Vertical table splitter build

[cat-face timber]

opcorn:

 

[firebrick43]

Took the all purpose heat wrench and cut out two brackets to mount the pulley axle.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

How about an update?

 

[firebrick43]

Sorry life has been busy and I have made some progress but not taken any photos. So here are some



Here is the right side stripper as well as a drilled plate to mount the valve




Left side stripper

 

[firebrick43]

Log lift in raised position



Lowered position



Hinges are class 1 3 point lower link repair ends. Tough S$&t Charlie's has the for 15$. No machining hinges. No worries of welding pulling out of alignment as the balls self align, easy to remove/ install lift by pulling lynch pins. Plenty of strength.

 

[firebrick43]

Few more photos.

First is the pins that keep the mounting plate in its pocket. The back holes were real fun to drill. Cut the threads off and cross drilled a size 26 hole for a spring clip. Probably will weld a 1/4" rod to the heads to make pulling the pins easier.




Today we honed the casing, used polish paper on dings on the rod and replaced the seals and orings. Mount plate was counter bored to take 1/2" Allen headed cap screws. Had to trim out some of the inner gusset on the head because I forgot to account for the ring that clamps the casing down.



Valve mounted. Handle bent so up is up and down is down. Retract has a detent. Closed center valve since tractor is closed center


Now that every thing is mounted I can order hoses. One 56" long and other 72"

 

[iowa]

Nice splitter build! You're gonna love it. I love mine and it sure makes splitting wood enjoyable instead of having a really sore back!

 

[Oliver1655]

I got to try out Iowa's dedicated vertical splitter with log lift at Hedgefest & it was a pleasure to operate!

 

[firebrick43]

Well I finished it today. Sorry but didn't have time to take pictures. Maybe tomarrow. Awesome. Only had a few straight grain pieces. Realized that due to the table,blade length, and straight grain that I could just touch the round and it nearly popped full length, turn and repeat, turn and run wedge half way down. Ended up with 16 pieces in less than 10 seconds.

While I didn't have any big rounds for the log lift it appears it will work fine. Picked up my 200lbs just fine.

Have a 40" white oak to split with crotches every 3 feet but it is supposed to rain 2" tomarrow so it may have to wait

 

[iowa]

Can't wait to see the finished product!

 

[firebrick43]

3/8 chain hook with eye cut off, welded on to carriage and forge lines smoothed out with chainsaw file.




Axle for the pulley drilled and cross drilled for grease. Zerk is there but shadow cut it off

 

[iowa]

Wow! Pretty nice!

Now get some paint on it!

 

[firebrick43]

Sorry, this is the only round I have






Unlike a horizontal with pusher plate you don't have to keep picking it up. This piece of straight wood needed about an inch, retract, turn an eighth a turn, and repeat 2 more times last stoke going 4 inches or so and everything falls apart. A small round like this if your quick you can scoop up all the pieces at once and throw them straight in a truck next to the splitter.

 

[firebrick43]

Wow! Pretty nice!

Now get some paint on it!

I do have to make a latch/lock to keep the lift in the up position.

Anyways it getting to cold to paint so next spring it will go to the sandblasters and get a coat or two of green paint.

Also gives me time to make any necessary mods and not have touch up paint

 

[firebrick43]

Put a 25" bar on the 660 today and cut up a 46" white oak. So I will have some twisted wood to split tomorrow.

Normally use a 362 for firewood and the 660 for milling but this was a big trunk to buck. Neighbor got 2 cord off of the limbs
Brand New stihl chisel chain was cutting like a light saber.

 

[firebrick43]

Well time for an update.

Split a cord and a half of a 48" white oak and 3/4 of a cord of 54" wolf sugar maple.

Good-

Handle of large rounds is no issue. Log lit lifted all the rounds without issue.

Fast. Not particularly because of ram speed but due to handling of the rounds and Unsplit pieces. Also the wedge shape cause pieces to split within the first inch or two. The retract detent on the valve helps as well. Also no dragging pieces back to resplit. Just turn it again.

No bending over. Other than rolling a round onto the ramp there is no picking up pieces off the ground. Because it's three point mounted instead of a trailer unit there is no reason not to move the tractor right up to a group of rounds as after another group has been split

Bad. It's fast. Two people are about three times as fast as one. One person operating and another clearing away. On smaller rounds a third person could be loading and speed things up even more.

The wedge shape causes some stalling and some explosive splits. Some of the straight grain maple splits would send a piece to the side 2 or 3 feet. This was infrequent but still dangerous. I modified the wedge to prevent this.

I got some practice with the ol syncrowave last night. Ran 12 7018 rods and built up a thin center section and capped it with a pair of stoody #19.

This morning I got some quality grinder time and shaped the welding done the night before.

 

[dave_dj1]

Looks awesome! let us know how your wedge mod works.
dave

 

[SteveSS]

Awesome splitter! I wish I had the skill set to do something like this.

 

[firebrick43]

The new wedge help tremendously. No more explosive splits. Only stalled out once trying to split down the center of a knotty 48" white oak.

Have a video but need to figure out how to edit.

Also have plans on google sketchup. I would like to give them away for public use. However I don't want to be answering bunches of request.

Is there a way for the site to maintain the file, maybe taking a 5$ donation for a download.

 

[SteveSS]

I think you can just keep them hosted on Google Doc's and provide a link if that's what you wanted to do. You could provide the link right here in this thread, or start a new thread, or even keep it on your profile page here on AS, or even have the link in your signature. You'd have to set the file access permissions to "public" on google docs, I think. Just some thoughts...