Hey buddy, will you give me a lift?

Nice job Dave , I am anxious to see it operate. I appreciate the fact you put alot of design thought into this splitter , you were thinking outside the box. I do that alot sometimes things work and sometimes they dont

 

A little point of interest...(maybe ) I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I was really trying to keep the expenses on this project down, so I tried to make do with what I had on hand as much as possible, even though I did end up buying a new cylinder, and added a hydraulic tank that I wasn't planning on.
I had to buy very little steel for this, I had some 3" channel iron that got used in a number of places. (support leg for one)
The angle iron that makes up the side rails of the lift were the frame for the bars that the former owner of my place had put over the the garage windows after some punks (likely an inside job) broke in and stole her Simplicity lawn tractors...I removed the bars when I did my garage addition last year and had glass block windows put in.
The frame of the log rack on the operators side was formerly a rack on my dads old custom built work truck bed.
The 1/2" square bars on said log rack were the actual bars over the garage windows.
The tubing on the log lift was recycled from the frame of a wind damaged trampoline that was going into the dumpster at work.
And yooperdave will appreciate this one, the platform that the engine/pump are now mounted on was formerly the optional-but-included pedestal base of my inlaws Englander NC30 stove! I hacked that up and used the ~1/8" steel in quite a few places.
The rest of the steel I either had laying around, or bought from the scrap hopper at work (for cheap!)

 

Ha ha! The two pedestals I had (nc-13 and then nc-30) ended up the way of the scrapyard for pennies on the dollar.

Lets admit it. Legs look a lot better than pedestals.

 

Yes sir!
Guess that means we don't like "flat bottom grills"

 

I can see that pressure switch being quite handy, sort of a blow and go operation.
Project is really coming together!

 

Looks great Dave!!

 

Pressure switch? You mean the old compressor switch? I'm planning on that being my on/off switch for the motor.

Thanks!

 

Was hoping to get my hydraulic lines made up this week or weekend, but ended up with some sort of a GI bug on Friday, and apparently all the laying around didn't agree with my back, so now I'm trying to work that out...it's kinda weird though, this time is a lil different than what I usually deal with... I tell ya what, this gettin old stuff...

 

Always something ain't it!

 

She has hydraulic lines!
Was dark by the time I got home, so no pics...y'all probably have a pretty good idea what log splitter hydraulic lines look like anyways
I left all my fittings loose so that we could turn them to the best position to make the lines lay nicely, so now I need to seal the threads and tighten everything down...getting close to the maiden voyage!

 

This one worked pretty good

 

Anyone thinkin about buying upgrades for their splitter, Rugged Made just sent me an email about their Christmas sale...20% off of hydraulics...heck of a deal...wish I had gotten these prices! Sale prices on a bunch of other stuff too.
https://ruggedmade.com/?_kx=XO0_zRW03FzVBIEdSfn9KobFs8nvLfjK1Ctx2UT_GXk=.Wtr29z

 

Well shoot, maybe it’s time for me to pull the trigger on that new pump. I was lookin’ at another website and theirs was approaching $200. Are these ruggedmade good quality?

 

I'm about to find out, that's where I got mine, just paid $50 more...their splitters are supposed to be better than the box/farm store stuff that most of us run...and the parts they sell are supposedly the same stuff they use to build splitters with.
But I really suspect 95% of the log splitter pumps out there come from the same factory anymore.
With a 10hp engine you could actually pull this 19 GPM pump. 19 GPM Hydraulic Log Splitter 2 Stage Gear Pump, Faster replacement for 16 gpm | eBay

 

I think you have a pretty big cylinder on that machine (5"?)...the easiest way to speed things up dramatically would be a cylinder swap...the one I just pulled off my build would be a bolt on mod on your machine...or this one, this is what I used, it has 3/4" ports and a 2.25" ram (faster return stroke) that cylinder would almost cut your cycle time in half. (or should anyways, as long as the pump is actually making 16GPM) https://ruggedmade.com/welded-log-s...d-od-1-5-rod-end-5-rod-bolt-clevis-mount.html

 

Just don't do this!

A buddy just sent me this. This is 2 weeks post surgery. He got his finger in the way of a splitter helping a buddy split wood.

That is a pin holding the bones together to heal. It will be removed once healed.





When it first happened he captioned these photos with, "apparently I'm not as good with this whole wood splitting thing as you are". LOL He said the finger was just hanging.

 

Wow!
That's just, uh...not good! Well, it's good that they were able patch/pin him back together though!
That's the only thing that gives me any pause about building a fast splitter, is the greater chance of injury (maybe?) heck, I've had a close call or two with "slow" ones! ​

 

My learning curve was painful.

 

Ya should never stick your finger anywhere ya wouldn’t stick your d***

 

10 vs 1 but this site is family friendly so I will stop