low budget splitter

[notshubby]

sorry guys no build pics but it started out with the I beam cut out at work. 8x10 1 inch plate welded on bottom for anchoring. an old cylinder laying around 5 inch diam but a little short at 16 inch stroke. the old riding mower that was sitting behind the garage since I got the new 1 because the deck was shot. non detent valve ive been waiting to use for years. some pieces of steel here and there cut out at work on them slow nights. a burnt up 2 gal cheapie compressor tank for fuel tank.

purchased parts
16gpm pump 100 bucks (should have went with 23 gpm since the 16 wont dog out motor on anything above idle)
oil filter and housing about 25 bucks
I started building it with a smaller axle but scored the old hydraulic splitter axle/hydraulic tank on craigslist for 50 bucks.( although I didn't have tires to fit the hubs so I welded on some old yj jeep front bearing hubs).

 

[notshubby]

as you can see power wasn't a problem from that 1 inch bottom plate.

 

[notshubby]

a little straightening and stiffening

 

[notshubby]

well off to work will answer any questions when I get home from work. ohh yeah and some vertical pics.

 

[notshubby]

gave her her inaugural run over the weekend and she did well. only problem she had was the soleniod from the old mower the motor came off died. jumped it out ran it and picked up a new 1 Monday.

 

[Jags]

Heck yeah. Now thats what I am talking about. I like the stiffening job for the foot plate. Any estimation on total build costs? That has been one of the ongoing discussions concerning home built units - that you will have almost as much cash in a home built as you would in a purchased unit. My response....Pfttttt.

 

[kennyp2339]

That's an awesome build, looks like it works very good to. How fast is the cycle speed? does that hydro tank have a vent cap to allow for expansion? what do you think the tonnage is?

 

[Whitepine2]

You gotta lot of power in that 5" piston,I don't think you will bend the back plate but I could see in the future pushing the whole plate off ask me how I know. I've got a 4 1/2" piston and welded it three times
it wont come off now but didn't think it would the first two times but as you keep using the welds just give up.Nice build I like home made and on the cheep is even better.

 

[dougand3]

Great job. Those tires are serious for that splitter!

 

[notshubby]

Heck yeah. Now thats what I am talking about. I like the stiffening job for the foot plate. Any estimation on total build costs? That has been one of the ongoing discussions concerning home built units - that you will have almost as much cash in a home built as you would in a purchased unit. My response....Pfttttt.

if your a poor scrounger and buy all new yes you will have as much into it as new. like I said I already had the cylinder picked that up 15 to 20 years ago in a scrapyeard I was doing some work for. to build a press but scored a 6 inch with 12 inches of stroke for that. the beam was cut out in sections from a project at work I asked the boss if I could have it he said yes. hubs were off a spare set of axles I bought for the old jeep to change gear ratio kept the rest around for spare axleshafts hubs calipers ect. motor was out of a riding mower that I paid like 150 dollars for and mowed with for about 3 years till a deck bearing went (coincidently my father purchased a new 1 an gave me his old 18 hp one so I never fixed the 14.5 hp deck but it still ran perfect no smoke ect) steel pieces for ram mount splitter wedge and pins were cut from drops at work. I made up the hoses. (perk of being in maintenance in a big plant.)
welding rod was left over from when my father in law owned a welding shop. when he passed I inherited about 700 lbs of mostly 7018 rod 3/32 to 3/16ths. been building stuff with for about 10 years now. a lot was in 50 lbs sealed steel boxes. when I open them they go into an old fridge freezer rod in freezer with a 60 watt bulb to keep warm and dry and I store paint and other chemicals in the fridge part with another 60 watt bulb to keep contents from freezing.

bought parts were an old splitter axle off craigslist 50
pump off ebay 100
lovejoy coupler like 20 bucks off ebay.
hydraulic filter and housing 25 ebay
ohh yeah new battery 30 bucks Walmart. damn old one on mower wouldn't take a charge or I would have used that too.

a couple small parts like fuel line and inline filter maybe 250 260ish total out of pocket.

 

[notshubby]

That's an awesome build, looks like it works very good to. How fast is the cycle speed? does that hydro tank have a vent cap to allow for expansion? what do you think the tonnage is?

haven't measured the cycle speed but definetly regret not buying the 23 gpm pump since it would have paired nicely with the 14.5hp. but on the plus side it runs the 16 gpm pump all day long at like 1/4 throttle and doesn't grunt at all even when buried in a knarly 30 inch or so maple round. hydro tank is the axle made out of 6 inch square tube its from a log splitter with the original vented cap. (I have no idea why the rest of the splitter was removed from it I bought it like that) but with 2 doughnut spares mounted on it with a bolt pattern that was same as dodge neon one had a huge slice in it. so I had a choice either find another temp spare or set of full size tires or just weld on some extenders and use bearings off an old jeep axle I had stripped the gears out of and run a couple of jeep tires I had laying around. the tank was even full of hydro oil that wasn't brown or burnt smelling at all so after draining it welding up the old bungs and relocating new bungs to locations to better suit my application I put the fluid minus the last less than half gallon that came off the bottom of the tank which had a little tiny bit of sludge. apparently it had some problem that the original owner had tried to fix by changing oil in b4 he disassembled it im guessing.

the blue tank is the fuel tank not the hydraulic tank.

as for tonnage its pretty much standard 3000 psi pump with a 5 inch cylinder ide have to look it up but if I had to guess ide say around 30 ton. give or take.

 

[notshubby]

Great job. Those tires are serious for that splitter!

the tires are actually kinda a joke lol. look in the first few pics the 225s are what was on it my boss made a statement when I showed him some pics about it looks good and my tires were bigger than his. so after bending the 1 inch plate I welded on the 1 1/4 inch bars (they were guide rails off a machine at work they get a wear spot about 3/4 inch wide by 1/16th deep where a roller rolls on them and its time to replace them but still very usable for stiffeners) with the extra 1 1/4 inch when it goes vertical on pavement the new height to hinges brings 1 tire up off the ground and makes it rock side to side. so I threw my 33 inch trail spares on it and snapped the pics. it will go back to the 225s when I have time to cut the hinges free from the beam and move them down about an inch and a half. 33s are a whole lot of extra weight to spin and road noise for a trailered equip.

 

[notshubby]

ohh yeah and 1 more thing about cycle time. that's a triaxle load of logs about 18 to 20 face cord. which me and my lovely wife split over the weekend in 10 to 12 hours.(5 to 6 hours Saturday and sunday) with me loading them on and off and her running the handle. minus the pile of big rounds in front of the jeep which I would guess at maybe an additional cord left to split. notice the 6 cord on the back deck stacked against the rail, left over big rounds from last years wood that I never got around to splitting by hand I did last weekend when I bent the foot. that's 25 or so cord of wood split over the course of 3 days for what it would have cost to rent a splitter for 3 days from home depot. do I wish it cycled faster sure. do I wish it looked better sure. but if I look at the big picture that's enough for well over a season so I guess I can live with the cycle time. and I don't even have to drive it back and drop it off lol.

this coming weekend ill get around to stacking it all and hope its dry enough to burn come winter .this will be my first year with the wood stove. the past 15 years I was burning an old very inefficient homemade outdoor wood boiler which chewed threw about 30 cord a winter smoked like a freight train but didn't care if wood was green or dry. but I just got tired of the smoke and going out at midnight every night when I get home from work in the snow to load it.

 

[kennyp2339]

I actually prefer the look of that splitter, it looks stout, there only two minor things I would change on it, I would make a larger wedge with the ability to hold a 4 way (seems like the unit has the power to handle it) and I would make a table so when you split a round in half you don't have to keep bending over to pick it up. Other than that it looks great and by judging from the pics works awesome.

 

[notshubby]

because my ram only had 16 inches of stroke and i cut my wood 16. we all know when you get in a hurry even if you paint mark your cuts like i do you still end up with some angled ends from bends twists or just plain old not cutting dead straight in them really big rounds. can easily end up being 18 long. i set the splitter head cutting edge 20 inches from the shoe in the retracted position. leaving the head 4 inches from the shoe extended. so i kinda compensated for that by making the wedge flair out pretty wide to help get it wedged apart good. on a small percentage of the really stringy stuff that i cant pull apart easily by hand i run the head in till end of stroke drag log back on retract a few inches put a split in sideways and continue through the rest of the way. i plan on extending the wedge higher if nothing more than just a stripper piece of 3/4 plate to help cut the stringy fibres a little better. but i don't see a 4 way splitter in my application working well with the limited stoke. unless i radically redesign it to push the log through the spilterhead instead of the splitter through the log. but then you lose the ability to go vertical.

ill probably put a table on it .i wanted to do a table slash loader but the beam doesn't stick far enough off the back to clear the big tires.

and i still have yet to weld a plate to the tounge to lock it in the vertical position. so i can get rid of the tie down strap.

 

[notshubby]

just cause i didn't post this build to the site as i was doing it. i forgot a couple small details. motor mounting plate is simply the front frame cut off mower. (you can even see the slot where the front axle used to go through it) it also provided support for that huge muffler that keeps it pretty quiet.

pump mount 4 inch pipe with a 1/4 inch plate ring on 1 end and hole cut out was welded on other end. then slotted out with torch for lovejoy acesss. chucked in lathe to bore hole and true face. (im a mechanic not a welder or machinist but i weld things occasionally since we have no designated welders at work and use the machine shop occasionally on really basic stuff since we have no second shift machinists and sometimes need emergency repairs) then centered and lined up to bottom of motor and welded to old mower frame.