my home made wood splitter- what'cha think?
 

The 40" cylinder (2.75" x 40" rod 3000psi) I picked up new at a swap meet for $75! Spool valve is a Speeco with detent-
The 8 hp motor (electric start) came off an old snow blower my neighbor was throwing away- the engine was in excellent shape. You can see the control panel I made for it with the blower levers- welded to the tank.

The beam came from a scrap yard for $20-
I bought the pump (haldex 13.6 gpm 3000 psi 2-stage) & fluid tank from NT- and the 7" wedge came from ebay.
It's all glued together by my humble but mighty little Hobart 210 Mig (which I love)

It'll take a 20" log (stove only takes an 18" log) I figure it's around 20-24 ton :huh:

I have maybe $300 into this splitter and a weeks worth of building-:nod:

oh- the tires & fenders came off an old yerf dog go kart- the axle I shortened from a boat trailer...

Haven't been able to stall it yet- splits cherry & cedar like butter and pops oak like it's pine. Pretty fast cycle also.

more pics

and 2 more-

you have some skills man, wish I could just make my own stuff....very envious.

Looks great.

Thanks guys-

Beats dropping $1500 on a new one- that'll just break in a few seasons... :)

Nice splitter! Sure beats splitting it the old fashioned way doesn't it?

I was planning on building one this summer but after pricing out the bits and pieces I was bumping up really close to the price of a 30 ton the neighbor was selling.

I am still collecting bits and pieces when I come across them cheap though because i want to put together a PTO splitter someday.

Nice work. How many beers did it take. That looks like about three cases too me.
It looks about as professional as anything I've seen. Wish I had welding skills like that.

Check this slick splitter out.

YouTube - Bob Cat wood splitter

holy crap! :eek:
that thing is amazing!

I guess you could say, it gave me wood :D

Holy crap indeed! That's the coolest thing I've seen in ages!

I looked on their webpage but they don't list a price. A comment on youtube sez 24 grand.

$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 :nod:

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

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. :nod: