New to me Wood Splitter

[mrwardy]

Well I finally scored a splitter on Craigslist.... I have been searching every couple days for over a year.
When I saw an American AM-25H last Sunday I grabbed some cash and ventured out in the pouring rain.
Well when I arrived I was excited to see the 4-way and the overall excellent condition. The B&S;fired right up
and purred nicely.. The Cycle rate was a little slower than advertised but I figured an hydraulic filter change would fix that.
Well the Price was a smoking deal so I jumped on it and towed the American home. Well the filter changed and
the oil in the B&S;changed the cycle time is quicker than the 10 sec advertised time, cant wait to jump on
my pile of rounds that are waiting for me in the backyard.

 

[ChrisN]

Nice looking rig. How much did you get it for? I do my splitting by hand and have a pretty large pile of gnarly pieces I've given up on after many many swings. I have never seen a splitter on Craig's List here in my part of the country.

 

[Jamess67]

Nice purchase. Looks like you got some splittin to do. Congrats!!

 

[mrwardy]

I got it for $1100 which I belive is a killer deal for an American... Think new that splitter would be well over 2k

 

[savageactor7]

Congratulations that looks like our splitter that we've had since the early 80's. It's fast for me...6 seconds to return back from full extension to be refired. What is the tonnage of your splitter cause I don't know mine and am curious.

...and it looks you have a 4 way knife too. Not bad.

 

[Gooserider]

Congratulations that looks like our splitter that we've had since the early 80's. It's fast for me...6 seconds to return back from full extension to be refired. What is the tonnage of your splitter cause I don't know mine and am curious.

...and it looks you have a 4 way knife too. Not bad.

Estimating tonnage on a splitter is really simple - measure the outside diameter of the CYLINDER (not the piston rod) and go to the next smaller 1/2" increment - that is probably the piston diameter, which is likely to be either 4" = 20 ton, 4.5"= 25 ton, or 5" = 30 ton... These are nominal rounded off numbers, and assume a 3,000psi maximum working pressure, but are reasonable approximations. Actually you probably will see your splitter start to bypass around 2500psi, but the manufacturers fudge a bit... It really doesn't matter since 99% of the logs will split at a tiny fraction of the rated pressure, and the splitter will never make more than it actually needs to split a given round... (The pump just boosts the pressure until the log gives or it goes into bypass mode.)

Gooserider