Watch Your Feet

[Barnyard]

I will be moving this post to the safety forum in a day or two. I am only posting this here for now because of the importance and the fact that we have a lot of new members who will probably never read the safety forum (THEY SHOULD).

I was about to remove a front end off a Cub tonight and grabbed one of my splitting stands. It is one I had bought from a member of the forum a few years ago. As I was hitting on the axle to loosen it up the entire front of the Cub suddenly dropped to the floor. The plate the jack was bolted to bent. Had I not moved fast enough the right front hub and the weight of the front end would have crushed my foot. This splitting stand was a trailer jack mounted to a 3/16" plate of steel. I have another stand mounted to 1/4" steel plate so I grabbed it to lift the Cub back off the floor.

If you are planning to make a splitting stand use nothing less than 1/4" steel plate. To be really safe, use 1/2 inch plate. I will be visiting my welder this week to pick up 1/2 inch plate to modify both my stands.

I bought this stand from a member who has since passed. I do know he had two of these for sale at DSCF a couple years ago. The other was sold to another member of the forum, but I do not remember who it was. If you are that person, please rebuild your stand before the same thing happens to you.

[Peter Person]

Better yet, a C-channel, so you gain stiffness in both axis’s. Even 1/2” bar stock will bend under stress.

[Slim140]

Better yet, a C-channel, so you gain stiffness in both axis’s. Even 1/2” bar stock will bend under stress.

I agree, anything flat will bend especially with side load and leverage, doesn't matter how thick it is. Needs some side support.

[NJ Farmer]

Yea that would not be the most preferred tool I would trust holding up that weight. It looks like trouble from the photos and could cause damage or personal injuries. Use some common sense or the price will be paid.

[CharlieK]

at the very least an angle iron

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[Waif]

Err on the side of caution and over engineer such one off personal inventory (including paired ect.) pieces.
Then still don't trust them.

Take it from a one legged guy , you want to keep your body as is.

By the way , you can get your foot wedged between the clutch and dash of a Cub on the return .
Consider such and study your reaction options , before having to...

[Greenthumbfarms]

Makes me glad I only use that style stand to split the tractor, then put stands underneath right after!

I used 3/8 steel for mine, but seeing this I think I'll reinforce with some angle iron or channel

[Magnum]

Wow. As bad as that is it couldn't have gone better . At least you didn't get seriously injured.

[Lt.Mike]

I anticipated needing this for larger tractors one day so I built mine this winter using 1/2” plate steel.
Very heavy but it definitely won’t bend.
I cut it to length (14” x 6” x 1/2”) to work with a lo-boy, F Cub, A, and Super A. Drilled the plate to accept the Cub or SA torque tubes.