OP
deanwerden
Silver Member
The other splitter has been like that for years, I would like to see the ram that tears out a piece of 1/2 thick I beam, it would have to be well over 50 ton
Every store bought splitter I have seen has the anchor block welded on top like that. My Huskee (Speeco) is that way, and it's a true 35 ton. I once bent the toe plate on a tough old oak crotch, and I have stopped the thing on many a tough piece of wood, and there is no sign of that anchor block moving even a bit.
Did you ever mention what size cylinder you would be using?
A potential weak spot I see is the cylinder base anchor/eyelet. Just surface welding to the top of the beam like that. Have seen several splitters rip off a connection like that. Welds were good, it rips out a chunk of beam with it.
I got some pointers from some good fabricators on here, and here is how I ended up attaching the 1" thick wedge and anchor block on my splitter.
View attachment 481125View attachment 481126
It isn't hard for me to imagine that a failure could occur ... after having seen how much flex there is in the beam on my splitter, when it's loaded up to 2000+ psi and trying to work its way through something really tough. And it's only 15-ton ...I have seen many anchor blocks welded to falt surfaces, I have seen a few fail, but not many. Weld quality always plays a big part. Cold surface welds will break every time. Do a little grinding and turn up the heat and it will usually stay.
My beam (W8 x 28) isn't lightweight ... but it ain't exactly heavy either ...