Electric log splitter valve

[Scooby074]

There are lots of firewood processors with electric over hydraulic control. To me, its actually easier to handle the logic electrically vs. hydraulically.
Heres an electric Autocycle on a Timberwolf processor Firewood Processor | TW-PRO MP XL | Timberwolf Manufacturing

Im not sure what the guy at Splitfire is getting at saying that those prince valves are illegal. AFAIK they are not "illegal". Wallenstein, for one, still uses them on their semi-automatic processor: WP Wood Processor - Wallenstein

I use one on my splitter. In all honesty if you have a fast splitter cycle like I do, I really dont have the time to get that far from the controls, like stacking, before the splitter cycles and is ready for a new split. I plan on building my splitter into a processor like the Wallenstein (I think) soon so the Prince AC valve will become more useful then.

 

[Industrial Toys]

What he basically said was that the option of having a machine stay in the split mode without holding a lever was illegal.

Split fire have advertising that claims a 50% saving in time with the bidirectional arrangement. I doubt that number actually. I have spent too many sleepless nights thinking about building a splitter (amoung a bizillion other projects) and my focus with the splitter was to speed things up. Possibly a torque converter on the pump to increase no-load speed. But I realize that most of my time is wasted, standing there watching the wood split!

As a side note. A friend's Dad had an equipment dealership years ago. Poking around, I came accross one of those cone shaped drill bits for splitting wood. The ads were still there posted on an office door. Jack up your vehicle, remove wheel and install this thing. I had half a mind to ask for it, just to try. Now that's freakin dangerous! The ads seemed from the seventies. Wonder how many bell bottom pants those things caught?

 

[Scooby074]

Was this a local rep, salesman or somebody at the factory?

I ask, because there are lots of companies still selling them, if they were illegal to use, you'd think they wouldnt sell them.

The splitfire is an amazing splitter. Very well built with commercial grade parts. Its very fast. Before I built mine we'd rent one to do wood. However, I'd argue that my current splitter, with the 4 way, running wide open, is faster than a splitfire without the 4way option. At full speed, I can keep 3 guys going pretty steady.

That screw style splitter you referred to are known as "Unicorn splitters". They were pretty fast, and relatively safe as long as you kept your whits about you and rigged up a safety shutoff. They could bite you for sure. One of my fathers friends had one, and split many cord with it.

Unicorns are still available in Europe, but now they have guards covering the screw.

 

[CJONE]

What he basically said was that the option of having a machine stay in the split mode without holding a lever was illegal.

Split fire have advertising that claims a 50% saving in time with the bidirectional arrangement. I doubt that number actually. I have spent too many sleepless nights thinking about building a splitter (amoung a bizillion other projects) and my focus with the splitter was to speed things up. Possibly a torque converter on the pump to increase no-load speed. But I realize that most of my time is wasted, standing there watching the wood split!

As a side note. A friend's Dad had an equipment dealership years ago. Poking around, I came accross one of those cone shaped drill bits for splitting wood. The ads were still there posted on an office door. Jack up your vehicle, remove wheel and install this thing. I had half a mind to ask for it, just to try. Now that's freakin dangerous! The ads seemed from the seventies. Wonder how many bell bottom pants those things caught?

The last splitter I built was a 28gpm pump feeding a 4" bore cyl at 3000psi. It would complete a cycle in less than 5 seconds. I built it this way to run the engine just above idle for noise control. At just off of idle it was about 7-8 seconds and that was just about right for speed. So I don't know how fast you want to go but that was plenty fast for me and 2 guys could not keep up with feeding it. I never could justify or felt right with a a auto cycle processor valve anywhere where someone is working, waayyy too dangerous. Anyway you want faster than 5 seconds you will need horsepower!! Anything is doable, how much do you want to spend!! CJ

 

[Industrial Toys]

Yes, noise is a biggie. I even thought about using a five horse electric motor as I usually split near a power source. I split a lot of knurly elm, and have never tried a four way wedge. When I am splitting trunks that I can barely lift, I am not so sure they will work. Usually with a huge piece, you split it once and then you are dealing with comfortable sizes again.

I have used a lot of splitters of differing styles and still maintain, that even the slowest (3ph tractor driven) would have been fast enough, if I didn't have to stand there while it did it's thing.

Edit: Just looked at that saw bench video. Pretty impressive. Curious if it would split Elm? Splitter and processor ads always seem to show, such small, uniform and seemingly easy to split wood.

 

[Scooby074]

Its only for the gnarliest of woods that I have to take the 4 way off. Diameter itself doesnt really play a role. You get some real tough, twisty grain stuff and its faster and easier on the splitter to just take the 4way off, rather than keeping slamming the pusher into the stuck block. Its rarely required though, in the last 8 cord I cut, I had to take the 4 way off maybe 20 times, 30 at the most.

This one is only rated up to 8" on the saw, 10 on the splitter Palax 55 Firewood Processor - YouTube Im not sure if there are any heavier models with the unicorn out there or not, but I have no reason to doubt it would handle elm, so long as it was within its specs.

If your thinking about tractor driven, split mostly 20-25 cm wood, store your wood in bulk (not necessary, but faster), have a powerful enough tractor and are a speed freak, check out the Superpilke style machines from several Euro manufacturers. Very fast and easy. Some people in NA have made similar "wood crusher style" ones out of old heavy truck axles. I dont think you can find a machine to cut and split any faster than them

 

[johndeerkiwi]

Yea,Old thread I know, but I have seen a couple of mechanical auto retracts. These could be of interest to readers as they are quite cheap to build.
The most simple was a detent return tandem valve that was positioned so that a spring connected to the splitter's push plate at one end, and the hydraulic lever at the other, would stretch as the ram extended, until it eventually caused the lever to flip over into the retract position. When fully retracted the detent clicked out. It worked fine, but meant that the lever worked opposite to the true sense. You would soon get used to it I suppose.

The second was more complicated to build, but very, very good...a bit difficult to explain though.....so here goes.....
A 2" dia (or so) flat steel disk was welded to the lower part of the spool lever, right near the spool, and the rest of the lever cut off. A second identical disc is through bolted through a hole in the centre of the circle,so that it was free to revolve (as two discs, one against the other like two big washers). To this second disc was welded a newer, longer lever.(you could probably use the remains of the old lever and a bit more rod to do this) This new lever extended upward just like before, but also downwards quite a way. So what you have now got is a hydraulic lever that extends above and below the spool, and pivots to the left and right.

Above the spool, the lever is forced to travel fore and aft in the confines of a milled slot. At the the full extent of spool travel on extend, the slot took a right angle turn for about half an inch. The hydraulic lever was spring loaded to retract, but once around the corner, it can not.
To activate, the operator simply pulled the lever towards him and followed the slot around the right angle turn(the half an inch or so), which started the ram extending.The sideways movement of the lever following the slot around the corner meant that :-
(a)the spring could not retract it as it was prevented by the right angle in the slot
(b) the pivoting to one side of the lever at the top, meant that the extended lever down below pivoted to the opposite side.This put the bottom of the lever into close proximity to a rod connected to the push plate.
A wedge connected to that rod eventually contacts the lower part of the hydraulic lever, forcing it pivot back into the main slot.
The spring is then able to act on the lever and pull it to the retract position.
As the ram retracts, a protruding bolt, also bolted to to the same rod as the wedge, eventually makes contact with the bottom of the hydraulic lever and moves it to neutral.
This system is also good for the ram, because it is a double position retract, (not pressure) and it is adjustable simply by moving the wedge along.