Home built splitter

[jarvis]

I thought I'd share some pictures of the splitter I built earlier this year. Since I love fabricating and building things out of metal I decided it would make a good weekend project to build my own rather than buy one. My dad already had a splitter, but it mounted to the back of a tractor which greatly limits portability and uses a lot of fuel....so I decided to build a trailer and hydraulic system with small engine power. This is what I started out with.

I started out by designing the frame/hydraulic reservoir. I wanted at least 8 gallons of fluid capacity, so using the formula of length x height x width / 231 I settled on 6x8x42", which gives me 8.7 gallons capacity. The local steel shop cut out the pieces which are shown here on top of my MIG welder.

First step is welding the sides together. Since welding tends to pull and distort the metal, a series of small tack welds are used first to hold the two pieces securely before the final weld pass. I also cut holes and welded in bung fittings for the hydraulics.

Next side goes on, again tack welded in place. I used a block of wood and a clamp to make sure the sides were square.

Once the sides are tacked together, time for the final welds.

Next step is welding on the tounge and spindles. The spindles were free, I salvaged them from a junk piece of farm machinery my dad gave me.

And now for some wheels. The rims were also salvaged and the tires were free, I dug them out of the junk pile from a local tire shop and mounted them myself. The plate on the left side is the engine mount.

The engine was a no brainer. Honda makes one of the best small engines available, period. I scored this good used 8 horsepower model on craigslist for only $175, which is a bargain considering the same model sells for almost $600 new.

And finally it's all done. I painted it black, installed fenders and a trailer coupler, and mounted the original tractor splitter to my frame. The hydraulic pump and filter housing came from Northern Tool. I also built a jack stand to support the tounge. Here it's shown folded flat for transport.

Pull a pin and raise it to the vertical position for use.

Success!

After about an hour of work I split a nice pile. Although I based the basic design of this splitter on Northern Tool's models, I drew up the plans, dimensions, and design myself. It works great and I built it for about half the cost of buying something similar. Plus I only used about half a gallon of gas to do this much, making it MUCH more fuel efficient than it previously had been using tractor power.

 

[cre73]

Looks great, good job

 

[Capt]

That's a piece of machinery to be proud of!

 

[Ratherbfishin]

WOW very nice job. It must be very rewarding to see it in action knowing you built it yourself.

 

[cre73]

One recomendation is to make a table for the opposite side of the beam from where you operate from, if you plan on using it in the horizontal position. It is a huge time and back saver, I made mine by welding two pieces of 1in. square tubing to the beam about three inches long with a slight upward angle, then made the table with two 22in. pieces of tubing with a 1in. inside diameter that could slip over the "studs" I put in place. I like mine, do to how easily it can be removed.

 

[Skier76]

That's awesome! It's really cool that you were able to design and built that yourself. That's a great accomplishment.

 

[Jamess67]

Super nice job. One thing to consider, as I found out myself, the clips that hold the wrist pin to the wedge will get bent by your rounds. I have already lost one. Your mileage may vary. Again super job. I built one last year.

 

[jarvis]

Thanks everyone. Yep, I've already lost a few of those clips too back in the day when I used this splitter on the tractor. I do wish it had a bigger cylinder but it seems to work well so far. I do all my splitting in the vertical position, don't care for the extra lifting. I usually roll about a dozen blocks at a time near the splitter and set one up on end to use as a seat, then I'm able to reach the rest of them as I need them without having to stand up.

 

[Gooserider]

Very nice job, looks like a nice unit... You could solve the disappearing clip problem by replacing that pin with an appropriate size bolt and nylock nut. That's what I have on my splitter and it works nicely...

I also do the sit and split technique, however I've found that rather than using a round, a milk crate is a little more comfortable and is just the right height... When I'm working at my friend's place he has a cut down bar stool that is even nicer as it has a padded seat, and it swivels, which can make it easier to grab rounds that are behind you.

Another thing that I did is drill some small dimples in the face of my beam to give me a rough measuring guide for my split length. This gives a big help to "QA" - I try to get around 18", but have a stove imposed max length of 20", and have decided that under 14" doesn't stack well. With the dimples, I measure stuff as I split, and anything 14-20" goes in the main "to be stacked" pile. I then have two smaller piles, one for under 14" that goes into my "chunk-wood" bins, and one for over 20" splits that will make a trip to my cut-down fixture for trimming to 18" before getting stacked....

Gooserider

 

[smabon]

Very well done, something to be proud of. Is that an IH 884 in the back ground of the first pic?

 

[awoodman]

One recomendation is to make a table for the opposite side of the beam from where you operate from, if you plan on using it in the horizontal position. It is a huge time and back saver, I made mine by welding two pieces of 1in. square tubing to the beam about three inches long with a slight upward angle, then made the table with two 22in. pieces of tubing with a 1in. inside diameter that could slip over the "studs" I put in place. I like mine, do to how easily it can be removed.

Great idea,I have a cobled together one out of wood I set up on the back of my 16' trailer to roll the big logs up onto my spliter.
Got pics. you can post?
Some times be nice to have on both sides with huge pcs. ;-)

 

[cre73]

Don't have any pics with me, if I get a chance I will post some. Maybe a little bit the co-owner of the splitter is using it now.

 

[jarvis]

Very well done, something to be proud of. Is that an IH 884 in the back ground of the first pic?

It's an IH 1086. I grew up with red machinery, my dad still has his old 756 that he bought new in 1967, and we used to own a 826; both with German diesels.

 

[smabon]

I was in my truck the teh day after I asked if it was an 884 and I thought to myself I meant 986. I grow up working on a farm with an 986 with the cab cut off and a 884. Spent most of my time on the 884 mowing, tedding and raking hay. Miss those days.