Working on the splitter

[Isaac Carlson]

I am rebuilding my splitter. The tongue weight was ~200 lbs and it was nearly impossible to move. The motor and pump were hanging off the back and the poorly designed hydraulic tank was always sloshing oil from the fill and vent hole. The pump was also pulling air in with the oil because of the low height of fluid above the intake fitting. This caused the splitter to jerk through the tougher pieces of wood because the air would compress and then build pressure and then pop through the wood a bit and lose pressure again until the air compressed.....over and over. Some of you will understand how this works.

I think I have it solved. I moved the axle forward about 2.5 feet and put the motor and pump on the side. I made my own tank form a 20 lb propane cylinder with a vortex design. The suction fitting comes off the tank at a tangent from the bottom edge of the tank. The return fitting goes back in on the other side and on the same tangent, but higher up on the tank, about 2/3 of the way up. This causes the fluid to spin inside the tank, acting like a centrifuge and driving any air bubbles to the center, where they will gather and exit the fluid. The hot returning fluid flows along the wall of the tank and gets cooled before mixing with the rest of the fluid, eliminating the need for an auxiliary cooler which would most likely get damaged anyway. Any debris in the fluid will gather at the center of the tank, where it can be drained out. The vortex action in the tank also acts to increase the head pressure by a small margin by continuously pushing the fluid into the suction fitting, also eliminating turbulence near the suction fitting, preventing air from entering the fluid in the first place. The tank is situated well above the pump to give maximum pressure to the inlet side of the pump, which was a flaw in the old design where the tank was next to the pump and was rectangular in shape, causing turbulence and a massive vortex near the suction fitting allowing air to enter the pump and mix with the fluid. Air in the fluid will insulate it and make it harder to cool as well as creating heat inside the pump.

I am shooting for ~20-40 lbs of tongue weight when done. Pics to follow.

 

[Woody harrelson]

sounds good, post up the pics

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I finished up a few things on the splitter today and pushed it out of the shed to split a load of wood. It was so easy to move! I would guess the tongue weight is about 15 lbs when level. That will go up to about 20 lbs with the longer hitch and jack in place. The tank works ok. The oil is cooler than it used to be and has much less air in it.
I can tell because the ram seems to have a much smoother power stroke when in the tough stuff. It didn't "pop" once today. I looked into the tank and could see the fluid spinning around and the air bubbles gathering in the center. It was not spinning as fast as I thought it would, but it was spinning. It would probably take 20+ gpm and thinner fluid to make it spin real good. I am probably running an oil weight of about 68. I don't remember what weight of oil I started with a few years ago, but I have added a half gallon of bar oil and another 2 gallons of 48 weight oil since then. I am using 7 or 7.5 total gallons of oil right now. The pump is 11gpm and the motor is roughly 7-8 hp. The wonky exhaust pipe on there is to direct the exhaust gasses away from the user and also reduces the noise a bit.

Overall I have to say I am very happy with the new setup. It is a different splitter now. I was able to turn it around in place while finishing the work in the shop.
I made sure there was plenty of space around components for easy access and air circulation. The motor has an oil drain on it now. I have a few more things to do to it, but it is in it's final form at this point, from the test today.

 

[MaintenanceMan]

Looks like it'll work..

 

[Isaac Carlson]

I will sand blast it and paint it if I get time this winter. This splitter is built mostly out of scrap. I think a good coat of paint will make it look a lot better.

 

[Jags]

Air in a hydraulic system bites. Good job on eliminating that.

 

[Whitepine2]

I think you should put a filter on the return line also I think you are using oil that is too heavy weight.A weight of about 30 is fine in most cases and lighter in colder weather. Good on you for getting the air out of the system this could split the pump in two,now that
you have things going good I would drain all the old oil out,install a filter and go for it full boar just my 2 cents.

 

[Isaac Carlson]

The filter is on the return line. I like the idea of having a filter on the suction side, but trying to pull oil through a filter doesn't agree with me.
I am using a 10 micron cross filter. I don't think I need one, but I had it sitting around and like the added security. It will catch any chunks if a seal goes bad. I ran this fluid for 3 years with no filter and it is like new, so nothing is getting into the fluid.