UK hydraulic log splitter build

[davedj1]

Looks real nice Mick. Keep up the good work. I know nearing the end of my build I wouldn't put oil in the motor until the time came to fire it up, I was afraid I would rush things if the motor was ready to go.

 

[L355SS]

I've managed to get quite a bit done lately, just not had a chance to update this thread.

The wedge is now fully welded together and to the slider. The beams are now welded along their entire length too.

View attachment 309256 View attachment 309264

I made some precision chamfers on the slider clamps using the angle grinder The angle is a pretty good match to the inside of the beam.

View attachment 309258

The foot now has a nice thick lump of plate welded on to reinforce it. I still need to add some pointy bits to stop the log sliding off the foot.

View attachment 309263

The best news of all is that I have had the wedge running back and forth under air pressure. I shall put a short video on YouTube soon.
At 90 PSI I even managed to split some pine pallet slats. The movement is very jerky under air pressure, but no load cylinder extension takes about 2 seconds. If it's that quick under hydraulic power I'll be impressed, but I'm not holding out too much hope yet.

Good job!
The pusher is plenty stout but I would add some more rows of weld to the foot where it attaches to the beam. When splitting wood, it doesn't press evenly against the foot so when the wood is only touching the out most part of the foot it applies uneven force to that weld. If you can, Add some gussets underneath that don't interfere with the slider also. Been there.
Dennis

 

[L355SS]

I've managed to get quite a bit done lately, just not had a chance to update this thread.

The wedge is now fully welded together and to the slider. The beams are now welded along their entire length too.

View attachment 309256 View attachment 309264

I made some precision chamfers on the slider clamps using the angle grinder The angle is a pretty good match to the inside of the beam.

View attachment 309258

The foot now has a nice thick lump of plate welded on to reinforce it. I still need to add some pointy bits to stop the log sliding off the foot.

View attachment 309263

The best news of all is that I have had the wedge running back and forth under air pressure. I shall put a short video on YouTube soon.
At 90 PSI I even managed to split some pine pallet slats. The movement is very jerky under air pressure, but no load cylinder extension takes about 2 seconds. If it's that quick under hydraulic power I'll be impressed, but I'm not holding out too much hope yet.

Good job!
The pusher is plenty stout but I would add some more rows of weld to the foot where it attaches to the beam. When splitting wood, it doesn't press evenly against the foot so when the wood is only touching the out most part of the foot it applies uneven force to that weld. If you can, Add some gussets underneath that don't interfere with the slider also. Been there.
Dennis

 

[mickeyw]

There are three runs of weld there, one in the root and a further two on top. In all I'd say there is roughly 3/8" of weld fillet. The plate is only 1/4" thick, so hopefully it won't be the weld that lets go
However there will always be room for improvement

 

[mickeyw]

And here a short video of the first run, albeit under air power.
YouTube link

 

[davedj1]

Schweeeeeeeet!

 

[mickeyw]

Friday afternoon saw a real life test.
As I have some uncertainty over the splitter's hydraulic compatibility with the JD, I chose to make this run using just the tractor's control valve.
Results were very pleasing, nothing broke, and the cylinder speed is pretty respectable with the engine just at tickover. I also have a small trailer filled with split wood

Another video here on YouTube

Having worked with the splitter for this short time sat in my box trailer, I am now sure I want it to run horizontally, so I think I'll add some kind of 3 point brackets, design to be decided. I also realise the benefit of having a table either side to catch the split wood, so that will be added to the agenda too.

 

[davedj1]

Very nice Mick! Nothing quite like the having one of our creations come to life is there? LOL
What's the scoop on the D90 series truck?
dave

 

[RandyBell]

Looks good Mick, the wedge slide should hold up well. A few bits to consider, on your base to keep log on the foot a piece of pipe 3 or 4" dia. about 1/2" tall split into two halves welded on with a short gap between them, so it is oblong rather than round. Then at the web part of the foot weld a plate from the beam to the foot, should keep you from having any problems in the future. If possible running your hydraulic lines to a valve close to the cylinder, for safety, a lot of wood may need to be held in place until the wedge has it and it will be hard to do from your tractor.
Nice job, I like the access to all the machining equipment.

Randy

 

[mickeyw]

Very nice Mick! Nothing quite like the having one of our creations come to life is there? LOL
What's the scoop on the D90 series truck?
dave

Very true Dave, most satisfying. Now I need to make sure I actually get on and finish it

<OT bit here>
The D90 is a 1986 model that I've owned for 19 years now. This has been my workhorse, plaything and daily driver for many years. The daily driver job became a shared one 7 years ago when I bought a 1990 Range Rover.
It was one of the very earlier coil sprung Landrovers, and was built before the Defender name came along, so really it's a 'Landrover 90'. It came out of the factory with a 3.5 litre Rover V8 (the old Buick derived engine). Now it bears a 3.9 lump from a 1995 Discovery complete with auto transmission. Having owned it so long, you'll appreciate it has had many other modifications too. One day I might write about them all
</OT>

 

[mickeyw]

Looks good Mick, the wedge slide should hold up well. A few bits to consider, on your base to keep log on the foot a piece of pipe 3 or 4" dia. about 1/2" tall split into two halves welded on with a short gap between them, so it is oblong rather than round. Then at the web part of the foot weld a plate from the beam to the foot, should keep you from having any problems in the future. If possible running your hydraulic lines to a valve close to the cylinder, for safety, a lot of wood may need to be held in place until the wedge has it and it will be hard to do from your tractor.
Nice job, I like the access to all the machining equipment.

Randy

Hi Randy, I had plans for some kind of gripping feature on the foot, just hadn't figured out what yet. Your pipe idea sounds great, especially as I have some 4" pipe.

Once the onboard valve is fitted the pipes will all be tucked up out of harm's way. I was a little undecided on valve position, as I didn't know what orientation I wanted to use it in.

 

[vtsnowedin]

You want the valve so it is an easy reach between the hand steadying a block on the beam and the hand running the valve. Usually right beside and a bit above the wedge in it's closed position with the handle in neutral straight up. Any thought to a wood striping device near the head of the cylinder that will pop off a stuck block on the return stroke without you twisting or cutting them off?

 

[mickeyw]

You want the valve so it is an easy reach between the hand steadying a block on the beam and the hand running the valve. Usually right beside and a bit above the wedge in it's closed position with the handle in neutral straight up. Any thought to a wood striping device near the head of the cylinder that will pop off a stuck block on the return stroke without you twisting or cutting them off?

Yes, agreed on the valve position.

The stripping device is something I remember seeing on some designs, it seems to have unintentionally fallen off my mental design pad. I may wait and see whether I actually need such a feature. I guess tendancy to stick/ease of splitting varies with types of wood.

 

[Renze]

....and what about a notch or spike on the anvil plate, preventing that a twisted log will jump away sideways and hit you in the nuts ?? It didnt take us much concideration before adding that feature to our logsplitter, after it happened the first time

 

[mickeyw]

.... It didnt take us much concideration before adding that feature to our logsplitter, after it happened the first time

:laughing:

 

[vtsnowedin]

Yes, agreed on the valve position.

The stripping device is something I remember seeing on some designs, it seems to have unintentionally fallen off my mental design pad. I may wait and see whether I actually need such a feature. I guess tendancy to stick/ease of splitting varies with types of wood.

Yes indeed and the same species will vary with where the tree grew. A yellow birch that grew on an edge of a field will have solid knots in every block and the outside grain will look like it was braided by a demented demon. Unless your wedge is the full width of the block it will pass all the way to the foot without a crack coming through to the top of the block and then the block wrapped around your wedge just wags back and forth like a rooster on a hen. The same species growing just a hundred yards inside the tree line will have a nice straight and clear grain that will slab off easily with a four pound axe.

 

[mickeyw]

Been a while since I updated here. I haven't got much more done, but I have welded a 10mm length of large diameter pipe onto the foot to prevent log slip. It's halved so it clears the splitting point.



I've been undecided whether to mount this splitter on the tractor's 3PH, or as a trailed machine. Having wheels would certainly make it more mobile when not being used. It would also make it easier to use with my Landrover when I get its hydraulic system fitted.

A chance discussion on Facebook ended with me being given an old axle from a scrapped box trailer. It's a lightweight beam with torsion suspension units and tiny 10" wheels n tyres. I even got the ball hitch. Unfortunately I haven't taken a photo of it, but I'm sure you can picture a trailer axle, .

So more parts gathered means some more sketching to do in the evenings I can't wait for more progress.

 

[RandyBell]

Mick that's the right height I just hope it is not to big of diameter to hold your logs, most are about half that size. The trailer set up sounds good that way you can move it to where you want it!

 

[mickeyw]

Hi All,
We've been enjoying some summer weather here in the UK, so fires and related matters have fallen from the top of the jobs list. My splitter has been sitting on my garage floor getting covered in all the dirt, muck and swarf that weld/fab/machining generates.

Anyway, this week I've been having a few thoughts how to progress this project, specifically to fit some 'wings' to stop the split logs landing straight on the floor.

I had some 40x40x3 box section laying around, so I cut four short lengths, plus a couple of lengths of 25x25x3 box to go between them.

These half circles are some offcuts from another project, but looked about right for this job.

And propped in place where they will end up.


I dug out my axle today and had a think about how I'm going to mount the splitter beam. The top of the axle is 12" off the ground. I reckon I want the splitter beam about 26" high, (I'm 5'10" tall). So the decision is whether to mount the beam directly to the axle and fit jacks to set the operating height, or space it up from the axle in a fixed position, therefore negating the need for jacks. I know I'll still need stabliser legs, but they're a lot simpler to knock up.

 

[mickeyw]

Well as I mentioned before, I acquired an axle to mount the splitter on. The top of the axle is 11.5" off the ground, so even taking the 4" deep beam into account the working height would be too low if I sat it straight on the axle. It's also not a great plan to dump a heavy splitter on the middle of a flimsy axle beam. I decided I wanted the top of the beam to be at least 2' high, so I scratched my head, consulted the metal pile and came up with a plan.

The axle beam is 3' wide, with torsion suspension units at each end. I wanted to space the splitter beam up by 8.5", and make sure the weight of the splitter is supported directly above the suspension units.
I dug out a few short lengths of thick wall tube about 1.75" dia, and some more 1/4" plate. My plan was to cut 4 lengths, and attach 2 pieces of pipe each side of the axle, one facing forward and one facing back, a bit like the image below. The tubes will be welded to flat plates that will in turn mount to the axle and splitter beam.




As you can see I had some help from CAD software to figure out the lengths and angles. I had to cut a 65 degree angle on each end of all four pieces of tube. I wasn't going to be able to achieve this angle on the power hacksaw, so I decided to cut the angle freehand with my 4.5 grinder and a slitting wheel.
While searching for tube mitring templates I came across this method, HOW TO-Pipe Template .

There are lots of calculators on the net for tube coping (where you want one tube to join another), but this was the only one I found that dealt with joining to a flat surface.
I drew myself a template on CAD and printed out full size onto paper, wrapped it around the tube to be cut and drew around it with marker pen. I held the tube in the vice and freehand cut to the line. Since I needed the same angle on both ends of the tube some careful measurement and alignment was necessary to match both ends.

First my template construction geometry, and the cutout template.

The tube with the template, then wrapped around, and marked with a Sharpie.


And the end result. Obviously this would have been a whole lot easier if I could have done it in the saw!




The next challenge was to figure out how to stick all these pieces together in the correct position. I ended up creating a wooden jig using some old 3 fence posts.
I screwed the flat plates to the jigs, held the tubes in their required positions and tacked each piece in position.



Having got these tacked in position, I was impatient to try my new frame under the splitter for a trial fit. I'm pretty pleased with how this has worked out so far.




Next job is to fully weld the tubes to the flat plate. I think I'll clamp the plates to their respective components while welding to minimise heat distortion.


Along with the axle I also acquired a ball hitch. It's old and a little worn, but being of cast construction I'm sure it will far outlast any modern pressed steel type. Here it is, bolted to a length of 2 box section that will be welded the underside of the splitter beam. I've added crush tubes inside the box to prevent the bolts coming loose. Hitch height will end up around 20-21" to top of the ball, a little higher than the average ball hitch over here, but better suited to being dragged over rough ground.



More to follow...