Converting a woodsplitter into a firewood processor

[Scooby074]

Some action vids. Apologies, they are not very good. Bouncing all over the place. Near the end of the first one and the entire second one is better. Have your Gravol handy.

 

[Scooby074]

 

[Scooby074]

Yeah....that's a pretty rough looking piece of wood there. How did the splitter react to those big knotty parts? That's about what all my wood around here looks like. Even the straight sections of the log are knotty as all get out. My little splitter has a hard time with them and some times I have to beat a clunker out and reposition it several times before It softens up enough to bust open. When I do my processor I want to make sure it has enough splitting power to power on through those knots without having to mess with having to dig them out and take another wack at it.

Most all the video you see of these machines in action shows them splitting nice clean straight grained wood. I was just wondering how it worked out in the real world. What kind of wood is that you have there? It looks a little like maple but the way the bark on some of the pieces look it looks like it could be white oak. I guess I need to eat more carrots my old eyes aren't what they used to be.

With the 2 way traditional wedge it handles everything you throw at it. I have the pressure set at about 2600psi. That means about 25ton at the wedge.

The problems come up with the 4way. The larger stringy, knotty stuff sometimes has to be flipped end to end to split. A few times I had to pull the 4way off to knock the round down a bit before continuing. I keep a sledgehammer by the processor to knock off stuck blocks lol.

If you want "guaranteed" splitting in the tough stuff with a 4 way or even worse, a 6 or 8 way box, you will need more than 25 ton by far. 35 or 40 ton I bet. If you look at the larger Cord Kings (the ones that can take 26" + wood) they are around 42 ton standard with 58t as the option. I think that is a good indication of power required. Cord King makes one of the best industrial processors out there. The 20.5" cap cord king comes standard with 29t and 42 as the option. Cord King CS27-40 (Model 60) - Cord King

A knife style ("euro") wedge like I plan on building will likely help splitting performance. My wedge is kinda blunted and steep. Much less Resistance with a knife style.

In the pile there was lots of maple. Some oak. Some stringy birch.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Can you explain the difference between the euro knife and the traditional wedge?

 

[Scooby074]

This is what I call a traditional wedge.

This is what I call a "Euro" or knife style wedge. All (most?) the processors out of Scandinavia use this style. Its thin and sharp. Works more like a slicer as opposed to the NA style wide wedge that acts like a popper.

 

[muddstopper]

I didnt realize that a knife wedge was considered Euro. I have never been to Europe, and have been building knife edges since way before the internet. As for the tonnage, I think you are on the right path with your suggestions. I use a 6way "Euro" style wedge. I have a 5in bore cyl. It will pretty much split anything I throw at it and I regularly split 30in dia rounds, Oaks, reds and white, Hickory, I think being the tuffest stuff. There are occasions that I bog the splitter on big forked or knotty junk. I have only stuck a round on the wedge once. A 5in bore cyl @2500psi is around 25 tons, @3000psi around 29tons. My actual pressure is probably somewhere in the middle of the pressures listed. For multiple splits I think a true 25tons is about as low as I would want to go. Of course if your splitting birch, aspen and such, I am sure you can get by with less.

 

[kiotiken]

You guys are scarring me, I'm planning to use a 4" cylinder at about 2750 psi and I'm hoping to use a 6 way "Euro" style splitting head. I thought about a 5" cylinder but stuck with a 4" because I want the extra speed. I guess a new cylinder could be in my future.

 

[Scooby074]

You guys are scarring me, I'm planning to use a 4" cylinder at about 2750 psi and I'm hoping to use a 6 way "Euro" style splitting head. I thought about a 5" cylinder but stuck with a 4" because I want the extra speed. I guess a new cylinder could be in my future.

You might be ok... but 17 ton isnt a lot of push, particularly with a multi wedge. If your wood is straight grained and small you would be OK, but who has that consistently?

The Hakki Pilke 1x42 only has 13t of push, and can use a multi wedge, but it maxes out at 16".

I think Id still go with a larger cylinder to get the tonnage up especially with the wood we typically see over here. Its not all straight grained white paper birch. I know in my experience so far I wish I had a larger cylinder. And a larger pump.

You bought it at PA right? They'll swap out what you got no problems.

 

[Scooby074]

I didnt realize that a knife wedge was considered Euro. I have never been to Europe, and have been building knife edges since way before the internet. As for the tonnage, I think you are on the right path with your suggestions. I use a 6way "Euro" style wedge. I have a 5in bore cyl. It will pretty much split anything I throw at it and I regularly split 30in dia rounds, Oaks, reds and white, Hickory, I think being the tuffest stuff. There are occasions that I bog the splitter on big forked or knotty junk. I have only stuck a round on the wedge once. A 5in bore cyl @2500psi is around 25 tons, @3000psi around 29tons. My actual pressure is probably somewhere in the middle of the pressures listed. For multiple splits I think a true 25tons is about as low as I would want to go. Of course if your splitting birch, aspen and such, I am sure you can get by with less.

I havent been to Europe either lol. But when it comes to these small processors, and home wood processing / woodlots, the Scandinavians have it way over what we do. They take firewood way more seriously.

The first place I ever saw a knife style was on the processors from Hikki Pilke. Nobody around here makes a splitter with a knife style. Manufactures other than Splitfire almost always use the wide popper wedge.

Thats why I coined the term Euro wedge, they just dont commonly exist on NA machines other than Splitfire, and it's a different concept with its bi-directional design. IIRC from when I was building mine, there might be a couple of smaller manufacturers using a knife style wedge in NA whose name escapes me, but they were a little different design than the Euro, with a larger backing block behind the knife edge. The euros make for much less resistance because of their thin profile

I guess you were just ahead of your time!! You should have patented it. You'd be rich:thumbsup:

 

[kiotiken]

You might be ok... but 17 ton isnt a lot of push, particularly with a multi wedge. If your wood is straight grained and small you would be OK, but who has that consistently?

The Hakki Pilke 1x42 only has 13t of push, and can use a multi wedge, but it maxes out at 16".

I think Id still go with a larger cylinder to get the tonnage up especially with the wood we typically see over here. Its not all straight grained white paper birch. I know in my experience so far I wish I had a larger cylinder. And a larger pump.

You bought it at PA right? They'll swap out what you got no problems.

Errr... OK, I'm thinking about it. Yes, it's from PA and I'll be there in the next week or so anyway. The pump is from Hydraulic Surplus, it's a 28GPM / 7 GPM dual stage pump (900 / 3000 psi).