I thought I'd share some pictures of the splitter I built earlier this year. Since I love fabricating and building things out of metal I decided it would make a good weekend project to build my own rather than buy one. My dad already had a splitter, but it mounted to the back of a tractor which greatly limits portability and uses a lot of fuel....so I decided to build a trailer and hydraulic system with small engine power. This is what I started out with.
I started out by designing the frame/hydraulic reservoir. I wanted at least 8 gallons of fluid capacity, so using the formula of length x height x width / 231 I settled on 6x8x42", which gives me 8.7 gallons capacity. The local steel shop cut out the pieces which are shown here on top of my MIG welder.
First step is welding the sides together. Since welding tends to pull and distort the metal, a series of small tack welds are used first to hold the two pieces securely before the final weld pass. I also cut holes and welded in bung fittings for the hydraulics.
Next side goes on, again tack welded in place. I used a block of wood and a clamp to make sure the sides were square.
Once the sides are tacked together, time for the final welds.
Next step is welding on the tounge and spindles. The spindles were free, I salvaged them from a junk piece of farm machinery my dad gave me.
And now for some wheels. The rims were also salvaged and the tires were free, I dug them out of the junk pile from a local tire shop and mounted them myself. The plate on the left side is the engine mount.
The engine was a no brainer. Honda makes one of the best small engines available, period. I scored this good used 8 horsepower model on craigslist for only $175, which is a bargain considering the same model sells for almost $600 new.
And finally it's all done. I painted it black, installed fenders and a trailer coupler, and mounted the original tractor splitter to my frame. The hydraulic pump and filter housing came from Northern Tool. I also built a jack stand to support the tounge. Here it's shown folded flat for transport.
Pull a pin and raise it to the vertical position for use.
Success!
After about an hour of work I split a nice pile. Although I based the basic design of this splitter on Northern Tool's models, I drew up the plans, dimensions, and design myself. It works great and I built it for about half the cost of buying something similar. Plus I only used about half a gallon of gas to do this much, making it MUCH more fuel efficient than it previously had been using tractor power.
I started out by designing the frame/hydraulic reservoir. I wanted at least 8 gallons of fluid capacity, so using the formula of length x height x width / 231 I settled on 6x8x42", which gives me 8.7 gallons capacity. The local steel shop cut out the pieces which are shown here on top of my MIG welder.
First step is welding the sides together. Since welding tends to pull and distort the metal, a series of small tack welds are used first to hold the two pieces securely before the final weld pass. I also cut holes and welded in bung fittings for the hydraulics.
Next side goes on, again tack welded in place. I used a block of wood and a clamp to make sure the sides were square.
Once the sides are tacked together, time for the final welds.
Next step is welding on the tounge and spindles. The spindles were free, I salvaged them from a junk piece of farm machinery my dad gave me.
And now for some wheels. The rims were also salvaged and the tires were free, I dug them out of the junk pile from a local tire shop and mounted them myself. The plate on the left side is the engine mount.
The engine was a no brainer. Honda makes one of the best small engines available, period. I scored this good used 8 horsepower model on craigslist for only $175, which is a bargain considering the same model sells for almost $600 new.
And finally it's all done. I painted it black, installed fenders and a trailer coupler, and mounted the original tractor splitter to my frame. The hydraulic pump and filter housing came from Northern Tool. I also built a jack stand to support the tounge. Here it's shown folded flat for transport.
Pull a pin and raise it to the vertical position for use.
Success!
After about an hour of work I split a nice pile. Although I based the basic design of this splitter on Northern Tool's models, I drew up the plans, dimensions, and design myself. It works great and I built it for about half the cost of buying something similar. Plus I only used about half a gallon of gas to do this much, making it MUCH more fuel efficient than it previously had been using tractor power.
