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Box wedge build

Homemade

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I finally got enough material to do a box wedge. I’ve looked and looked at a simple design with no hydraulic adjustment. Just a top plate and 4 bottom knives to produce pieces roughly 5x6 and 5x4. I got the pieces cut today and then it was family time. I’ll do some light tacking and take some picks this week.

Material for the flat plate is a skid shoe from a loader. 1/2” at the thinnest growing to 1”. The leading edge will be on the 1/2” side with a 30* taper on the edge.
The “knives” are 5/8” thick snow plow cutting edge. There are approximately 4” x 5”. I pitched the upper plate up in the back and all the knives outward to hopefully reduce or eliminate the split pieces from wedging.
 

Homemade

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I’ll see what I can do tonight.
 

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Here’s the wedge upside down on my bench.

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It resting my my splitter beam.
I know I have to put bevels in but just looking at opening sizes and angle of deflection.
 

Homemade

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Got ‘er welded on and all the wedges chamfered as best as could with the torch. Gonna try it out this afternoon. I get carried away with the welds and multipass welds just Incase I gotta bits it s part and change some things.
 

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Back to square one. Thinking I might just put the original wedge back on. It’s simple and works. Maybe invest in a higher flow pump to increase production. It was a fun project none the less.
 

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I don’t have a mill so it was as steep as I could feessably make it with a torch. I also didn’t want to spent every day and night with a grinder in my hand shaping that edge. One thing I overlooked was that most box wedges have a main wedge on the center of the I beam. Mine only attached on the outer edges of the flanges. It did twist/ bend the beam flanges before the welds tore away.
 

redoakman

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what ton is your spliter i found 30 ton wasent even enough for my box wedge i built. going to need a bigger pump also lol
 

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It has a 4” ram with a 2000psi relief in the control valve. So that makes it around 12.56 tons. Don’t look to hard into the ton ratings of the store bought splitters. The have tonnage ratings for a pressure that will not be achievable. For instance, a typical 24 ton splitter has a 4” ram. That means it needs roughly 3875psi of oil pressure to achieve that advertised force. When most pumps are only rated to 3000psi, that is about 18 tons.

The angle of the original wedge was 30 degrees. That’s what I tried to base most of my angles off of.

I have a 22 gpm pump on the way and a simple 4way slip on wedge.
 

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Honda gx340 mounted. New 22gpm pump also mounted. I rescued the engine from a generator destined for the scrap bin. So I had to put on a new bearing plate on the pro side and a new crank shaft as the generator needed a taperd shaft.

Need to get a 1/4 in key for the engine and a new 3/4in out put hose from the pump to the valve.
 

Scotts_4x

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Yeah you would have been better served with sharper angles on the wedges and continuity (or stiffener) plates welded into the sides of the beam connecting the flanges to the web at the point of loading.

-scott
 

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Yeah you would have been better served with sharper angles on the wedges and continuity (or stiffener) plates welded into the sides of the beam connecting the flanges to the web at the point of loading.

-scott

Yep. After the first split, the weak points were obvious.
 

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Yeah you would have been better served with sharper angles on the wedges and continuity (or stiffener) plates welded into the sides of the beam connecting the flanges to the web at the point of loading.

-scott

Yep. After the first split, the weak points were obvious.
 

Homemade

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One thing I also noticed from watching several videos, is that a box wedge can produce splits almost faster then one or two can stack. I purchase a 4 way slip on wedge and added longer wings and that sometimes is more then some can keep up too.
 

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Well. I got all the plumbing done and pump coupler attached and of course I can’t get the engine to start. Wtf! I had it running before the crank swap. I also poured some gas down the carb and still no fire. I have plenty if spark. I have to double check the valve timing. I might be off a tooth with the cam. Upon reinstall.
 

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Cracked open the engine again to find what I believe to be that I had the cam shaft 180 degrees off. Sealed all up and will have to test it out tomorrow.
 

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She lives! Cam was 180 degrees off. And when I removed the cam to swap the crank. The tappets and lifters dropped causing the rocker arms to fall off the valves. I moved the way the engine was mounted cause the exhaust was aimed directly at the operator. Cycled the ram a few times and wow is it fast. Now I feel like it’s a pro built splitter, not some small box store piece of crap.
 
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