70 ton wood splitter

[TONYRB]

Ran out of steel so i boxed out the lower sections and had to have another test. Dry gum is so hard im having trouble splitting 500mm ring into 16 pieces.... i will try some wet woods be for i go back to the drawing board on the box cutter design. Link below to us trying to split dry gum

 

[TONYRB]

Thats 3000psi- 26ton per ram. Im hoping wet pine will slice threw and hopfully mack will to.. ????

 

[VirginiaIron]

It appears the wedge is adjustable up and down. FWIW, is it easier to remove most of the H beam and leave enough lip to carry the edge of the wedge? If you need more H beam support can you could add ramps/deflectors inside the wedge to accommodate the distance of the exposed flange of the H beam.
-1st drawing depicts ramps/deflectors.
- 2nd drawing depicts reduced Flange on H beam.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Have you tried clicking on the photo. that works for me on this site ?

I've tried many times, whatever program makes the tiny pics just opens a black screen on my computer with nothing on it. On my phone the several times I've tried it seizes up and I have to pull the battery out and reboot it.

When they are loaded regular I see them fine.

 

[VirginiaIron]

Mine does that sometimes but I think it is due to a slow connection and the router disconnecting and reconnecting.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I can see the video. Big machine!

I like building stuff like that, just in the last 5-6 years have shelved most projects to process firewood and log.

 

[muddstopper]

There sounds to be a lot of binding going on with that split. I would throw another round on and just look and see which part of the wedge the wood seems to be binding most. I dont know what kind of gum you are splitting, but I know black gum around here is about the only thing that even slows my splitter down. Its just hard to split, I split mostly oaks, whiteoak is tough and stringy but my splitter will bust it or mush it

 

[VirginiaIron]

There sounds to be a lot of binding going on with that split. I would throw another round on and just look and see which part of the wedge the wood seems to be binding most. I dont know what kind of gum you are splitting, but I know black gum around here is about the only thing that even slows my splitter down. Its just hard to split, I split mostly oaks, whiteoak is tough and stringy but my splitter will bust it or mush it

What I see is the splits turning/rotating outward toward the larger portion of the wedge's opening. Those splits to be concerned about, imo, are the splits closest to the H beam and the rear section that forms a cavity or wall against the split. To me, the chatter-like sound sound is the typical wood on metal friction/splitting/tearing action. The round size compared to the wedge is limited due to the front face of the H beams restricting the opening. It looks like a longer round may work better with the larger wedge openings on the outer edges.

 

[VirginiaIron]

@TONYRB- For the record, your splitter is very nice and I would like to have one, my comments and or suggestions are in no way intended to negatively criticize you, your progress, and or your design. My comments are more like those within a think-tank to help propel you (a fellow craftsman/builder) to greater success. VI

 

[KiwiBro]

Ran out of steel so i boxed out the lower sections and had to have another test. Dry gum is so hard im having trouble splitting 500mm ring into 16 pieces.... i will try some wet woods be for i go back to the drawing board on the box cutter design. Link below to us trying to split dry gum

Dry gum is a tough ask for any splitter, even worse if the grain is also twisted. Can you stagger the knife edges a little bit? There's a point quite early on where the pressure peaks and once the wood is cracked the pressure drops off a cliff (unless it's a stringy bastid or the splits are binding on the walls of the knives). At the point where the pressure drops off, check how far the wood has progressed passed the front edge of the knives and slightly less than that distance is about what sort of stagger is useful. It may mean that you'll have to punch some splits through the knives with the next ring/round that goes through, thus on your last round of the day the splits might stay in the knife unless you whack 'em out with a sledgehammer.

On split sizes, to avoid complaints, here essentially the splits have to be able to fit through a 5x5 hole cut in plywood. Anything bigger than that and someone is going to get their knickers in a twist,

 

[VirginiaIron]

"... On split sizes, to avoid complaints, here essentially the splits have to be able to fit through a 5x5 hole cut in plywood. Anything bigger than that and someone is going to get their knickers in a twist,"
Lol

 

[Bwildered]

Ran out of steel so i boxed out the lower sections and had to have another test. Dry gum is so hard im having trouble splitting 500mm ring into 16 pieces.... i will try some wet woods be for i go back to the drawing board on the box cutter design. Link below to us trying to split dry gum

From the looks of it your outer centre cutter sections have parallel sides front to rear, the split timber is being compressed to fit through the aperture & that is cause of the chattering sound, the cutters need to be splayed outwards from front to back to allow clearance for the centre wood to not bind after being split .
Thanski

 

[TONYRB]

From the looks of it your outer centre cutter sections have parallel sides front to rear, the split timber is being compressed to fit through the aperture & that is cause of the chattering sound, the cutters need to be splayed outwards from front to back to allow clearance for the centre wood to not bind after being split .
Thanski

Hey every 1 thank you for all the comments I will study them it is all helpfull infomation. I do appreciate comments and ideas. The 4 centre holes get wider as it gose threw. But it only has a 12mm lift at the exit end which i dont think is enuff. I have spent hours cleaning up the welds and need to spend more time grinding down the welds in the inner triangle areas. I will stick to this cutting box for a while but wish now i stagered the blades more... i did plan to but ended up not stagering them as much as i should of. I need to strengthen the 2 front h beams as a flange has moved 2ish mm out. So i will finsih of that end befor push again

 

[TONYRB]

Hmm

It appears the wedge is adjustable up and down. FWIW, is it easier to remove most of the H beam and leave enough lip to carry the edge of the wedge? If you need more H beam support can you could add ramps/deflectors inside the wedge to accommodate the distance of the exposed flange of the H beam.
-1st drawing depicts ramps/deflectors.
- 2nd drawing depicts reduced Flange on H beam.

View attachment 690368 View attachment 690369

From the looks of it your outer centre cutter sections have parallel sides front to rear, the split timber is being compressed to fit through the aperture & that is cause of the chattering sound, the cutters need to be splayed outwards from front to back to allow clearance for the centre wood to not bind after being split .
Thanski

Thanks for ideas bwildered, the 4 internal triangle cuts rear rises up 12mm on the rear from yhe front eage.
I do have the internal coner wellds they still are catching on. Need some new dremel burrs and ill tidy them up

 

[muddstopper]

One thing I have noticed on my own splitter builds is how much stagger or set back is really needed on the wedge design. With knife wedges it seems you need more stagger than you do with a spreader type wedge. Without enough stagger, you are basicly trying to mash the wood apart. Without enough stagger, the first wedge has started the split, but the knife s still slicing and then the next set of knifes contact the wood and it puts every thing in a bind. The first split is still trying to spread but cant because the second set of wedges is holding everthing together and the same for the third set of wedges . I kind of found, and this isnt exact, that it takes about 4 inches of stagger or set back to eliminate all the binding. With a wedge with 16 knifes, 8 halves, that would be about 16inches of blade width from the leading edge of the first blade to the leading edge of the last set of knifes. This isnt really practical so I guess one has to rely on a certain amount of brute force to push the wood thru the wedges. I think I ended up with 3 inches of setback per set of knifes on my 6 way. Another thing I kind of observed is the narrower the blades, not the thickness of the blade, the better they work in a box wedge design. If your box wedge is 16in deep, you dont need 16inches of blade depth to reach from the front to the back. The more metal you can take out of the inside of the box the less binding, and the easier the wood will pass thru. Just dont make the knifes so narrow you cant weld them properly.

 

[TONYRB]

It appears the wedge is adjustable up and down. FWIW, is it easier to remove most of the H beam and leave enough lip to carry the edge of the wedge? If you need more H beam support can you could add ramps/deflectors inside the wedge to accommodate the distance of the exposed flange of the H beam.
-1st drawing depicts ramps/deflectors.
- 2nd drawing depicts reduced Flange on H beam.

View attachment 690368 View attachment 690369

It appears the wedge is adjustable up and down. FWIW, is it easier to remove most of the H beam and leave enough lip to carry the edge of the wedge? If you need more H beam support can you could add ramps/deflectors inside the wedge to accommodate the distance of the exposed flange of the H beam.
-1st drawing depicts ramps/deflectors.
- 2nd drawing depicts reduced Flange on H beam.

View attachment 690368 View attachment 690369

Thats a good idea. I spent few hours yesterday boxing out that area in the cutting box to run along the inside edge. But yes the opening area is 800mm wide by 1m deep. With the 500mm ring going threw a bit off centre it was rubbing hard againgst the hbeam in another push i did. Where the cutting bux pushes against on the hbeam its bent it out 2mm ish so im going to fit rsh running across the top and just add strenght. I did see the main h beam flex upwards under the rams when it couldnt push a ring threw. No twist just a slight upwards flex in the center

 

[TONYRB]

One thing I have noticed on my own splitter builds is how much stagger or set back is really needed on the wedge design. With knife wedges it seems you need more stagger than you do with a spreader type wedge. Without enough stagger, you are basicly trying to mash the wood apart. Without enough stagger, the first wedge has started the split, but the knife s still slicing and then the next set of knifes contact the wood and it puts every thing in a bind. The first split is still trying to spread but cant because the second set of wedges is holding everthing together and the same for the third set of wedges . I kind of found, and this isnt exact, that it takes about 4 inches of stagger or set back to eliminate all the binding. With a wedge with 16 knifes, 8 halves, that would be about 16inches of blade width from the leading edge of the first blade to the leading edge of the last set of knifes. This isnt really practical so I guess one has to rely on a certain amount of brute force to push the wood thru the wedges. I think I ended up with 3 inches of setback per set of knifes on my 6 way. Another thing I kind of observed is the narrower the blades, not the thickness of the blade, the better they work in a box wedge design. If your box wedge is 16in deep, you dont need 16inches of blade depth to reach from the front to the back. The more metal you can take out of the inside of the box the less binding, and the easier the wood will pass thru. Just dont make the knifes so narrow you cant weld them properly.

Nice muddstopper. Yea my blades are 20mm thick. I agree with you. If i do have to make another box cutter there will be a bit of design that takes it out the back floating past the hbeam to get more staggered lenght. I planed to have more stagger once i got the cutting blades they were over 150 kgs i thought **** i need to cut the width down to loose weight. I lost some stager to try loose weight on the cutting box and its still over 200kgs... think i should of gone 15mm cutting blades.

 

[TONYRB]

@TONYRB- For the record, your splitter is very nice and I would like to have one, my comments and or suggestions are in no way intended to negatively criticize you, your progress, and or your design. My comments are more like those within a think-tank to help propel you (a fellow craftsman/builder) to greater success. VI

All good Thank you. Yes as we do we google and do our home work for projects ect but i find this site have been very helpfull with ideas so all good love to get the feedback

 

[TONYRB]

There sounds to be a lot of binding going on with that split. I would throw another round on and just look and see which part of the wedge the wood seems to be binding most. I dont know what kind of gum you are splitting, but I know black gum around here is about the only thing that even slows my splitter down. Its just hard to split, I split mostly oaks, whiteoak is tough and stringy but my splitter will bust it or mush it

Cheers muddstopper once iv strenghtend the 2 h beams ill do that and watch cairfully.

 

[TONYRB]

"... On split sizes, to avoid complaints, here essentially the splits have to be able to fit through a 5x5 hole cut in plywood. Anything bigger than that and someone is going to get their knickers in a twist,"
Lol

I noticed i gota couple big pices over 5x5 on a push. The ring wasnt centre and binded all the way out. The side that binded needed to be split in half. Whitch is all good i can raise the box to use a part of the blade that is 2 way- a quick way on splitting stuff that need re splitting can be done on sale box cutter