Wood splitter hydraulic fluid ?

[ajmaxham]

I am building a 16gpm wood splitter with 4 1/2'' x 24'' cylinder and a log lift. Should I use Traveller Universal Tractor Hydraulic Fluid $39.99 or X-treme Tractor Hydraulic Fluid 32.99?

View attachment 308518

 

[2458n]

My log splitter has ran 20 years on the cheapest universal TSC sold back then. Might not be the right thing to do but just changed the can type filter every couple of years.

 

[Soundguy]

utf is way better than plain hyd oil.. i think the 32$ utf would be fine. i run alot of it and plenty of walmart fluid too.

nothing I have has suffered lube related failures...

 

[Oliver1655]

I use the universal hydraulic fluid, same as my tractor. I have an auxiliary valve on my splitter with quick disconnects I can use use to operate hydraulic cylinders such as the lift cylinder on an implement I am working on without having to have my tractor tied. This way there is no mixing of different types of hydraulic fluids. Also in a pinch I could borrow a cylinder from the splitter to use in an emergency on something else. (4x24", 3x10", 2x10" cylinders)

 

[ajmaxham]

Photo of the wood splitter


Trying to attach photos

 

[davedj1]

AJ it looks good!
One thing I found out right off is the table needs to be down below the beam a couple of inches, some odd shaped wood caught it right off, I had to remodel it lower. What is the table made out of anyway, looks like some pretty stout material.
dave

 

[murphy1244]

looks real good AJ

 

[pizzaguy]

Could you post some pics of how you plumbed your valves for your log lift? I want to add a lift to mine and have a second valve but not sure of the best way to plumb them. Did you use a flow restrictor on the lift cylinder? Nice work!

 

[RandyBell]

AJ that looks good!:thumbsup: I am building on basically the same design to, I am using a tilt cylinder from a 980C Cat Wheel Loader for the ram, it has a 5" piston and has a 24" stroke. Yes I would use the Travelers from TSC to. I agree with davej1 the table looks like it could cause a log to catch. I like the design on the log lift, that has been where I was stuck for a while, I have been getting some big red oak lately and can't pick it up to split on my old splitter. I have an old Onan 16hp twin to power mine, I am tired of pull starting! I was thinking of going with a 22gpm pump but haven't got to that yet. I hope you get to try it out soon as it looks good!

Randy

 

[ajmaxham]

The table is 1/8'' metal from the side of an old manure spreader with 3/4'' square tube 1/8'' wall around the outside of the outfeed table. The outfeed table is lower than the woodsplitter beam (about 1/2''). I should be OK if I split with the outside curve of the wood on the beam but I might weld on ramps to the side of the splitter beam so it can't catch the outfeed table. I would like to try and keep the outfeed table at the present height to make it easy to move 1/2 rounds back to the log lift. I got more photos than I expected still learning how to post pictures.The outfeed table is the first photo.