log splitter plans

   / log splitter plans #32  
baileynet.com, that is a place to go to get all you need for making a splitter other than the metal. They have the valves, hydraulic pumps and cylinders, engines along with the 3 stage pump for faster cycle times with no load. can't beat the feeling of satisfaction looking at your own handy work.

Live and learn. First time I had heard of a 3 stage pump. Dunno if I would want one if it speeds up cycle time. I can't keep up with my slow 17 sec cycle time (Troybilt).

"can't beat the feeling of satisfaction looking at your own handy work." For sure: That and being able to custom design one. I have checked out most of the commercial ones over the years and never saw one that I wouldn't be able to impove one way or another. I settled on the Troybilt to replace my homebuilt (slow and underpowered) lasst winter. Made the decision based almost solely on cheap price (compared to others).

Harry K
 
   / log splitter plans #33  
The guy that wants to build one, usually has part of the system on hand be it free or low cost, and the cylinder could have a 4,5, or 6 in bore, He might slap something together and come out with a log splitter, or a total failure, and those people don't tell those stories.

I hear you J J, I can relate a kind of failure story second hand, My Dad came home from hunting camp about 1989 with a homebuilt splitter that was on the side the road for sale for $100. It was a beautifully built frame with 15 tires, and an I beam you could park a ship on, at first glace it looked pretty good. However a closer look revealed that it had 2 - 1ス cylinders side by side, a small single stage pump of undetermined manufacture that was belt driven by a 4 HP engine, and feed the hydraulics thru one spool of what appeared to be a tractor loader valve. To top it all off the wedge design made me say WTF, it had a nice sharp forward edge but 4 later it was 6 thick.
Needless to say, an extensive search of the wood pile finally yielded a block it was able to split, but I could not help but point out that I probably could have split that one with a hatchet. Although a little ashamed of his purchases my Dad was not quick to anger and just said stop b#%*&ing and just fix it. OK I said, so we went to the trusty Northern catalog, at the time they were Northern Hydraulics and if you called the main office you could talk to very knowable tech reps for advice on hydraulic applications, I also found out then that they stocked many items that were not listed in the catalog. We ended up ordering a 4x24 cylinder, a splitter valve with return detent, their recommended 2 stage pump for log splitters, a mount and coupling they listed for the pump, and a filter to go in the return line. During the shipping time I got busy in the weld shop made a new wedge, and swapped out the 4 hp for a 6 hp engine my Dad had on an old chipper / shredder.
Two weeks later we went back to the wood pile to find a block that it could NOT split and were unable to find any candidates that were close to fitting the bill. I did not comment on my Dads shame having turned to smugness, I believe he spent about $500 on the upgraded parts and although it took a bit of work on my part I had to admit the time spent was enjoyable for me.
At the time the Agway sold allot of splitters locally, they ran about $1200 they were very popular and were often touted to be the best a body could buy. We showed up to a number of wood bees with our revamped home built and split along side a few Agway splitters, more than once a block was pounded back of the wedge of these and brought over to ours where they quickly met their demise. My Dad burned about 30 cords a year for the next 15 years until moving to 10 cord a year house and numerous neighbors, friends and relatives all got their licks in on the splitter too and my Dad still uses it today.
After the first year I went ahead and pulled some the old parts of the pile they landed on when I had removed them and fabricated a lift to help with the bigger blocks, at the same time I figured what the heck and made a slip on 4 way wedge. I would absolutely say that this splitter started as a failure, but in the end it came out pretty decent, my uncles have all gotten rid of their own splitters long ago and are content to wait for their turn to use the 澱lue beast as they call it. Thinking back though I can imagine that had it not been for what I had very first considered a mistake when my Dad brought this home, it may have ended up rusting away in somebody痴 weed patch.
 
   / log splitter plans #34  
The moral of my eariler story is yes if the design is not thought out a body can build a splitter that when it arrives at the wood pile ends up not really being a wood splitter, but what is built can always be rebuilt if one is willing to endure the pain of giving up the elements that are not working then a positive outcome is very possible.
In a way it to bad that people don’t tend to share their failures as J J says because a lot can learned from them. When you design something from scratch it is not always possible to know with absolute assurance what will work, but knowing what will not work takes you a long way down the road to figuring it out.
When it comes to log splitters however one need not go too far to find plenty of designs that have already been proven to work great. I have no doubt what so ever that the example of components J J listed would work outstanding. As for the design of the rest of it; two elements are critical.
It needs to be user friendly, the whole idea of a log splitter is make one of the worse chores known to man as easy as possible. So having the valve handle poke your gonands every time you go to put a block in place is not good, and if it feels like your back is on fire after only 1 hour of working, then what’s the point?
I sure everyone here knows something of the value of mocking up when designing and fabricating, and though it can seem a bit tedious, the help it gives in getting the ergonomics right is priceless during the hours of operation that will come later.
The next and maybe most important thing is making sure the frame will handle the force and not allow the splitter to self-destruct while you use it. There are few things one might build that come under as severe stress during use as a splitter and these stresses are repeated over and over again every cycle.
Changing out a pump that was too small with one that cost $200 more than the first one that you paid a pretty penny for to begin with and now might sit on your bench in the garage for who knows how long will sting of course. But if you go too cheap on the steel and things start to twist and bend then the whole project will ugly real quick and it may be a long time after that before momma lets you spend any of her grocery money on your next great idea, and that is a hard pill to swallow indeed.
 
   / log splitter plans #35  
I have seen a few comments here and there about the unlikelihood of really saving any $ building a splitter as opposed to buying particularly if ones counts their own labor cost. Now I never count my labor because it is my recreation, some guys like to “watch the game” I like to build. Most splitter I have built were for someone else and they paid me more than it cost to build, I will admit that with splitters it is a close thing. If there is not a big rush and you look enough, then EBay and Craig’s List can help open the gap a bit.
However now that I find myself in a situation of needing firewood again, I am also getting to the age where splitting wood is a real chore even with a splitter, I am going to build a wood processor. With the average price on a decent one of these running in the 40K to 120K range (depending on the cords per hour they will produce) these are a different story. Here is the deal I thought about this a few years ago, since I built one about 15 years prior but said I don’t need something like that I only burn 10 to 15 cord a year, I just kind of wished that had not sold the one had every time I did my wood. But the topic came up with a guy I bought some wood from last year and it lead me knock a rough set of plans together and come up with a estimate of about $3000 for materials. Now where it starts to get interesting is here in my area wood goes for about $140 / cord cut and split, most of the guys that have it to sell are those who have tree service businesses. Quite a few have told me that only manage to have time to get about 1/3 of the trees they take down cut up into fire wood, the rest goes bad and is usually taken to land fill. A few have said they would sell me premium log length wood for what works out to about $30 a cord. Other have said if I allowed them to just bring it and dump of they would bring me all the wood that originated from closer to me than their lot. So what it amounts to is that if I buy 30 cords worth of logs a year at $30/cord it will cost $900 if I burn 15 of that and sell the other 15 for even 120/cord I would make $900 and my 15 cord I burned was free. Of course I have to subtract the cost to operate the processor, but my last one did about 25 cord on 5 gal of diesel. Also it would average about 3 cords / hour and was no harder than moving sand with a front end loader. Looking at it in this light make building a wood processor even though I only use < 15 cord / year not seem so silly
 
   / log splitter plans
  • Thread Starter
#36  
Thanks for all the great advice. I will consider it all during construction. Bassgrinder, I am also in Jersey and service some equiptment for a tree service. He has a log proccessor service come in and split wood for him. He gets about a 100 cords done in 3 days. I am not sure the cost, but maybe it would be more ecconomical for you to hire one of these services. Just a thought. It is nice to build and run your own "toys" though. Good luck!!
 
   / log splitter plans #37  
Will a 3in cylinder work? Have one(3 by18) and scrap steel enough, want to add it to my small tractor 15 hp?
Have a set of plans from Mother Earth News from years ago, all will need is a valve and hose, maybe wheels and tires as well
thnx
didnt mean to hijack the thread
thnx
 
   / log splitter plans #38  
tnhomestead ,

If you had 2500 psi, and the rod size was 1.25 in, you could split 18 in logs using 17,671 lbs of force. about 8 tons.

The rod size will only affect the retract mode. Push force will be the same no matter the size of the rod.
 
Last edited:
   / log splitter plans #39  
Rod size is 1.5 in, not sure what pressure from the tractor, but if it wont split it, well aint no fun bein 7 foot ifin you cant bust a few things up!
 
   / log splitter plans #40  
Will a 3in cylinder work? Have one(3 by18) and scrap steel enough, want to add it to my small tractor 15 hp?
Have a set of plans from Mother Earth News from years ago, all will need is a valve and hose, maybe wheels and tires as well
thnx
didnt mean to hijack the thread
thnx

It would be marginal but worth it if you aren't doing a lot of hard to split stuff. If you do build, allow for changing the cylinder for a larger one.

Harry K
 

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