Splitter decisions. Modify, upgrade or buy a better one

[husky455rancher]

I wouldn't be too discouraged. The fact that you think it has more power makes me think your actually noticing that it moves faster through the wood when in high pressure mode. Do you have a guesstimate as to how long it took to split a cord before you swapped the pump? I think you may be pleasantly surprised at what the difference is between then and now... even if you only knocked a second off thencycle time... if your cycle time before was only 8ish seconds, knocking off a full second means your running about 12.5% faster cycle times.... thats a big gain....

I’m not sure on time to split a cord. I typically buck a bunch then split then repeat. That way I’m not doing either one for any long length of time it’s easier on my hands if I change tasks that way.

Like I said hopefully Friday is nice so I can get some real time on the splitter.

I’m just confused to why I didn’t get more of a gain speed wise. The pump I had was 7gpm and I put in a 13. I wanted to do the 16 but thought I’d play it safe as my tank isn’t that big.

 

[Big_Eddy]

Flow rate through the cylinder and therefore cycle time depends on the valve, the hoses to the cylinder and the cylinder itself.

If the cylinder has small ports, you can only flow so much oil.

Did you check the flow rating of your valve and filter? Those tend to be common restriction points.

My valve has 3/4” hose for pump and drain, but only 1/2” to the cylinder. Seems dumb for a single function valve.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[nathan4104]

^ look up some flow rates/size recommendations and I think you’d find 1/2” is usually more than adequate for the flows a log splitter normally operate at. Now, when we build our own, that’s a different animal And where your wallet or scrounging creativity come into play!

 

[husky455rancher]

Well I worked the splitter hard yesterday. It’s definitely more powerful with the new pump. Maybe my old one was tired or just set to lower pressure. It it is faster overall but not as much as I hoped. I think it was worth the upgrade but at this point I kinda wish I got the 16gpm pump.

 

[njdaveskiing]

I have an old "Honest Abe" splitter 5hp., 3 x 24 stroke cyl. I have a control valve made by Brand Hydraulics. The control valve has a side type spring plunger assy. for the detent that is supposed to keep the handle back until pressure releases it. The handle won't stay back and I see no adjustment to the side plunger. Has anyone done any modifications to the plunger to make it go in a little further to put a little more pressure on the spool so the handle will stay back until end of cycle release?
I really don't want to spend the money for a new control valve.

 

[triptester]

As the valve gets older after a lot of use the spool gets worn where the detent ball makes contact. Remove the handle from the spool and rotate the spool 180 degrees this should allow the detent ball to contact an unworn area. Often works and a free fix.

 

[njdaveskiing]

As the valve gets older after a lot of use the spool gets worn where the detent ball makes contact. Remove the handle from the spool and rotate the spool 180 degrees this should allow the detent ball to contact an unworn area. Often works and a free fix.

Thanks for the reply, I did rotate a few months ago but had same problem.

 

[njdaveskiing]

As the valve gets older after a lot of use the spool gets worn where the detent ball makes contact. Remove the handle from the spool and rotate the spool 180 degrees this should allow the detent ball to contact an unworn area. Often works and a free fix.

Thanks for the reply, I did that a few months ago and had same problem.

 

[Ol' Brian]

View attachment 865491
The wedge design is going to make a huge difference in tough wood. The wedge shown is on an old SpeeCo, and is long and narrow cutting knots easily. The flair spreads the wood, or as with oak, pops it apart with 1/3 stroke. The table extending well beyond the wedge catches the off side split, keeping it within reach, and giving room to deal with the near side re-splitting first. Several rounds could be staged on the table if desired.
Improvements in moving wood to or away from the splitter can really optimize an older splitters limitations.

If you want to improve the splitter itself, start by checking out your local Marketplace on Facebook, or Craigslist, to see what might be available in the used market. You would be surprised what may be there, as peoples situations change, people move due to jobs, or downsize to condominiums, and unfortunately people die. The improvements on an existing splitter are kind of spot improvements that may not be fully realized without changing multiple components, and that can get expensive, and still give a mediocre plus.

I sold my TW-6 after two and a half years, and the guy got a pretty good deal on a low hour, garage kept, 20 hp, waxed splitter. Certainly paying way less than original retail, and no sales tax.

That is the same splitter my Dad has. He bought it back in about 1975 or so when I was in kindergarten. I grew up working the lever on that thing while Dad worked the wood. He's still using it, it's on its 2nd pump, and probably 6th engine... we just put a new engine on it last week. Dad has sold firewood for probably the past 30 years, and splits close to 100 cords per year I'm guessing, maybe more. That splitter has split every piece of it since 1975. Cylinder is still original too, just weeps a bit out of the front seal. Not enough to worry about. Your wedge is in a little better shape than his, his has cracked a couple of times and been welded back together. The cutting edge is worn razor sharp, it probably will shave hair.

Dad has bee saying for about 3 years now that he's going to retire from the wood business... so when he blew up this last engine, he still put a new one on. He's slowing down, but it keeps him going at 73 years young.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Ol’ Brian:
That splitter is down the road from me and still going. He doesn’t use it much, but a few of his friends do. Third engine, maybe third valve, and I put new tires on it to tow on the road. We owned it for thirty plus years, and I bought it used from a friend. His wife bought it for his birthday. One of nine boys and two sisters, he never saw it. A brother-in-law put the vw wheels on it to tow in his orchard behind a tractor. Great mod! He was my boss for years in road construction.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I run a SuperSplit now.
The wedge is very small and cuts the wood and knots.
It is raised up to a stand up straight working height.
It has a table that extends well beyond the wedge to catch splits for easy re-splitting if need be.
Very ergonomic.

 

[fields_mj]

My recommendation is to keep an eye out for a used splitter that has what you want already on it, and then sell the one you have. If you're patient, you'll be able to find the splitter you want in good condition for $500 to $800, and you'll be able to sell yours for a least $400, maybe a lot more if you find a motivated buyer. Worse case the cost difference between buying what you want (used) and selling yours will only be a couple hundred bucks. You can hardly replace the hydraulic lines for that, let alone upgrade the cylinder and pump. Also consider that the H beam was likely sized to match the existing cylinder, so upgrading to a 4" or bigger may cause you to bend the beam. I picked up a used 27 ton MTD for under $500 a couple of seasons ago. It has a pretty blunt/wide wedge that moves with the ram. I wasn't sure I would like the set up, but turns out I love it! I split mostly big hickory and oak, and it's rare that I have to run the wedge in more than 6". Now, on a big piece that's full of knots, yeah my splitter is really slow getting that blunt wedge all the way through to the end, but that's only needed on a dozen or so pieces in each cord. So those 12 pieces may take an extra 30 seconds each to split, but the rest of them are split in 6 or 8 seconds. Having the wedge move is nice because my splits stay right in front of me. If I need them split again, I just have to roll it into position. Other wise I can either push it off the far side by hand, or toss it over into another pile depending on where I need it to end up at. When I bought the splitter, I thought I would really end up wanting something faster. At 46 years old, I find that having 6 to 8 seconds of down time on each split allows me to work at a nice steady pace that gets the work done quickly without wearing me out, so I'm perfectly happy with it just like it is.

One easy recommendation that I do have for increasing the overall speed of splitting is to pay attention to how you're loading the wood onto the splitter just like you would do if you were splitting the round by hand. When possible, split on the checks (cracks), parallel to the growth rings, or along other week points in the wood grain. The easier it is to split, the faster the splitter will work. Also, put the knots toward the wedge. The splitter isn't going to run in high speed (low pressure) until it's able to get through the knot. If the knot is away from the wedge, you'll be running the full stroke at slow speed (high pressure). If the knot is towards the wedge, once the wedge splits the knot, the splitter will kick back up into high speed (low pressure) to finish the stroke. Most of the time, the round will pop open by hand at that point, so you don't even need the rest of the stroke.

Just my 2 bits.
Mark

 

[henrysforest]

I had a 30ton hydraulic spitter which i gave to my ex women of 20 years to help her out , it is a good splitter , i recently bought a 34ton kinetic splitter to speed things up , as we cant put multi split wedges on our hydraulic splitters , as most of the wood we use for firewood here is to hard , so i bought a kinetic one , that was a mistake , oh it splits fast , thats about the only good point about it , kinetic splitters are very dangerous compared to hyd , i get a sore hand just from using the operating handle , it spat a lump of wood back at me , hitting me in leg yesterday , about the size of a shoe box and lots of parts to wear out compared to a hydraulic splitter as well , rack and pinion , at least five bearing , 2 belts , clutch and another thing , sometimes you get kickback from the rack , which is the pushrod that plits the wood , this kicks back real hard on the handle and bloody hurts your hand . Cheers Henry

 

[husky455rancher]

My recommendation is to keep an eye out for a used splitter that has what you want already on it, and then sell the one you have. If you're patient, you'll be able to find the splitter you want in good condition for $500 to $800, and you'll be able to sell yours for a least $400, maybe a lot more if you find a motivated buyer. Worse case the cost difference between buying what you want (used) and selling yours will only be a couple hundred bucks. You can hardly replace the hydraulic lines for that, let alone upgrade the cylinder and pump. Also consider that the H beam was likely sized to match the existing cylinder, so upgrading to a 4" or bigger may cause you to bend the beam. I picked up a used 27 ton MTD for under $500 a couple of seasons ago. It has a pretty blunt/wide wedge that moves with the ram. I wasn't sure I would like the set up, but turns out I love it! I split mostly big hickory and oak, and it's rare that I have to run the wedge in more than 6". Now, on a big piece that's full of knots, yeah my splitter is really slow getting that blunt wedge all the way through to the end, but that's only needed on a dozen or so pieces in each cord. So those 12 pieces may take an extra 30 seconds each to split, but the rest of them are split in 6 or 8 seconds. Having the wedge move is nice because my splits stay right in front of me. If I need them split again, I just have to roll it into position. Other wise I can either push it off the far side by hand, or toss it over into another pile depending on where I need it to end up at. When I bought the splitter, I thought I would really end up wanting something faster. At 46 years old, I find that having 6 to 8 seconds of down time on each split allows me to work at a nice steady pace that gets the work done quickly without wearing me out, so I'm perfectly happy with it just like it is.

One easy recommendation that I do have for increasing the overall speed of splitting is to pay attention to how you're loading the wood onto the splitter just like you would do if you were splitting the round by hand. When possible, split on the checks (cracks), parallel to the growth rings, or along other week points in the wood grain. The easier it is to split, the faster the splitter will work. Also, put the knots toward the wedge. The splitter isn't going to run in high speed (low pressure) until it's able to get through the knot. If the knot is away from the wedge, you'll be running the full stroke at slow speed (high pressure). If the knot is towards the wedge, once the wedge splits the knot, the splitter will kick back up into high speed (low pressure) to finish the stroke. Most of the time, the round will pop open by hand at that point, so you don't even need the rest of the stroke.

Just my 2 bits.
Mark

You know out of all the woof I’ve ever split I never thought to look at the direction of the cracks when loading it on. I’ll have to pay attention to that next time.

 

[husky455rancher]

I did end up raising it 5 inches and putting on a 13 gpm pump on it and it. I’ve got some hours on it since the new pump And I will say it is definitely faster under load as well. I don’t find myself having to wait at all for it anymore either on the return stroke which is nice cuse I don’t dick around lol. I’m happy with the upgrade. I didn’t upgrade any lines at all just the pump and I put on a filtered breather on the tank. The extra height is quite awesome also. Although it did adversely effect the center of gravity which I had to correct by moving the support leg and ad a foot to the leg with a gusset.