I have been doing a lot of heavy splitting just recently with my Dirty hand tools 35 ton splitter. I usually split horizontally but have been busting up some very large and knotty Doug Fir Rounds (the kind where the wedge must shear through the wood) in the vertical position. I noticed that there was some wood dust sticking to the cylinder around the end of the barrel. There appears to be a slight lack of fusion on the weld that attaches the high pressure coupler fitting to the cylinder. It looks like an automated weld that didn't completely fuse the end of the weld with the beginning as the welder went around the fitting (see the yellow arrow in the picture). It hardly leaks at all. Just the slightest, tiny weep. I doubt if even a teaspoon of fluid is lost during a splitting session of several hours. I would never have noticed it except running vertical, the fitting is right in front of my nose. My intent is to set the cylinder vertical with the ram extended approx half way to move the interior seals well away from any heat and repair the weld. I would drill about 3/16" of an inch into the pinhole, clean and de-grease and weld with .035 inner shield wire. Any of you knowledgeable ones out there see a problem with this approach? Any help will be much appreciated!
If you are doing this with the cylinder still mounted and connected to Hydraulics. The cylinder will still be full of hydraulic oil. Best would be to remove the cylinder, drain the oil from it, move the seals away from the heat and then thoroughly clean and repair. I've done this before and took an angle grinder to get a good v groove to weld.
other than igniting the oil? Weld on top of a weld in that spot, might just be better off leaving alone. could be a can of worms.
The hydro tank on my splitter started leaking at a weld. I dumped 15 gallons of fluid before getting it welded. The residual fluid inside of the weld was smoking.
Since that is the butt end of the cylinder, running the wedge out to full extension will get any seals/packing well away from the heat. If you are a competent welder, then I would take a burr and go the whole way around the fitting, taking all the paint off, and at least some of the weld, then I'd build it up by running at least 3 beads the whole way around, 1 on each "edge", and then one down the middle of the first two. Or you could take it to a hydraulic shop, I'd think they'd do the repair for not too much $$ (well, some would anyways)...keep in mind, you are sealing/holding 3500 PSI there!
I welded farm equipment for a manufacturer for nearly 20 yrs. I would move the ram so the seals are not close to the repair like you said. Clean the area and grind out a little right at the seep and an inch before and after. Start your weld at one end of your ground out area and weld right over the hole, ending at the last of your ground out area. The amount of heat from this type of repair weld will in no way require a draining of the oil. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk
So I went right out and welded that leak in the Cylinder. When I ground it down it turned out that the porosity was actually in the cylinder cap weld right where it intersects with the toe of the coupler weld almost exactly where my arrow point is. I grooved it out and made three passes about 20 minutes apart. The cap is 3/8" thick and the cylinder probably at least 1/4" so there is a lot of heat sink there. The metal didn't get very hot at all. I painted it and spent an hour and a half splitting some very gnarly butt rounds with no evidence of leaking. Looks like the Ronaldo method works pretty well! Thanks for every one's input!
