Wood splitter design

[moodnacreek]

The beauty of the steel '78' chain is that you can weld whatever you want to it. that is not so easy with 55 or 67 detachable.

[JoshNZ]

What about CA557 chain. Boat loads of it available and an abundance of sprockets to suit.

Doesn't look like it has attachments but I spoke to my friend, sort of nudging him about plasma cutting spikes for me and scooping them out if his machines tank with a goldfish net xD..
But he said actually it is possible, microtab little points so they just fall apart, with a little burnt hold that I could just plug weld/fusion weld to every nth link.

Would certainly be cheap. Then machine a little guide strip for each chain out of kwila or something if the likes.

What say you guys haha..



 

[mike_belben]

work with what ya can get your hands on.

[doc henderson]

gold mine!

[Al_Smith]

Another brain storm .If you can locate an old manure spreader they used some heavy drag chain .So did bale elevators if you can find one that didn't get sold for scape metal .
An old turd hearse often times can be long forgotten abandoned in the corner of a field or rotting away in a woods .It would have every thing you need, chain, flights ,sprockets .

[moodnacreek]

Another brain storm .If you can locate an old manure spreader they used some heavy drag chain .So did bale elevators if you can find one that didn't get sold for scape metal .
An old turd hearse often times can be long forgotten abandoned in the corner of a field or rotting away in a woods .It would have every thing you need, chain, flights ,sprockets .

And that is how I built my first green chain, and old sileage wagon donated everything.

[JoshNZ]

I've ended up buying some of this CA557 chain.

Adding spikes could be as easy as getting my filler rod stuck in the puddle as you do then cutting with side cutters haha. Might not be strong enough.

What's a quick way to add spikes to this chain several hundred times..

[doc henderson]

 I do not know about the ca557 but the detachable link had links with uprights, and I welded paddles on without difficulty.  there is one in the prev. pic.

[mike_belben]

Something cheap without a coating to grind off.  Hot roll roundstock or clean rebar.  Snipped off chain links U shape up like ice chains.  Cutoff stubs of 1" square tube nubs or some such junk like that. Bedframe bits?

[DMcCoy]

gold mine!

A large pile of rusty, dusty chain...I'm thinking we need to refer to you as 'Country Doc Henderson'.  A black medical bag, pickup truck, large dog, and an attractive co-pilot/navigation assistant...sounds complete?

[doc henderson]

just want to be one of the guys!  thanks.  my email is oldochenderson so kind of the same thing.
my truck is an 07 1 ton dually, my wife is a 64 model and does OK, Libby is a German shepherd,  and I have the leather bag, but do not carry it anymore.  

[JoshNZ]

I haven't had much time to work on the splitter and any work I've done has been the slow painful bits. This is where I got to. I'll turn this into a build thread, why not.



 



 

The wedge must weigh about 70lb, I had to climb on the bench and drag it up the beam I couldn't lift it out in front of me. I managed to make the transition into the wider shoulder seamless so hopefully that helps.



 

So I've got a gearbox and some chain, some sprockets, they came out pretty crap there'll be some ribbing over that but I think I can clean them up. And I've got some hydraulic motors. I'm still wondering if this is a smart idea.

I'd say the max length I can go for the ramp is 1800mm/70" before I'm taking out doors and ceilings with it folded up, or doing a more complex joint at the top that lowers it when folded away. It makes it about a 30 degree incline.

Drawing below for what that looks like. Still look sensible to you guys?



 

 

 

 

 

[mike_belben]

You could make the ramp a bifold that pins into one segment when laid out if you want it longer or more compact.  That would make a handy bridge to lay right onto a tailgate and a helper in the truck puts rounds on as you feed them to the splitting deck.

I think i would set the ramp pivot flush to the table rather than above.  And id use your spare chain and motors to build a matching out feed conveyor on the other side to drop the split wood into the bin or ttailer or other truck.  If the conveyors are flush to the work deck you only have to slide the piece and flow can be  bidirectional. 

Just in case a jobsite lays out better to feed rounds from the right and wood off to the left.  Or what if youre loading rounds from a tractor bucket then filling bins or pickups on each side.  Build it to be flexible i think. 


not be to suit your needs so much as to develop a licensable design that someone else buys from you in the future.  Thats how i bought my homestead. Sold a manufacturing design.

[moodnacreek]

A lot of work accomplished . Too late to copy the power split but I hope you copy their foot control style. Look mom, no hands.

[DMcCoy]

Personally if I had a tractor with a FEL I would invest in a set of forks and build a couple of 4' x 6' pallets to hold the rounds and a table to set the pallets on right next to your splitter.  A conveyor to haul away the split pieces is so, so useful.  Nice build!

[Al_Smith]

 I'm not certain if I've shown this before or not on this forum .At any rate although not so pretty it is powerful .Took me about 20 years to round up all the junk and 4 days to put it together .Tank/axle is 8 inch pipe .Wheels and spindles Ford Escort .Beam is 70 some pounds per foot piling beam. Foot plate 2" steel .5" Parker -Hannifin super duty cylinder .16 GPM pump,Briggs11 HP electric start  engine .Boat winch to lay it down and cable via the cylinder to stand it up .Too heavy to do it by hand especially for an old coot like me .
I have no idea or care what the cycle time is only to say I seldom run it much above half throttle and it will outrun me .For me it's all about function over form so no paint but it will split anything you put in it .I never had any thought about entering it in the local rod and custom show .

 

[doc henderson]

my log table loader is adjustable for slope.  I can load it by hand or have a bucket at the same level to just roll them across.  if heavy rounds, I use a crane attachment and lift with tongs and place on the H beam splitting area.  to transport I un-pin the table and stow it.  I can swap sides, but never have used it different than it is currently set up, but I could.

[Crusarius]

I am not sure how to describe what I am thinking bout you could do a double arm hinge setup where the hinge point is actually on the side of the table. so as you flip the table up the part that is above the table will end up dropping below the table.

Could be similar to a flip up garage door mechanism maybe? Give you the ability to have a longer ramp and still fold up into a nice package. The other thought is since you have the splitter beam up high you could use that to lift the infeed and outfeed tables up. Now that I think about it a flip up garage door mechanism using the post as a lift point could work nicely.

[mike_belben]

Yeah a boatwinch ontop the beam.  An eyelet at the fold point and an eyelet at the end point is how processors switch from stow to run mode. Same cable, just different attach point.

[JoshNZ]

I was thinking if it was too heavy to lift I'd just put a pulley block up there and a little eyelit somewhere on the ram wedge. When I want to stow it away, hook the cable into the wedge and extend the ram.

I've got spare rams too, I could put a diverter valve on then hydraulic motor and then switch it to the ram to lift it up.

[doc henderson]

wow three solutions, good thread.  8)

[Al_Smith]

On that with some creativity such as cable and pulleys you can utilize a cylinder for much much than a ram .You just have to think outside the box at times .You get to adding cylinders hither and yon you can quickly get a plumbers nightmare .Just a thought . 

[Crusarius]

like remove a pin and use the main cylinder to move the rest into transport position.

ooh here is an idea. pulleys and cables that loop over the splitter end, close the cylinder like you were splitting and it lifts the infeed and out feed tables.

hehe, I can go on like this all day

[mike_belben]

its all fun and games until the pin bends and wont come out of the hole and now you cant fold up the wings to go home on time. 

[Al_Smith]

Use a heavier pin .FWIW the pin on the clevis to the wedge from the cylinder  on my splitter is inch and a quarter and the bolts holding the cylinder to the beam are one inch grade 8 socket heads .