Home made wood splitter

[dking]

I've always used a wood maul but looked at splitters this year. I usually split between 7 and 10 cord so for me not worth the price of a new one. But for $350, this splitter was made from scrap parts. It ain't super fast, it splits about 1 cord in 2 hours, I can split straight grained wood faster with a maul but this thing will split the biggest, twisted wood I have without any hesitation.

Anyone else make there own splitter? How much did it cost to build? How fast is yours?

 

[Scotty370]

"I can split straight grained wood faster with a maul........."

That's why they say "Firewood heats you twice".......once while splitting it! ~S

 

[brandoro]

My splitter cost about $300.00 Canadian, that was for the cylinder, hoses and valve. The rest was stuff I had laying around.
Did your cost include the operators chair shown in the first photo?? I have to stand to operate mine.
Mine isn't too fast but it doesn't get tired and I don't need to count my fingers when I'm done. I looked at one another guy had built, he used a 2-1/2" cylinder. It was way too fast and didn't have enough power to split twisted or knotty stuff. Mine uses a 4" cylinder so travels at a sedate pace but doesn't stop. So far it has never refused to split anything I have put on it.

 

[PILOON]

Mine hangs on my 3-point and is powered by aux hyd output.
The cylinder is 4" and I lucked out at $25.00, however it does leak a bit.
I-beam was in the $40. range and the costly item is the valve.
Always figured my outlay was no more than $200 total.

With that 4" cylinder, while slower than I'd prefer, I can actually cut 4" maple to length (cross grain). While not recomended practice, it sure tests the integrety of my welding.

 

[DIRTROAD]

I built mine several years ago. Probably have around $300-$400 invested. The engine was a donor from a pressure washer that quit pressuring. Overall I am pleased with it, could be a little stronger though.

 

[bassgrinder]

I built a wood processor add on to my log loader it would do about 2.5 to 4 cords an hour the final product used a 72" slasher bar with 3/4" pitch chain and a 5" ram with an 8 way wedge the hydraulics for the slasher and ram were controlled by 12 volt solenoids and micro switches with "whiskers" to sense the wood so my part was to feed the logs in with the clam as fast as I could. I sold it off when I left Upstate NY but I have decided to build another since even though i do not use too much fire wood here in S Jersey the price for firewood is so high i can't resist

 

[archerm3]

I built a wood processor add on to my log loader it would do about 2.5 to 4 cords an hour the final product used a 72" slasher bar with 3/4" pitch chain and a 5" ram with an 8 way wedge the hydraulics for the slasher and ram were controlled by 12 volt solenoids and micro switches with "whiskers" to sense the wood so my part was to feed the logs in with the clam as fast as I could. I sold it off when I left Upstate NY but I have decided to build another since even though i do not use too much fire wood here in S Jersey the price for firewood is so high i can't resist

Am having a hard time envisioning this.. What's a slasher bar exactly? Do you have pics? Very curious I am.

 

[Sunkistdds]

Still looking for ideas on a guillotine style splitter. I have 2 4" welded cylinders and the heavy I beam as salvage. Want to put it on a 3 point. This just makes it a lot easier to load big pieces for my old back... well you don't load you just upright. I know it is pretty logical, but if there are problems, I would be interested before I strike an arc.

 

[bassgrinder]

Am having a hard time envisioning this.. What's a slasher bar exactly? Do you have pics? Very curious I am.

A slasher is what loggers some times use to cut logs to the correct length for market instead of a chain. There are two types a circular saw type and a bar type. It is basically a oversized bar and chain (the teeth on ｾ pitch are the size of a thumb) usually driven by a hydraulic motor, and it will pivot on one actuated by a hydraulic cylinder. The log lays in a cradle or bunk and the saw swings down and cuts it off. With some firewood processor designs a bar slasher is used for the step of cutting a full size log into the desired length blocks that are then split into the final product. I got rid of the wood processor I built over 10 years ago and have no pictures. Here is a fair set picts of a slasher that is used by loggers
CTR - Sawbuck/Slasher - IronMart
I used a bar, chain, and hydraulics, like this on my processor

 

[sizzami]

mine cost about 2000 with a lot of scrounging