New (to me) use for hydraulic logsplitter!

[fattyfat1]

so this summer i picked up a circa 1960's unknown manufacturer logsplitter for free. It had been immersed in blackberry brambles for thirty + years. it took me an hour using a machete and my tractors FEL to DRAG it out and get it home.(it was my neighbors) everything on it was rotted out. many hours of welding, grinding, cleaning and flushing.
she has recieved a new honda powerplant from northern tool, new pump, new valve, all new plumbing, new hydraulic hoses, all new hardware, and a new bucket of hyd. fluid. got a little under 500$ into her! if my calculations are correct, i figure her to be around a thirty ton unit now. the cylinder was still good! fired it up, cycled her a few times! no leaks! so off i go.
the last place i got wood i brought it home in 8' lengths, manageable by one person, usually less than 8" diameter logs. i got tired of rolling them around on the ground to saw them so i stuck it in the splitter, brought in the wedge till it pinched the log good and tight, and sawed away! no more bending! no more pinched bar or chain hitting the dirt! I felt like a firewood gathering genius, my wife just laughed..... then i started thinking (uh oh), so i fabbed up a press end to replace the wedge so i now have a hyd. press. here she is........

 

[savageactor7]

Well good job on restoring that splitter fatty...props to you.

 

[cmonSTART]

Ya, sounds like a great project.

 

[crazy_dan]

So is it a hydraulic Press, Vice, or Splitter?
Good job and at ~1/2 the price of a new one.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

so this summer i picked up a circa 1960's unknown manufacturer logsplitter for free. It had been immersed in blackberry brambles for thirty + years. it took me an hour using a machete and my tractors FEL to DRAG it out and get it home.(it was my neighbors) everything on it was rotted out. many hours of welding, grinding, cleaning and flushing.
she has recieved a new honda powerplant from northern tool, new pump, new valve, all new plumbing, new hydraulic hoses, all new hardware, and a new bucket of hyd. fluid. got a little under 500$ into her! if my calculations are correct, i figure her to be around a thirty ton unit now. the cylinder was still good! fired it up, cycled her a few times! no leaks! so off i go.
the last place i got wood i brought it home in 8' lengths, manageable by one person, usually less than 8" diameter logs. i got tired of rolling them around on the ground to saw them so i stuck it in the splitter, brought in the wedge till it pinched the log good and tight, and sawed away! no more bending! no more pinched bar or chain hitting the dirt! I felt like a firewood gathering genius, my wife just laughed..... then i started thinking (uh oh), so i fabbed up a press end to replace the wedge so i now have a hyd. press. here she is........

As a regionalist I say that's not firewood genius, it's just how we roll up here in God's country. If you were on the east coast then yes, that is shear genius.

 

[jdemaris]

. then i started thinking (uh oh), so i fabbed up a press end to replace the wedge so i now have a hyd. press. here she is........

My neighbor recently used his log splitter to press pins and bushing in and out from his bulldozer tracks. I told him it wouldn't work - but it did. Small crawler though - Deere 420.

 

[fossil]

I routinely use my splitter that way. I like my stacked splits to be 16"-17" long. As I'm splitting I toss all the inevitable too-long rounds in a pile. When I have a bunch of those to deal with, I start pinching them in with the wedge crosswise on the beam & use the chainsaw to cut off the excess "pancake", which goes in a tub for fuel. I wait until I have a bunch to do so I can minimize the time I've got both machines running simultaneously. If a round's too large to safely clamp that way, I just split it first, then shorten the splits. Works for me as a safe way to git 'er done. Rick