Skid Steer stick chopper

[Rgillard]

Hi Guys,

I have designed a log splitter and a kindling splitter to attach to my skid steer. The blade on the end can be rotated depending on what you need to chop. I have attached a 3D pdf of the unit and photos of the valve. The 3D pdf will allow you to rotate the design and hide parts just like a 3D modelling package. When it opens just click on the screen and it will turn from a blue background to a white one. Your left mouse button should let you rotate it and your centre wheel will let you zoom. At the top it will let you pick the view type and show you the model tree. You can isolate individual parts and hide others.

One question I have is regarding the hydraulics. I think I need an open centre valve as the skid steer hydraulics pumps constantly. Is this correct?

I have a valve (pics included) but I am not sure how to check what type it is . It is a chinese brand I believe.... Any help would be great.

Regards,
Ron

 

[smiley]

I'll leave the hydraulics to those better versed in it than me, but I just had to comment that's a pretty neat 3D package. The design looks good and as long as you don't get any gnarly wood, should work fine.

 

[J_J]

If you can blow air through the valve in the neutral position, it is an open center valve.

If the valve has plugs in the IN/P or OUT ports, remove them prior to using air to check.

Is that valve a log splitter valve, or just a two spool valve. Otherwise, a detented retract, and shift to neutral.

For faster cycle time, Prince makes a two lever auto cycle valve, and a fast extend valve.

What is the GPM's, and pressure on the SS?

 

[20 20]

:thumbsup: I'll let J J do the hydraulic explainin he's much smarter then I

 

[Rgillard]

If you can blow air through the valve in the neutral position, it is an open center valve.

If the valve has plugs in the IN/P or OUT ports, remove them prior to using air to check.

Is that valve a log splitter valve, or just a two spool valve. Otherwise, a detented retract, and shift to neutral.

For faster cycle time, Prince makes a two lever auto cycle valve, and a fast extend valve.

What is the GPM's, and pressure on the SS?

It is a two spool valve that I have lying around doing nothing. The GPM of the SS is 16.4 and the pressure is 190 bar. There is a bolt in the P and T ports. In the ports for the cylinder there is red plastic seals. Do I just need to remove the P and T port bolts and try with the air..Would I be better buying a splitter valve for this? I could use the pedal in the SS temporarily until I get the right valve..

Thanks for the reply J J. I appreciate it a lot.

 

[J_J]

Remove the plugs from the P and T ports, and blow air through.

Yes, you can use any open center valve to operate the splitter. You just have to manually operate the handle both ways to retract.

There are three splitter valves that you can use.

Regular splitter valve.
Fast extend splitter valve
Auto split valve, once set..

You can find splitter valves for about $60.00 in the US.

Are you trying to operate the log splitter from the SS seat, or with the valve located on the cylinder?

I had to convert bars to psi. 190 bar = 2755 psi

A 4 in cyl will give you about 17 ton of force.

Extend = 4.8 sec
Retract =3.58 sec
Total cycle time of 8.38 sec

Not to bad .

Your time will be running chasing logs.

 

[Rgillard]

Started the build today. Didnt get all the parts cut yet so concentrated on the RSJ side with the cylinder mounts. Hopefully by next week we can get it cutting...Here are some pics of the project so far..You can see in some of my pictures that the oil is milky white (burst a pipe when testing the cylinder). How would the water be getting into the system. The level of the water in the radiator is still full.. This problem was in the machine when I bought it. I completely emptied the oil as much as possible and refilled it with fresh oil but the whole tank is now milky.. Any suggestions would be helpful... Is this going to destroy my skid steer if not dealt with quickly

Ron

 

[Rgillard]

First Video. Will put more up later...

YouTube - P2120051

 

[AlanB]

Sometimes with the skid steers when you get water contamination, it takes a couple of cycles to get it out. It takes surprising little water to turn the oil milky, and there is so much stuff for the old oil to cling to in the side tanks of those machines, that it takes a couple times.

Also, take a second and double check the obvious, like a vent cap not installed, or a crack on a lift arm point into the tank.

 

[Craig Clayton]

If you suspect that you have water in your hydraulic oil here is a suggestion. Drain all the oil into a clean container and let it sit in a quiet corner for maybe a week.Siphon off the oil into another container so that means the first needs to sit about 2' higher. Do it like you were nipping petrol from a storage tank. When you get near the bottom stop and examine for any water. if you had 2 lots of oil you can switch about until the water is stripped away. Are you sure you might not be sucking in rain from some source. Does the machine cool the hydraulic oil through a rad based heat exchanger?

Craig Clayton

 

[Craig Clayton]

I watched your vid about the splitting head. There was a similiar product in North America about 25 years ago called a vega matic. As it was advertised to slice dice or julian fries potatoes. It was a vertical hand powered potatoe slicer. It died on the marketing end and never made it big.
Your splitting head has the same design concept except to use wood. I think you need to let the wood as it exists the head be able to go all directions so that it does not become a HP hog aka jam up.
That is all I can think of a the moment, I hope there is no offence taken.

Craig Clayton

 

[Rgillard]

We found that the blades were a little tight on the first setup. So we cut it up and temporarily welded in the blades in a three blade setup. This seemed to work a lot better and didnt block up at all. The kindling is not just as small. The biggest problem with it was keeping wood in it. The ram is pretty quick. Next step is to make a set of legs for it and add the valve so it can be operated outside the skid steer. A bag holding/filling device is also needed.

YouTube - log splitter blade 2

We also worked on the log splitter side of the blade. It consisted of a piece of box section with a cross shaped blade welded to it. Thinking about it now it was stupid as the video shows. The log splits ok but then gets stuck on the flat surface of the box.... So we are going to redesign this aswell so that its just a solid blade and no box section.


YouTube - Bad log splitting blade

We actually learnt more from getting it wrong a few times than getting it right first time...


Ron

 

[Rgillard]

I watched your vid about the splitting head. There was a similiar product in North America about 25 years ago called a vega matic. As it was advertised to slice dice or julian fries potatoes. It was a vertical hand powered potatoe slicer. It died on the marketing end and never made it big.
Your splitting head has the same design concept except to use wood. I think you need to let the wood as it exists the head be able to go all directions so that it does not become a HP hog aka jam up.
That is all I can think of a the moment, I hope there is no offence taken.

Craig Clayton

No offence taken Craig.. All part of the learning. As you can see we did redesign the blade after 3-4 times of having to unblock it.... It shows that what looks lovely on a computer CAD system doesn't always work in reality. With regards to my oil I will check the cap on the tank. The machine doesn't seem to have any leaks on it where water could be entering. When I changed the oil the last time I didnt get the oil that was in the loader arms so there was probably enough to contaminate the new oil that was replaced.. I put about 25 litres of oil into it and capacity is about 29 so 4 litres was the milky white oil...

 

[jimmysisson]

I'm interested in the parallel-blade/wedge idea, never thought of that. One thing I notice is that the sled that rides on the beam is shorter than most of the ones I've seen - may rock a bit more and wear quicker than a longer one? The speed is very nice - wish mine went that fast!
Nice.
Jim

 

[jimmyj]

I really like this idea. On my splitter the ram pushes the wedge so I'm scared to try different wedge heads for fear of twisting the cylinder. Any comments from the crew on that happening? (Sorry, mini hijack but I love your idea and promise not to take it too far off track).

 

[Rgillard]

latest vid

YouTube - P3050339

 

[Rgillard]

pics o0f latest

 

[crash325]

pics o0f latest

Like your machine, very strong looking & well built. Wish I had seen it before building mine.

2 Thoughts, you may want to thicken the top rail, If you plan on splitting real hard & nasty wood. Also think a little longer slide would combat any binding.

Mine is an ongoing project, wheels, tow hitch and reinforce the rails 1 more time. Teeth will be added to the pusher, very little of the wood here can be cut square and most has a twisted grain, that can change to cross grain.

Have Fun
Jim