Full beam vs half beam splitters

I roll them over with my feet to the splitter. Need to bend over to arrange some of them but keep the bending to a minimum.

 

Good idea, never thought of using one for that. I might just buy one before the splitting season this year.
Most of my rounds are pretty small too. Less than twenty inches across.

 

True.

Our old didier is less than 15 ton and it's split everything. Hickory, elm, ironwood, beech, locust, everything. It's about 40 yrs old and the original 5 hp motor went last year. Chonda predator 6.5 HP now, probably good for another 40 yrs.

Oh yeah, it's a full beam splitter, but we have one just like Dennis' MTD half beam. No issues with that one except a pull handle.

 

I used 3 pieces of 1" conduit I had , on the ground , pipe on top of plywood would be better but I didn't have any around

 

Yes, a chair or stool it's a must for any decent amount of spltting, whether horizontally or vertically. A hookeroon really helps a lot too. Stay seated as long as possible, get the rounds to where you can reach them with the hookaroon.

That is unless you've got this type of splitter. Then I'll stand.

 

That thing needs a foot pedal

 

It's a lefty model too. I've seen a different one somewhere on YouTube. It was absolutely amazing. It was a home brew, red, towed by an ATV, and had a ram that folded down when not in use. I believe that one had a foot pedal.

 

Hey I have a knee pedal (lever).

 

I think it was a typo, they probably meant 300lbs. That does bring up an interesting point. Did you know that just about all hydraulic splitters are over rated in tonnage? They calculate the tonnage of the cylinder, but they do not take into account the friction losses of the cylinder sliding on the beam, which can be significant.

 

The big downfall to that splitter is to get rid of the splits he has to handle them. Even if he had a conveyor he would have to throw them in the conveyor.

 

The over 70 splitter crew doing tornado clean up. Filled 2 6x10 dump trailers that day.

 

We split the cost of a half beam splitter with my best friend (guess that means I've got a quarter beam) , I didn't know it was a "half beam" as I had never seen a "full beam" splitter before.

We use ours in the vertical, so I don't think the friction losses are involved at all, but it's a 25 Ton Cub Cadet splitter. With what I'm working on it has plenty of power to spare, so I don't think I'd worry about a bit of friction if I was working it horizontal either.

Chaz

 

There are going to be losses to friction no matter how you use it. The cylinder on my old splitter ran inside the beam. As so as it contacted the wood the wedge and cylinder(cylinder was welded on wedge) would rock inside the beam. If you watch Backwoods video you will see the slides on the beam beneath the wedge rock went it contacts the wood. The harder the wood is to split, you are going to loose more tonnage to friction.

 

Ours, like many others is clamped around one side of the I beam, but loosely fitting.
We lubricate the beam fairly frequently with old used oil in a pressure sprayer.

I'm not arguing your assertion. I'm just saying that the friction losses are low enough to be barely noticeable, if at all.

To fully evaluate the loss of power you'd need force transducers (load cells) both above and below the ram and the wood in order to figure out how much is lost to friction, then you'd also have to figure out how much force is being lost/displaced in the splitting of the wood.

I don't think you'd be able to find a load cell that would be up to the task of measuring the true abilities of a wood splitter. Even if you changed the splitting head to something flat, you'd be changing the variables in the measurement/experiment. But you could measure true force.

My point in arguing their assertion was that they were "advertising" the machine to lift a 3000 lb log, and I still don't think it's gonna happen. Whether they meant 300lb or 3000psi of hydraulic pressure, it's not the same as stating that the machine will pick up a 1.5 ton piece of wood.

Even if it could, judging from the lift, it'd have to be short, but VERY large in diameter.
Wouldn't be feasible to try to manhandle such a monstrosity in the first place.

As I stated, our splitter has enough power that I do not have to worry about the small losses due to friction. I'd imagine the friction coefficient in the wood itself would greatly outweigh that of the head/beam contact.

edit.. We haven't even gone into the friction losses due to the seals inside the hydraulic ram. I'm not sure how much they drain away, but there has got to be a measurable amount there also.

If there was a "free lunch" then one of the numerous "perpetual motion" machines would be powering the world.

Heat (in the mechanical sense) is a matter of 'usually' wasted joules of energy caused primarily through friction forces. Incandescent bulbs are a different matter. That is wasted energy through heat due to resistance.

Don't take my intentions wrong, I enjoy the conversation, it's just that I don't necessarily see where I should be concerned with minute losses in efficiency over potential false advertising.

If I purchase a car that is advertised to get 40 mpg and it only get's 4, well, I don't really wanna hear "oops we misplaced the decimal point."

I also wouldn't want a 1.5 ton truck that couldn't handle 1.5 tons of material.

Sorry 94BULLITT I see you stopped by as I was adding a lengthy edit.



Chaz

 

I was thinking you could use an appropriately sized hydraulic cylinder with a gauge in it with with some plate welded or bolted to the ends. Then have a pressure gauge on the splitter. Run the splitter into the cylinder and see what it pressure gauge on the cylinder shows and see what the gauge on the splitter shows. Figure up the tonnage of the 2 and subtract the reading from the cylinder from the gauge on the splitter and you have your lost tonnage. It may not be as accurate as load cells but it would be accurate enough.

That is basically how these trailer tongue scales work.

Sherline Trailer Tongue Weight Scale — Sherline Products

A good lube for a splitter is dry graphite. It is super slick and it does not attract dirt. You can get a quart at a farm store for around $10. Dirt, wood chips, and bark stick to oil or grease. That turns to grit and acts as an abrasive wearing on your beam.

 

Hadn't thought of that, but you are correct that it would be a good lubricant.
We use waste oil because we have it readily available. Applied frequently it seems to do the trick.

As to the Sherline products, the only issue there is a matter of scale. Their 'top tier' is 0-5000 lbs, and a 25 ton splitter is putting out considerably more.

I posted in another thread how my sisters 'man' had borrowed my ATV trailer rated at around 800 lbs, and then proceeded to have 1 ton of wood pellet fuel put on same trailer. Didn't work out so great for the trailer.

Where I work we manufacture bearing testing equipment and implement load cells in the axial and radial positions to manage/control loading of the bearings being tested.

I don't know what pressures they measure, but I'm sure that someone makes something that can measure the true load of a splitter.

Don't think I'd spend the money on such an experiment, but would be interested in the results if someone else did.

Chaz

 

I use silicone spray lubricant on mine ,when I'm done ,after I clean it off , It's quick and easy to spray the beam and wedge to keep rust at bay.
It doesn't attract much dirt at all , it's a light coating .
I f I'm splitting for a long session , I'll spray lube it midway

The Huskee is a little different how the wedge slides in the beam .
Mine lives outside under a cover , no rust.
You can see how the wedge slides in the beam

 

I was just saying that a scale like the sherline scale could be made from a hydraulic cylinder.

I made my own trailer tongue scale.



Most people think if it fits they can haul it.
How much does it cost to test a bearing? I was thinking it would cool to compare a Chinese chainsaw crank bearing to an OEM.