building a new splitter. need help/opinions

[cw_wright]

building a new splitter soon. want to build a box wedge style to be more efficient. I've seen the Tempest and TW7 styles but was wondering has anyone ever got 2 levels high on that type of design? 99% of the wood I cut is dead already. will keep my current splitter with single wedge, 4" cylinder with 16gpm(soon to be 22gpm) for the knotted pieces.

new splitter will be 28gpm pump, 20hp engine with either 5" or 6" cylinder depending on what knowledge I gain here. my question again is has anyone ever gone 2 tiers on a box style wedge? and if I did attempt that, would the 5" cylinder be enough to push threw on 18"-20" no more than 20" long or so diameter oak and other types of wood?

 

[muddstopper]

Why a two tier box wedge? Make your wedge hydraulicly height adjustable and then you can center the wedge to the dia of the wood. Something like this wedge, will allow you to make multiple splits on different size rounds. Runthe small stuff thu the center for a 4way split. For 18in dia stuff just center it on the round and you have a bunch of even sized splits. Odd size rounds, just center up to make the most even sizes.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

I would highly suggest going with at LEAST a 6 inch cylinder for what you are planning. Incredible amount of surface area you are talking about when doing this style of splitter. I always wondered what they do when a splitter like the one above stalls mid way through.

 

[muddstopper]

I use a 5in cyl for my 6way split and it does pretty good. In decent wood, I think it would do alright doing more splits, but I have 2-4.5in cyl I will be mounting on my processor to do 12way splits.

 

[cw_wright]

damn. what size pump?

 

[Joesell]

I would highly suggest going with at LEAST a 6 inch cylinder for what you are planning. Incredible amount of surface area you are talking about when doing this style of splitter. I always wondered what they do when a splitter like the one above stalls mid way through.

I think they just scrap the whole wedge and start over! I don't know how you'd get a round unstuck.

 

[muddstopper]

damn. what size pump?

If your asking me, I have a 28gpm, 2stage pump and 25hp kholer engine on my wood splitter. I plan on a 60/30/10gpm stacked pump and 150hp on the processor I am building with the twin 4.5 cyl. I have just started building the processor and it will be a while before its complete.

 

[cw_wright]

wow. sounds like it'll be badass! I don't have that much engineering skill..at all.

 

[Hddnis]

I think they just scrap the whole wedge and start over! I don't know how you'd get a round unstuck.

We use a small piece of hardwood between the push plate and the edge of the stuck round. Work around the edge first pushing here and there, and then push in the middle. It has never failed to unstick a round.

Stuck rounds are very rare, maybe one in a couple hundred cords. Most of the time even if a round is sideways it will push right through, basically looks like spaghetti coming out the other side.


Mr. HE

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

We use a small piece of hardwood between the push plate and the edge of the stuck round. Work around the edge first pushing here and there, and then push in the middle. It has never failed to unstick a round.

Stuck rounds are very rare, maybe one in a couple hundred cords. Most of the time even if a round is sideways it will push right through, basically looks like spaghetti coming out the other side.


Mr. HE

Can I ask what size cylinder you are using and what species of woods normally?

 

[Hddnis]

I don't know the size, rated at 90tons. We ran fir and pine mostly, but also a mix of black locust, poplar, elm, maple and walnut.


Mr. HE

 

[cw_wright]

what type of wood got stuck exactly? elm? and how big?

 

[Hddnis]

Not elm, not when I ran it anyway. Big old pine blocks with a ring of big branches is what I had get stuck. They were probably 30-36" the biggest you could fit.


Mr. HE

 

[muddstopper]

What kind of processor do you have that takes 36" dia wood?

 

[Hddnis]

Not mine, belongs to a friend. Also not a processor, just a splitter. It is a big ugly homemade thing with a an engine out of a semi truck. If the user interface was a little better and it ran reliably it would be a nice machine.



Mr. HE

 

[damato333]

Was this ever built? I'm planning on doing something similar.