Building wood splitter, need advice

[Dune]

Hi everyone, I am building a splitter and am at the point where I am ready to mount the axel. I can make it so the top of the beam is twenty inches off the ground or higher. I am thinking lower so I don't have to lift heavey logs as far. Also, I am thinking of a four split wedge. Then I read here yesterday about a six way. My five inch piston should be able to go either way. One other thing, I would like to make a trough or shute so the splitter can push the splits into a wheel barrow. Anyone else try this? Opinions welcome, thanks.

 

[LLigetfa]

I would make the beam higher than lower. Once you have the round picked up and your back straight to carry it, you probably don't want to have to bend over to set it down. If you need to resplit the round, you want it at a comfortable height.

As for filling a wheelbarrow, you might want to think that through. Do you really want to stop splitting every time the wheelbarrow is full and have to deal with the load? Most people split larger batches and just let them pile up.

 

[wendell]

I would much rather lift the log a few more inches than constantly bending over (even if it is a little bit) while I am splitting.

 

[Gooserider]

I would rather make the splitter go vertical so that I can sit down while splitting...

Gooserider

 

[Dune]

Do you really want to stop splitting every time the wheelbarrow is full and have to deal with the load? Most people split larger batches and just let them pile up.

No, I want my kids to be able to stack it fast enough that I don't have to stop. But seeing that they can't keep up with me hand splitting, I will consider this carefully.

 

[wendell]

I would rather make the splitter go vertical so that I can sit down while splitting...

Gooserider

Well, there is that of course!

 

[LLigetfa]

Do you plan to have a stationary wedge on the end of the beam or a moving wedge on the ram? Personally, I'm not a fan of N-way wedges and prefer to be in control of what size I split to. With the wedge on the end of the beam, the ram pushes the wood away from you and you have to bring it back to the beam to resplit. The upside though is you can just let the splits pile up at the end and the ram will either push the pile or move the splitter. Some people design an out-feed table to hold the splits past the wedge where they can be grabbed for resplitting. The slaves can also grab the splits off the table if safely coordinated with the operator. There is no need to toss the splits as with the moving wedge.

If you have slave labour, tossing the splits directly into a cart to haul away is OK too if they can keep up with you. It reduces the amount of handling versus tossing them on the ground. A work table or two is nice to have with a moving wedge as well.

 

[Dune]

I have the single wedge welded to the end of the beam. I guess I decided not to go with a six way, because I don't like my splits too small anyway. I think I will make a slip-over four way, then small logs can get split in half and large rounds can be quartered. The idea of halving a large round, then halving each half seems like three times as much work. I think I will go with an out-feed table-shute to fill wheelbarrows since I have two wheel barrows, and I have a hard time bending over.
Still trying to determine the ideal height, since not knowing is holding up the construction at the moment. Maybe I will go with the height to easily fill the wheel barrow.
Any and all comments welcome and apreciated.

 

[Dune]

I would rather make the splitter go vertical so that I can sit down while splitting...

Gooserider

Goose, apreciate the input, but after a lifetime of benchwork and standing at an anvil, I am not so good sitting or bending.

 

[LLigetfa]

I would rather make the splitter go vertical so that I can sit down while splitting...

Gooserider

Goose, apreciate the input, but after a lifetime of benchwork and standing at an anvil, I am not so good sitting or bending.

+1
Hope this doesn't turn into yet another debate with BWS, BB, and GR lined up one one side and us on the other.

I think you need to build two splitters; a stationary wedge horizontal and a second moving wedge vertical. Mount one on the back and the other on the front.

The neatest looking splitter I've ever seen is a bi-directional one. It split in both directions like a double bit axe. Fine if you have a fairly fast ram and the kind of wood that needs a lot of ram travel. Most of the wood I split though, the ram only needs to go an inch or two into the round and it's split.

 

[SolarAndWood]

This is a local guy who makes 4 and 6 way wedges. I want to touch the wood as few times as possible and not all that concerned about what comes out as long as it is ready to season and burn, so probably going the 6-way slipover route. I imagine you don't have a lot of vertical on Cape Cod, but I have been splitting over a bank into what is now a 12 foot high pile. Works well enough that I am going to build a 6 foot retaining wall to split over. The splits can then sit in the pile until the October it goes under a roof.

http://www.freewebs.com/logsplitter/

 

[LLigetfa]

I don't care for how the edges are put on both sides of those. The ones I've seen on the fancy wood processors are one-sided like a wood chisel, not two-sided like a steel chisel.

I like the interchangeable N-way wedges that can be raised and lowered hydraulically to suit the size of the wood. The fanciest wood processor wedge actually rotated to hide half of the wings behind the other wings so they didn't need to be taken off and swapped out.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I've tried to get my hands on one of the wedges from the processor or high end splitter vendors. I haven't found one that will sell it without either buying or owning one of their machines.

 

[LLigetfa]

I think some of the makers just use stock cutting edges from earth moving equipment and don't put their own edges on them. You might be able to find a source for edges and weld one up.

 

[LLigetfa]

One of the reasons I don't care for a N-way wedge is that sometimes the wood tends to chip out. Try slabbing wood off close the the edge and often it will chip off a piece rather than split straight through. Even if they don't chip out the side, they often taper the splits that don't stack well and don't pack into the stove well.

When I split and resplit, I generally split in half and then resplit the halves into quarters. Sometimes I split asymmetric but stay closer to the middle than the edge. Part of my OCD.

 

[Dune]

This is a local guy who makes 4 and 6 way wedges. I want to touch the wood as few times as possible and not all that concerned about what comes out as long as it is ready to season and burn, so probably going the 6-way slipover route. I imagine you don't have a lot of vertical on Cape Cod, but I have been splitting over a bank into what is now a 12 foot high pile. Works well enough that I am going to build a 6 foot retaining wall to split over. The splits can then sit in the pile until the October it goes under a roof.

http://www.freewebs.com/logsplitter/

Thanks for the link. That is more or less what I planned on making, but it is nice to see a picture.

For those who don't know, while A-36 is a "carbon" steel, because the is some carbon in it, like all steel (iron plus any amount of carbon is steel), it is a low carbon steel, also known as mild steel. Under perfect conditions, it can be slightly hardened, but is not considered tool steel in any way shape or form. Aparently it is strong enough and hard enough for the purpose at hand, however, I find the use of the word carbon, prefacing A-36 to be somewhat misleading, as all steel has carbon, and orignaly tool steels, high carbon or other alloys, were designated as (for example) carbon steel, high speed steel etc.

 

[Dune]

I've tried to get my hands on one of the wedges from the processor or high end splitter vendors. I haven't found one that will sell it without either buying or owning one of their machines.

If you send me a decent sketch of what you need, I would be glad to make what you want, of tool steel, hardened and tempered, for a very reasonable price.

 

[Dune]

I would rather make the splitter go vertical so that I can sit down while splitting...

Gooserider

Goose, apreciate the input, but after a lifetime of benchwork and standing at an anvil, I am not so good sitting or bending.

+1
Hope this doesn't turn into yet another debate with BWS, BB, and GR lined up one one side and us on the other.

I think you need to build two splitters; a stationary wedge horizontal and a second moving wedge vertical. Mount one on the back and the other on the front.

The neatest looking splitter I've ever seen is a bi-directional one. It split in both directions like a double bit axe. Fine if you have a fairly fast ram and the kind of wood that needs a lot of ram travel. Most of the wood I split though, the ram only needs to go an inch or two into the round and it's split.

Have a Bi- ram and considered that route, but the Bi-ram is four inch and the one I chose is five inch. Since I am builkding this this mainly for uglies and forks, I figured the extra power to be more important.

 

[Gooserider]

I won't keep beating the dead horse on vertical vs. horizontal, other than to note that unless you have heavy equipment or a log lift, vertical can be an advantage for those big monster logs that would be difficult to lift up to a horizontal beam... If you have mechanical lift, this becomes less of a problem obviously.

Noting that you are saying this is mostly for crotches and uglies, I would be very much inclined against a multi-way wedge - I've run into the occasional ugly that makes even my 5" cyl, 30 ton unit work for it's keep w/ a straight wedge, as often you end up shearing across the grain rather than splitting along it. I also find that while you tend to get ugly "pretzel splits" out of uglys regardless, you can at least get some "kind of straight" splits if you carefully "read" the round and split along the edges of the uglier bits - takes careful wedge placement, which is far harder w/ a multi-way...

I would also suggest making your toe plate as large as you can manage, and putting a lot of log holding projections on it - often uglies split better if positioned at an angle to more closely parallel the grain, or I have often seen them try to kick out as you put them under pressure and the wedge starts following an angled grain path. More projections on the base plate will help prevent this.

Gooserider

 

[Dune]

Thanks Goose, great info and ideas there. If I make a four way, it will definitely be a slip on, and if I have the splitter, with the four way, I am sure I will be tempted to split nice rounds of oak with it as well, plus, I am not getting much younger lately.

 

[Gooserider]

You're welcome... One thought that I've had on the log holding projections is to make them "unique" - initials or symbols of some sort perhaps... Doesn't seem to be a big problem, but seems every year I see a few threads of people having their firewood stashes robbed - often w/ some idea of who did it... I could see advantages to having wood that was "branded" by having a unique mark stamped into the ends of some of the peices, makes a nice bit of evidence...

Gooserider

 

[DaveBP]

I've never used one, but I like standing up against the vertical/horizontal combo splitters at Lowes Depot because they all are a little higher off the ground so it looks like I could stand straight up while working. My little rinky-dink 20 year old splitter has me bending over just slightly all the time and now that I'm edging up on 60 that slight angle is becoming noticeable.
Last year I added a new attachment to my splitter though. Made by Kubota. 4WD diesel log lift and worktable. Roll rounds off the extended bucket onto the splitter, stack splits into the bucket.When the bucket's full I stop the splitter and drive over to wherever the current stack is building and stack it. Nice change of body movements to break up the ergonomic repetition. Gets the wood stacked NOW instead of later. Next mod will be to raise the working height a little.

I don't prefer working while sitting on a stool and bent over like that to handle the splits. Though the electrically heated seat cushion on the stool would be nice in cold weather. You do all have heated seat cushions, I assume.

 

[LLigetfa]

Next mod will be to raise the working height a little.

You could take along a small pair of ramps to park the splitter on.

I'd love to have one of those 'bota log lifts.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I've tried to get my hands on one of the wedges from the processor or high end splitter vendors. I haven't found one that will sell it without either buying or owning one of their machines.

If you send me a decent sketch of what you need, I would be glad to make what you want, of tool steel, hardened and tempered, for a very reasonable price.

Thanks, will definitely keep that in my mind. It will probably be a few months as getting the shell of the house done this year is the top priority.

 

['bert]

Dunebilly, when I built my splitter I went through the same questions, I finally went and got a average round, held it up so my back was straight and comfortable, and had my son measure the distance to the floor from the underside of the round. That is what the top of the beam was built at. Perfect for me and me only.