Advice needed: wood splitter wedge angle.

[Dune]

My hydraulic splitter has a wedge angle of 10 degrees. It will shear cross grain with no problem. I can literaly cut wood across the grain. However, when I split a log, the ram must push the log almost entirely through to the wedge before it comes apart. Since my six inch ram has plenty of power, I am thinking that a wider angle wedge, maybe 30 degrees or so would cause the logs to pop apart sooner. Anyone willing to help by measuring their splitter wedge angle? I think I will leave the original wedge in place and build a slip on four way, but I want some better angle knowledge before I make it. Thankyou.

 

[Cutter]

Darn I wished that I would have taken measurement last week. We were having the same problems so we welded on some steel angle to increase the angle. It sucked and we took it back off and ground it back down to where it was. It would indeed throw the splits out real fast and far. But if they were in the least bit stringey they would turn perpindicular and dangle or worse, get inline with the wedge and either get mashed before stopping of get thrown out violently towards one of use. We learned once again that you can't tweak everything thinking that the guy that made something , could have done it just a little bit better. Damn engineers

 

[Dune]

Thanks, anyone else?

 

[kevin j]

do you have a 'two stage' angle? Many have a narrow wedge then a couple steeper angled plates a few inches back. the steeper wings create the prying action and cause the split to run ahead. But don't try starting off the cut with a steep angle wedge, that take s more force. Several long discussions on that in the archives here I think, maybe at AS.

k

 

[Dune]

Yeah, I did an advanced search, didn't find much help but thanks for the idea.

 

[LLigetfa]

Yeah, I did an advanced search, didn't find much help but thanks for the idea.

Did you find this one?
So, what’s better, fat or skinny wedges?

 

[Gooserider]

I think it is more a function of the wood being split than the angle of the wedge... My splitter has a "two stage" design with a sharply pointed narrow blade for the first inch or two, then widening out to a bit fatter than the piston. My friend's hydraulic has a wedge that goes out almost immediately to the piston width, about the same angle. His Supersplit has an almost knife edged fixed wedge that is only about 1/2" thick. All three seem to split about the same - either the log "pops" on the first 1/2" or less, or you have strings that make you need to go the length of the round, or close to it...

The rounds that "explode" and send chunks flying to either side seem to be the ones that are very resistant in that first fraction of an inch of penetration... If the wedge gets into the round more than an inch, it may have to push all the way through, but it won't violently pop. If the wedge hits the top of the round and immediately starts to build pressure, get out of the way because it will likely blow...

I am slightly partial to the two-stage design, but I wouldn't loose a lot of sleep over it. More significant IMHO is that it helps if the edge is parallel to the baseplate, rather than angled. My HF splitter has a 5-10* angle so that the beam side end of the edge is a little closer to the base than the outside end, and this seems to make it want to spit logs out rather than splitting them. My friend's wedge is square to the base, and doesn't have the same problem.

Gooserider

 

[Dune]

Thanks folks, answered a lot of my questions there. I think I will leave the narrow wedge intact and build a fourway slip-over, also very narrow. Then I can get production and still be able to bust through tough stuff.