Real life splitter wedge

[Sawyer Rob]

Not sure if you saw my posts about failed 4way wedges, but concensus on here seemed be that you should just throw crotchy knotty wood away and only split perfect straight grain saw logs. Reading the wood (like reading tea leaves?) is also very important for a splitter,
Good luck.

Looking forward to responses.

W

I hope all those crotches land in my yard, I'd be HAPPY to pick them up and run them ALL through the 4-way wedge on my TW!!

I'd end up with some really NICE firewood to burn!

SR

 

[cantoo]

Weesa20, I split on to a conveyor so I use thin wedges on my splitters and as high as I can go. I don't expect it to split everything but I expect it to split almost everything. I have an owb so if it's a real nasty looking crotch I will just break off the sides until it's small enough and not break anything.
This thread has some pictures of some nice splitters. https://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/building-your-own-splitter-ideals.291161/
My speeco will split almost anything now.

 

[muddstopper]

I have built a couple of splitters for my personal use. I have rented a few splitters after selling one of my home made machines. Every splitter I built or used, I learned a few things and chose a few things I thought would make each splitter better. My current splitter has split some mighty big, knotty and twisted wood. When I first built it, I had a 4in bore cyl and 24in tall thin 4way blade wedge. It split everything I threw at it until one day it didnt. The log was a 30in dia whiteoak with 4 big knots at the fork. I stuck the wedge and had to beat the round off the splitter. I turned the log around and split from the other end, I learnt then that splitting big stuff from the butt end was easier than splitting from the top end. I swapped the cyl out for a 5in one because I was splitting 30"-40" dia wood on a regular basis, and altho the 4in bore with 4way wedge would split thru it, it sometimes would bogg the motor way down to the point of almost stalling. The 5in cyl slowed down cycle time and I swapped to a 2stage 28gp pump.The 5in cyl to date has never been stopped in any wood thrown at it. I added two more wings to the wedge and made it a 6way. Still havent stalled it. I think the key to splitting twisted wood is wedge design. thin blades slice, they dont bust wood. Staggering the wedges back so only one wedge is under strain at a time instead of every wedge hitting the wood at the same time, eliminates a lot of stress on the wedge, cyl and beam. Putting long tapers on the cutting edges allows the wedge to slice through knots. Building my own beam, I was able to top plate and side plate the flanges and web to add strength to prevent bending and twisting.

If your going to split wood for resell, and your getting lots of big knotty wood, those homeowner splitters aint going to hold up. There is a reason a commercial splitter is more expensive, but if man made it, man can break it.

Weesa20, where you at in NC, if your close enough you can bring your splitter over here and I'll help you fix it where you wont bend it again. Cant guarantee you wont break something else, but we can cut replace the beam with something you cant bend.

 

[cantoo]

I sell a bit of 16" split wood and like my wood to look pretty and stack well for customers. It's just easier to sell and keep customers when you have good looking wood ( that's what she said). I go to the trouble of marking each log for length and try to split as consistant sizes as possible. I also throw the gnarly crotches to the side ( that's what he said) and burn them myself. I split single branch crotches thru the Y so they still stack and look good. A narrow wedge will usually produce cleaner wood. Yard trees from tree services and big branchy trees will produce difficult to stack wood.

 

[kevin j]

‘Slightly’ off topic, but related.

Thin and sharp is considered good for nasty wood.
Does anyone have actual measured numbers of the bevel on their wedge design that they like? The one piece, steep angle cast box store wedges look really bad.

What I am looking for, actual inches or degrees. For example, 3/4 thick wedge, 1/8 at front, bevel 2 inches long (front to rear measured, or along the slope of bevel measured) Or 1 inch wedge thick, sharp edge, 3 inches long bevel, etc.

My purchased splitter, after sharpening, is 3/4 thick, sharp front, 1.5 along the bevel. This is 29 degrees total angle. Works fine, but I am thinking shallower next time.

Good be some spirited debate. Nothing like DHT though....

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Dunno, I don't think a knife for wood is THAT fussy! Mine is 1/2" and it's not thick enough. Splits everything fine, but it flexes too much.

The one on the other processor is 1" thick, way better. It's also better steel, has 4x the hours and it's still razor sharp (I've cut my arm or sweatshirt sleeve on it several times... it's that sharp)

I have to fix mine and make it a 6 way again, splitting with just a 4 way sucks!

 

[Weesa20]

I think this is one area where DHT's design for the basic wedge is actually pretty good. It starts out pretty sharp and widens out to 3/4 inch stock at about an inch (so ~20.5 deg angle on the point if my math is correct). It stays at 3/4 of inch stock for 2 1/2 inches and then widens out to 3 1/2 inches of the length of 2 inches. So it cuts in pretty well and then busts the wood when it hits the wider part. The only issue I remember with it that a piece could get stock on the narrow part if the splitter couldn't bust it open when it got to the wide part.

The 4-way/2-way wedge system is a complete disaster in comparison- pretty much the exact opposite with short fat point and then almost immediately into the wide part.

W

 

[muddstopper]

‘Slightly’ off topic, but related.

Thin and sharp is considered good for nasty wood.
Does anyone have actual measured numbers of the bevel on their wedge design that they like? The one piece, steep angle cast box store wedges look really bad.

What I am looking for, actual inches or degrees. For example, 3/4 thick wedge, 1/8 at front, bevel 2 inches long (front to rear measured, or along the slope of bevel measured) Or 1 inch wedge thick, sharp edge, 3 inches long bevel, etc.

My purchased splitter, after sharpening, is 3/4 thick, sharp front, 1.5 along the bevel. This is 29 degrees total angle. Works fine, but I am thinking shallower next time.

Good be some spirited debate. Nothing like DHT though....

Kevin, my wedges are 3/4 thick and are ground 2 1/2 inches beveled back from a razor edge. Well it started out as a razor, but they are still sharp enough if you bump your arm into one, you got to grab the bandaids. dont know if you can tell by the pic

 

[kevin j]

Agreed, it’s not rocket science, but there seems to be many ideas of what works best for easy quick splitting wood grain vs. tough chewy fibrous wood. Always a compromise.

And of course the fixed wedge, push through design is single plate only, whereas the moving wedge takes some advantage of the wider second stage further back.

I am partial to the sharp, fast moving wedge, but cause I don’t see much good oak maple etc. Its tough, chewy grained elm that has to be stroked all the way to the end.

Need three or four splitters I guess.

 

[cantoo]

kevin j, or one powerful splitter with several removable wedges.

 

[rancher2]

kevin j, or one powerful splitter with several removable wedges.

I think this statement is close to what you need. In my wood cutting area I run the full circle of wood to split we have nice splitting ash that you can run a four or sixway on and make board looking firewood and then we have elm, locust and hedge that can break a lot of splitter's if they are not built properly and you don't read the wood when you split it.