First test of the kinetic trough. Some punky oak I have laying around. Messy stuff. Anyway I got a few pieces to come off. Needs tweaking on the box wedge outfeed. Have an idea already brewing. No sides on the box wedge allows the outer splits to get wonky. Purposefully left them off because it’s easier to weld them on than cut them off I think it’s gonna work once I tweak things around a bit.
I like it! Nice job! I don't see it working on a single wedge splitter though Sent from my LE2127 using Tapatalk
Yep, that’s the tweak it needs. Need more box in the wedge, sides to contain and guide the splits. Right now I’m thinking leaf springs welded in the sides to act like fingers. They’re slightly rounded and slightly flexible as long as they’re only welded towards the front. As you noticed the different size splits on the sides are tending to bunch up and push sideways and out of the barrel. If I can stop that it should be golden.
No you’re right. The only wedge design that guarantees you don’t need to resplit is the box wedge. Wouldn’t make sense to try it on anything else.
That's cool, I've never seen a splitter like that...that'll chew up a lot of wood in a hurry. And then I noticed the hooptie in the background...!
Added some sides and leaf springs. Good thing I didn’t read on the web you can’t weld spring steel until after I was done LOL Doesn’t look it in the pic but those fingers are constricting the flow. An attempt to guide things to the middle. Before and after.
I’m calling it a good thing. So far. Gotta squeeze em into the trough one way or the other. I had considered all steel construction. Like a Grizzly bar funnel. Problem with a steel bar funnel is the openings get smaller,,,,things get caught. Figured I’d try the barrel first. One problem with the barrel I’m finding is temperatures. When it’s cold it’s nice and stiff. Gets a little warm out and it becomes sloppy.
One step forward, two steps back. TRIals and tribulations. The leaf springs worked well at containing the sides. Next problem is splitter chaff/scraps. An expected problem but I’m finding it bunches up in the chute stopping my end to end (flow). Creating a jam about a third of the way up that the splits tend to ride over. Sure less punky logs may not do that but I figure it’s easier to solve the problem than work around it. May ditch the barrel entirely and build a set of gorilla bars as an outfeed table. Also I jammed up some pieces in the wedge. Tried to ram them through with a single split on the side of the push block. Snapped the bolts on the push block. I was sorta expecting that problem to arise. The American CLS uses a tiny push block which allows an anemic gib system. Three bolts each side, not very large and robust. By increasing the push block four times in width I knew it was only a matter of time. doesn’t help I installed the bolts upside down so the threads were taking the shear force instead of the shank. Not sure what I was thinking when I did that,,,,,,ease of installation I suppose. Went metal shopping yesterday. I’ll be increasing the size of the push block shoe and adding another three bolts per side.
