Logsplitter 2.0

ajmaxham · Mar 29, 2015

Looks good with the back side capped.

How tall is the wedge?

rswyan · Mar 29, 2015

ajmaxham said:
Looks good with the back side capped.

Thanks

ajmaxham said:
How tall is the wedge?

It's only 10" tall - would have preferred something a little taller, but 10" was what I had on hand.

Just got done cutting the old slip-on 4-way wedge apart ... gonna rebuild that tonight to fit.

CDN Farm Boy · Mar 29, 2015

rswyan said:
Within the hour my young helper called and asked "Are you interested in a dump truck load of firewood ... for free ? It's seasoned and has been split once ... probably needs split again ..."

I told him "Heck yeah" ...

He showed up with a guy who he's worked for in the past, who was driving GMC cab forward dump with a 10' or 12' bed piled to the brim with wood. Guy was looking to get rid of this wood because it was so well seasoned that he wasn't getting long enough burn times out of it - he's away from the house 10 to 12 hours at a time - it was all hickory and oak ... that he'd actually bought and paid real money for ...

.

Geesh, I need to find a deal or 3 like that. Lucky you. :thumbsup:

rswyan · Mar 30, 2015

Old four-way wedge cut apart:

This took around an hour to do (at least), using 7" zip discs in my angle grinder. Used the air outlets of the welder to cool the grinder periodically ...

(Brackets for the log lift, and the beam-side cylinder attachment for it, are visible in the bottom of the above photo)

rswyan · Mar 30, 2015

Originally I was just going to cut the plate that the wedge wings were attached to and flip them so that they followed the (overhead) profile of the fixed wedge ... but the plate was only 1/4" ... and I decided it would probably be better to use something a little heavier.

The only thing I really had available was the last remaining scraps of the H-Beam flange (3/8" thick):

rswyan · Mar 30, 2015

As the above photo in the previous post shows, two of the pieces were a little short of material ... so I added some and filled in the gap:

rswyan · Mar 30, 2015

While taking a break from working on the side plates for the new 4-way wedge, I decided to fab up a little addition for the fixed wedge.

Took a piece of 1/2" (thick) scrap that was 2" or so tall and 1 1/2" long (when standing) and used the snagging wheel in the angle grinder to give it a rough edge ... and then used the Delta Sharpening Center to put a fine edge on it making a "foot" for the wedge:

This reduces the log length capacity (at the top of the beam) to 24 1/2".

rswyan · Mar 30, 2015

CDN Farm Boy said:
Geesh, I need to find a deal or 3 like that. Lucky you. :thumbsup:

Yeah ... I consider myself very lucky to have been offered the free wood, especially considering what type of wood it was, that it was seasoned, and had been split already ... and was glad that I could somehow provide an exchange by welding the guy's truck bed.

oldtimer 66 · Mar 30, 2015

RSWYAN here is a little trick that I do to cool down my right angle grinders when they start getting hot. Now I do not have expensive grinders Craftsman and Porter Cable. I have a refrigerator in the garage and I put the grinder and or grinders in the freezer to cool them down. Just for a short period of time. I have been doing that for some time and have not damaged any thing yet, although I do have the plasma cutter now and do much less hand grinding. Another thing is my rechargeable batteries/ Dewalt/ for my drill and Sawzall. When they get to warm to charge I do the same thing to them to cool them down so they can be re charged. Probably a lot of people are shuttering right now but it works for me. Don't forget the finish paint and decals on the splitter " Been there split that" . Later.

rswyan · Apr 2, 2015

Joy ...

:

Cycle times in low pressure/high flow were: 5 and change extend, 4 and change in retract.

Two hydraulic leaks - one on 90 elbow on the outlet of the Prince LS 3040 valve that controls the big cylinder and another on a swivel fitting on the inlet. Threw some Permatex No.2 on the outlet fitting ... seems to be holding. Tried tightening the inlet fitting ... haven't tried it yet tho' ...

Also have an oil leak on the valve cover of the Briggs ... will try to score a gasket for that today.

Misplaced one of the hex set screws for the Lovejoy coupling ... I made one out of a 5/16 bolt by cutting the head off and then slotting it ... just so I could test it last night ... so I'll need to pick up one of those as well.

Have some relief valve and/or 2 stage unloader issues as well, that I need to sort out ... stalled the engine a few times.

... but I'm liking it already ...