Logsplitter 2.0

rswyan · Apr 9, 2015

Fabbed up and welded on a D-ring out of some 3/8" round stock and piece of small angle to chain the log lift up for transport:

I still have a clearance problem with the log lift and push block ... even after trimming the log lift a good bit. Today I'll have to see what it's going to take to eliminate that.

Also fixed (I think) another leak on the inlet side of the valve that controls the log lift.

I have some fluid leakage near the base end of the push block cylinder ... I'm hoping that it's just a matter of tightening the four threaded rods that hold the ends and tube of the cylinder together ... need to see if I can scrounge up a torque spec for the nuts.

Jury is still out on the restriction orifice for the log lift valve ... the hole may be too small ... builds a snot of pressure in a hurry if you don't go real light on the control valve. Probably would help if there was some real weight on the log lift.

Got side-tracked into the rebuilding the grate for the double barrel stove up in the shop yesterday ... got tired of moving around the 3/4" solid rod I picked up to do it ... lol ...

Got it built and installed though (a very messy job) ... along with a gasket for the lid of the bottom barrel. Next will be getting the gaskets installed on the doors.

LD1 · Apr 9, 2015

Why did you decide to use an orifice instead of an adjustable flow control valve?

rswyan · Apr 10, 2015

LD1 said:
Why did you decide to use an orifice instead of an adjustable flow control valve?

Was the cheap, easy, and immediately available solution ...

LD1 · Apr 10, 2015

Perhaps not the easiest now?

mikehaugen · Apr 10, 2015

rswyan said:
Was the cheap, easy, and immediately available solution ...

Now maybe the cheapest, easiest solution would be to put some sort of stop on the control valve lever? Though somewhat hokey I suppose.

rswyan · Apr 10, 2015

LD1 said:
Perhaps not the easiest now?

Perhaps not ...

Only time will tell ...

Part of the problem maybe is that log lift control valve itself is new ... and it just seems kinda stiff ... which makes it "touchy" to operate.

Another part of it is amount of flow coming from the pump in high volume, low pressure mode. I think I have the unloader on the pump set as low as it will go ... which means that the switchover to low volume/high pressure should occur around 400 psi.

And I'm guessing a third part of it is how the valve actually operates: closing off the PBYD circuit in order to supply fluid under pressure to the work ports (dumping all that flow to the work ports)

I was/am looking for a little smoother action when raising the lift.

It would be easy enough to open up the restriction orifice with a drill bit ... but I'm not sure that is really a solution to the problem I'm trying to solve.

What I really need to do is get some real weight on the lift and see how it operates with the orifice in there.

rswyan · Apr 10, 2015

mikehaugen said:
Now maybe the cheapest, easiest solution would be to put some sort of stop on the control valve lever? Though somewhat hokey I suppose.

mike,

I'm guessing that the best solution might be if the springs on the control valve which provide the "spring to center" feature were a little lighter ... it just seems hard to feather it.

LD1 · Apr 10, 2015

getting some weight on the lift may require the high pressure and cause the pomp to shift. It may also require you to pull the valve more.

The reason the orifice builds pressure is there is no where for the fluid to go. Feathering the valve, you are only letting a little flow out the work port, but not building much pressure at all, cause most of the flow is still able to return to tank as with feathering you arent completely closing off the open center part of the valve. Which may not develop enough pressure to lift a round.

mikefromnh · Apr 10, 2015

I used a pressure compensated flow control from sun hydraulics on my lift. With them there is no change in speed as the lift rises and the pressure varies. And the amount of weight on the lift doesn't change the speed.

You can get them set to certain gpm and they are adjustable plus or minus 25% from the set point.

I am using a 1gpm cartridge for a 2x10 cylinder and the speed is about right. 2gpm would probably be fine but the 3.6 one I tried was too fast.

Sun Hydraulic Flow Control 1GPM Fxca LAN New | eBay

rswyan · Apr 11, 2015

Spent a good part of yesterday cleaning up the shop ... but I did manage to pick up another 18" hitch receiver from HF for the log lift outrigger/stabilizer when I snuck out in the afternoon ...

Cut that in half and welded some 3/8" solid round onto one end to reinforce it, drilled a 5/8" hole for a hitch pin, and then welded the receiver onto the end of the beam: