Firewood processor build thread

[CDN Farm Boy]

That sounds a bit less intrusive than your previous thought. As you plan the trough/guide rails, the longer you can make the guides the more they will help resist twisting forces from a round not being dead center.

Do you need flange bearings? Pillow blocks are fairly inexpensive and should be more than adequate to support the rollers. The extra length on the infeed will certainly be nice with the 16' logs.

Which hydraulics shop are you dealing with?

 

[davedj1]

Why not just remove the trough and lay in an I beam, then move your outer cross piece down, let the pusher glide along the beam like a normal splitter. I like your build, don't get discouraged, consider it a learning experience. Keep up the good work, I wanna build one so I look at everyone elses to get ideas.
Just a minor setback.

 

[kiotiken]

That sounds a bit less intrusive than your previous thought. As you plan the trough/guide rails, the longer you can make the guides the more they will help resist twisting forces from a round not being dead center.

Do you need flange bearings? Pillow blocks are fairly inexpensive and should be more than adequate to support the rollers. The extra length on the infeed will certainly be nice with the 16' logs.

Which hydraulics shop are you dealing with?

The guide is going to be roughly 11" long since that is the length of the pusher plate assembly. It will be designed so the pusher plate slides along the bottom of the trough (I have a plan to make that smooth and not wear down the trough) and is held down (so it can't lift) the length of the pusher plate assembly. Side to side will also be taken care of. Hard to explain exactly how I'm doing it, pictures will help in a few days.

I need flange bearings. Pillow blocks would be easier but there's no room to mount them. Both are the same price at PA. I'm looking for them elsewhere since I'm on a bit of a PA boycott these days. It's just hard to beat PA on price and this won't be an industrial machine. Even from PA, it's going to be north of $200 for the bearings alone.

I'm dealing with Freco just off Carp rd. It's good, Jeff is helpful and nice to deal with, but it's really expensive. Usually, you get what you pay for, but Char-lynn and Prince motors are way more than I'm willing to spend so he's quoting off shore knock offs and they're more than I could buy the real deal from the Surplus Center. I want to do the right thing and buy from him, but I'm really having doubts about it right now.

Why not just remove the trough and lay in an I beam, then move your outer cross piece down, let the pusher glide along the beam like a normal splitter. I like your build, don't get discouraged, consider it a learning experience. Keep up the good work, I wanna build one so I look at everyone elses to get ideas.
Just a minor setback.

Ya, going to an I beam was my first instinct, when I was pissed and was ready to "adjust" it with a stick of dynamite. I would give you the advice to design yours with an I beam at the base of the design. For me, I'm now committed to my new plan. An I beam would be a lot of work.

 

[kiotiken]

Well, the processor is comfortably back in the garage, unfortunately, that means my car was outside this morning when the temp was -22C. Moving it back to the garage, I didn't have the blower on the tractor because I've been using my scraper blade. That means I was missing my biggest source of ballast. I knew from the feel of the tractor (scraper blade is only about 200lbs, my tires are loaded), the back was very light so when I got onto my paved driveway with a slight incline, I took it out of 4 wheel drive and sure enough, I started spinning the back tires. That puts the processor at about 1800 lbs from my experience and I'll be adding another 300-400 with this redesign. Not that I should have been lifting it without the proper ballast, but it means I won't be able to lift it without the blower on the tractor when I'm done.

So it was a slow first day back at the office last night. Like I say, I got it back in the garage and got the splitter head out of the machine (that's actually not nearly as easy as it sounds). Then I started cutting...

Back of the machine gone.


I didn't initially notice the damage to the trough from my first disaster of a test. I'm going to trim the trough back a few inches.


Next, I set about getting the pusher plate out of the machine. That wasn't going to happen without cutting it out since it was so twisted. The end of the sled was bent upwards so I cut it off since I'd never be able to pull it back out of the guide. I'm going to weld that end back in and add a roller or slide to support the wood right at the saw.


The attachment from the pusher plate to the cylinder shows how much it was pushed upward.


Last thing I got done was to cut a slot in the bottom of the trough. An 11" x 1/2 plate will be welded to the bottom of the pusher plate and go through the slot. A 1/2" by about 2 1/2" piece will be welded at the bottom of that piece just wide enough to slide between the rails, it will look like I've made my own I beam shape. Under that, a wider piece of 1/2 plate will be bolted to the one sliding between the rails and will slide along the bottom of the rails. This will keep the pusher from rising. I also have a large sheet of nylon or teflon or some similar material, that's 3/4" thick. I used part of it to make a cutting edge under my blower to protect my driveway. I'll cut and rip more of it to surround everything and allow it to glide smoothly.

 

[mx842]

Well, the processor is comfortably back in the garage, unfortunately, that means my car was outside this morning when the temp was -22C. Moving it back to the garage, I didn't have the blower on the tractor because I've been using my scraper blade. That means I was missing my biggest source of ballast. I knew from the feel of the tractor (scraper blade is only about 200lbs, my tires are loaded), the back was very light so when I got onto my paved driveway with a slight incline, I took it out of 4 wheel drive and sure enough, I started spinning the back tires. That puts the processor at about 1800 lbs from my experience and I'll be adding another 300-400 with this redesign. Not that I should have been lifting it without the proper ballast, but it means I won't be able to lift it without the blower on the tractor when I'm done.

So it was a slow first day back at the office last night. Like I say, I got it back in the garage and got the splitter head out of the machine (that's actually not nearly as easy as it sounds). Then I started cutting...

Back of the machine gone.
View attachment 407813

I didn't initially notice the damage to the trough from my first disaster of a test. I'm going to trim the trough back a few inches.
View attachment 407814

Next, I set about getting the pusher plate out of the machine. That wasn't going to happen without cutting it out since it was so twisted. The end of the sled was bent upwards so I cut it off since I'd never be able to pull it back out of the guide. I'm going to weld that end back in and add a roller or slide to support the wood right at the saw.
View attachment 407815

The attachment from the pusher plate to the cylinder shows how much it was pushed upward.
View attachment 407816

Last thing I got done was to cut a slot in the bottom of the trough. An 11" x 1/2 plate will be welded to the bottom of the pusher plate and go through the slot. A 1/2" by about 2 1/2" piece will be welded at the bottom of that piece just wide enough to slide between the rails, it will look like I've made my own I beam shape. Under that, a wider piece of 1/2 plate will be bolted to the one sliding between the rails and will slide along the bottom of the rails. This will keep the pusher from rising. I also have a large sheet of nylon or teflon or some similar material, that's 3/4" thick. I used part of it to make a cutting edge under my blower to protect my driveway. I'll cut and rip more of it to surround everything and allow it to glide smoothly.
View attachment 407817

I'm not trying to tell you what to do but from my experience when dealing with this kind of stuff you will need to mount your cylinder to a beam. With the cylinder mounted to a beam properly (back push point) the front pusher will travel in a relatively straight motion. The way you have it mounted you have two different parts that can move and the front part is going to go in the direction that the anchor point is leaning. Look closely at the piece that you have the cylinder mounted to in the back. It may also be tweaked and need a little TLC.

If a cylinder is mounted to a good strong H beam properly it need very little support at the front to keep it traveling in a straight line. Some is needed of-course because all wood is not perfect like you see in all the advertising of splitters and wood processors. Also as someone else said before you need to get rid of that extension you have on the front pusher that is and avenue for trouble. The pusher pin needs to be as close to the pusher block as possible which will help also.

From where I'm sitting it doesn't look like it would be too hard to fab in a H beam to what you have.

 

[kiotiken]

I'm not trying to tell you what to do but from my experience when dealing with this kind of stuff you will need to mount your cylinder to a beam. With the cylinder mounted to a beam properly (back push point) the front pusher will travel in a relatively straight motion. The way you have it mounted you have two different parts that can move and the front part is going to go in the direction that the anchor point is leaning. Look closely at the piece that you have the cylinder mounted to in the back. It may also be tweaked and need a little TLC.

If a cylinder is mounted to a good strong H beam properly it need very little support at the front to keep it traveling in a straight line. Some is needed of-course because all wood is not perfect like you see in all the advertising of splitters and wood processors. Also as someone else said before you need to get rid of that extension you have on the front pusher that is and avenue for trouble. The pusher pin needs to be as close to the pusher block as possible which will help also.

From where I'm sitting it doesn't look like it would be too hard to fab in a H beam to what you have.

I take your points. If I ever build another processor, I will certainly use a beam, there's no question and I almost went that way now. Believe me, I don't want to rebuild this thing a third time and I'm confident I won't have to with what I have planned. I hope I don't eat those words.

I did look over the attachment point for the cylinder. I couldn't see any tweaking at all. You do have me thinking though...

 

[kiotiken]

... You really had me thinking about using a beam, but the decision has been made for me now, and that's just fine with me. My steel order has already been cut and will be delivered tomorrow, so it's too late to change my mind now.

I went out again last night to get a few more things done. I won't be back out again till the steel arrives. The hydraulic motor has also been ordered, I just need to get flange bearings, sprockets and chain.

Cut the bottom of the splitter head out. This will allow the 4 way wedge to work properly without being jammed. I'm also going to re-purpose the two 6" X 10" - 1/2" pieces.

(it's upside down in the pic)

Next I cut off the log deck brackets. I mentioned earlier, I welded them on backward which prevented the legs from folding up properly and left a gap between the log deck and the trough. Figured if I was scratching the paint now anyway, I might as well fix it.


Then I removed the sled from the trough. Not an easy task, it always fit too tight and may have bent slightly when I used it. I also forgot to grind down the edges I cut so it probably had a good bur to fight against. I had to open the garage door to pull the sled. Inside the garage was probably 17 - 20 C and outside was something like -24C It was like a cloud rolling in when the door opened, picture doesn't do it justice.


That was all I could think to do, now I just wait for the steel to show up.

 

[ajmaxham]

I would attach the hydraulic cylinder rod as close to the back of the pusher plate as possible.



If you have the cylinder rod 11'' behind the pusher plate you will need a much stronger guide to keep the force of the hydraulic cylinder from pushing sidways or upwards.

 

[kiotiken]

I would attach the hydraulic cylinder rod as close to the back of the pusher plate as possible.

View attachment 408112

If you have the cylinder rod 11'' behind the pusher plate you will need a much stronger guide to keep the force of the hydraulic cylinder from pushing sidways or upwards.

I agree with you. Unfortunately, it's either that or chop off the support cylinder and go to a beam configuration since removing the 11" extension behind the pusher plate means moving the cylinder forward 11" as well.

 

[kiotiken]

I started re-structuring the processors frame this weekend. It doesn't look like I got much done, but it was a lot of hard work. Working under the machine to cut small pieces out here and there isn't fun. Grinding, sanding and welding under there isn't much better. I'm actually sore this morning from the workout.

Sorry, pictures aren't very good

I started by doubling up the processors frame from the cutting head back behind the attachment point for the cylinder. This involved cutting out the cross member that made up the legs. They then got re-welded to the new frame. I used 1 1/2" X 2 1/2" - .188 (3/16), debated going all the way to 1/4 wall but with all the bracing now in place, decided .188 would be fine.


I welded a new cross piece at the back. It is 5" lower than the previous one and is 2" X 4" - 1/4. the only problem is that the splitting head isn't tall enough to rest against it when it's in the 4 way position so the sides will take all the pressure. I don't think that's the end of the world and I can always have the cutting head lengthened. The splitting head will rest against it in the 2 and 6 way positions.


I then started in on the rails for the pusher plate. They are also 1 1/2" X 2 1/2" - .188 and they mounted under the existing 1" X 2" - .125 rails that made up the bottom of the lower log trough. I didn't get finished last night but the new rails are tacked in place, I now need the cross member at the end of them and to extend the 1" X 2" rails on top of them to support the pusher plate when it's retracted. The rails have a 2 5/8" gap. Under the pusher plate, I'm welding a 1" think piece of plate in the vertical position and bolting a 3/4" thick piece of nylon to each side. That should give me 2 1/2" and leave a 1/16 on each side.