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.
simple, remember big cylinder needs bigger pump its all relative I can, and have built one with a 6" cylinder faster than a 4" cylinder
