$24k sounds about right- but considering what it is & does- He's making his money back in one season with that stack of logs.

 

Welding torches were involved and you didn't lose any hair???

 

hehe- nope!

but my arms got pretty toasted- nice and sunburned

even though I know better- I still arc weld while wearing a t-shirt

 

Sweet looking contraption. Really nice work, looks factory made!! Probably allot tougher than one you could buy.

 

That is a nice unit, I had considered making a unit to mount to a plate and set it up to be carried on the 3 pt hitch on my tractor, and use the hydraulics for the bucket split through a spool valve to run the cylinder on the splitter. Some old timer told me it wouldnt work, not enough flow and psi from the tractor hydraulics, but if I can lift a car with my bucket, I should be able to split some logs, don't you think?

 

I don't know what that old timer was thinking- this is a common setup on farms around me- you wont be using the bucket the same time you use the splitter.
If your tractor can power 2 cylinders for a bucket- it will have no problem powering one cylinder for a splitter flow wise. The volume of fluid to power one splitter cylinder (2.5" rod 24" throw) will most likely be smaller then the combined volume to power two cylinders used to move that bucket- and all you need is a good 2500 psi @ 11gpm to punch a wedge through a 20" log- which I'm sure your tractors pump is rated at or more.
If anything, I'd think you'd have too much flow.

My haldrex pump is only 13.6 gpm & 3000 psi 2-stage (pretty small compared to other pumps) and I split huge knarly knotty cherry no problem- If your tractor is older it's probably a single stage pump- but it'll work fine.

Northern tool sells a pretty sweet bi-directional 20 ton 3pt splitter that hooks into the tractors hydraulics for $750 (item # 1167-1101 )

It's a pretty simple setup to build tho. Wish you were local- I'd love to help you with the project.