show your homemade splitter pics here

[kilohertz]

Update......I just checked the hydraulic fluid and it's quite milky. Yuk! :confused2:

I also noticed, there is no filter in this splitter so there is the first upgrade to make. Add a filter and change the fluid. That may improve performance. Now, for the fluid, what weight fluid should I be using for this? I don't know much about hydraulics. I have always used 46 in my tractor but I see 32 out there as well as a few others.

What do you guys recommend?

Cheers
Paul

 

[kilohertz]

Update #2

Upon further reading here and investigating the splitter, I found the PRV on the pump, a Commercial C101AR-25, turned it in 2 turns, and put a small washer under the PRV spring in the Gresen control valve spring, as it was turned in as tight as it would go. Now I am getting a little more poop out of this. I was able to split a moderate size piece of pine, but it still won't touch the maple. I need to put a gauge on this to see what I am getting for pressure. It loads down the tractor a bit more now when it bottoms out. I think the hydraulics are okay. Probably a bigger cylinder and a new wedge will make this perform better.

Your thoughts?

Cheers

Paul

 

[tmajor]

I'll post a picture of my log splitter, not because it's the most beautiful, the most efficient or the biggest. But it has kind of a humorous story to it.

My cousin used to sell wood stoves and accessories. He had this wood splitter, which sat on the ground and had two rollers to back one wheel of a vehicle on to for power. One of the rollers drove the drive train, to turn the screw, the other was just there as a "cradle" for the wheel. I believe, this version of a log splitter was outlawed because of safety concerns.

I used to use a lot of wood for a wood fired boiler, but now (different house), just burn wood in the fireplace.

So, I had some logs from trees, that had fallen on the property, which I thought, I would cut up and split with this vehicle powered log splitter.

I used to use it with my two wheel drive truck ... problem was, there was no way to get the truck off the rollers. So, I started using my CJ-5 Jeep, which I could put in 4WD, when it came time to stop splitting. This problem was fairly obvious.

The next problem, which I encountered, was that, if I got into a log that stopped the screw, then the wheel of the Jeep, which was on the ground, became the "drive wheel"! :shocked: Well, the way I learned this, was that a log stopped the screw and the Jeep took off across the yard. I caught it before it ran into anything and got it stopped.

I decided to modify this little jewel to 3PTH, PTO driven. At this point, it won't split everything and it's not fast, but it does work with no more surprises. There is a "safety line", running from the splitter to the ignition switch. Maybe, it would have looked more impressive, if it were mounted on the tractor.??

 

[Short Game]

Yow! That's amazing!

==================

I first built my splitter about 15 years ago after I got a cylinder really cheap. I had a tractor with added remotes and a box blade, so I envisioned building it to mount on the box, in reach of the control lever on the fender. I had no idea about how much power it would have with the 2.5" cylinder. It worked great for alder, but where I was living at the time, we had a lot of big leaf maple, and it was not able to shear every big maple knot. Here's what it looked like then:

Eventually, the industrial supply that I got the original cylinder from closed out that line when they moved to a new location, and I got a second identical one for even less than the first one. With two ganged 2.5 inchers, it's never let me down (though I had to truss the beam to stop the two cylinders from working against each other and flexing the beam).

Last year my neighbor had to drop a 54 inch diameter spruce that was threatening his house. We split that thing, working around the biggest knots and busting many of them.

Yesterday, after finally finishing my log bucking forks, I bucked a deck of logs, finishing up at 8:30 last night.

This morning, I started the splitting:

I built the picaroon from a single bit ax. it's indispensable for horsing around those large rounds.

I made a dent in that pile.

On my way to the neighbor's woodshed:

 

[Deerblazer]

I've never seen a wedge design quite like this one. I do however see how it would stop the wood from sliding up and off the wedge during splitting.

The problem I see with it is...as the log starts to split it's not splitting a straight line through the round. Possible even moving around till the wedge settles into the wood.
That makes for alot of fibers to shear.

Perhaps a straight blade on your wedge with 1 to 3 degrees on the lead edge would work better. That's what works great on mine.

My theory on my wedge design was to get the lead edge into the wood before the wedge starts the spreading the wood.

 

[Short Game]

If you are referring to my wedge, I have no complaints about how well it works. But then, I've only been using it for over a decade. Most of what I split is red alder, and it usually just pops. I've had to struggle with some gnarly stuff from time to time, but I've always gotten through it, one way or another.

 

[Jhiphop72]

Favorite part of these pics for me has to be the chainsaw holster on the ROPS

 

[Short Game]

Favorite part of these pics for me has to be the chainsaw holster on the ROPS

Yeah, I have to wonder why tractors don't have trunks and glove compartments (though I GI canned the cup holder to have a handle on both fenders). The saw scabbard seemed like an idea whose time had come when I had my first tractor. I have to have a tool box, winch battery, and new for me on this tractor, a chain box. I need someplace to hang the pickaroon too.

 

[Deerblazer]

Short Game, Sorry if I offended you. I must have posted my reply in the wrong place. My mistake. It was meant for someone else.

Nice machine I love the twin cylinders.

 

[kilohertz]

Short Game, Sorry if I offended you. I must have posted my reply in the wrong place. My mistake. It was meant for someone else.

Nice machine I love the twin cylinders.

DeerBlazer - Thanks for the blade thoughts. I'm sure it was my black beast you were referring to. Yes, the cutting torch is ready to remove this old, way too thick wedge, and I have a new dozer cutting edge to weld on. This combined with inprovements I have made in the hydraulics should yield a decent splitter for me for this year. May start a scratch built over the winter.

Cheers

Paul