Splitter Design

Rugged made
Wesspur
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From other builds and comments from the more knowledgeable folks that I have read you should double the thickness of that plate. Maybe overkill but you know it won't be a problem later on. I thinks Speeco uses 1 1/2" on their foot.

Brian
 
jthornton said:
I got some 1" steel today. This is the 1" x 12" x 18" plate in position more or less on the beam.

View attachment 278801

Do you guys think it is big enough?

John
Click to expand...

From my experience , no. It will probably bend over time as crooked pieces start putting all the force on the corners. A 5 inch cylinder would bend it quick but a 4 may take some time. As you take the plate up higher you naturally compound the problem. That is why a lot of manufactured splitters have them small, less stress on stuff.

I'd look to have some back bracing behind it, Maybe some L type brackets that weld to the Beam. This is why it is critical to get a longer Beam that you think you need. Your beam is the backbone of everything.

I know I went WAY overkill on mine but I don't think it will ever bend or break there. The Beam will go first.

MVC-018S_11.JPG
 
I'll have some 1/2" or 3/4" plates perpendicular to the main plate on the bottom. I may cut it down to 8" above the beam...

Thanks for the comments.

John
 
Right now my cylinder center line is at 4 1/2" above the beam, I can go as low as 3 1/4" and have 1/2" of clearance under my cylinder. My thought process was to place the cylinder center line in the center of the splitting wedge which is 8" tall at this point.

Thoughts?

John
 
My table is 1/2" thick hrs plate. I have a 4"x6" 1/4" wall tube cut at 45* angles and welded to the H beam and table. The plate has yet to dent or bend. Over 15 cord run through it so far.
 
jthornton said:
Right now my cylinder center line is at 4 1/2" above the beam, I can go as low as 3 1/4" and have 1/2" of clearance under my cylinder. My thought process was to place the cylinder center line in the center of the splitting wedge which is 8" tall at this point.

Thoughts?

John
Click to expand...

No! Mount cylinder close to your beam. The further away the cylinder is, the easier it is to rip your mounting posts or foot apart. There's more leverage further out you are.
 
iowa said:
No! Mount cylinder close to your beam. The further away the cylinder is, the easier it is to rip your mounting posts or foot apart. There's more leverage further out you are.
Click to expand...

I was kinda thinking along those lines after yesterdays mock up... I went whoa there is a bunch of leverage there at 4 1/2" center line.

Do you have a photo of how you braced up your back up plate?

John
 
Kevin in Ohio said:
From my experience , no. It will probably bend over time as crooked pieces start putting all the force on the corners. A 5 inch cylinder would bend it quick but a 4 may take some time. As you take the plate up higher you naturally compound the problem. That is why a lot of manufactured splitters have them small, less stress on stuff.

I'd look to have some back bracing behind it, Maybe some L type brackets that weld to the Beam. This is why it is critical to get a longer Beam that you think you need. Your beam is the backbone of everything.

I know I went WAY overkill on mine but I don't think it will ever bend or break there. The Beam will go first.

MVC-018S_11.JPG
Click to expand...

I keep looking at your photo but can't make any sense out of what is what... do you have one from a different angle?

John
 
At the same time, if your pushing the wedge from below center, the top would be constantly tilting back, adding to wear on the guides. If it was me I would center the cylinder and simply provide adequate structure behind the cylinder mount and at the bottom of the mount up front.
 
jthornton said:
I keep looking at your photo but can't make any sense out of what is what... do you have one from a different angle?

John
Click to expand...

The top of my backing plate serves as a Boom mount, the sides are an upper stabilizer mount. As I said, Overkill but all sides plus the middle of the backstop are supported in several places. It's explained in the build thread link at the bottom of all my posts. Here are some progressive pics for you.

I center mounted my cylinder to the backing plate. James at Splitez who builds them for a living reaffirmed to me that this was the correct thing to do and how he builds his.

MVC-018S_9.JPG


MVC-020S_7.JPG


MVC-018S_11.JPG


MVC-019S_11.JPG


MVC-020S_8.JPG


MVC-019S_18.JPG


MVC-025S_9.JPG
 
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mhrischuk said:
At the same time, if your pushing the wedge from below center, the top would be constantly tilting back, adding to wear on the guides. If it was me I would center the cylinder and simply provide adequate structure behind the cylinder mount and at the bottom of the mount up front.
Click to expand...

This is another consideration too, but unless I'm splitting only 8" diameter logs then I assume that there will be more loading on the top of the wedge and the resultant tilting force on the slide.

A thought just hit me that there is no reason to mount the cylinder parallel to the beam except for looks. So the fixed end could be mounted low to the beam to reduce torque on the end of the beam and the rod end mounted where ever seemed logical to even the load on the ram.

John
 
jthornton said:
I was kinda thinking along those lines after yesterdays mock up... I went whoa there is a bunch of leverage there at 4 1/2" center line.

Do you have a photo of how you braced up your back up plate?

John
Click to expand...

This is a pic of my first concept, but it is the same as what I have now. I used a 4x6 x 1/4" wall tubing instead of H beam my first round. I made 2 mistakes when I first built it. I mounted the cylinder too far away from beam at 4 1/2" and used tubing to mimic TimberDevils machines. The cylinder was mounted too far out and caused a lot leverage and bent the tubing 1/4" out!

I took the splitter apart and got an H beam. I just cut the welds from the beam and gusset. The gusset was left on the table. Just welded the table and gusset back on to new H beam.

278966d1360769387-splitter18-jpg
 
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