Hey buddy, will you give me a lift?

A whole week off????
What's that like????
Honestly that's why I HATE quoting jobs, I suck at estimating time.

 

I'll let you know about January 2!
(I'm still on call though, so that could happen...)

 

I'm not even on call. I'm off after Thursday the 21st and don't have to go back to work until the 2nd. I will bring my laptop home, but I probably won't even open it up.

It's nice having time off. Especially when you have a ton of projects to do/ complete.

I'd love to see a video of that splitter, but maybe it'll have to wait until spring at Denny's?

 

Yeah, workin on it...sometimes I have a love hate relationship with technology...more n more its hate.

Maybe!

 

If you want to send it my way I'm sure I can get a video put up. I'd work on it diligently even if it took months, editing and stuff takes time.

 

Found the pic of when I bought the donor patient for this project. The original 5.5 HP vertical shaft engine was in the flower bed to the right of the picture, in pieces...I left it there.


So I've been trying to total up how much moolah I have tied up in this machine now...I didn't do a very good job of keeping track of expenses (maybe I subconsciously didn't want to know) but after totaling things up as best I can, it looks like I'm somewheres a lil north of $1500...but I do still have some items that can be sold to recoup some cost though too (the original hyd. cyl, an air compressor (pump) that I bought just to get the motor, etc) so I might end up closer to $12-1300 out of pocket...I suppose that's not too shabby for a custom "fast" splitter with a lift. Either way, it has been a fun build, just wish I hadn't ate up so much of my free time this year!

If it wasn't Christmas day, I might be out splitting now...its about 50* and sunny here.

 

Sure turned out nice! Should serve you well for years to come

 

Hey, thanks! I sure hope so!

So, having been off the last 11 days, I thought maybe I'd get this machine fired up on electrons, but my tightwad ways kicked in and brought it all to a dead stop...went to the local ACE hardware to get a 240V 30 amp twistlock plug for the motor and they wanted $26.99 for it...I just couldn't do it...ordered a like new used one on ebay for $7.49, it'll be here this week.
I did get the outlet wired up though...I found a piece of 10/3 laying around that was long enough to move the outlet over closer to the door, so less extension cord will get used up just going across the shop...gives me more "range" out in the driveway...or yard, if I so choose.
Also found a 240V 24A motor for cheap, if this 16A one doesn't cut the mustard (but I think it will) but its about a 3 hour round trip to pick it up, so I'll probably just wait to see if what I have works first.
Also...I was just alerted to this sweet stroke limiter mod by a member on another site...stupid simple, and I'm so stealing this idea!
(might "fancy" it up a lil though)

 

Genius!!

 

Well, I was able to make the inaugural run of the "electron to firewood converter" today...and...it works!
Had to lower the system relief pressure a couple hundred pounds more (22-2300 PSI now) which I don't understand, because this "5 HP" electric motor is rated at 15 FLA, which at 240V single phase that should be slightly over 4 HP...and even if the pump was set to shift to high pressure/low flow mode at 900PSI, that's only 2.2 HP worth of work according to my calculations...and I even had the shift point pressure backed clear off (about 400 PSI, or less) and the motor would still stall out if the system pressure went over that 22-2300 PSI area...so that makes no sense to me, at that pressure it should take less than 1 HP to keep things turning.
I pulled the shift valve out and looked at it...it looks perfect, as it should be, being a basically brand new pump, so doesn't appear to be an issue there. It's kinda hard to catch a pump shift lo to hi without having a super nasty log, (like some green Elm) which I do not right now.
But bottom line is that it will work fine as is...I split some of the knottiest stuff that I had here and never seen anything over 500 PSI on the gauge...but I still would like to get to the bottom of why I can stall the motor out at 2500PSI.
The Predator 301cc engine was still mounted to the splitter when I pulled it out of the shed, so I popped it off, and bolted the electric motor on...only took a couple minutes, as I had hoped. All in all, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out.
Here are a few pics...it was dark so not the best, but good enough so that you can get the idea.

 

That's pretty sweet! Good luck sleeping tonight with that whole motor stalling at 2500 psi thing.

 

I wish i knew more about hydraulics where i could help you talk it thru. First thing to my mind is what's your voltage at the plug?

 

Slept like a baby
I haven't had time to troubleshoot much yet, so I'm not stressing about it...first thing is going to be to check volts/amps, and the run capacitor...then I want to take that shift valve out again to check it, including the pressure sensing pin this time...

 

Glad to hear it. I know i would've been reworking my numbers, checking real world stuff until i passed out from exhaustion.

 

Pretty cool that the swap is relatively quick. I'd love to have an alternative to my loud gas motor.

 

I think I am going to try to make a foam box to cover the pump...thinking that may take a lot of the pump whine away...if that works then it will be pretty darn quiet!

 

They do that on some diesel fuel pumps to help with nvh issues but I'm sure you already new that. How thick of foam you gonna use? Build a box, suspend it, and use spray foam?

 

I'll have to see what I have laying around...probably 1-2" stuff I'd guess...design to be determined...

 

Well i have some 4" scrap from when my roof was re-done if you ever make it so SW MI.

 

4"...wow, that would make it so quiet that I could probably hear the termites trying to get in a couple last bites!