Logsplitter 2.0

[2458n]

Good thought on the grabber. When you are at the end of your day the old sledge just does not want to knock off the stuck piece.

 

[yomax4]

I have split a bunch of 34" or so dead red elm, assorted oak and cherry. Even with a 10" wedge on my splitter, You only get a partial split just on the bottom. Then the monster wood wants to fall on the ground and in most cases it does what ever it wants to. Then wrestle it back on the lift and pop a different side. Eventually you can get it. After 50 cords of that big stuff, I now try to stick with 24" if possible. I was reading the early part of this build and I must have gotten lucky building my lift. I added a spool valve via power beyond to run the lift cyll. Then I just picked my pivot area and built the lift. Then when the cyll. was installed I just pulled the ram out and drew a line where it would hook to the lift at slightly higher than level. Worked so well I had to laugh. Lifts anything I can roll.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

34" cherry? That should be sawn into lumber not splitting for firewood.

 

[crazyal]

On the large stuff either I tilt my splitter up so I don't have to lift it or I use my loader. I place it on the opposite side of the splitter from me so I can just roll the rounds out of the bucket onto the splitter. Once they split half wants to roll towards me which is easy to handle while the other rolls back into the bucket.

 

[ajmaxham]

For my large rounds I use a slip on wide wedge. It is 9.5 inches wide at the back.



It worked well splitting this red oak round.



It was wider at the push block end.



It does a good job pushing the two chunks of wood apart.



Split.

 

[LD1]

That wedge would require some serious tonnage to push through white elm rounds. Red oak is one of the easiest splittings woods there is.

 

[yomax4]

34" cherry? That should be sawn into lumber not splitting for firewood.

Can't agree more but the mill guys want it for nothing. I'm looking into one of those Alaskan Sawmill jobs to see if I can do some cherry boards. I'm afraid to tell you the size of the Black Walnut I cut and split for boiler wood. lol..

 

[jack707]

How much do you think that project cost you?.

 

[rswyan]

How much do you think that project cost you?.

Who is this question addressed to ?

 

[murphy1244]

Who is this question addressed to ?

How did the splitter turn out?

 

[rswyan]

How did the splitter turn out?

Still need to finish the 4-way wedge and get a coat of paint on the entire thing.

Works pretty good tho' ...

 

[jack707]

How much do you think that project cost you?.

Rswyan

 

[rswyan]

Rswyan

Probably less than $700 or $800 ... some of the stuff that I used that had to be purchased, was purchased quite a while ago, from Surplus Center and Northern Tool.

The 4" x 24" Eaton hydraulic cylinder (Surplus Center) was $90, the log lift cylinder probably half that. The wedges (beam and 4-way) were around $25 from Northern Tool. All that was 10 years ago.

Biggest recent expense (last year ?) was the power-beyond valve for the log lift ... it was around $160 with the PBY sleeve IIRC. A lot of the steel was free, $50 in the H-beam. Probably have a good bit in hoses and fittings.

I should probably do a materials cost list and post it, just for giggles.

 

[rswyan]

I still haven't got around to getting any paint on this thing ... but I have accumulated a snot load of wood that I need to split ...

Figured I'd get the splitting done in the next week or two and then tear it down and get it painted before winter.

I did pick up another 4 x 24 cylinder for it though ... the one I was using I took off the Country Mfg. dump trailer ... which I really need to get back in operation.

The new cylinder is a 2" rod, whereas the old one is only 1 1/2" ... figure the bigger rod might improve the cycle time slightly.

I also need to pick up a larger cylinder for the log lift ... the one that is on there is 2" bore and I had some trouble with it being able to lift larger rounds that were green. Also a bit of issue with how fast the cylinder would extend (too fast)

I can go with either 2 1/2" or 3" bore cylinder for essentially the same money ($65 vs. $68)

Both of them are ASAE cylinders with a retracted length of 20 1/4". And both have about 4" or 5" of threads on the rod ends ... so I can shorten them to the 18 1/4" retracted length I need. Weight difference is 22 lbs vs. 27 lbs.

I'm leaning towards the 3" cylinder ... mostly because it will have no shortage of power, it should extend a good bit slower, and is only $3 more.

Thoughts ?

 

[LD1]

Either cylinder will likely have ample power.

Calculate your flow/cycle time.make sure you can live with the time a 3" cylinder would be. No way to speed it up. A 2.5" could always have a flow restrictor, but would then make it cost more than the 3".

Either will work. Use what will give the most acceptable cycle time.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

The 2" rod on the main cyl will speed up retraction a bit but do nothing for speed on the extend. Plugging the numbers into the speed calculator on Surplus Center's site, says about 3/4 of a second improvement based on 10 GPM.

 

[rswyan]

Either cylinder will likely have ample power.

Calculate your flow/cycle time.make sure you can live with the time a 3" cylinder would be. No way to speed it up. A 2.5" could always have a flow restrictor, but would then make it cost more than the 3".

Either will work. Use what will give the most acceptable cycle time.

Assuming the flow in high pressure/low flow mode is 3.4 gpm or so, the extend time on the 3" would be around 4.2 seconds or so (with no restrictions) ... which in my book is plenty fast.

I will be using 1/4" hoses and I already have a restriction orifice I can use ... if needed to slow it further.

 

[rswyan]

The 2" rod on the main cyl will speed up retraction a bit but do nothing for speed on the extend. Plugging the numbers into the speed calculator on Surplus Center's site, says about 3/4 of a second improvement based on 10 GPM.

Yeah ... I come up with a 0.7 second improvement ... 4.5 seconds to retract.

No biggie in the big scheme of things I guess.

 

[LD1]

If you think 4.2 will be plenty fast, I'd go for the 3".

But wonder if the small hose and orifice is still needed to force the pump to stay in second stage?

 

[rswyan]

If you think 4.2 will be plenty fast, I'd go for the 3".

But wonder if the small hose and orifice is still needed to force the pump to stay in second stage?

Yeah ... was thinking about it last night ... the flow has got to be limited ... otherwise it's a catapult:

Extend time for a 3" x 8" cylinder @ 13 gpm is 1.1 seconds ...

The recommended max flow for a 1/4" hose is 3.5 gpm.

Don't have the exact specs on this pump offhand, but two similar pumps (@ Surplus Center) show that the unloader pressure is adjustable on one from 400 to 900 psi and the other just says that the unloading pressure is preset @ 500 psi but it's probably adjustable as well.

I need it to switch at around 700 psi or less ... otherwise I'll be stalling the engine out.

I'll likely just plumb it with the 1/4 lines to start and see about restricting it further if need be.

IIRC, the restriction orifice is out of the circuit at this point.