4 way slip on wedge for my 35 ton Huskee

Someone say elm?

 

Ugh!

 

Slip on 4 ways work very well when properly designed and built. I made a slip on 4 way for my homemade splitter and it works great. I leave it on 90+% of the time. The wedge has to be shaped right and the wings have to be set right with the proper setback and angle. I made mine to make 4-4.5” wood on the bottom, and that seems to be a sweet spot. I can split WAY more wood with that 4 way than I can with the single wedge. My splitter absolutely eats wood with it. I do remove it in the occasional multi-knot piece that I know is going to be a mess and then put it right back on again. I have many pieces of wood in the stacks that have sheared knots in them. The 4 way doesn’t really care.

The biggest thing is design. It has to be right. Most of the store bought 4 ways I have seen are garbage. I made a 4 way and a 6 way for someone years ago for a speeco or similar splitter. They worked well on my speeco before I shipped ‘em, and he said they worked well on his. Design, design, design. I cannot emphasize that enough.

 

So how about a couple pictures of yours, please

 

I'd be interested in seeing that too. Or design drawings, sketch with notes, or anything that will give some details as to what you've found to work well. You always impressed me as having a good mechanical aptitude.

 

X3 On pictures and details please

 

One thing to keep in mind is the higher you put the wings away from whatever is actuating the splitter the more leverage the force has to destroy the machine. You do have the right idea tho, bigger pieces on the bottom is easier on the operator. In all my expirience with factory and homemade four way wedges it’s crucial the ram be as close to centered on the wedge where the major force is mostly applied. That’s not necessarily centered with the wings but they do come into the equation with time. I tore my DHT 28 up pretty good trying different variations. Your average box store splitter just isnt designed to take any extra abuse.
Your split fire may be better, maybe not. The ram is well below center which is bad but the slide that holds the wedge may be much longer than a standard box store, that’s good. I don’t know what’s underneath but longer is better. Once again that is leverage at work. The foot slide plate on standard box store splitters is the weak point. Too short to allow for a lot of abuse and they bend with time.
After all the work I did I ended up not liking the four way anyway. I split a lot of bigger stuff and it’s faster with a single wedge than wrestling little pieces off the bottom while juggling the larger pieces without dropping them.

 

I will get some pictures tomorrow.

 

Sorry, I didn’t get pictures today. BUT, I do have a video of it from a few years ago before I changed the pump and valve. It’s a little faster now and has a return detent, so I can get a LOT more done in the same time.

 

Thanks for posting that! It looks like the important things that show in the video are about what you'd expect: the leading edge of the "wings" is well behind the leading edge of the main wedge, so the splitting is only initiating in one plane at a time, instead of simultaneously; the wings are fairly thin; and the wings are planed up as they move back from the leading edge to keep the lower splits from being trapped in a decreasing angle between the wing and the beam. It's nice to see that all in action. Is there anything else you'd recommend that wasn't obvious from the video?

 

Good point about the leverage factor! I'll have to stop by the shop where I bought it, they have a Split-Fire 3465(?). Which can be run with a 2-way or a 4-way. I'm curious to see what's different how the knife is different. The end blocks are wider & beefier. My machine, as is, is usually plenty fast enough when splitting by myself.

 

I have a DHT 35T splitter. I made a quick and dirty 4way for it that started our as a 6way which did not work out at all. I removed 2 wedges to make it a 4way. I find it works especially well at making kindling. Works great on rounds up to 14" or so. This is horizontal of course. My 4way just floats on the factory wedge but I could easily modify it to have a set bolt like the video that is posted by isaaccarlson. Would be fine for the small rounds but I can't see nibbling around the outer edge of a huge round like in the video. You would constantly be shifting a huge piece of wood as opposed to just splitting the the big round to handling size and getting it over with. My observations are: Would work well for up to 14" or so logs V or H. Works great for kindling H. Would work well for quarters of larger rounds V or H. I find I have to remove my stuck log remover brackets because the wings of the 4way hits them on retraction and tends to tweak them or the wedge wings. I would not pay more than $65 or so for a factory made one and then only if I came into a huge amount of 14" plus or minus logs. If I made another one (and I may) I would use shorter wing wedges and buy some wings of carbon steel (3/4") from Amazon made for the purpose. I think 1" is excessive. I would add a set bolt in case, perish the thought, I used it vertical. Shorter 3/4" mild steel wings may work OK. If they dulled fast, a bead of hardface rod and dressed would solve that. The longer mild steel wedges of 1/2" can bend in exceptionally tough nasty rounds. I would allow more room between the upright wedge before the wing wedges bite. The slight upward tilt of the wing wedges matters! Ideally the intersection point of the H and V wedges should be on the center line of the piston shaft. I cheated a bit on my present 4way by 1.25" higher for slightly larger dia. rounds. No problems. Might make a difference on a machine with a smaller cylinder and smaller dia. shaft that could be more easily bent. I could have gotten by fine with never having a 4way. Only ended up with one because I had the capabilities to make one. Those guys like T.Jeff Veal and EODMSgt have it made with the "push the wood through the blade" design. Hope this was all coherent!

 

A nice big work table makes things so much easier. I won’t use a splitter without one. The part where you stand should only be as deep as you can comfortably reach or your back will get sore from straying bent over. I am using a 3hp 240v electric motor. It works great. 5hp would allow a faster pump, but then you would need upsized lines and a cooler. The current pump is just over 14 gpm with about 2 gpm on the high pressure side. The hardest the motor works is just before the shift point, so I have my shift pressure set accordingly. If putting an electric motor on an existing pump, you might need 5hp, because most of the new ones are 16/4 gpm from what I have seen.

I love not having to pull start the gas engine. I can flip that switch in any weather and the splitter runs. It might make some noise for a few seconds in really cold weather until the fluid warms a bit, but I don’t have to throw my back out just to get it started.

Being a push through design makes the splitter very efficient when doing any kind of volume. I have a speeco “wedge on ram” splitter as well, and it is much more work to use and nowhere near the productivity because every piece of wood has to be handled at least twice. The push through is mostly “drop it in and watch it go in the pile”.

 

Those wings are pretty long. I’d cut a good chunk off the ends. The wings are also pretty close to the primary wedge. A good ballpark is 1.5-2” of separation between splitting stages. That lets the wood open enough to drop the pressure back down before the nest set of wedges kick in.

You have to know when to take the 4way off to break down a tougher piece of wood. I take mine off for the multi crotch pieces. Breaking down bigger rounds is a lot faster with the 4way. Either way you have chunks to handle, and the 4way makes those chunks smaller right from the start by removing that extra stick from the bottom. I can put a large round on the splitter and have it gone in 3-5 strokes.

The advantage of a 4way is partially lost on a “wedge on ram” splitter because of the extra wood handling. A few people have tried to tell me that a 4way should not be on a push through splitter, but that’s where they shine. You only handle the re-splits and nothing else.

We run 18-20” round through the 4 way without any trouble. It breaks them open better than the single wedge. Depending on how they crack open, we can either flop them off the wedge backwards (they land right where they need to be) or spin the halves around for the second go. It’s not much work and is more efficient than having to pick them up or throw splits out of the way all the time. Having a detent teturn frees up both arms for quick work. Two of us can split a full cord in 15-40 minutes depending on the species and size.

 

Thanks, that was a great explanation of build and the experience!

 

There we go,….. those are the pictures I was looking for. I also have a DHT 35 splitter. Can I get another picture or two of the back side where the slip on goes over the existing wedge. Is there a “V” that the factory knife edge nests into?

 

Can’t speak for the 35 but my 28 DHT came with an entire seperate wedge system for the 4 way plus log strippers. Another single wedge came with the kit albeit a different design than the original. There was no V. It was a new shoe that accepted both a single and four way wedge that were allowed a little float. The inside contact point was in the front,,,,about 5/8” flat surface instead of a v shape. They were held in by a flush crosspin and the inner shoe had three seperate holes to adjust the height of the four way. There was no “back” as both slid over the shoe.
The no back design is a weak point but not terrible in normal use. It was the stripper clips that did the most damage in reverse LOL. They weren’t manufactured to the full travel limits of the wedge if you had a piece of wood jammed under it. The open back allowed the strippers to bend the wedge forward,,,,,the opposite way it was designed to take abuse. Did a job on the strippers too.

This is the four way after I blew it apart several times and cobbled it back together with my superior welding skills. Added some thin cutters. A push thru doesn’t need them much but when the wedge is moving they’re required a bit more.
It was fairly tough metal. Trying to bend it back with a 12lb sledge hammer was no fun. Ended up using the splitter as a horizontal press to squish it back in shape several times. The factory welds came done. The factory welds on the wings held up tho.



One I made from metal scraps found around the homestead. Eventually killed it too.




Factory made six way for my new splitter. Anyone see the problem here? This was the most dangerous thing I’ve ever seen on a splitter. Dang near killed me a couple times until I sold it with a stern warning to the buyer not to use it in that fashion.

 

I'll take a couple pics with more light and the ram extended so you can see how it slips over the factory wedge. Log Splitter 4 way weld on wedges single bevel wedge | eBay
here is a link to weld-on wing wedges. There are quite a few others out there also. I think I would use these instead of making my own.

 

That first wedge picture looks like a Klingon design!

 

Well for starters the bottom wings have the bevel facing down...that seems bassakwards to me...that, and the thing is dull as a butter knife!