DIY Log Splitter

Easiest and cheapest thing would be to use a bottle jack, like:

In fact, I have a spare one which you'd be welcome to have if you collect it (mid Devon).

Make sure the frame is sturdy - 2" box section would be my choice.

Why not just use a big bottle jack? That way you don't have to worry about the plumbing.

Hi,

Have you tried a maul? :

cheers, Pete.

First work out the energy required to move a 4tonne force through the length of the log. Then consider that whilst the whole force is not require all the time the rate of flow of fluid is. Hydrostatic pumps are not particularly good at converting power.

Consider a high lift jack if you must but the kinetic energy from an axe blow is almost certainly the most effective use of muscle power.

Double acting jib ram from an excavator? Gives both force and stroke but I'd stick with the engine power.

For personal use I use an axe and cut bits too hard to split with one blow with the chainsaw.

AJH

Why a log splitter? Why not put whole logs in, and infill (or underfill or behindfill I spose) with scrap wood?

NT

Hmmmmm,

The > Why a log splitter? Why not put whole logs in, and infill (or underfill

Then I looked at the title of the thread:

DIY Log Splitter All 8 messages in topic - ***view as tree*** SOLVED!!!!!

Sorry folks...

In message , justme writes

Not sure about the travel you'd need but I'd look at a cheap bottle jack, if the travel isn't good enough then look out for a tail lift off the back of a truck. Be aware that hydraulic fluid is not nice stuff and if there's a possibility of a leaky joint or pipe then forcing fluid into it at hydraulic pressures is probably the best way to make it show itself and make a nasty mess.

In message , Rob Morley writes

The old saying about getting warm twice when burning logs is very apt. Particularly if you consider the number of *pumps* to move a bottle jack several inches.

Log splitters you envisage are available commercially and intended to be run off the external hydraulic service on tractors. (around 3000psi and at least 15l/min)

There is also a screw version driven by the power take off (540r/m and

You might find a redundant hydraulic power pack from some form of manufacturing industry. The last one I saw was used to supply the oscillating table motion on a grinding m/c.

Bear in mind that pump losses will heat up the oil so you need a fair sized sump. You will need a double acting ram. The rod needs to be sized for bending loads.

In the absence of Elm, most firewood splits easily. I have 5 tractors with suitable hydraulics and still use an axe to split logs.

try

regards

Northern Tools sell them fairly cheaply. Powered-pump splitters are expensive (because the pumps are), hand-pumped splitters are cheap.

Or you could make your own, with a bottle jack (Machine Mart or similar), some simple steel angle and a stick welder.

If you want a powered splitter, look for a cheap or S/H pump and ram (try a farm & plant auction).

Personally I prefer a good steel wedge and a maul. There are few tasks so simple, yet so satisfying, as a good bit of log splitting. Painting faces on the end may help, or even photocopied portraits of Robert Kilroy-Silk. Personally autographed Jeffrey Archers are even better.

Maybe the OPs supply of logs are a bit "raw". It needs to be a big grate to get a 2' diameter 10' long log into. Most of the logs that the local log supplier has in his yard, awaiting processing, are about that size...

I use a proper splitting axe (or maul as previosly posted) on the larger processed lumps from above supllier. One whack and all but the toughest succumbs. Very statisfying and a damn site quicker and probably less effort than manually operating a hydraulic pump.

Are you any good at welding?

Take a piece of steel, shape it into a wedge. Make at least two of them. Buy a sledgehammer. Hammer wedges into log.

Easy.

I think he was probably referring to the electric ones rather than something that needs a PTO or external hydraulics.

Buy a maul and a wedge - use the maul as an axe for easier logs, and to hammer the wedge for the tricky ones.

Or get a "grenade":

While searching the web for something the other day, I found an electric log splitter for 100 quid ish. I can't find it right now.

Unless you have something to run the hydrolics off, its gonna be expensive to make one thats any more than a bottle jack. Just the cost of the hoses and connectors will run the bill up.

I have some log splitting wedges, that I wack in with a sledge hammer, they are good at this type of work.

You may find that you can hire in a log splitter for a weekend once a year, and do all the job with a big machine.

Rick

I've never heard that but it did remind me that when we cut down an aspen and used the timber (after it had dried before anyone says it) we were warmer whiile and after chopping it than we were sitting in front of the wood burning stove.

Mary

You're better off buying them (although not from Northern Tools). It's a tricky piece of smithing to make a good log splitting wedge. They take an awful pounding at the back and you don't want them splitting, nor do you want them too soft.

If you have some, railway line makes good wedges (manganese steel). I've got as set here that were supposedly made of armour plate from HMS Nelson (broken in Newport) and have certainly lasted pretty well.

I find wedges are a waste of time for splitting, if it doesn't readily split with an axe I saw it.

Having said that I used wedges a lot and you must regularly clean the blunt end to stop bits flying off. Ted, one of the old gents I started work with, lost an eye when he and his buddy were wedging a tree over and a shard flew off the wedge.

BTW do not be tempted to use the anvil of an axe head for hitting a wedge, it opens up and eventually splits the eye. Splitting mauls tend to have round eyes and differently tempered steel.

Felling axes are ok for splitting but if sharp tend to stick in green wood. If they are a little blunt the initial entry crushes fibers rather than slicing between them and seems to make retrieval easier.

AJH