revamping my wood splitter

[muddstopper]

Priorites do change. I cant get any work done for going fishing. Seems everybody knows I got time to fish and all they have to do is say lets go fishing. I have cut the mower off while mowing the lawn, because someone mentions fishing.

Looking at pontoon boats, been thinking about a boat better suited to night fishing. Would hate to get rid of my little bass tracker, and wife says I cant have two boats. What to do, what to do, decisions, decisions.

The processor is still in the works, For a while I was not able to work on it because of medical reasons. I am still sourceing some big $$$$ parts needed to complete the build. Its just not real high on my list of priorities right now. Its mostly because of the wifes honeydo list, building fence, putting in a garden, building a green house, you know, all the things she wants comes first.

 

[muddstopper]

Went to work on the splitter and found I was out of gas for the torch. some guy left it turned on last time it was used. I am going to fire that guy. Anyways got gas today and ready to start tomorrow. Unless I go fishing instead. Running a ideal around in my head about the wedge. Of course, the upper horizonal wedge will strike the wood first but, I am considering setting the first two vertical wedges to strike second with the center wedge striking last. Not sure this is a good ideal, what does everybody think.

 

[muddstopper]

No opinions about the wedge. OK, I will just build it the way I want to. Cant blame anybody else that way if it dont work right.

 

[Cody]

I would think that as long as you angle your outer wedges so it spreads the wood apart it would work great, don't want it getting jammed when the center wedge splits the wood.

 

[muddstopper]

Just mocked this up, blades are left overs from another wedge build. They are already sharpened. They will need to be cut to lenght and width. you can see the chalk marks. They are long enough for extra blades for another project. Then the horizonal wedge will lay on top. My problem is these blades are sharpened on both sides of the blade, I would prefer to just have the edge angle on one side for the side wedges. To redo these blades would mean a lot of grinding I just aint going to do. Plate on the bottom is 24in wide, Might add a couple more verical wedges at the edge. Probably build it where I can add the wedges if I want to and just cut it off if i dont like it.

 

[muddstopper]

went back to shop after my last post and rain blowing in the door. I aint welding on a wet concrete. I need to move splitter inside enough to close the shop door. Thought I would post another pic of the blade mockup, hopefully you will be able to see how I plan to angle the blades.
Shop will dry out pretty quick when it stops raining and I will back the splitter in and close the door. Probably wont take more than a hour or two to build since all I have to do is torch and weld. If I had to resharpen all those blades it would take most of a day, or two.

 

[kevin j]

even if they are beveled on both sides just angle the wedge outward far enough that the inside edge of the bevel angles a few degrees outward.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

What's wrong with welding in the rain?

 

[muddstopper]

What's wrong with welding in the rain?

Nothing if you have to, I dont have to

 

[sb47]

I wounder if you set the wedges so the outer pieces fall off first, and the next set to fall off next after that and work it inwards toward the center. Maybe angle the outer wedges a little bit outward so the pieces drift outward as you push a round through it. I would also think the grind on the wedges would be critical so the pieces go outward, keeping things from binding up.

 

[muddstopper]

I wounder if you set the wedges so the outer pieces fall off first, and the next set to fall off next after that and work it inwards toward the center. Maybe angle the outer wedges a little bit outward so the pieces drift outward as you push a round through it. I would also think the grind on the wedges would be critical so the pieces go outward, keeping things from binding up.

I am concerned that the wedges, as they are now, will cause some binding. I am thinking about just going ahead and cutting some more plate and not using the ones in the picture. I am thinking, and I dont mind being corrected about this, If I use 1/2in plate for the side wedges, sharpened on just one side of the edge, and making the box wider in the back that the front, that will take away a lot of the binding. I have 11inch between where the wood will first strike the top, horizonal, wedge, before it hits the back support that keeps the wood from pushing the wedge off the beam. I think if I cut the first vertical wedges 4in wide and place the single center wedges edge at the back of that 4in blade, there should be almost zero binding.. The outer 2 vertical wedges I can place even with the center wedge. The problem I see with this is the wood will strike the horizonal wedge first, this will give me a upper and lower half of wood. The bottom half would strike the first two verical wedges 2 inches after the hitting the horizonal wedge, and strike the center wedge and outer two vertical wedges 4inches further back or 6 full inches after striking the horizonal wedge. I can add a short pusher block to my main pusher block that will go under the horizonal wedge, which will give me a clean cut between the two halves and that should cut down some on wood sticking in the box. I aint real worried about wood sticking in the box wedge as the next split should easily push it out. Adding additional metal to the bottom of my pusher plate will reduce the lenght of wood I am able to split, but I should still be able to split a 22in long round and I normally cut my wood no longer than 20in.

I probably need to draw that out on paper and post what I am meaning about the blade setback and orientation to better show what I am suggesting.

 

[sb47]

I am concerned that the wedges, as they are now, will cause some binding. I am thinking about just going ahead and cutting some more plate and not using the ones in the picture. I am thinking, and I dont mind being corrected about this, If I use 1/2in plate for the side wedges, sharpened on just one side of the edge, and making the box wider in the back that the front, that will take away a lot of the binding. I have 11inch between where the wood will first strike the top, horizonal, wedge, before it hits the back support that keeps the wood from pushing the wedge off the beam. I think if I cut the first vertical wedges 4in wide and place the single center wedges edge at the back of that 4in blade, there should be almost zero binding.. The outer 2 vertical wedges I can place even with the center wedge. The problem I see with this is the wood will strike the horizonal wedge first, this will give me a upper and lower half of wood. The bottom half would strike the first two verical wedges 2 inches after the hitting the horizonal wedge, and strike the center wedge and outer two vertical wedges 4inches further back or 6 full inches after striking the horizonal wedge. I can add a short pusher block to my main pusher block that will go under the horizonal wedge, which will give me a clean cut between the two halves and that should cut down some on wood sticking in the box. I aint real worried about wood sticking in the box wedge as the next split should easily push it out. Adding additional metal to the bottom of my pusher plate will reduce the lenght of wood I am able to split, but I should still be able to split a 22in long round and I normally cut my wood no longer than 20in.

I probably need to draw that out on paper and post what I am meaning about the blade setback and orientation to better show what I am suggesting.

I would consider making new wedges. It might be critical when making a box wedge. You might start with just the center wedges or wedge and run it a bit, then add the next outer 2 wedges and run it again. It might be easier to make adjustments that way. That way you can see what the splits are doing and it may help in the placement of the next wedge.

 

[muddstopper]

My artistic abilities aint that great, but hopefully this drawing makes sense. The wood will hit the horizonal blade 2inches before hitting the two vertical wedges. After hitting the vertical wedges it will travel 4 inches before stricking the center wedge. That is 6in back of the horizonal leading edge. Since the first vertical wedges are angled at the back there should be no to little binding. With the center wedge being set back behind the front vertical wedges, I believe that as the center wood is split, it should be able to spread with little binding. I will add a piece of plate to the bottom of pusher to force the wood past the leading edge of the horizonal blade, this should shear any strings that might still be holding the tow and bottom halves together. The horizonal wedge will also be angled upward in the rear to help prevent bind. Once I get the wedge to work like I hope, I will add a drag bar to my pusher plate to drag the top half of the log back into the splitter trough on the return stroke.

 

[sb47]

You never know until you try. Let us know if it works.

 

[rancher2]

I think you will find that angling the wedges like take won't work it will cause it to jam more as the angle will cause the wood to spread out too quickly and jam against your back wedge which is also too far back. I angled some wedges on a firewood processor thinking it would spread the wood out to help with jamming and it made it worst. I went back to a more straight in line and it worked better sorry no pictures.

 

[muddstopper]

I think you will find that angling the wedges like take won't work it will cause it to jam more as the angle will cause the wood to spread out too quickly and jam against your back wedge which is also too far back. I angled some wedges on a firewood processor thinking it would spread the wood out to help with jamming and it made it worst. I went back to a more straight in line and it worked better sorry no pictures.

That would suck. I am still going to try it. Thats the good thing about having torches and welders, if it dont work wack it off and redo it. In my mind I cant see how angleing the wedges would cause more binding. I agree that the back wedge is a little far back, but putting it close to the lead edge I am pretty sure would cause more binding. I do realize that having the back wedge so far back that I could end up with some splits stuck in the wedge, but the next round should push them on thru. Yea, the last split I might have to throw a already split piece on the beam to push the last split off the wedge, but I dont see it as a big problem.

Rain has stopped and I am catching up on the mowing and garden. I might get back to working on it this evening,,, unless brother calls and wants to go fishing.

 

[GM_Grimmy]

The first 2 vertical wedges you hit, I don't think should be angled at all. If they are parallel to each other, there will be no binding. The angle of the edge will push the wood out far enough, but by angling it the way you have it, it would hardly if ever hit the outside wedges. Might be different if there wasn't so much space between the stages, the 1st and the 3rd and 4th (3/4 = outside wedges).

Why not move the center wedge so it's first? Then make each stages 2-3" behind that?

I didn't see someone else mentioned it, the pic covered their posts for some reason.

 

[muddstopper]

Grimmy, I have had this same discussion with myself a few times. One thing I have to deal with and cannot change is the backbone behind the center wedge. Because my beam was to short for the original build, I had to add that backbone, held on with side plateing, to support the adjustable wedge. Another thing wrong here is I built the beam and pusher for a different lenght cyl. In other words the pusher block likes 2 inches from contacting the first wedge. Lots of times this leaves strings holding the split halves together. Making the horizonal wedge strike the wood first will allow me to move the top wedge closer to the pusher block and adding extra plate at the bottom of the pusher block will push the two halves past the blade edge. Now if I place the center wedge to contact the wood second, there will be about 18inches of plate the wood has to slide by as it is split. Not a real big deal since the cutting edge will have already seperated the wood so it should just slide by. Now my reason for wanting to use the side wedges to split before the center is I think for bigger rounds, peeling a split off the outside edge is easier than trying to split the round down the middle. The center section of the wood should be a equal 8inches wide and because the wedges are angled to the outside, the wood should just slide between the two wedges. By placing the center wedge behind the tail end of the side wedges, this wood shouldnt start to spead until it hits the center wedge. Almost all the spreading should occur after the center piece is already past the side wedges. The back outer side wedges I think will have to be added after a trial is made splitting some wood so I can determine exactly how far to space them from the front side wedges to get the size wood I want. Whether or not these last wedges need to be angled will be a wait and see just how wide the center split opens up as it passes the center wedge. If all the wedges are spaced and angled correctly, I should be able to split a 24in round into 6 pretty even, 5x4in wide splits and all but the center pieces fall off the wedge once split. Best laid plans of mice and men. Now of course I might regret not listening to some of the suggestions being made, and I will post up a few pic's once done so everybody can say I told you so. I have already made up my mind to just weld it soil enough to run a few test just in case it dont work as well as I hope. If it dont work right and binds up, the cyl will push it off the beam. LOL

 

[GM_Grimmy]

Video of results please!

 

[Big_Eddy]

I can't tell from your picture how wide your pusher plate is, but it needs to be wider than the span between your outside 2 blades. Otherwise as soon as it starts to split the outer pieces off, the outer pieces will stop moving and jam up your splitter. Probably obvious to you - but just in case.

Personally - I'd make the front 2 blades straight but bevelled out, and would angle the outer 2 blades outward. Your inner piece is going to get wider when it splits either side of the center blade, so you need some extra width in the back half of the chamber for that expansion.

Don't worry about stringy wood holding together if you don't push all the way to the blade. Solution is simple - throw another block in and push the first one through. At the end of the day - if you have a few pieces left in the chamber - so what.