Giant log splitter build.

[dave21478]

I have a wood fire at home and I cut firewood for a few clients as well, so have a LOT of firewood to split. Originally done with an axe, a while ago I bought this crazy thing....


It works, but is slow, not too good with knotty wood and is only ever a fraction of a second away from tearing your arm off. Besides, its a 380v motor that runs it, and three phase power isnt available at a few clients properties.

So, With wood cutting season approaching I decided to get on the case and set myself up with a decent hydraulic splitter. However the sort of thing I want tends to be eye-wateringly expensive, so realised I would probably have to get creative.
Trawling the classified turned up this....

Which is a good starting point. Heavy duty frame, Honda diesel engine and a hefty ram, all for a reasonable price, with spare rams thrown in too. The mounting for engine and pump is very shoddy and it has a few other problems, but since I would be changing all that I bought it anyway.
Problems? yeah well it stands about 2.7 meters high, weighs a lot and really needs to be shifted around by tractor - no use for me, I need something maneuverable that I can take to clients houses with ease.

I broke up a rotten old car transporter a while back and saved the suspension units. I had planned on rebuilding another transporter, but...well....that was about 5 years ago and I am still no closer, so I decided to use two of the suspension units here. Add some 10x10 from the scrap metal pile and we have a basic, but strong, axle....


Add another length of 10x10 as a spine....


snot them together....


and I now have a cross-shaped chassis.

I went at the splitter with the big disc cutter, but most of the welds just popped apart with a clout from a hammer! I reckon it was originally mounted on a frame to be carried on a tractor's 3-point linkage, with the ram run straight from the tractors hydraulics and someone has added the Honda motor and pump at a later date, making a fairly half-assed job of it.
motor, pump, fluid reservoir removed....

Yes, that is a plastic kitchen chopping board used as a spacer on the sliding section. That takes bodges to another low!

Leaving that for now, I made up a simple pivot with a massive bolt I found and a bit of steel tube which is a snug fit over the bolt. I welded the lugs onto the vertical and thats the articulation point done. Its not as if it opens 50 times a day, so this will be more than adequate.


A couple of guides near the end of the spine so it rests in the right position....


And thats the basic form laid out....


Tomorrow - mounting of the motor and pump etc, then I need to figure out a system to raise and lower the splitter from the chassis. I have a couple of ideas, so will see what looks like it will work the best.

[twins5555]

very interesting ,keep the updates flowing

[usedabused]

I wanna see a vid of it in action!!

[colnerov]

Hi, does the rig have to work upright? It might be easier to leave it down and fabricate a working table around it. If it's required to have it upright, as you have hydraulic power then use a ram to raise it.

Colin

[dualist]

The one I used before worked off a tractor horizontally, can't you just re-mount your tank and leave it as it is.?

[dave21478]

nup, the one of the whole points of going vertical is so I can split massive stuff. Its just not feasible to be humpfing 3 and 4 feet diameter sections up onto a horizontal splitter - as it is with the cone splitter I have to use a ramp from my flatbed trailer and roll the section up it to the table.
For smaller stuff, there is no reason it couldn't be used horizontally, I suppose. Just need to watch where I mount the command lever.

As for using a ram to raise it - I am on the case.....


So, another day, another t-shirt ruined by hydraulic fluid and welding burns. Anyway, didn't get as much done as I wanted as I ran out of MIG wire - the nearest shop selling it is 45 minutes drive away and closes for two hours at lunch time, so that lost a few hours of work time.

I stuck on a few more bits of tube and mounted the motor and pump....


No photos of it, but I fitted the pump mounting on a hinged plate. It sits raised up at one side, with a long bolt to pull it down, tensioning the belts. The old mounting had no provision for belt tensioning at all.

I rummaged a handbrake lever out of a dead Sportrack lying in the farm yard and mounted it up along with supports for the trailer brake cables. -

The brakes still need adjusted, this is just a dry build before dismantling, finishing and paint!
I am not going to bother with over-run brakes for towing....no real need as its under the weight limit requiring them, and its just another complication. This handbrake is just to stop it moving when parked up. I will need to take the brake shoes out and weld up the sliders as they are auto-reverse shoes and the throw of the handbrake is not enough to fully lock them as it would with a trailer handbrake lever.

To the right of the above photo, you can see a large pin provisionally mounted - this is the lower mounting for the hydraulic ram I am going to use to raise and lower the main splitter. The other pin is on the vertical section and if I have got my maths right, it should all work nicely. I recovered two of these smaller red rams from an old hay baler that died a few seasons ago on the farm....

Plenty powerful enough - They were for opening and closing the rear door on the baler, which weighed a lot and they had very little leverage in that case, so one should easily do this job. The pump should be plenty, and the valve block I have already has a spare set of connections for a second ram, so all I need is a few hoses to get it connected and working.
(also pictured are the two spare main rams that came with the splitter - no idea what I will ever do with them!)

Annoyingly, the engine refuses to run. Compression is good and fuel was getting to the injector, but turning it over with the fuel line off showed that vapour was huffing back up through the injector...its screwed. I took it down to town with me today and a diesel place checked it out, confirming that its completely gassed - a new one is on order and should be here by the middle of next week.

tomorrow, hopefully I will get the ram mounts finished, get the tank mounted and make up a battery tray for the starter battery. Not too sure about the tank....the existing one is very tall and narrow, which might look a bit daft perched up on the frame - if I cant find anything else I will re-jigger the inlets and outlets on it so it sits horizontally.

Still to source....lights, mudguards, a tow hitch and a few other wee things. Annoyingly, my brother in law pointed out that legally it will need anti-crush bars running from behind the hitch curving outwards and backwards to just in front of the wheels. These are a legal requirement here supposedly to prevent pedestrians getting pulled under the wheels! I don't have a tube bender, so that will require some thought/scavenging.

[dave21478]

This afternoon, I got some more time on this. I shifted the inlets and outlets on the tank, allowing it to sit horizontally and mounted it on the chassis. It has to be raised up so that the outlet is above the pumps inlet level.
I also made up a support tray and method of securing the battery.


I welded up the mounts for the ram to raise and lower the splitter...

Still need to weld a threaded section on the end of each pin to hold the ram in place.

I didn't have any 50mm box for the hitch, but did have some 25x50, so two lengths welded together, then cut a slit down the middle to allow it to slip over the central section of the chassis spine...


Added a jockey wheel recovered from the random spares pile.


I fitted the valve block too. I put it on the vertical section, which complicates the hoses a little bit, but I want to make up a linkage system to allow the splitter to return itself without having to hold the handle up. I borrowed a splitter a few seasons ago that had a horribly complicated system of levers to achieve this - I have a simpler system in mind.

Yes, it is possible to buy a valve block that has this feature internally, but I am not wanting to spend out on stuff that I don't have to. My system will also be adjustable - ie the wedge can be set to raise up half way through its course and stop, without wasting the time of it going all the way up then all the way down again. This greatly speeds up splitting work.

[avengertec]

Bloody good work I lurve stuff like this

[Deleted]

This is coming along nicely!

Is there much money in splitting timber? I'd always assumed people just bought it in ready split, didn't even occur to me that someone else might be doing it!

Cheers, Joe.

[dave21478]

I don't do just the splitting, I am groundskeeper for a couple of chateaus so its just part of the job, as well as for personal use. Firewood is a big deal in France though as a lot of people use it as their only source of heating. There is big money in selling it, but that involves owning the land, cutting the trees, splitting, leaving it to season for a couple of years etc.


Regarding the build, its hit the brakes for now as I received the injector which works and doesnt curse word everywhere but it still wont start, which is due to the injection pump also being buggered.
When I viewed it before buying, it started perfectly but ran out of diesel within about 20 seconds. The guy poured in some from a rotten old jerry can and went mental with the starter trying to get it to re-start. He melted the starter motor, which I have rebuilt, but whatever fuel he put in was very contaminated with rust from the inside of the jerry can. The rust particles have been drawn through the entire fuel system and wrecked the injector and also the pump. Annoyingly there is no filter on these motors.

I will need to find about replacing the pump or getting it refurbed. I have finished everything else though, but without the engine there is no way to test it and I don't want to start painting it and adding the finishing details without having tested it first in case there are changes I need to make.

Bummer.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I realise timber is big business out there with you - I'm always massively envious of those fantastic log piles outside everyone's houses everytime I'm over there!

Bad luck on the pump, by the way - hope you get it sorted.

[grizz]

As always, love your thinking and work Dave.

We use a lot of wood over winter as an auxillary to gas heating as we are off main line and use bottled gas which is costly.

So I never pass any wood that is laying about.

[mortcars]

awesome build, friends who live in France would be very jealous of that, last time i was there we were splitting the big logs with a sledge hammer and some type of wedge, very knackering

[dodgerover]

I use wood mainly for heating the house in winter and its amazing how much you can get through when you have the fire in continually. Its certainly going to be a robust thing when its finished! Will the engine/ pump combination have enough power to split the big stuff - like you say I guess it was originally built to work from the tractor hydrolics.
Have you actually had a look at the injector pump? Its unlikely to be absolutely knackered unless it has snapped or broken something internally from trying the pump lumps of curse word. If you are going to have it rebuilt its worth making sure that whoever is doing it knows you don't want perfection - just something that will run it makes a big difference to price.

[Rich606]

That looks very useful. I'm living in Loir-et-Cher with my girlfriend at the moment and all we've got to split logs with is wedges and a sledge hammer. Haven't tried some of the big bits yet but I'm sure it will be a workout. I'll have to put up a photo of the Chop Saw of Death her family have got for chopping it to length though, big 3 phase motor spinning a 380mm blade (no guard around it) via a 50mm wide belt (no guard around it), all mounted on a frame of unknown age

[dave21478]

wow, I completely forgot I had started this thread....
I got the injection pump rebuilt by DieselBob in UK, so that and a new injector means the engine runs sweetly.

I never took any more build pics, but here is the finished deal...






raised up for working....




It works really well, very powerful indeed. One day I might get round to making a guard over the drive belts.....maybe.

[colnerov]

Hi, well done! Very professional looking.

Colin

[starionturbo]

Awesome!! We need to see this in action though

[jimspolicev8sd1]

Yeah, video please!!!