bigger round I occasionally can't lift.

It's cool to that I can curl my toes under the rail for reach around leverage...I love my splitter.

 

[abohac]

Log Lift, auto cycle

I bought a Timberwolf because of its size and the log lift but what really makes wood is the fact that you can pull both levers and the cylinder cycles without you being there (you are gettting another piece of wood). Pull the levers, it completes the stroke and returns the cylinder.

 

[Gooserider]

Well my preference is decidedly for H/V type splitters, and I could probably skip the H part. I've used a friends horizontal Supersplit, and far prefer using his H/V hydraulic MTD machine in vertical mode. This is working side by side in the same basic working setup - rounds piled on the ground, putting splits on a conveyor to load into his truck.... (I can also just about keep up with the Supersplit on an all day session, but that's another story)

So my first key feature is that it must go vertical, and the easier to do so the better.

One of the features I like about the HF splitters as opposed to most of the competition is that they store in a fraction of the space most splitters need. Most units have a seperate trailer tongue, the HF design puts the hitch on the end of the beam, and uses the beam for the tongue (I think the old Brave splitters did the same thing, maybe a few others) Thus if I put the beam vertical, and take off the front support leg, my storage footprint goes down to not much more than the width and length of the tires.... This is a brilliant improvement IMHO. However, I don't really plan to tow the unit, so I don't need a trailer hitch as much as I would the hookup to move it around w/ our lawn tractor.

Valve height and position - I like the valve on the left of the cylinder, just above the base of it, with the handle sticking straight back. This puts the handle at about 30" off the ground, which is out of the way but easy to reach up and work it when sitting in front of the machine.

The Engine should be where it is easily possible to reach the throttle and other controls from the operating position, but far enough back that it is reasonably unlikely to be bashed by a misplaced round. Ideally I'd love to have a setup that would make it responsive to the hydraulic valve - give the engine gas when I pull down, in order to have the grunt if I go into low speed mode, but slow down when idling or retracting. Must have good muffler, and exhaust that points away from operator.

The foot pad should be at least 12" x 12" in working area (plus whatever it takes to attach to the beam) and have a useful pattern of projections on it to prevent non-square rounds from sliding out from under the wedge. The wedge should have it's cutting edge parallel with the foot plate, or if it is angled, having a point at it's outside face corner (again to discourage slideouts) The beam should be substantial, and on it's face marked w/ the distance to the foot pad in about 2" intervals from 14-24"
(useful for judging split length)

Gooserider

 

[Butch(OH)]

Another good source for parts and pieces is the surplus center.
http://www.surpluscenter.com/

Design features I wouldnt want to be without

Beam at comfortable working height
Log lift
Prince auto cycle valve
What ever it is powered with is either quiet or far enough away it isnt a huge bother.
The exhaust needs to be pointed away from the operator (why is this simple thing screwed up in 1/2 the splitters bought or built?)

You all have seen mine I wount bore you with pics again.

 

[Zodiac45]

Good reading...thanks! I have a 35gpm single stage pump but I think that would be too much - LOL! SO, the sun valve is the way to go instead of using a two-stage pump? The single stage pump is cheaper than the 2-stage, so that will help offset the sun valve.

I don't think so Four Paws. You defo want too go with a 2 stage pump. Allot more umph for the tough stuff when it shifts down.

 

[skid row]

Use an H beam 8X8 and 1/2" thick. That is the main part that will take a pounding for years. Go very heavy duty, so ya only have to do it once.

Cylinder 5 inch diameter with a 22gpm 2 stage pump.

At least a 12 hp engine.

Log lift.

15 gallon capacity hydraulic oil tank.

Beam height depending on how tall you are. I am 6'2" the top of my beam is 32". No bending over.

Wide axle, great for towing and it wont flip if ya have a loglift lifting a BIG round.

Alot of great points from the other posters on this thread. My best advice to someone building a splitter would be to overbuild it extra heavy duty starting with the H beam.

 

[brisawyer]

Where can I find a price on the prince lsr 3060 valve. I have looked all over the net but probably not in the right place.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

My best advice to someone building a splitter would be to overbuild it extra heavy duty starting with the H beam.

Yep. If ever there were a place to indulge our love of overpowered tools, THIS is it!

 

[LAH]

I bought a Timberwolf because of its size and the log lift but what really makes wood is the fact that you can pull both levers and the cylinder cycles without you being there (you are gettting another piece of wood). Pull the levers, it completes the stroke and returns the cylinder.

YES AUTOCYCLE YES

 

[Gooserider]

I actually have mixed feelings about autocycle, and even the auto-return detent, and am not sure how much time they really save...

The splitters I use (mine and my friends) like most units have around a 24" stroke... I target 18" and no more than 20" wood, my friend likes 16-18" wood. While we both get enough long peices to make the 25" capacity useful, most of the rounds are way less than that (and I suspect that's the case for most of us) A lot of the wood that I split pops in the first inch or less of contact with the wedge, and what doesn't will usually come apart before I've run the wedge all the way out...

Net result is my "working cycle" is really only about 3" or so of travel - down just enough to pop the round, up just enough to clear the next round.

When I'm working on my splitter, the auto return detent works well, and takes the wedge up all the way while I'm getting rid of the splits I just made, and getting the next victim into position (or turning the current log to split it the other way)

I then have to pull the lever and WAIT for the ram to come back down...

W/ my friends splitter, for some reason the return detent doesn't work most of the time, so I have to hold the lever to go up, as well as down. This makes if very easy to "short stroke" and bring the piston up and down just enough to do the job - since my up stroke is only a couple of inches, it goes really fast...

I haven't timed it, but I suspect that the time I save by getting my hand free sooner with the detent is less than the time I lose from waiting for the wedge to travel the extra 6" distance from the top of the cylinder down to the top of the next round... (Especially considering that if it's a small round I can often start getting set up for the next round with my free hand...)

I know some folks deal with this by using cylinder travel limiters, but as I've said, I get enough long rounds to not want something that would keep me from being able to deal with them as I go along.

Gooserider

 

[cityevader]

That's what I use my wife for...working the control valve. She'll watch for the next round I grab and by the time it's on the beam, The wedge is close to being right on.....although she does need a little more practice.

Having both hands available to maneuver the wood drastcally increases production.

If only I could afford a few more dollars for a few different parts.

 

[Butch(OH)]

Yep. If ever there were a place to indulge our love of overpowered tools, THIS is it!

Yup, when building carefully calculate how heavy a part needs to be and then double the size.

The gibbs on my splittter, made from 2x2 sqaure stock on the Bridgeport after I tore them off twice before, they dont flex now, LOL. 5.5" cylinder packs some poop.

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The wedge. Design 3 or 4 and I am still not completely satisfied. We burn a lot of Elm, stringy stuff and you have to split it all the way, no place for narrow short wedges. The 4 way lowers out of the way for splitting small stuff in half or big ones that tax the 4 way. Powered up and down hyraulicaly with 10" of travel

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[Butch(OH)]

Some kind of platform to keep the split wood from falling on the ground is nice. This pic shows the rear end of ours, the platform and log lift. The top of the beam hits me about belt high. The splitter was built from some new and some scrap. Some of the parts would have been a tad differant had a stockpile of new steel been available. With a decent helper and our loading elevator it is no trick to load a pick up as high as the cab in a half hour. Yes we have some extravagances in our firewood operation, I am old and a tired butt, LOL Pic also shows another hady splitter tool, Estwing camp axe.

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The $25 farm auction loading elevator (plus Honda) and another handy wood splitter gadget, an old pick up. It sure saves beating up the nice one. We dont have much in the ole Dodge.

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