Woodsplitter build #1

[Zeus1]

Finally, after years of looking, and slinging a 8 lb maul splitting wood, i am finally getting ready to start my build. I work at a fabrication shop, so material and things of the sort is not a problem. As long as its scrap I can get what I need. I searched the net and found some free cad drawings for a wood splitter. I changed a few things up, but am staying pretty simple. All i beed is a splitter. I have all my steel gathered, all the fittings for the hydro tank and hydro lines. I got a honda gcv 5.5 off a pressure washer that the pump blew up and was practually brand new. The beam for the splitter is a w6x25, should work nicely. The tank is actually going to be a piece of stainless pipe, 12" sch 10. Should hold about 20 gallons of hydro fluid do if i ever change out the 11 gpm pump, i can. Cylinder is a 4"x24"x1.75. Set at 2900 psi I should get close to 19 tons of force. I am waiting til right after xmas to order the hydraulic parts (northern usually has a after xmas discount promo) so we will see. More pics to follow.

 

[Zeus1]

Photos

 

[Zeus1]

Photos of motor and w6x25

 

[Zeus1]

Been contemplating the log splitter design and would like some info from you all.

My original build was pretty much a straight forward design. 6 hp motor, 13 gpm pump. Horizontal/vertical operation. 4x24x1.75 welded cylinder. I got the motor pretty cheap and designed the splitter around the motor size and capabilities. Last week I found a sweet deal for a Honda gx390, 13 hp motor. This bigger motor allows for a bigger pump, and more stronger hydraulic features. I thought changing motors and say a 22 gpm pump. Adding a hydraulic winch with a hydraulically controlled boom pole to winch in and load the big rounds. Mabe adding some hydraulically operated out riggers to give it some stability for the winching feature. I do not know if this would work or not, but it sure would be nice to winch in the cut rounds and let the winch pick them up and swing them over and load them, instead of fighting with them to get them under the cylinder. Mabe change the cylinder to a 5" cylinder that would be capable of splitting big rounds all in one pass. Since this new design is in the design stage, I may just build the original design and save the new design for this winter because it is more in depth as far as its features. I am open to any ideas.