Yep, I figure 52 horsepower should make the splinters fly! I have an extra motor thanks to a gentleman on this board who sold me a usable head, so why not put it to use? Has anyone done a project like this?
My main concerns are:
1. How should I couple the diesel engine and the hydraulic pump? I have a spare 3 speed automatic, and I think I can use the bellhousing and starter fro m this, and maybe have a machine shop weld a 1" shaft onto the flexplate somehow. From there I could use a simple lovejoy coupler.. Ideas?
2. What would be the proper radiator/ fan to use? I would like something compact and more vertical than a vw rad
3. Has anyone made a 6-way wedge for a splitter? How did it work?
Thanks!
'85 Golf Diesel greaseburner (Alas, it was totaled by a female SUV driver on a cell phone in California, true story)
'91 Jetta Eco-diesel
'82 VW diesel pickup
'92 Chevrolet K1500 6.2 Diesel (grease burner also)
huh, never thought of a 6 way wedge- that would be like a apple splitter! My tiny 4HP lawn mower engine powered splitter I picked up at Home Depot poped apart a 150' fir with a 3' base in no time! If you have DSL or cable connection check the video out:
Here is the problem,, IMHO,,,
The only way to take advantage of the 52 HP is a Huge Pump....
Horsepower to operate a pump depends on two variable,, Pump Flow rate and discharge pressure....
Taking advantage of readily available (and not too expensive parts) you probably want to have an operating pressure of 1500 psi.. You could go to 5000 psi, but safety becomes an issue, you have to find hoses, control valves, cylinders etc. that are rated for these pressures; and subsequently physical weight will go up along with cost (which will probably go up exponetially!!!) ......
So now you need to find a 1500psi pump that is high volume,,, say 40 gpm,, again, not readily available to joe made it in my garage,,,
Not trying to be negative, but hope I've made it obvious that you will probably have a hard (expensive) time harnessing all that HP.....
Didn't mention the cylinder,,,, at a fixed pressure, say 1500psi, the only way to increase ram pressure is increased cylinder diameter, again more cost and weight,,,,
And having built a splitter and used various splitters I've come to appreciate two design attributes... A splitter that is not extremely heavy, makes them difficult to move around, and a horizontal splitter with beam table top height off the ground, so you aren't leanin over or constantly bent over using it, easier on the back, I know, this is difficult for the really big diameter stuff,,, if two of us can't comfortable pick it up we use tractor loader of some sort.... or just don't bother and give to somebody else to deal with!!!!!
Other problems,,, radiator and cooling system have to be maintained, and are subceptible to damage in use...
But all that said, everybody has there own ideas, and available free parts, that's what makes this country so great...
Good ideas. I like the concept of building it higher. I came across another one that had a swinging arm, with a second cylinder to lift and lower the arm. It reminded me of a crane that you would see on the back of a pickup truck. on the end of the crane were a pair of tongs to bite into heavy logs, lift them up, and swing them onto the table.
I need something that can handle big wood, I have a tree service, and it is not uncommon for me to take down trees that are 3-4 ft in diameter. But hey, if you have a tough enough splitter, it's free wood for the winter, right?
The pump I have was for the drivetrain on an earthmover. My dad had it laying around, and it is pretty manly. I don't know the capacity, maybe someone on the board could ID it if I post a picture?
'85 Golf Diesel greaseburner (Alas, it was totaled by a female SUV driver on a cell phone in California, true story)
'91 Jetta Eco-diesel
'82 VW diesel pickup
'92 Chevrolet K1500 6.2 Diesel (grease burner also)
Bertcarrier..... If I had to deal with large logs a lot And owned a Tractor Loader Backhoe (TLB) I would build a beam/cylinder/valve combination (w/hydraulics supplied from TLB) that hung upside down suspended by a chain(s) from the Backhoe bucket. Tractor operator would swing and lower beam assembly over log and ground operator would guide into place and operate ram to split, or possibly (probably) this could be a one man operation with the backhoe operator doing it all, depends on how well he can drop that beam onto log and you could probably even use it to clamp/bite onto a log and lift and move to wherever,,,
Anyway the Blond thinks this is a Great Idea!!!!
You could also do the same thing, but not quite as well (less manueverbility) with a beam suspended from a front end loader on a tractor or a boom on the back of a tractor......
As I get older I fall more in love with diesel engines powering machinery and hydraulics, does make life easier!!!!
A 1.6 diesel splitter seems like a bit of overkill, but hey making stuff is fun. I built a waist high horizontal splitter 10 years ago with a 10 hp wisconsin engine. When the engine finally dies(it has 236 hrs) Im gonna throw one of the small single cylinder air cooled diesels I have laying around here on it.
Probably the german made hatz when that time comes. As for log lifts. Yesterday I just purchased all the steel needed to build a 500 lb capacity side hydraulic lift. Just roll the round onto the foot and it lifts the log onto the beam, functions as a staging table when splittin smaller stuff.
Depending on what kinda wood your splitting a 6 way wedge works better on 5" and up diameter cylinders.
I heat entirely with a woodfurnace and those rounds are gettin too heavy, or I'm gettin too old.
i think its a decent idea, i always thought would make a good lawn mower or generator motor.
im very interested as to how you get the pump coupled with the motor.. yeah i think you could prob use any auto vw flex plate, maybe even a auto torque converter as a starting point then cut/weld it it up to make it couple to the pump (would be a flywheel which you would need).. you could prob make a bell housing out of tube just connecting to the 3 large bolts on block, then hold the pump.. might want to put some sheet metal around it so that its safe..
A friend had a machine that would take the logs and roll them into the proper area where a chainsaw would cut off the proper lengths. The lengths would be moved to the splitter area where he could hydraulically control the height of the wedge. Once split the pieces would be moved to the conveyor and be dumped into his dump truck. He sat in the seat and ran the controls, got out when the load was full and dumped it at the customer's house. He had the logs delivered.
That being said, I feel a more profitable way to deal with large diameter wood if it is of any quality would be to make a band saw that could handle it. Large width wood is almost unobtainable and commands a very high premium. A 4' wide plank 2" thick would be worth a heck of a heck of a lot if it were even mildly usable for finished work.
Most of my family has been into wood processing and I've done a whole lot with wood working. I had a tree of curly maple milled out with some boards 2" in diameter, 2' wide and 8' long. The going rate for a clear curly maple board is above $20 per board foot with the larger widths and wider boards virtually unobtainable. A board 2" x 2' x 8' is 32 board feet for a total of $640 rough cut for ONE BOARD. That one board of curly maple is virtually unavailable at those dimensions and I have seen similar stock priced closer to $40 per board foot at those dimensions.
bertcarrier, from the sounds of it, you will be moving a lot of wood over what you make, or buy, because of your business. I would think three things would be important in your decisions. How strong of a unit you have for long lifespan, ease of use, and how easy it is to move the unit around.
You probably don't want to make a cheap lightweight log splitter made for the sometimes home user to split a face cord every year. If you're splitting a cord a week, you're going to use a cheap machine up pretty quick. The guy sitting in a cab working all the controls sounds pretty nice. He's not killing himself moving logs around, but then again, he's got some $ into what he has too.
Everybody else lists their cars here - but not me.
If you wanted to do a generator instead of a logsplitter, the Harbor Freight catalog I just got has a 10,000 watt 3,600RPM A/C generator head for sale. With belt reduction, a VW diesel could turn slower than 3,6000RPM and still make the necessary 20HP. At lower RPM the engine will be quieter and wear less. You could rig up some kind of cruise control or maybe mod the IP to govern it to the right RPM regardless of load.
'82 Diesel Rabbit • '88 Fox (RIP) • '88 Jetta (work in progress)
I was visiting with the local diesel pump/injector repair shop guy a while back and he was telling about some one he knew that had put a rabbit diesel into a box mount and hung it on the side of his 18 wheeler cab/truck. It ran to keep his batteries charged and the engine warm at night or for a week end when not driving during the winter months. Did not burn much fuel and was very efficient at doing what he wanted. Just above idle worked very well. Sooo, why not build a log splitter. Wish I lived closer, cause that sounds like a great tinker project. I am scratching my head trying to figure out how to build a 3 wheel trike/motorcycle with a diesel in the back so I don't have to listen to it when driving. Of course this is a long term project.
