I wish I had made a video of the one I built with the angle wedges and you would see how it won't work on a box the wood will spread out too far and get jammed. Yes we all have torches, welders and grinders but it is a bitch to cut all that off grind down and start over. I got too on mind. I would go back to your first post and watch that u tube again and watch some other ones that seem to work nice and copy theirs and forget reinventing the wheel. You can always redo the back bone of the beam if needed. You could go a foot or two in front of the current wedge cut the beam off and add a new piece the length you need. I have cut and weld a piece of beam on several splitters over the years when the beam was damaged or the length the cylinder got longer.
revamping my wood splitter
- Thread starter muddstopper
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Got the garden hoed out so I went to pay my lws and decided to pick up some new plate to make the wedges. Got home and cut to lenght and cut the edges. Got it laid up on the splitter. Here is what it is going to look like, minus the horizonal wedge. The outer wedges wont be welded until I see what happens with just the 3 vertical wedges. 
If you look at the pics of the mockup, the center blade is all the way behind the first wedges. The wood can spread all it wants and not hit anything. Now the exact placement of the outer two wedges will have to be determined after I have split a round or two. I have 30+dia rounds I plan to test with. I might move them forward backwards or sideways, just depends on how the wood spreads. I am sort of hoping that by having the outer wedges back, that small wood will split without hitting the wedges and peeling a thin slice. Why cant wood all be the same size.
My pusher block is 10inches wide. The distance between the first vertical wedges is 8 inches. I do intend to add a short piece of plate to the bottom of the pusher so it will push the splits past the leading edge of the horizonal wedge. I'll just make it wider when I do. I hadnt thought about that until you mentioned it so thanks for that. I also plan on making a cradle for the logs to lay in, but that will be after the wedge is built and tested.
Looking at the bevels on the wedges I'm thinking it will take very little angle of the outer wedges to get the wood to angle out as you push wood through. But it's looking good so far.
The bladed are angled 11* on each side. Not a real big spread, but should be enough to allow the center piece of wood to pass without binding. The issue will be how wide the other splits spread before hitting the outermost wedges. I will just put a round on and push it thru the front wedges and see how much it opens up and place the outer wedges to get the size spits I want. I cut the edges for the blades in my bandsaw. Kind of slow go, but beat the heck out of torching and grinding.
Here is a pic of the little box wedge I made for my SS. The wedges are full taper. The upright wedges are canted just slightly to relieve pressure on the center piece of wood and I did a bit of grinding on the top of the I-beam to relieve for the center piece as well. I was trying to minimize drag every way possible as the SS has less continuous push thru power than a hydraulic splitter. I intend to increase the depth of the top wedge to hold the remaining wood but the way I'm splitting now its not really needed and I like the extra access. I had intended to weld the top wedge on more forward and was like o'crap after I finished welding. I presents no issue at this time as-is and I get 6 pieces from one split from time to time.
On your design I can't say I love the center wedge placement. I think it will work if you have all your angle laid out correct but feel it will make more waste crumbs from shearing action on the 1st two wedges. How wide are you going to make your push ram? I feel like your outermost wedges will not do much work, as in the wood will hit the outermost wedges, stop, and the push ram will push the center and top sections of wood thru. I left my push ram lower than my top wedge so often the top half of the wood only goes up the wedge a few inches then the push ram pushes the bottom 3 pieces thru. That leaves me with only having to pull the top half back a few inches for the next split.
On your design I can't say I love the center wedge placement. I think it will work if you have all your angle laid out correct but feel it will make more waste crumbs from shearing action on the 1st two wedges. How wide are you going to make your push ram? I feel like your outermost wedges will not do much work, as in the wood will hit the outermost wedges, stop, and the push ram will push the center and top sections of wood thru. I left my push ram lower than my top wedge so often the top half of the wood only goes up the wedge a few inches then the push ram pushes the bottom 3 pieces thru. That leaves me with only having to pull the top half back a few inches for the next split.
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Interesing wedge design, first one I seen built that way. Doesnt seem anybody likes the way I plan on mounting the center wedge. That makes me want to try it all that much more. I'm just a gluten for punishment I guess. Except for the $5 I spent on metal yesterday, everything is going to be made from scrap. If it dont work, I'll just cut it loose and go back to my old 6way. Only be out labor and a few welding rods. It will either work or I will get a bunch of told you so's.
Go for it. I have no problem with your center wedge - thought it rather creative give the stroke challenges you described assuming I understood them. If I had some doubt it would be placing the most outward wedges behind the leading wedges. Not sure what except the next round will push the split through them. I have complete confidence that you will make it work.
Ron
Ron
I am counting on the next round pushing the center piece on thru the wedge. The outer wedges is what I aint sure of. Build the wedge to split even 16in dia rounds and the next one you pick up will be 18in. Will always end up with slivers and small pieces.
Spent the evening getting ready to weld everything together. I had to remove one valvebank and three cyl's and then replumb the splitter valve. Now I know your wondering why I had to remove 3 cyl and a valve bank. At one time I had a small knuckle boom mounted on the splitter to load big rounds with. I over loaded it picking up logs to buck and broke the boom base. Almost took out the engine. Since it didnt work exactly the way I wanted, I just took the boom off and mounted a mechanic crane with winch instead. At the time I didnt have any caps for the valve bank so I left the cyl's hooked up and just laying on the splitter. I had to leave the valve bank installed because it had the power beyond and I needed one valve to lift the splitter wedge. So three cyl and a bunch of hoses gone. Another problem with the extra valve body where the port sizes. 5/8 ports, and the splitter valve has 3/4. Since the fluid had to flow thru the valve bank first, I had a restriced flow going to the splitter valve. Getting rid of the extra valve should speed things up a little. With all plumbing done and everything ground for welding, it shouldnt take more than a couple hours to weld up and be ready for testing. If it works like I want, then I will build the arm to pull the top half back onto the wedge on the return stroke and then figure out how to mount a cradle for the rounds to lay in so they dont roll off the beam. I also measured my pusher plate, it is 12inches wide. I plan on putting a 2ft wide piece of box tubing on the bottom to push the wood past the horizonal wedge. this should ensure none of the splits slide past the pusher plate, and give me something to mount my pull back arm to. This addition will restrict the lenghts of rounds I can split to about 22in maximum, but I hardly ever split longer than 20inches anyways.
I watched the video I posted in my first post. I noticed that he had placed his centerwedge and outer most wedges first, with the other 2 wedges setting at the back. This is the opposite of what I am doing. I also noticed a whole lot of binding, hopefully my reversing the wedge placement will work better. I might know by tomorrow but the lake has receded enough that I can get my boat to the ramp, so no guarantee's
I watched the video I posted in my first post. I noticed that he had placed his centerwedge and outer most wedges first, with the other 2 wedges setting at the back. This is the opposite of what I am doing. I also noticed a whole lot of binding, hopefully my reversing the wedge placement will work better. I might know by tomorrow but the lake has receded enough that I can get my boat to the ramp, so no guarantee's
Put the wedge together this evening. No pictures yet. Mostly just got it tacked on the hbeam. Plan on doing a little testing tomorrow, probably rip my welds off, but I think I would rather have to do a little grinding and rewelding if I rip it off, than I would like to have to torch it off if it dont work like I want it to. I didnt add the outer vertical wedges yet, got to see just how wide the wood spreads as it splits. I plan on pushing a round thru just to the back of the first verticle wedges and checking the angle of the wood and then welding on the outer wedges to appoximate a 4in wide split. This should give me 4, 4in wide splits each pass and the left over wood, sliver or block, falling off the outside of the box. I should know after the first round if I can weld it solid or start over.
Looking forward to see some pics and video. Are you going to do some over head welding or is the wedge removable?
Wedge was intended to be welded in place, but after today, things have changed.
Got everthing welded up and decided to do a little testing. Things started pretty good.
Small piece of whiteoak. Easy peezy. No noticable binding, machine never kicked into high pressure. I am thinking, man I have hit on something.
And Then 
a Piece of bradford pair. Wood way very dry and just popped in half. The part going thru the wedge was doing a little digging as it passed thru the top wedge. Vertical wedges didnt seem to be binding anywhere.Then I headed to the wood pile and threw on a large piece of redoak.
First pass, it seemed just fine so I pulled the top half back and went to push it thru the wedge and noticed something odd. And I cant find the rest of the pictures, but I noticed that when the bolch of wood hit the wedge, the lower corner seemed to be hanging lower than the bottom plate the wedge is mounted on. Stupid me didnt think much of it at first and just kept on pushing. Should have stopped. I ended up with a heck of a jamb. Sledge hammers, crushing split pieces trying to force the wood on thru. Finally got the wood free and was done for the day. Lets see if I have the pic's of the screwed up wedge. 
Pics got out of order, but lets just say first test run wasnt exactly what I expected. While the wedge seemed to work, obvious flaws reared their ugly head. first off, the 1/2in plate the wedges was welded to was way to weak to support the splitting power. since it was only welded front and back with nothing along the side, it just bent on up. The metal was cheap scrap and pretty soft. You can tell this by the way it rolled the cutting edges. It was razor sharp when I started and it only split three rounds. Also my tack welding did break as I was afraid, but I didnt expect to see everything warped up as bad as it got. I figured it would break, expected it to, but thought I would have clean breaks. I aint fixing this. I'll cut it off and start over. this will allow me to fix a few flaws I discovered. First off, I have to have a way to let the verticle wedge rise once the split is started. I believe that bradfor pear that just popped in half is probably what started my wedge failure as the wedge had to try and whittle a bit off the top instead of the wood passing under the edge. I think I will do something different on the bottom plate and cut slots for the verticle wedges to drop thru. this will allow the wedge to rise as the round is being halved and should put a end to that source of binding. Second, the horizonal wedge needs to be thicker and stronger and something that will hold an edge.. The bowing in the middle is what caused the wood to get wedged under the blade in the first place. Not sure how I am going to prevent this problem from happening again. Anyways, I'll cut this mess off and put my 6way back on for the time being. I got to head back to the drawing board.
AR400 will hold an edge, or harder material. Might be expensive, but you only do it once and you're done. I've put a lot of wood through mine in the couple years I've had it, and the scaling hasn't even rubbed off, but my edge on the wedge is still nice and sharp. I don't split, I cut with my wedge.....some times sideways.
My 6way is made of all T1. Only dents in it are where I caught my log dogs between the split and the wedge. I kind of knew my wedge was going to fail with the materials I chose. Everything was just scrap I had laying around. After looking the damage over, I believe what started the destruction is the horizonal wedge flexing in the middle. The wedge wanted to lift up as the wood was being pushed thru it. This is most likely what started all the binding as the horizonal wedge lifted, the wood got bigger at the entry point and evently just opened up the entrace to where the wood had to compress in order to pass. I have some 1in plate I am going to rebuild the wedge with. I dont have enough t1 to build the horizonal wedge. I believe the 1in plate will certainly help with the horizonal wedge flexing upward. I also think building in some actual lifting or free float of the wedge should prevent the wood from gaining any leverage against the top wedge. I also think I will sort of copy the Eastonmade wedge design. Making the horizonal wedge in a vee shape and letting the verticle wedges just sort of hang loose at the bottom instead of making them into a true box as I did in my other wedge.
I spent $5 and a few welding rods to build the first wedge with the scrap metal. Nothing really lost but my time. The next wedge still wont cost me much, but will take a lot more work to get right. Have I mentioned I hate grinding edges on blades. I have my 6way just laying off to the side, if I can get the box wedge to work without having to weld it to the beam, I will be able to just swap the two wedges.
I spent $5 and a few welding rods to build the first wedge with the scrap metal. Nothing really lost but my time. The next wedge still wont cost me much, but will take a lot more work to get right. Have I mentioned I hate grinding edges on blades. I have my 6way just laying off to the side, if I can get the box wedge to work without having to weld it to the beam, I will be able to just swap the two wedges.
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