Wood splitter?

[beaconlight]

Bill that is a beautiful job.

[Rudi]

Bill:

Help would be appreciated. I have most of the splitter beam and stuff all figured out as well as how to power it via the Cub Touch Control. I have had some help on designing the hydraulic needs, and got that under control. What I need to figure out now is how to mount it properly to the Cubs rear end.. I know I need to bring some kind of mount up from the Rear Final Mounting Pads, interconnect it to the rear rockshaft arm to adjust for height and stuff.. Ideas are welcome.. but it has to be simple enough for a beginning welder to play with it.

[Eugene]

Rudi.

Consider a 2 wheeled trailer. That CA Allis Chalmers is quite a bit heavier than a Cub.

Also you might want to consider the weight of the materials you have on hand. As a guess my home build splitter which consists of just the beam, splitter, cylinder, hoses and metal for the slide and plunger/end weigh about 350 lbs. I still have to add the motor, pump and reservoir, and 4 plus gallons of hydraulic fluid. As a guess, final weight will be around 500 lbs, not including the trailer.

[WKPoor]

Rudi, Since the weight of just about any splitter is considerable to mount it on a Cub it would require some sort of subframe that would pickup the bell housing in addition to the finals. Problem there is it would be a rigid mount. To totally cantilever it in the rear I believe would be too much weight for the Cub and the touch control would not be able to lift it. It could be done with an auxiliary cylinder but that would be in conjunction with the mechanical aspect made into the subframe. Now if your weight were in the 300lbs or slightly less range and made perpendicular like mine you might get away with it. But the whole thing would need to be scaled down from what I have there. Just remember that you might be slamming 100lb plus sized piece of wood on it to split. I can stand on the very end of the beam on mine and jump up and down and the tractor stays solid. The Cub can be made to work I'm sure but its going to take alot more thought and engineering to get you there successfully. B&M would be one to consult on this too as he has already cantilevered a heavy implement on the back of a Cub.

[Rudi]

Ok.. I guess I need to clarify a bit. First, this is a homeowner's splitter. It is not meant to split 30 cords of wood at a time. It is meant to split maybe and I repeat maybe 6 cords per year and at a pace that I can handle with my health taken into account. I am not interested in how fast I can split, or how big a log. Most of the stuff I will split will be either Poplar, Pine, Spruce, Birch or Maple. Most will be less than 18" in diameter and all will be 16" in length. The hardest stuff to split, will have to go through a couple of times.

I am thinking on a pair of A-Frames -- one left hand and one right hand with bracing parallel to the Splitter Beam itself. There should be next to no undo torsion on the Cub itself, as I do not intend to push really difficult stuff through it. If the Cub cannot split it after 2 tries or so, then out it comes and the Chain Saw and/or maul and wedges will take care of it.

The whole point of this excersice is to build me a small splitter that I can play with, make my job a lot easier and keep it at a height that is comfortable for me. What helps is that with the Touch Control, I can adjust the height to where it will be most advantageous to me as I split.

Bill, one of the reasons why I posted for your ideas on the project is because of the splitter that you built..



I want to do something similar, minus all the extra stuff. See the Frame under the splitter? Well I would like to have a frame similar to that and fixed to the veritically orientated A-Frame that will bolt up to the fore and aft mounting pads on the Cub Finals. With a box frame similar to the one above, plus the A-Frame, it should be more than sturdy enough to counter any longitudinal torsion that the ram will exert.



Ellie's TC unit is enough to do what I want.. and y'all will be surprised when it is done,

I will try to put together a sketch to show what I have in mind. But a couple important things to note as to what WILL NOT be on the Splitter.

1. No Extra motor or pump.. not needed.
2. No extra hydraulic tank .. not needed.
3. No extra weight.............. not needed.

Here is what WILL be on the Splitter.

1. Beam is from a log splitter from Princess Auto.
2. Cylinder is a 3"x 18" 3,000psi cylinder from Princess Auto.
3. 1/4 Hoses plumbed from a T in the By-Pass Block.
4. Control Valve is a Cessna Eaton for a CC. No detent.. not auto return.. you wanna move the cylinder you stand there and hold it..
5. Ram plate and wedge.
6. Splitter will be mounted horizontally and perpendicular to the Cub's centre line.

Dats about all. This is not a commercial splitter, but one that I can play with. If a 5hp Honda can power the one I have used for years (before our neighbour sold it, and Em's cousin sold his), then Ellie will be more than enough to do what I want her to do.

This is another one of those.. No it can't be done.. but by gum it certainly will be projects... similar to the snow blower projects. I have been thinking on this awhile now, but it is the geometry that has me befuddled..

Will see what I can do over the next little while.

Oh, Merry Christmas all, Peace (+) to all

[WKPoor]

Rudi, Its does seem you are on the right track. I was also thinking of a unit that would be lighter without the tank. The 3x18 cylinder is a good start as it will be lighter and use less oil. BTW... I have a gauge on mine and most wood will split below 500psi pressure and most of that will barely move the gauge. Like you said, if you encounter a tough one you can deal with it another way. With the smaller cylinder comes a possibly smaller beam. I really like the wedge on the ram. If you get one stuck in the wood it can self retract out when the cylinder is reversed back through the gate. Have you thought about picking both forward and rear sets on mounting holes in the finals? That would have to greatly encrease the strength.
MERRY CHRISTMAS

[Eugene]

Rudi. Before you jump into this let's do some calculations.

If the Cub's hydraulic pump puts out 1500 PSI then with the 3" cylinder you only get just over 10,600 lbs pressure. Probably not enough to split a knotted, twisted log or old oak. The Cub's high pressure safety valve is set between 1100 and 1500 PSI. So the actual pressure could be considerably less.

How many gallons per minute the pump puts out? Unknown
How big the hydraulic reservoir is?. 4.25 pints

It takes .55 gallon(4.40 pints) of hydraulic fluid to fill the cylinder 3"x18".
Then we need to figure in the cylinder shaft diameter. A 1.5" diameter shaft X 18" will displace 1.1 pints. The bare minimum capacity for the reservoir to operate a 3 x 18 would be 3.3 pints.

The Cub's hydraulic system would be the bare minimum to operate the log splitter. If the system were operated for very long it would more than likely over heat the hydraulic oil.

And then the Cub's hydraulic system system is closed - not vented. This is another problem area.

[beaconlight]

Yep what Eugene says. The tank also cools the fluid. The 3inch Ramis underdoing it a bit. No sense building a splitter and playing shoulda coulda.

[Rudi]

Rudi, Its does seem you are on the right track. I was also thinking of a unit that would be lighter without the tank. The 3x18 cylinder is a good start as it will be lighter and use less oil. BTW... I have a gauge on mine and most wood will split below 500psi pressure and most of that will barely move the gauge. Like you said, if you encounter a tough one you can deal with it another way. With the smaller cylinder comes a possibly smaller beam. I really like the wedge on the ram. If you get one stuck in the wood it can self retract out when the cylinder is reversed back through the gate. Have you thought about picking both forward and rear sets on mounting holes in the finals? That would have to greatly encrease the strength.
MERRY CHRISTMAS

Bill:

Yup,

Exactly. I was thinking on using both the for and aft mounting pads to increase the strength and the stability of the unit. And you are right, it has been my experience that most wood in my yard will split with very little pressure. Usually what would get split by smacking it with a maul.

The wedge on the ram is a good idea for my mind precisely because it will extricate itself from a stubborn or gnarly piece of pine or maple. A small cylinder means that less fluid is needed and what the hoses will hold will be more than enough.

Granted, I am not a metal fabricator, but to my mind much of the principles would be the same. Where I need the help is in the actual design, or maybe to vette my design with. I was figuring probably 2"x1" rectangular tubing for the support frame with welded mounting pads or something similar. I guess I really need to sketch something up.

Eugene, Bill:......

To my mind, be that what it may... I am not looking to build the penultimate wood splitter. I am looking for something that will negate the need for me to split with a maul. With my chest wired the way it is, a maul is less than the ideal tool to be splitting with. And as I said before, I am not interested in super sturdy, lets rip into a 3 foot chunk of gnarly maple that would take a 20 ton splitter to make toothpicks out of. I am looking to simply split birch, some maple, poplar, pine and fir. This is what I harvest, this is what I need to split. And as far as getting the Cubs hydraulics hot enough to damage something.. well that would mean I would have to be lifting something pretty heavy -- and that ain't gonna happen, not with my chest.

If and when I need to split really stubborn stuff.. save it up for a weekend when I gots help, and I can go rent a splitter for $75.00 for the weekend if need be. Aside from that, Ellie will be more than enough pump for me to handle

[Eugene]

Eugene, Bill:...To my mind, be that what it may... I am not looking to build the penultimate wood splitter. I am looking for something that will negate the need for me to split with a maul.

Aside from that, Ellie will be more than enough pump for me to handle.

Rudi. The pump size is not what you have to worry about. Most hydraulic pumps will put out about 1500 PSI. The really big difference in pumps is gallons per minute. The Cub's hydraulic pump will operate a wood splitter. Perhaps not very fast. It's the reservoir capacity that is limited - severly limited.

My previous calculations were based on the 3" X 18" cylinder. Most log splitters use 4" or larger cylinders. The Cub's reservoir is not large enough to handle cylinders that large.

Hydraulic oil will get heated just circulating through the pump.

My opinion. Over build the log splitter rather than under build it.

Look around for old hydraulic operated equipment. Last place I worked they had to have the junk man haul away (free) for old fork lifts. Old combines.

And another idea/thought. A screw driven wood splitter.

[junkman1946]

Before I graduated to the sofisticated world of hydraulics I had one of those corksrew splitters. It was called a Stickler- very simple- looked like a giant wood screw that bolted to a drive wheel axle. Still see them at swap meets. I ran mine off a Sears Suburban 12 h.p. garden tractor. You split the wood from the side, not the end. Worked very well -nothing to break. If you got into a really gnarly piece it would lift the tractor right off the jack. BTW Im still trying to master picture posting of my splitter pics. Got everything into Photobucket but now Im stuck. Frank

[Bigdog]

Frank - Photobucket makes it easy for you. The image tag links are there with the tags already imbeded. Just click on the one that starts with img and paste the whole link directly into your post. All the hard work has already been done for you by photobucket.

[junkman1946]

If all goes well, here are the pics of my splitter project.

[Bigdog]

I did a little editing to get them to show up. Click on the edit button in the upper right corner of your post to see what I did.

[Rudi]

Frank:

Very nice splitter, well built. I guess not much is gonna stop that. Not even the gnarliest maple .... Well done.