Needing a log splitter guru

[Deets066]

Cylinder diameter and pump pressure determine strength, but the pressure may be cut back through a limiter in the handle valve.

Pump gpm determines speed

Motor size factors in there as well, but don't have the info in front of me.

Most splitters in the 18-25 ton range are using similar parts to yours if you had a 3000 psi 13 gpm pump and 3000 psi splitter valve

Very true Kevin, but most pumps used on splitters are similar pressure and usually only vary in gpm.

 

[Al Smith]

If I'm following the plumbing the iron pipe is on the suction side of the pump so it doesn't see any pressure .If I understand correctly I would say you have a directional control valve more suited for a hydra motor type thing .As such it could be dangerous with no spring return to neutral .Might prune off a finger then you couldn't pick your nose .Worse would be the power finger without going into detail .
A Vickers vane would work but being a single stage could easily stall that little engine .A two stage 13 or even 16 GPM gear pump would work by setting the transfer relatively low so it goes to high pressure before it clamps off the engine . I would get rid of that belt drive and use a direct coupling with a lovejoy type .FWIW I buy most of my hydraulic stuff from surplus center ,on the net .They have all kinds of charts too which might be of interest .

 

[Ryan Browne]

Bailey's hydraulic just sent me a coupon code for 30% off MSRP. Code is MERRY30. Not sure if they've got anything you need, but it might be worth a gander.

 

[Al Smith]

Another thing I saw is the tank being below the pump .It will draw a suction but at the same time suck air into the system then take forever to get it all out .You could alleviate that with a check valve in the suction line as it comes out of the tank .

 

[jehinten]

If I'm following the plumbing the iron pipe is on the suction side of the pump so it doesn't see any pressure .If I understand correctly I would say you have a directional control valve more suited for a hydra motor type thing .As such it could be dangerous with no spring return to neutral .Might prune off a finger then you couldn't pick your nose .Worse would be the power finger without going into detail .
A Vickers vane would work but being a single stage could easily stall that little engine .A two stage 13 or even 16 GPM gear pump would work by setting the transfer relatively low so it goes to high pressure before it clamps off the engine . I would get rid of that belt drive and use a direct coupling with a lovejoy type .FWIW I buy most of my hydraulic stuff from surplus center ,on the net .They have all kinds of charts too which might be of interest .

You are correct, I meant to say it was the suction line. Got my lines mixed up as I was looking at that the other day but didn't write a response right away. I believe your correct on the type of valve, but it is currently so slow you'd have to fall asleep during operation to lose a finger. Its actually quite nice for splitting kindling off, as I can get comfortable sitting on the fender while breaking a piece of firewood into tiny pieces. Once I upgrade my pump it may cause a safety concern. I'm currently looking at a 13gpm 2 stage with Lovejoy. I'll check out that site, thanks.

 

[jehinten]

Another thing I saw is the tank being below the pump .It will draw a suction but at the same time suck air into the system then take forever to get it all out .You could alleviate that with a check valve in the suction line as it comes out of the tank .

If the fluid in the tank is above the suction line, how will it draw air? I could see it draining back into the tank when not in use, then having air in that line. Is that what you mean?

 

[jehinten]

Bailey's hydraulic just sent me a coupon code for 30% off MSRP. Code is MERRY30. Not sure if they've got anything you need, but it might be worth a gander.

Thanks, I will take a look at this.

 

[jehinten]

Just wanted to share a video of how this splitter is currently running. This was a 22" diameter ash (roughly 18" length) once I got through the first split it no longer had any trouble splitting the rest of the round and did not need me to keep letting off of the pressure like shown in the video.

I will be ordering a new pump for it some time after the holidays

 

[Homemade]

New pump and valve and you’ll be a happy camper.

 

[fearofpavement]

Just because the control valve doesn't have detents doesn't mean it isn't suitable for a splitter (if you have two people). I assume it is spring loaded to return to center? and just doesn't stay in the forward or reverse position?
A hydraulic vane pump is usually used for high flow applications such as running a mower blade or some type of equipment that consumes a lot of fluid but doesn't need a huge amount of pressure.

You can calculate your splitting "force" by multiplying your psi by the surface area of your cylinder's piston. In your case you have a 4" so you have to use pi and all that math mumbo jumbo to figure out how many square inches that is. Multiply that square inch number by your operating pressure of maybe 2200 psi and there you go.
Some ads for 30 ton splitters and so forth are fake in that with the size of the cylinder and pump it's just not mathematically possible.

Your 4" cylinder face is 12.57 square inches. Times 2500 psi that's 31,425 lbs of pressure. Or about 15 tons. A 5" cylinder with the same pressure would get you 49,000 lbs of force or about 25 tons.

Speed really drops off with a larger cylinder unless you have a big engine and pump...

 

[fearofpavement]

If you do decide to change out the valve, get a big one (large inlet and outlet sizes) so that if you ever upgrade the cylinder/pump/engine you wont have to replace that again. You can just bush it smaller if needed to fit your smaller hoses.

 

[jehinten]

As of now there is no pressure gauge, which I will plan on adding to see what it is running at. Most likely I will run it with the gauge a few minutes before swapping out the pump to a 13gpm just to measure the difference. It was mentioned previously that my pump has likely seen damage due to the load placed on it and the style of pump that it is.

As for the valve I am not sure if it is intended to return to normal, but I do actually like it not having to be held. I split some mulberry and honey locust the other day and was able to stand at the end of the beam collecting the firewood without having to hold the valve in place I would set the round to be split, reach out with the pickaroon to pull the handle and then stack the previous splits while the current piece was splitting. Then push the handle into retract with the pickaroon and grabbed the next round while it retracted. I do have a redneck "detent" that prevents the cylinder from deadheading on the full extend. About 1/2" before the cylinder stops a piece of rope that is attached to the push plate pulls tight and moves the control valve back to neutral.

My current plan is to add a filter and gauge along with replacing the pump. Just for curiosity I will install the gauge on my current pump and then make the other changes, and I'll get some video of it to show the changes. Once I've run it that way I will look into getting a new valve, I've eyed one of the auto cycle valves but am worried with it being a little underpowered that I might kick in the retract detent before the split is completed, especially after I add an additional wedge.

 

[Ryan Browne]

As of now there is no pressure gauge, which I will plan on adding to see what it is running at. Most likely I will run it with the gauge a few minutes before swapping out the pump to a 13gpm just to measure the difference. It was mentioned previously that my pump has likely seen damage due to the load placed on it and the style of pump that it is.

As for the valve I am not sure if it is intended to return to normal, but I do actually like it not having to be held. I split some mulberry and honey locust the other day and was able to stand at the end of the beam collecting the firewood without having to hold the valve in place I would set the round to be split, reach out with the pickaroon to pull the handle and then stack the previous splits while the current piece was splitting. Then push the handle into retract with the pickaroon and grabbed the next round while it retracted. I do have a redneck "detent" that prevents the cylinder from deadheading on the full extend. About 1/2" before the cylinder stops a piece of rope that is attached to the push plate pulls tight and moves the control valve back to neutral.

My current plan is to add a filter and gauge along with replacing the pump. Just for curiosity I will install the gauge on my current pump and then make the other changes, and I'll get some video of it to show the changes. Once I've run it that way I will look into getting a new valve, I've eyed one of the auto cycle valves but am worried with it being a little underpowered that I might kick in the retract detent before the split is completed, especially after I add an additional wedge.

I run an auto cycle valve on an underpowered setup, and basically I just have to hold the valve handles forward until the round starts to split, then I can release them and grab the next round while the splitter finishes splitting the first one and then retracts. It works pretty good. Personally I'm very happy to have the auto cycle setup.

 

[jehinten]

I have now replaced the vane pump with a 13gpm 2 stage pump coupled with a Lovejoy and I have added a pressure gauge off of the pump and I will soon be adding a filter on the return line. I hope to get a video tomorrow of how its splitting now, it's now faster and much stronger than before. I noticed even while splitting through knots in pin oak that rarely gets over 2,000 psi and most of the time it is splitting at 1,000 psi or less. I don't know what that means as I've never had a splitter with a gauge, but I thought it was interesting with it being a 3,000 psi pump. For my video tomorrow I will try and find a piece that will make it work a little harder



It will even split pieces vertically, which I tried just for fun.

My next upgrade to this splitter will likely be a horizontal splitting wedge, my question is, is there any research on how far a split will extend beyond a wedge? I was considering a 1" thick piece of 1055 steel at 14" wide to match the width of the beam, but I split up to around 36" rounds at times. Will a 1" thick 14" long wedge split through a 36" round? I am sure it depends on knots and grain type. I tend to split a lot of pin oak, some ash and mulberry.

 

[Deets066]

I have now replaced the vane pump with a 13gpm 2 stage pump coupled with a Lovejoy and I have added a pressure gauge off of the pump and I will soon be adding a filter on the return line. I hope to get a video tomorrow of how its splitting now, it's now faster and much stronger than before. I noticed even while splitting through knots in pin oak that rarely gets over 2,000 psi and most of the time it is splitting at 1,000 psi or less. I don't know what that means as I've never had a splitter with a gauge, but I thought it was interesting with it being a 3,000 psi pump. For my video tomorrow I will try and find a piece that will make it work a little harder


View attachment 164024
It will even split pieces vertically, which I tried just for fun.
View attachment 164025
My next upgrade to this splitter will likely be a horizontal splitting wedge, my question is, is there any research on how far a split will extend beyond a wedge? I was considering a 1" thick piece of 1055 steel at 14" wide to match the width of the beam, but I split up to around 36" rounds at times. Will a 1" thick 14" long wedge split through a 36" round? I am sure it depends on knots and grain type. I tend to split a lot of pin oak, some ash and mulberry.

Do you always position your logs that way when splitting?

 

[jehinten]

Do you always position your logs that way when splitting?

Vertically? No, I was just messing around, but it worked surprisingly well

 

[jehinten]

Here is a video from this morning. It's a night and day difference from the first video that I posted here.

 

[fearofpavement]

put a piece on there crossways if you want to check your max pressure. It should go to bypass.

 

[jehinten]

I saw a spike of around 4,000 psi at one point. It was extending and maxed out the cylinder without me paying attention to the stroke length (I was too busy watching the gauge) ended up stalling the engine after 4,000

 

[fearofpavement]

I saw a spike of around 4,000 psi at one point. It was extending and maxed out the cylinder without me paying attention to the stroke length (I was too busy watching the gauge) ended up stalling the engine after 4,000

The engine shouldn't stall. There should be a relief valve in the system to prevent that. Sounds like your setup may either be missing one or it's set incorrectly.