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As long as you're not in any hurry a pretty small electric motor will make all the pressure required, it just won't have much volume which equates to speed.
I have seen MANY homemade splitters made from old washing machine motors powering a truck power steering pump, not real fast or real pretty but apparently they were better than swinging an axe.
Best of luck.
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Hi Jerry,
I'd love that. I'm sending you a note via e-mail
Mark S.
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Qoute from Murf
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I have seen MANY homemade splitters made from old washing machine motors powering a truck power steering pump, not real fast or real pretty but apparently they were better than swinging an axe.
___________________
Dang, I just tossed out an old washing machine and power steering pump (believe it or not). That sounds like a fun experiment anyways. Something to get the project rolling, and then replace the pump and motor later with something more substantial.
I imagine that getting the ram, valve, and pump wouldn't be that hard. Neither would be getting the steel to build it all with. But the one thing I'm wondering about is where I would get the splitter head itself. Shouldn't that be forged steel with a sharpened edge? Or is just welding a coulpe of plates into a ninety degree angle and then sharpening it with a grinder sufficient? I guess the more power avaialable, the less important this is as long as the wedge is strong enough.
I guess while I'm mulling all this over I might as well start getting a list of suppliers together and figuring out costs. Any idea of where I can go online to get a ram, valve, pump, etc. that's sells at reasonable prices and offers good service?
What sizes of everything should I be looking at?
Mark S.
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Mark, the splitter head is normally amde up of 3 pieces of steel, sort of a splitting sandwich, except they come together at about a 25-30 degree angle. The center piece protrudes out in front of the two side plates by about 1" which is sharpened to a cutting edge of usually 45 degrees. This center plate is hard steel like that used for B/H buckets, cutting edges on FEL buckets, and wear edges on snowplows. I have a ready supply of them myself from our worn down plow facings.
I believe Northern Tools sells them also, if not any welding shop which does heavy equipment work will have the steel in stock.
Likewise any hydraulic supply shop will handle the cylinders, valves, etc., but IMHO half the fun of doing it yourself is scrounging for parts (it's also cheaper, the farmer in me comes out,  ). Heavy equipment wreckers are good sources for big cheap cylinders. Scrap steel, I mean well seasoned steel, is a good start for the frame, most scrap yards are full of lengths of large H beams (sometimes called I beams) from demolished buildings, normally it sold by the pound for a little over scrap value.
Best of luck.
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Murf that is a good thought on the lift. I've used them. I am thinking more along the line of a boom type lift anchored near middle or toward ram anchor point. Hyd lift and manual pivot with tongs. When not needed swing out of way and have one of those high energy kids loading blocks or rolling to splitter.
I'm liking that idea and been studing booms on back of service trucks.
Mark northern hyd/tools has as good a price as anyone for a name brand cylinder and valve and they have their in house names at half the price.
What Murf said about used cylinders is valid we have a big brand new yellow one in the dumpster over $4000 new the rod is 3" x 18" the ports are 1 1/8" It would take one hell of a lot of oil to cycle otherwise it would be here. But I do have a couple of smaller ones scrounged out of dumpster. One me thinks is gonna work perfect on my boom idea.
My wedge is 12"h X 10"l X 1&1/4Thick inch plate cut with torch for angle and hard faced 3 passes then ground to edge.
As Murf said most welding shops have this stuff her and there and will get rid of it for scrape prices unless they have to cut from fresh steel.
Much of this would be cheaper to buy ready build but thats not near as much fun as dumpster diving for scrape and making something from all those treasures.
Harvey
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For those of us without welders (yet), DR sells a small, prebuilt washing machine motor style splitter I've been eyeing.
My question is: "Is 4 tons enough to split most wood (slowly)?"
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Harvey, the boom is a good idea but I think you will find it a little slow compared to a lift-arm concept.
As for that big cylinder in the dumpster, DIVE IN after it. Don't forget if you're running a 2-stage pump it will be making nearly 20 gpm on low pressure, that will move a 6" cylinder surprisingly fast.
If you are going to run with the boom idea there are two tricks that might make it easier or faster to accomplish.
First is to use a fixed boom, accomplish the lift by mounting a peice of barn door track upside down on top of the boom with a long skinny cylinder inside with the fixed end at the far end of the boom and the rod extension travelling towards the 'elbow' then mount a pulley on the end of the rod. The lift cable then runs from the far end of the arm, under the cylinder back towards the 'elbow' over the pulley on the rod and back to the far end where it goes over a second pulley at the tip. This doubling speeds lift/lower times and a 2' cylinder will give you 4' of cable travel.
Second idea is to skip the hydrauics all together and just use a fixed arm and accomplish the lifting/lowering with a hand cranked winch of the type used on a boat trailer or a small electric unit. If you opt for the electric unit the mag. on the engine will likely keep the battery fairly well charged, it also opens up the possibilityof electric start for the power unit.
As a last notion, as weird as it sounds I have seen quite a few splitters on which the pump was chain driven by a motorcycle engine, complete with the tranny and all. It seems there are a lot of bikes with perfectly good engines which are either a few years old, or the victims of "Sudden Horizontal Parking Syndrome". They can often be had for next to nothing and offer all the parts necessary for a first class stationary power plant, fuel tank, gauges, electric start, choke, witring, exhaust, even lights if you're so inclined. All this and mounted on a nifty little tube frame. One fellow even used a pair of small disk brakes like they use on Go-Karts and hooked them to the bikes brake system to keep the splitter from rolling away on uneven ground.
Best of luck.
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quote from Murf
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Mark northern hyd/tools has as good a price as anyone for a name brand cylinder and valve and they have their in house names at half the price.
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Do you have a web address for them? I'm having a hard time finding them through the usual search engines.
Also, does anyone know of a heavy equipment junkyard in the LA area? I saw an episode of Monster Garage once where they got a backhoe assy from a heavy equipment junkyard in Long Beach, but they didn't give a name of the place, and as such I'm so far unable to locate it.
Just so I can get an idea of what to look for, what size cylinder/actuator will I need? How about the pump and motor? I guess the only other things I would need is a valve and resevoir (besides the steel, hoses, fittings, and so on). What should I be looking for regarding the valve and tank?
Trying to get an idea of costs here.
In the mean time I'm reading through that Army hyd manual that Jerry sent me.
Thanks,
Mark S.
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Try this
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Mark, the usual length for a splitter cylinder is 24", however depending on the size of wood you are cutting you can normally get away just fine with a 16" cylinder for 12" or slightly larger wood.
All lengths are TRAVEL measurements, not overall lengths.
As for diameter, that is one of two components that determine both the speed at which it will cycle, and also the force it will develop.
If you are going to make this splitter as an experiment, as sort of ver. 1.0 model, then use almost any pump & motor you can find. If this is a one shot deal, do yourself a favour and go with a good power source. A new 9-11hp motor and a TWO stage pump. If you have access to a reasonably priced machine shop you can use an old PTO-driven pump from a dump truck in the wreckers. They are both high-pressure and high-volume units, in fact a lot of big self-built commercial splitters around here are powered by a 4 cyl. car engine driving a dump truck pump. The fuel tank from the same truck usually makes a perfect reservoir.
The best way to find a local source for parts is to phone either a big hydraulics shop, or a NEW equipment dealer. They will know ALL the good sources for parts locally.
Best of luck.
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