Catersplitter Build Thread

[dave_dj1]

Kevin, I just briefly went back through your thread and couldn't find it but I thought you made a 6 way wedge? If so, what angle did you make the upper ones to?
I just built one for mine and I used 45*, it almost looks too steep, I drew it out first and it looked ok on paper...lol
thanks,
dave

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

I might have mentioned it but I don't think I personally need it. If I was doing production firewood sales from a stationary site with a conveyor, Yes, I might do it. My thing is I split/use everything I cut from ANY species of trees. A 5 inch cylinder with a 6 way would probably stall more than it would be worth for us. We run 24 inch length wood which makes it harder as well. Lots of surface area to deal with and I hope you stairstepped it.

 

[dave_dj1]

Thanks Kevin. I did step it and only plan on using on short (12-14") wood for a small stove.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

As with all things you build, you think of things to improve it. I had a couple things I wanted to work on so I thought I'd show them here.

First was my single wedge. You can see here form the original making, it was really aggressive. I had it hang up on some real nasty's and decided I wanted to lessen the taper. Really no need to have it like originally but I didn't think it would ever stall.

Spent some "quality time with the angle grinder and reduced the included angle and took out the step. Look close between the 2 pics and you can see how much was taken out.

Wish I had a mill! Used about 1 1/2 9 inch angle grinder wheels and took about 3 hours, Yeah, That's wanting something bad! I did this earlier in the month and it does great now. I ran it through some pretty nasty stuff and never hinted at stalling.

Decided to change my swing tables a little bit. I had made them so they were indexable via a spring loaded gear arrangement. It works well but I found it was slowing me down some because of reaching to release the gear. I was also worried about breaking teeth if a piece got caught. I didn't want to modify the existing setups pieces so I could always go back if needed.

Tossed around some ideas in my head and did some measuring. I wanted it to be spring loaded so I could infinitely adjust the pressure. I also wanted it to "float" meaning as it wore you can still keep it going with retighteneng. Had to have something sacrificial so I decided on some bronze. Here are the basic cut pieces.

A good friend milled the dogbone shape for me and I cut all the pieces in half as pictured. The dog bone shaped one will slide into the exiting box I had. It can float up and down for adjustment but the snug sides will keep it in position side to side. I was going to use die springs for pressure but changed my mind.

I made it all out of stainless because I had it laying around. Had to cut a relief on the bottom for clearance.

The wear bushings are .250 thick and after cutting them off I sanded them on a surface plate to complete smooth so the surfaces would be true.

The idea with these is to let them ride up against the splitters side an isolate the wear washers so they are trapped to drag. I'll trim them down closer once I get the needed measurements. Hard to explain but you'll see in the end what I'm after.

The more I thought about the die springs the more I didn't like it. My buddy asked me why not use Belleville washers. Man, these things are sweet! You can get them in various sizes and strengths. Nice and compact and VERY user friendly. They are just domed, spring steel washers. You can stack them either way and build you clamping force to greater amounts. EXACTLY what I needed.

Here is my original set up so here we go.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

First step was to secure the center pin. I had used smaller set screws but decided to drill and tap a single 5/16 bolt. Isn't going anywhere now.

Took the original stuff out and decided to put a stainless wear plate on the splitters side. Drilled and tapped a hole for that. No rust issues and keeps it nice this way with just a little effort.

Cut a thin piece and installed it with a button allen head.

After trimming down the smaller pieces and installed it all. Works JUST like I hoped and am very happy with it. Nice and clean looking too which is a plus. Should be plenty strong too.

Here you can see how everything is trapped but it still can float up and down for various adjustments. Only used 2 springs and seems good. They were rated for 900lbs each. The way these plates are set up it keeps the bolt from wanting to back out or tighten.

Can't wait to try it out with this.

 

[dave_dj1]

Looks awesome, should help you speed things up. Not that I want to work any harder than I have to but if it speeds up the process I'm all for it! LOL
Happy splittin'
dave

 

[jthornton]

Looking Awesome!

Your quite a craftsman.

JT

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Looking Awesome!

Your quite a craftsman.

JT

Thanks guys, Yours is getting close too and looking great! nothing like when you finally get to use what's been in your minds eye all along. I owe my friend on this one as he made it look way nicer than I could have without a lot of work. CNC mills rock!

 

[jthornton]

Thanks guys, Yours is getting close too and looking great! nothing like when you finally get to use what's been in your minds eye all along. I owe my friend on this one as he made it look way nicer than I could have without a lot of work. CNC mills rock!

Yes, I'm getting excited to see mine split some wood. I love my CNC mills and lathe and plasma cutter. I spend a lot of time getting them up and going and very little money...

JT

 

[kubotakid]

Kevin,
Awesome work,... Iam like you, I like to build in atleast a 150% duty factor, As long as it don't look silly over building is a good thing, I sleep better knowing that I engineered it the best I could for it to last a life time. As you know, alota or, MOST of the stuff available today has about a 50% duty rating...
The price of steel has been a priority for me when building anything in recent years, but thankfully I have access to surplus material.
This has been a good read, Thanks, for sharing. Eric

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Kevin,
Awesome work,... Iam like you, I like to build in atleast a 150% duty factor, As long as it don't look silly over building is a good thing, I sleep better knowing that I engineered it the best I could for it to last a life time. As you know, alota or, MOST of the stuff available today has about a 50% duty rating...
The price of steel has been a priority for me when building anything in recent years, but thankfully I have access to surplus material.
This has been a good read, Thanks, for sharing. Eric

I learned early on that you are better off doing it as good as you can the first time to save a lot of problems later on. Nothing worse than getting everything in place to work and having your equipment fail because you skimped on doing the little extra to make it last.

Glad you liked the build. I did it because I like to see the details on how things were done. Lord knows I've picked up quite a few ideas from this site and thought it would be good to give back. Kevin

 

[OH_Varmntr]

I love this thread. That is all.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Was asked for some close ups of the detach wedge. Here you go. Let me know if you want something else.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Was getting ready to use the splitter and have a few problems I need to address. First up is the winch. When I first made the splitter I bought 2 cordless remote winches at Harbor Freight. Couldn't find a cordless anywhere else at the time so it was my only option. First one worked great and lifted everything. All was fine till something dies in the remote and it won't recognize commands. Yes, the battery was fine in the remote. Installed the second one as the remotes signals were different. It was not as strong and it wouldn't lift a few 4fters I had to work up. Then, over the summer it decided to spool up on it's own. I didn't notice till one day I looked at it and it had everything bound up. Switched the battery out and it will just infeed constant. Decided to try a winch from the local farm store so I installed it to try.

Came with a manual switch as well. I'm going to leave it hanging till I see if it works out. I'll tidy everything up then. We're just in a trial mode here. If anyone out there knows of a good, 12 volt winch with a cordless remote, let me know.

Cordless remote is a lot bigger and has a lock out switch, both features will be nicer.

Bolt pattern was narrower but at least the other 2 bolts lined up.

Just quick wrapped the wires now till I get some time on it. Everything looks fine and works so we'll see.

 

[brenndatomu]

You can by remote kits to put on any winch you want...at least I think they'll fit anything...

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Next issue was the boom lock. I figured this would fail. The swivel boom was bought and the lock is pretty weak and poorly made. Lets see if we can make it nice and build it to last

They just had a small diameter mild steel thread screwing into the booms 3 inch tube. Naturally, it has stripped and mushroomed the end. had to use Vise Grips to get it out.

A single, standard thickness nut was welded to the tube. Time to change this

The whole hoist just sits in a tapered roller bearing and rests there. I just put a strap on it and lifted everything up using the Gantry I made and a winch.

Here you can see the bearing on the bottom. The whole thing is a little sloppy and I may see about addressing that.

I wrapped a bag around the bearing and taped it to keep the dirt out of it. I strapped the hoist to the splitter top keep it from moving around as well.

Cut the nut off first.

Went to the stainless stack and was looking for a bigger pipe/tube but all I had was this. I go to my local scrap yard occasionally and the have a stainless pile and they sell by the pound. Pennies on the dollar of new and such a sweet place to get steel. I don't know what this was for but it would be VERY expensive to have made.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Don't know if this was made from a solid hunk or they welded the ears on and turned them smooth. I'm leaning toward a solid hunk though in looking at it. I'll use as is and keep the holes there. If nothing else, I now will have a coat hanger rack on the splitter. LOL

Stuffed some towels in the tube to keep debris out and I have an issue with the sizes as you can see. I originally thought I'd slice a section out and weld angle on it. Drill some holes and just clamp it together. When I measured them, they were exactly .250 different. Hmmm, plan B.

I have .125" hard poly strips left from another job the will work just fine. Lots easier and probably better.

Cheating here as I clamped it and just plunge down on the cut lines, just to the edges.

Nice, easy and quick

On the sides I did the same only went real slow as it wants to push out/deflect if you try to go fast.

I just use a hacksaw blade to finish to the corners on the longs.

Now I'll drill a hole and run a burr to the cut lines making 2 halves.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

They are about 1 inch wide so I cut them to the correct length and pushed them in for a test fit and work great. Warmed them on the stove to make them more pliable as this stuff is tough

Going to used brass as a grip to the tube. It'll spread the load and can slowly wear. It'll probably outlast me though. Started by facing on end smooth.

Made up a pattern for the "window" for the brass to pass through. It's .950" x 1 .400". I also clamp the tube in a vise and brought a cut off wheel down and just gave it witness marks. This locates the flat side exactly in the back where I want it. I center the pattern to the marks.

I then took a marker and trace the outside. Now I have cut lines to go to. You can see I marked the pattern with a center line as well.

Then just pry out with a small pair of Vise Grips

Clean up with a file and one hole is done.

Now I'll repeat the process on the splitters tube. Would have liked to go a little lower but the hole is there.

Now both holes/windows are done I have my final size for the brass

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Did the math and ground one side till I was equally centered with the flat.

Used the chuck as a surface plate and squared the flat to do the other side. Once it was to size I resquared again(shown here) to do the drill hole side the will locate/trap the screw thread.

Here's a trick to get reasonably central on a round. Once clamped in position, just grind a small flat with a narrow wheel. I eyeballed to the scribed line and the center punched it.

I center drill the hole and then step drilled it to .650 deep and .500" diameter. Here I'm flat bottoming it to the same depth.

I then flipped it 180 degrees. To get rid of some of the stock, I just cut it out. I need the curve going the other way and I'll have to grind that.

Lay the vise the other way and cut it off.

Tube diameter is 3.00 and I need it to be accurate so it will grip nice. I just ground a wheel passed the paper to 3.050 to rough in. You notice I had to relieve the holding tang as the hub would hit other wise. this stuff grinds like butter so I set a table stop and infeed. Made several passes to lessen the heat.

I then redress to exactly 3.00" and did the final infeed to clean.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

Used a prior made thread holding jig and ground a 1/2 inch bolts end to perfectly flat.

This way it won't dig into the brass. I'll smooth the edges too on a deburring wheel.

Cut the block off and ground the cut side to size.

Bolt will push this into tube

Here's a visual of what I'm going for. Now I need a threaded collar

Off to the junk drawer. Found a 1.00" long round with a hole in it. I'll drill it to size and tap it for a 1/2 coarse thread.

Got it tapped so now I'll do the collar holder.

For the collar holder I found a small piece of strap. Put a couple lines equal distance from the end and bent it with the compact bender. Makes quick work of it.