Converting this Huskee 22 ton log splitter to electric

[crazyal]

You could make a L shape frame to mount the motor by a foot mount to the splitter but you'll want the motor to have a flange/ face mount so you can mount the hydraulic pump directly to the motor. Take a look at this site. Towards the bottom they have mounts for electric motors to pumps.

Hydraulic pump mounting bracket to small engines for log splitters

 

[wahoowad]

but you'll want the motor to have a flange/ face mount so you can mount the hydraulic pump directly to the motor. Take a look at this site. Towards the bottom they have mounts for electric motors to pumps.

I don't follow you. Why would I need anything else if I get the right lovejoy coupler?

 

[crazyal]

You don't need to use one of those brackets but it would be an easy way to ensure the motor and pump are in line. The Lovejoy will compensate some if it's not perfectly inline but the further it's off the quicker it will tear up the plastic dampener and fail. With the bracket you wouldn't need to spend much time trying to make a motor to frame mount that's strong enough and in line with the pump.

 

[wahoowad]

Ahhh, OK, got it. That does seem handy. I had not thought far enough forward to consider how the electric would bolt up.

 

[Gordon Gould]

most electric motors spin a at 1750 rpm I believe, that gas unit I would think around 3000rpm? you can get motors that spin at different speeds I believe.. or mess with the frequency which requires a freq drive $$. if you use a double speed pulley system you will need twice the power. so your back where u started... might be easier to just do ur splitting outside and use the gas motor! now your hyd pump ( I could be wrong here im no hyd genious) turns a certain flo (gph) at a certain rpm if you go under that rpm u loose flow (longer cycle rate) if u go faster then this I don't believe u gain any flow as your already maxed out what the pump can do.... someone can correct me here

You are not quite correct. If you double the output shaft speed of a motor with a 2:1 pully system you do not 1/2 the horse power. What happens is that you double the speed but half the torque. The hp remains the same. So in the op's case he could use a 1750 rpm electric motor, at say 3hp, and thru a pulley get 3500 rpm. He would still have 3 hp and would be about equivalent to his 6.5 hp B/S engine in both speed and torque.

 

[bighead51]

All small gas engines are rated at 3600 rpm . Meaning a 3hp engine reaches and maintains constant HP rating at 3600 rpm, just the same way a 20 HP engine runs at 3600 RPM. They can be made to run slower by adjusting the Gov. but wont put out its stated HP. Its not advisable to adjust any above 3600 RPM !

 

[LD1]

A little mis imformation here:

most electric motors spin a at 1750 rpm I believe

Actually, its about 50/50 as far as popularity. 1800rpm or 3600rpm. But you buy for the application. You can even get 1200rpm motors (6 pole)

. if you use a double speed pulley system you will need twice the power. so your back where u started...

Ditto what gordon said. Power remains constant regardless of speed. Its only the torque that changes.

Here's a motor that should do it for $199.95. 5 HP 230 VAC 3450 RPM LEESON AIR COMPRESSOR MOTOR

I would not use that motor. Compressor duty motors fudge the ratings a bit. With a FLA of only 15, its more like a 3hp motor. And with only a 1.0 SF, not gonna last long if/when it ever spikes a tad above. the thing with electric motors, they dont like to stall. They just keep drawing the amps till they fry. No way to tell without an overload, or watch an amp clamp, or wait till its too late.

Here are the lovejoys. The motor above has a 5/8 shaft. 5/8" L-099 JAW COUPLING HALF

If your pump has a 1/2" shaft, you will need this other half. 1/2" L-099 JAW COUPLING HALF

Should only need one to fit the electric motor. No need to spend $$$ on both halves and a spider. And unless they changed something, it should be an L090 series. Which is also compatible with the L095's. The 095's are just a little thicker, but take the same spider and you can mix and match L090's with L095's

Now....to the OP:

Forget about the 115v. No way to do it. For a 220v single phase motor, you will need a TRUE 5hp motor like the leeson ajmaxham listed with a FLA of 20.8 if you want it to last.

We have the same splitter, converted to electric. (well actually the 27t version but same pump). using a 182 or 184 frame motor, you should be able to come off the front vertical part of that motor "box" and be darn dear perfect in alignment. We used two pieces of 2x2x1/4 angle iron. A c-faced mount would be easy as well. More than one way to do it.

For our motor, we are using a 3hp 3-phase with a VFD. I would have liked a 5hp motor, but of the 40 some motors I have, none of the 5hp motors were 3600RPM. But I have about 6 3HP motors that are. And the VFD wont run a 7.5. So my options were to run a 5HP @ 120hz, or a 3hp and possibly overwork it occasionally. FLA on it is 8.0 with a SF of 1.15. And extending the ram all the way and holding it till it pops the pump relief (max pressure) and it was drawing ~11A. But while splitting, it rarely went above 8, and when it did, it only spiked 9 just briefly. So still within the SF of the motor.

So why am I telling you this.....3 phase motors are usually cheaper than single phase. And pretty easy to come by on ebay. you can get a VFD that will run a 5hp 3 phase for ~$230, and is nice for its adjust-ability. So when motor shopping, keep that in mind. That if you can find a 3-phase for ~$200 less than a single, it might just be worth it.

 

[Gordon Gould]

This is interesting to think about. I have the same splitter. The max pressure I get from my motor/pump is 3000 psi. And with the 4" cylinder that makes about 19 tons of splitting force that I actually get. I mounted a pressure gauge so I could watch out of curiosity how much it really took to split wood. To my shock and amazement most of the time the guage doesn't even register during a split and I hardly ever see the gauge go over 1000 psi while splitting.Thats only about 6 tons on really tough stuff. So my gas motor is loafing most of the time and just barely starting to work on tough stuff.



I agree with LD1 that you will very hard pressed to get away with a 120 VAC electric motor. And like LD1 says the problem with the electric motor is that it will sacrifice itself by drawing to much currant and burn up when the load gets to tough. A gas motor will just stall out.
So how do you protect the electric motor ? You should have a thermal cutout for protection of course. But you don't want it tripping very often. The motor will slowly die from a thousand cuts.
What I would do, for what ever electric motor I chose, would be to get an adjustable pressure relief valve and put it in the hydraulic pump circuit. I would then put an amp meter on the motor. With the ram extended against the stop and the relief valve at its lowest setting I would then start adjusting the bypass pressure upwards. The currant will increase. I would set the relief valve to where the motor is running at max rated currant. That way the motor is really protected. It will not try to do more than it is designed for. The relief valve will start to bypass when the load is at the max the motor can handle.

 

[franklin2]

A little mis imformation here: I would not use that motor. Compressor duty motors fudge the ratings a bit. With a FLA of only 15, its more like a 3hp motor. And with only a 1.0 SF, not gonna last long if/when it ever spikes a tad above. the thing with electric motors, they dont like to stall. They just keep drawing the amps till they fry. No way to tell without an overload, or watch an amp clamp, or wait till its too late.

I will call you out on the above. You are probably correct, they have fudged the numbers on that motor, but you said you only used a 3hp motor on your conversion, so what is the problem? And service factor should not be a problem if it only has to strain momentarily when going through a tough piece of wood. Most of the time it will be idling or just moving the ram back and forth.

 

[crazyal]

Why would you want to run the motor when it's not doing anything? To me the main reasons for converting to electric are, quiet, no gas to buy, no motor to maintain, and it's ability to run only when needed. A 5hp electric motor should be equal to about a 8hp gas engine. Combine that with a 2 stage pump and the motor really shouldn't be worked too hard. Also unless you stop in the middle of a log the motor wouldn't start under load. I've seen some prince spool valves with a micro switch mounted to them, just not on a log splitter.

Maybe I'm not the norm but when I fire up my splitter I focus on just splitting logs. After I'm done splitting I then deal with stacking. Often after an hour or two of splitting I have a large pile of split wood and aching muscles. I would love to combine the two. Place the splitter close to the run, split and stack each round and reducing the amount of time I handle each piece of wood. If where I stack my wood to dry was close to power I would convert my splitter. If I get inspired I could relocate the runs closer to the garage.