Logsplitter 2.0

[muddstopper]

Just want to weigh in on the "wedge/ram" vs "wedge/beam" thing. If the wedge is on the ram and you get it hung on a narly hunk of wood you can bring the ram back and let it "pop" the wood off of the wedge, using your handy dandy stops that you've welded in the appropriate spot. Otherwise you have smack the wood with a sledge hammer to knock it off of the wedge.

Or you can take a loop of chain and flip over the round and the pusher plate and pull the round off the wedge if the wedge is on the beam. No big thing

 

[Loghomeguy]

That's a good idea. Never thunk of that. So really I guess it comes down to where do you want the split pieces to end up? Six of one, and half dozen of the other.

 

[rswyan]

This thread is overdue to be updated ...

Drop-leg/foot completed:

Used a short piece of 3 1/2" x 1/4" square tube to bridge the gap and get the beam so it's level front to rear.

 

[rswyan]

Log rest/cradle installed:

The 3 1/2" x 6" x 3/8" angle was a piece we fished out of a scrap dumpster at a fab shop.

Was kinda a pain getting the MIG gun in to get the top welds on the square tubes.

 

[rswyan]

Rear receiver installed.

This was the drop of an 18" HFT receiver that I cut in half.

Took a piece of 1/4" x 3/4" flat stock I had lying around and clamped it to the receiver square tube, heated it up with the torch, and then bent it around the square tube ... turned out the length was about perfect - I had an 1/8" gap between the ends

Then I welded the flat stock onto the square tube of course.

 

[rswyan]

Engine mounting plate installed:

The mounting plate was cut from the web of the H-Beam drop.

Underneath:

Had this little longish triangular piece of 1/4" plate sittin' on the shelf ... seemed like it would make a decent gusset/brace so I stuck that on while I was at it.

 

[rswyan]

Engine installed/mounted:

This was a re-power for a Trac-Vac originally ... has pretty low hours on it IIRC. Been sittin' on the shop floor underneath some shelves for the last 10 or so years. I cleaned the dust off of it and then cleaned out the carb with some Gumout ... actually looked pretty clean, although the fuel tank had a lot of debris in it (grass mainly) I had changed the oil and air filter 10 years ago when I stuck it under the shelf.

Stuck some fresh gas in it and it fired up on the first pull.

Must be all that clean livin' I've been doin' lately ...

Had to tighten up the valve cover bolts as it was leaking a little oil there and the crank seal did let a little oil out initially ... but it seems to have quit after a little run-in. The air cleaner cover needs replaced.

Doesn't seem to want to run at anything much less than full throttle ... and even at full throttle I'm not sure it's running at full rated speed.

I did disconnect an arm on the throttle that was connected to a rod or pin that seemed to go down in the engine (in order to remove the carb to clean it) - might have been a governor or something ... so I'll need to dig into that and see what's up.

Not a whole lot of adjustments on the carb ... and nothing in the owner's manual other than "The carburetor is preset at the factory and cannot be adjusted..." and "If it requires adjustment take it to your friendly Briggs dealer ... " or some such ...

Rear view:

 

[rswyan]

Rear of the pusher block with a couple of pieces of 1/2" plate that will be used to capture the cylinder pin at three points and (hopefully) keep the block moving parallel with the beam:

Hopefully get those welded on tomorrow.

 

[rswyan]

These are some pieces of 3/8" plate (which is the thickness of the flanges on the H-Beam) which will be used to secure the push block to the beam.

The narrow ones go directly under the push block (as a spacer for the thickness of the flange) and the wider ones go below that. They were painted ten years ago ... probably with Rust-Oleum:

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Lookin good. It's nice when that pile o scraps you hang on to comes in handy rather than just being a pile....

 

[LD1]

I dont want to be too critical, as I am of the "try it an see" and if it dont work modify it mentality.....but.....I think you will wish the pushplate was either taller, or had taller gussets behind it.

 

[rswyan]

Lookin good.

Thanks.

It's nice when that pile o scraps you hang on to comes in handy rather than just being a pile....

Yup ... I tend to hang on to steel and other raw material if I think there is any possibility that I have a need or use for it in the future.

Part of the key to making it handy is to keep it somewhat organized ... so you can actually find stuff.

I have 8' of 2' deep shelves that I use to store the shorter drops/scrap - where everything is sorted by material type (normal, non-stainless steel, stainless, aluminum) and then sorted by shape (pipe, solid, angle, tube, etc.), a rack made of 3 heavy duty brackets attached to the front of those shelves that will accommodate 4'+ and 8'+ lengths of material , and I most recently added some vertical storage - for the stuff that's shorter than 4' but longer than 2'.

Makes it pretty easy to just take a look and see if there is something that will work for whatever you're trying to do.

 

[rswyan]

I dont want to be too critical, as I am of the "try it an see" and if it dont work modify it mentality.....but.....I think you will wish the pushplate was either taller, or had taller gussets behind it.

Yeah ... I've been chewing on that one myself recently ...

I can sure see the latter (taller gussets) ... but I have a hard time wrapping my head around making the face of the push plate itself any taller ... it's already over 12" tall.

Might hafta see what I have on hand to throw in there

 

[LD1]

Yeah ... I've been chewing on that one myself recently ...

I can sure see the latter (taller gussets) ... but I have a hard time wrapping my head around making the face of the push plate itself any taller ... it's already over 12" tall.

Might hafta see what I have on hand to throw in there

Sorry, I meant shorter on the plate.

It has alot unsupported above the gussets. So to reduce the unsupported part, shorter plate or taller gussets

 

[rswyan]

Push block assembly, assembled with hardware, courtesy of the good folks @ TSC.

Hardware is 3/8 Grade 8. The bolts are mounted upside down to make it easier to tell if one of them is coming loose (by looking at the exposed thread length above the nuts):

 

[rswyan]

Face of push block with the discs welded on. Still needs a little grinding and clean up ... not the purtiest thing but it should be functional:

Saw one that I think oldtimer posted that used short lengths of pipe on the face ... I really liked that idea ... but had already welded these on.

 

[rswyan]

Sorry, I meant shorter on the plate.

I suspected that was what you meant ... but I wanted to be sure

It has alot unsupported above the gussets. So to reduce the unsupported part, shorter plate or taller gussets

Yeah ...

I've got some 1" square cold roll solid rod ... what do you think about cutting a couple pieces of that @ 45 degrees and using it to tie the top of the vertical plate to the rear of the horizontal bottom plate ?

Wouldn't be as good as taller gussets I'm sure, but it might be of some value ... ? :confused3:

 

[rswyan]

Took the torch and put it to some 3/4" hot roll solid round to bend up a couple of handles to stick on the 2" square tube the trailer coupler goes on. Not perfectly identical and the one still needs trimmed a bit, but they should work:

 

[rswyan]

Can't remember if I posted anything on this or not previously. Start of the log lift.

It's made mostly from 1 1/2" x 3/16" square tube ... used some pipe I had for one cross brace. The square tube is attached to the angle on the left at a slight angle ... so that when you roll a round onto it, the round should want to go towards the splitter and not roll off.

The red sheet/plate came from the infeed chute on my chipper (which I'm in the process of widening) and will be used to as part of the "deck" on the lift:

 

[murphy1244]

Can't remember if I posted anything on this or not previously. Start of the log lift.

It's made mostly from 1 1/2" x 3/16" square tube ... used some pipe I had for one cross brace. The square tube is attached to the angle on the left at a slight angle ... so that when you roll a round onto it, the round should want to go towards the splitter and not roll off.

The red sheet/plate came from the infeed chute on my chipper (which I'm in the process of widening) and will be used to as part of the "deck" on the lift:

View attachment 409891

This is what I like to see.