Hydraulic Stone Splitter

[Greg9504]

Egon,

I wish I had my own quarry. No I have to pay for it. It comes from a quarry in Stanstead Quebec (I'm in Ottawa). Cost (in sawn slab form) ranges from $17.50 to $22 per square foot for 8" to 12" slabs. Yes you buy it per square foot even though you are buying a volume. They quote based on the square feet of ONE sawn side.

This was the day I was questioning my sanity (see attached pic)

Another video...
YouTube - Homemade Hydraulic Stone Splitter - 2

 

[Egon]

Many thanks for the information and the new video.

My back got sore just looking at the loaded truck!

Next thing we know you'll be full time into stone houses and cobble stone driveways.

 

[mjncad]

Many thanks for the information and the new video.

My back got sore just looking at the loaded truck!

Next thing we know you'll be full time into stone houses and cobble stone driveways.

Maybe Greg is a reincarnated Egyptian pyramid builder. A neighbor of mine is like that since he builds retaining walls of drystack Pavestone products and hand shoveled all the rock he used for his house's landscaping.

 

[DuckHunterJon]

Very impressive machine - I thought I was ambitious with stone work, but it definitely pales in comparison. I have an idea for an upgrade. I do much more wood working than stone work, and last year I finally had to break down and buy a new miter saw. When looking, they all came with laser guides. I figured I would get one and just turn the laser off. Instead, it's now my favorite feature of the saw. When set up accurately, it removes any work on lining up the workpiece and the cut.

I would think you could pretty quickly retrofit a laser out of a miter saw to highlight the cutline, and would make lining up the stones a bit easier. Not sure if it would be worth it to you, but just a thought.

Again, nice job, can't wait to see pictures of the project.

Jon Hunter

 

[Greg9504]

Hey Jon,

Just Sunday I had my cheapo leaser level out of it's case seeing if there was some way to clamp it on to do just what you are saying

I'll have to take a look at the newer miter saws to see if I can do something similar.

 

[mjncad]

Maybe this outfit can help you with a laser alignment system.

Laserkerf Home

 

[AlanB]

I Cannot find them at the moment, but harbor freight has some small ones on magnets that you put in place. I think they were 7 bucks or so.

Dad took two of the cheapie levels with lasers and cut the laser part off glued them onto magnets with a piece of wire and set them up to project an X on the Piranah metal punch to show where the center of the punch was. It works REALLY well, a lot better then the old way of lining up, going down looking squinting etc. etc.

Really, really impressed with your tool by the way, it is very very impressive. I want to build something similar. Some I have seen have stout springs under the blades to take up slack on irregular stones.

Looks great and please keep posting the improvements as you make them, or especially the "if I was doing this over I would" comments.

 

[sandman2234]

I took one look at the NICE machine, and wondered about that roller bed. Those two HUGE cylinders have got to produce more energy than the 5/8 or 3/4 inch rod that supports the rollers is going to be able to stand for very long. Short term fix might be to set all of your slabs on a piece of flat steel to spread the weight/energy around to prevent bending the ones right there at the impact point. Long term might be to install bearings/bushings around a solid piece of round stock the same size as the rollers themselves. I watched the video and saw the roller bed move. Was it supposed to do that? I wanted to read the whole post before putting in my two cents worth.
Nice job!
David from jax

 

[Greg9504]

Alan,
Thanks for the tip, I'll keep checking out HF for the lasers. Are you sure the springs are for that purpose? On the ones I've looked at the springs are there on manually operated (ie they use a bottle jack), and the spring is there to return it to the open position after a split.

David,

The rollers don't take any of the force from the cylinders. There are two blades, an upper (what the hydraulic cylinders are attached to) and a lower blade. The lower blade is stationary. The table pivots at the rear and moves down (by gravity) to expose the lower blade. When the main cylinders are moving up, a cylinder under the table moves up to return it so the surface is just above the bottom blade. Look at the video which has the night time shot, there you can see it return to level position after the split. I've attached a photo showing the underside of the table.

 

[HydSpecMeg]

Things I would have done differently... instead of using off the shelf cylinders (Princess Auto here in Canada). I would have had them custom made, with a flange plate on the top, and a clevis mount on the rod. As it was I had to fab up my own clevis mount as these cylinder rods had a screw in fitting on the end meant for a press.

I love this project Greg! Very nicely done! I just have one comment to make about those cylinders, we (Princess Auto) can do custom orders like the one you are recommending and for fairly cheap too! The tech at the store should have recommended it to you at the time of purchase!