Worlds Most Sophisticated Home Made Log Splitter?

[Industrial Toys]

And if it's not, I would love to see it, or them. I had nothing to go on for ideas, in building this.

I have used many splitters, and never liked a one. So I built my own. Some components were Wallenstein, surplus items.

FINISHED!

Moveable Control Console. Pretty much shows features.

Far side E-Stop. Buttons Illuminate to Indicate Power and Alternate when the RAM is in motion.

Main Equipment Cabinet. I would have liked to put ALL electrical control equipment in one oil tight box, but ran out of room.

Relay Logic Board, that I had to put in console.


Unit Goes ON or Off in Seconds, Scaffold Castors can come off. A woman can move the thing around for storage easily.

Loader is just purring away at just above idle. Can't stand noisy splitters.

Button does split cycle. Never liked standing there like a bump on a log, when I could be stacking wood.

Variable back stop positions. This has proved to be more usefull and a time saver than I anticipated. Joystick can over ride this at any time.

Joystick mimicks any other splitter if required.

Loader can adjust height as desired. It could go vertical, but with the wedge at the end, would not make much sense. Those are the components I got, but would put the flat plate at the end if I had to do it again, for vertical splitting.

 

[KennyG]

That's really impressive. The only problem, from my perspective, is that it would take me about one day to accidentally trash the controls. That's probably just my personal problem. Did you think about log tables?

 

[strantor]

As a Controls Engineer, I love the electro-hydraulic control scheme. Brilliantly unnecessarily sophisticated. Very nice, professional; I'm envious. The only borderline negative thing I have to say about it, is your e-stop on the end sticks out like a sore thumb and IMO is begging to be knocked off by a stray piece of wood. I might be wrong. Time will tell.

 

[strantor]

If you grow bored of a mere overly sophisticated log splitter and want to build an overly sophisticated wood processor, check out this build for inspiration. With a few boxes of surplus industrial control components, this thing could be a robot. It could run all by itself and shoot you a text message to let you know that it's done with the pile you tasked it to cut.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I sheared the end E-Stop off on the first trial on a very large log! The PVC fittings are not glued and can move it out of the way, but I should think of some other approach.

The controls are all industrial, and mounted on a flexible arm, so some impact should be absorbed.

Not sure what log tables are.

Aside, from the quiet, I have just found the process, whether one or two people running the thing to be extremely smooth.

It could also sit on the wheels and be plugged into any (open center) hydraulic source and would just need a little 12 volts.

 

[murphy1244]

What is the speed to slit wood?

 

[Industrial Toys]

Not sure. Faster then any 3PH splitter I ever used, but not the fastest. Oh, I could run the engine faster, But, it's not an issue, since when I get back from stacking my wood, or getting another round, the split cycle is always finished. As, intended.

 

[KennyG]

Log tables would be some sort of flat surface on each side of the beam so that when you splits a large round, the halves don't fall to the ground and have to be lifted back up to be split again. Mine seem to save a lot of lifting.

 

[Industrial Toys]

That does sound like a great idea. I don't like bending although I read that it is important for flexability and health.

Any suggestions on a table for this design of splitter?

 

[ericm979]

Neat!

Most of the good splitters (wolf ridge, timberwolf, wallenstein etc) have tables available, you can look at them for ideas. I added one to my horizontal/vertical type and it's a huge back saver. I need a table on the other side too. Since yours is a push through your table would be on the other side of the wedge. I wish I had a horizontal push through with a table and lift but I got mine cheap and it works (in horizontal mode, vertical is pretty useless).

What's the difference between "return" and "backwards"? Return goes all the way back with one touch and backwards is momentary?

You could add a pressure sensor which will determine if a round is too much for the splitter and shut it off. Just to complete the over engineering.