All this work when you could have just created your own little biological wood splitters. We have 3 wood splitters and one little princess that keeps me informed if they're working or not.
Back when I was heating the house with wood I found out four things about wood splitting: One, splitting with a maul builds character. Two, splitting with a hydraulic splitter builds a wood pile much faster. Three, you don't split to the size of your stove, you split to the size your wife can lift. Four, never pile the wood as high as you can reach, you pile the wood up to your wife's eye level and no higher. If it's above her head she'll try to pull out a wood piece lower down, pulling the higher piled wood down on top of her.
Coworker: what's that tool used for? Me: Crescent wrench? Anything. Hammer, pry bar, you name it. Coworker : Tightening nuts, too, I guess? Me: Oh God, no! Never! You'll round that sucker in no time.
I took the cap off my truck today. Went with a crescent so I wouldn't have to either guess the socket or grab the whole case. That sucked, as I knew it would, so i went back, grabbed a couple sockets, problem solved. Much easier. Until I got to a bolt with a smaller head because of course. At least I brought the crescent back out with me. It just never ends.
It’s clear the engineering staff almost outdid themselves with the simplicity of this device. As you mentioned are friends are to be laughed at and enjoyed. Were the engineering department fell short is in the realization that they have mounted the control module and box within what is called the Killzone in the Dead tree carcass business. Understanding that the operator will drop the hardest largest piece of dead tree carcass right on top of the control box when handling it. Please advise the engineering department it needs a rethinkOn the mounting of the control box. Love your videos love your work fantastic log splitter.
First machine build I did the software for (1988), the EE doing the controls used 26 relays to do the logic. The tech needed two weeks to wire it. I asked the EE why didn't he use a PLC. He said because he used relays. He was a young fellow, not a grizzled geezer. It worked on the first try.
@@vibrolax h... *_huh!_* I _cannot_ say I saw that comin'... lol It he's happy and successful, props to him! I was envisioning him cobbling together so sorts of awesome robots and rig-ups. Hopefully he at least dabbles here and there. 👍
You need to angle out the outer blades. There's a whole bunch of additional load and split wood damage that's occuring because the inner blades are acting like wedges to drive the wood into the outer wedges... You could even angle out the inner blades gently to even further lower the loads ;)
That is why the outer blades were staggered behind the inner ones. By staggering the outer blades the angle of attack on the wood is change so that the split piece will always be smaller than the gap between blades. I agree a little relief between the center blades might be a good modification though. If you look at around 4:06 you can see that they may already indeed be angled slightly to create the relief needed.
I was thinking that when I first saw it tack-welded together. The thing would chooch a lot better if the blades were fanned out, at least as much as the angle of the cutting edge per blade.
My grandpa had a Hydraulics shop back in the 90s. One of my favorite things they were building was a log splitter that was powered by a crate VW Beatle engine. I think it could have been classified as a rock splitter.
That's going to be a pretty sweet log splitter. May want to angle the back of those blades out so it opens up allowing the wood to have the room to pass through. Otherwise you're just forcing wood through The same space plus the width of the blades.
That's why he set the second blades back further than the center blade. The wood has room to move over after the initial split before the next blade/split and so on. And the top blade is beveled up so no problem there. It's always going to be tight no matter what you do. Just think of it this way, you'll always leave the last pieces stuck in there, who cares.
Upgrade idea: put a huge feed ramp on the side to automatically feed a log in when the ram is all the way back and feeds logs in for you so you don’t have to be within 10 feet of that death trap.
You also need a ramp for split wood so it gets pushed into a box or a wheelbarrow. And there is also the upper half of the logs which remain unsplitted, you need a ramp to feed them back onto the log ramp to split them a second time. Then the splitter is fully automatic and while the machine splits the wood you can stack the wood or cut the logs to length with a chainsaw.
Great video. I love the description of the process as you're doing. Don't change a thing. Love it. You made my day. I am a 58 year old student at Skagit Valley College Marine Tech Program. Your video is used as a resource in our hydraulic class.
4:23 and I finally found a good use for a Crescent Wrench! awesome, I've owned like six of these knuckle busters for 50 years and it turns out I've just been using them wrong!
That splitter in action is eerily similar to those coin pusher arcade games. And I like the idea of rectangular profile stove wood for stacking. I had never seen it split other than pie slice profile.
I've always assumed that the reason there are (usually two) levers is to stop pillocks from operating them with their hands in the way. By the way I've seen loads of home made splitters at farm sales in the UK and no matter how heavily built they are always bent or cracked.
My first homemade log splitter was made from junkyard parts and I had no idea the flow rate of the pump/motor. It was about twice as fast as yours with a large excavator cylinder. It went BANG and would shoot the pieces off to either side if you had a piece of hardwood or something tough. It also heated up the oil badly, live and learn
Reminds me of the red handled Ekco french fry cutter I inherited from my mother. You have to put in a second potato to clear the last bit of the previous potato from the cutting die.
Then a 3rd potato to get the second out. Then a forth, fifth, and it just never ends. An endless cycle of french fry cutting. That's how they get you. This is what Big Potato doesn't want you to know.
Gotta hand it to the dewclaw, he draws a great diagram. I like that he drew the H bridge as an H, it makes a confusing concept easier to understand just by laying it out carefully.
I work for a pretty sizable building automation company, and your spiel at 5:08 warmed my heart. If we're over complicating something, lets do it as simply as possible. That escapes some people.
The second I saw the blades mounted parallel, had to fast forward to see the fail. The wood is being compressed through the cutters. They need to be splayed outwards by the thickness of the blade.
Very cool project! That stroke looks a bit shorter than the barrel would make one assume exists. It might be worth doing a little investigating on that cylinder to see if the oem put a sleeve on the rod to limit the stroke inside the cylinder. They might have needed the pin to pin length on a larger cylinder but not the stroke. If this is the case it could be removed. My eyes could be deceiving me though. Id start by comparing the barrel length to the stroke and see what that leaves you for a piston height. If it seems excessive, i would poke and prod a little further. IDK, I'm probably being overly optimistic based on my lack of specifics.
I have a customer who was interested in (productive) splitting. After all the researching was done, we concluded that in order to do it hydraulically (meaning reasonably strong and reasonably quick cycle times), a minimum of 60ish HP was needed. In my opinion, the only good reason to split wood hydraulically is so that you have something, namely a hot cylinder, to keep your hands/gloves warm. There are flywheel splitters that are very fast and make virtually no heat. In fact, I saw one that ran on a clothes dryer motor and was unbelievably quiet. Your mileage may vary. That said, I designed a controller that was intended to control an oil filter crusher, which is essentially the same process as a trash baler, which is essentially the same process as a log splitter. I even sold a couple to a sock (yes, for feet) manufacturer, because they bale raw socks waiting for further processing. I am at 1:58 in the video, and my prediction is that the wood will jam in between the inner and outer blades. Even if it does not outright jam, it will waste a lot of fuel cramming the wood through- probably enough fuel to dwarf the cost of the machine.
Just being a standard youtube comment know it all but if you add a cycle start mushroom pb instead of the limit switch you won't miss a cycle when it opens and automagically starts closing again and also a manual toggle can disable the auto mode. My grandfather once found a manual lever for his home brewed log splitter that would do an auto return when the pressure spiked at the end of travel. This brought back memories of the first day he started it and sprayed hydraulic fluid 100 ft in the air because of bad seals. Thank for the memory. RIP Papa.
This is fan-f**king-tastic. I'm reminded of an old highway directional sign I wired for a cable TV company,many years ago. Picked it up at a gov auction for a song and the circuit board was fried(which back then cost a pretty shiny penny). I thought to myself, "well self, it's basically a turn signal,a bunch of turn signals",so, that's what I used, turn signal relays and toggle switches. Turn this series of switches on to make the little blinkey arrow to the left, this set of switches to the right, ECT. Worked for many years.
I think that calls for 2 of just about every sticker in the book. Maybe 3 of the "Don't stick your fingie where you don't stick your dinkie" I really need some of those around the shop. HR might not like them, but that's ok, we have a weekly meeting anyways.
There is (almost) nothing more satisfying than the crackling sound wood makes as it's shoved through a hydraulic splitter, Especially if it's a hardwood biscuit that spit a steel wedge two feet into the air.
The sounds them split logs make as they are squeezed through gaps that are too narrow is terrifying ! Would it be more efficient to have the blades arranged in a radial pattern a bit like wheel spokes ?
Here I was hooking the uncovered PTO shaft of the farm's log splitter to a 1948 Allis Chalmers WD45 while wearing a raggedy flannel like a schmuck my entire youth. Unfortunately no hyperbole was used in the creation of this comment.
I'd don't know your plan, but I'd mount the limit switches on the i-beam under the eletrical box, then attach an op-rod to the ram. Keep the switches away from the 300 pound gorilla and his 20 ton rod
weld a piece of all thread to the op-rod going back, then he can adjust the nuts to trip the limit switches at different lengths if a new ram with more stroke is ever installed. A time delay before the push stroke begins would be a good idea also to give a few more seconds to install the next log.
A splitter with high speed return and could add a pad and another relay to pause the forward motion until there is a new log sitting ready to be split. That will prevent it from going forward when you don't want it to saving appendages and time waiting for it to return on a ghost push.
Hi AVE, I love your channel and the stuff you do. You remind me so much of myself in my shop. If I may make one suggestion though it would be that your vertical splitting wedges should have a increased angle so the wedge aligns with the bevel of the inner ones. This will make the splitter more efficient and allow you to keep the cycle times up without working it so hard squishing the wood between the inner and outer wedges. Thank you for sharing your build with us. As always, you did a great job explaining the guts of the controls. Thank you for your videos.
God damn it.. You've done it!! At three times the price of a log splitter with hours of your life lost, you created a log splitter. I knew we would be friends.
It will fail eventually, I was working with a splitter very similar to this and it was built as beefy as could be and after long enough the welds had to be redone and it was a bitch and a half with the top plate there. Worked great for the first 1000 cords or so of wood. After that it was down to maintenance, keeping everything sharp enough and in place, finding what’s leaking and all
When I made a splitter, I used a 3"- 24" cylinder with a gas 5 hp motor, hoses, lever, and a pump! Split oak! It was back in 1976 win I was burning wood!
Ought to check out the log splitter on FabRats channel. Chevy V8 ran through a Turbo 400 running a nice corkscrew. All controlled by a boat throttle lol. Great vid
I have a baler been sittin' here for years. I decided, after watchin' everybody shock load them at full speed on the same gear tooth per revolution, that since I have a Muncie SM465 with a u-joint yoke on the back, may I'll input through that with a Briggs. Likely won't have the power to split 6 ways, but I'm sure it'll do a 4 way. Plus using the shear to lop off poles up to, say, 5"?
Working maintenance for a large manufacturing company, I am amazed at some machines with very simple and basic functions but are still controlled with PLCs.
Cheaper to change the program than the electricals. A lot of simple machines are bloated because of the clipboard warriors and essential specifications for production by the end customer.
My dad made a log splitter attachment for his bobcat out of a hydraulic ram for a 90's bobcat, an I beam for the main body, another I beam stood up for the back stop. Took him like 5 design tweaks and catastrophic failures to get it so it splits any log you throw in it, he has even done super hard woods which it does with many groans and creaks that make you squint and pucker with anticipation.
This is a pretty mint log splitter. I just ran into the same problem you did with the stroke of the cylinder on my pneumatic shrinker stretcher I'm building. I saw my problem with adjustable linkages. Maybe just slide the cylinder back and let the next log take care of it?
In my course of study for my fluid power degree, we were not allowed to design circuits deemed by our genius instructor as "log splitters". He meant not one pump, one valve, one actuator. Didn't matter to him if the application lifted the landing gear on a space shuttle, it was too simple for us to discuss. I wonder what he would think about this. At least this one didn't start with the ole "I got this 5 horse engine....."
Gotta love good old fashioned relay logic. Simple, Robust, and makes ya look a fuggin genius to build something from scratch that works with no touch screen or human input. One question, the delay at end of stroke, is that time delay built into the relays or is that more from just the valves themselves being a little slow? And if valves, is that a pretty reliable/consistent actuation delay?
The valves and relays should be nearly instantaneous, as you don't want delays on operating those. I think you can add a delay to the relay with a capacitor and maybe something else. I'm guessing that the low pressure in the newly-activated piston chamber takes a little while to get up to operating pressure.
@@mookfaru835 Destroy or repurpose, Relays got a lot of life in them for home-gamers. Tens of thousands of cycles, and most the time difficult to kill. Build something, use it, run out of use for it, salvage your components and build something else. Adding more functionality is pretty easy after the fact if you build your understanding of "Line Voltage Logic" Timers, Relays, Limit and pressure switches. Projects like this are great learning tools. Just maybe less so with the potential crushing Hazzard, then again good practice for your E-stop circuit design as well.
Suppressing my weld-rage at your cold amps helps me understand why weld vid comment sections are the same stuff Claudius poured in the kings ear but goes in our eyes
I can see where're your going with this, but did you ever consider loading the wood into an air canon? Make the wood itself a piston. You might need a reusable sabot.
As an American inappropriate person I appreciate your box. I worked with some maple syrup boys that used the same. Nearly half alike confused structures.
All this work when you could have just created your own little biological wood splitters. We have 3 wood splitters and one little princess that keeps me informed if they're working or not.
Back when I was heating the house with wood I found out four things about wood splitting: One, splitting with a maul builds character. Two, splitting with a hydraulic splitter builds a wood pile much faster. Three, you don't split to the size of your stove, you split to the size your wife can lift. Four, never pile the wood as high as you can reach, you pile the wood up to your wife's eye level and no higher. If it's above her head she'll try to pull out a wood piece lower down, pulling the higher piled wood down on top of her.
happy wife
happy life
Unless your trying to get a new model with less miles
Problem solved
Five: persuade your wife that wood splitting is fun.
Builds character, muscle mass, fresh air, something something.
My condolences for the loss of your wife in that tragic, somewhat Jenga inspired accident.
Coworker: what's that tool used for?
Me: Crescent wrench? Anything. Hammer, pry bar, you name it.
Coworker : Tightening nuts, too, I guess?
Me: Oh God, no! Never! You'll round that sucker in no time.
I use mine for metal bending and the spindle nuts on my mower. I don’t have a real wrench the size of the spindle nuts.
I have one i cut teeth into, because in the carwash industry if hardware's not stainless its pipe wrench.
And a whole lot ain't stainless..
Why wont they just make one that works?
You know how many days I was thinking of a crescent wrench that works?
I thought of a hydraulic one, battery powered.
I took the cap off my truck today. Went with a crescent so I wouldn't have to either guess the socket or grab the whole case. That sucked, as I knew it would, so i went back, grabbed a couple sockets, problem solved. Much easier. Until I got to a bolt with a smaller head because of course. At least I brought the crescent back out with me. It just never ends.
“A unit like that ought to have Bluetooth and a subscription plan.” -Bosch probably
"If is sounds like bacon, it's good.
If it smells like bacon, you're on fire."
Currently awaiting delivery of this shop safety gear
If it smells like danger, don’t shake hands with it.
Queue “Eldridge Gravy & The Court Supreme” eh boys?
Ask for more Dewclaw vids and ye shall receive: weekend complete.
Pp smells, but has no hands... what do?
It’s clear the engineering staff almost outdid themselves with the simplicity of this device. As you mentioned are friends are to be laughed at and enjoyed. Were the engineering department fell short is in the realization that they have mounted the control module and box within what is called the Killzone in the Dead tree carcass business. Understanding that the operator will drop the hardest largest piece of dead tree carcass right on top of the control box when handling it. Please advise the engineering department it needs a rethinkOn the mounting of the control box. Love your videos love your work fantastic log splitter.
Got it. Box to be relocated under the hydraulic pack and placed in the pit below the machine.
@@namAehT the monkey's can't hit the estop if they can't see it amirite?
@@namAehT .....just out off reach. We don't want that pesky e-stop in the way of any operator now, will we....??
@@gillsmoke you can relocate just the E-stop pretty easily.
First machine build I did the software for (1988), the EE doing the controls used 26 relays to do the logic. The tech needed two weeks to wire it. I asked the EE why didn't he use a PLC. He said because he used relays. He was a young fellow, not a grizzled geezer. It worked on the first try.
Be interesting to know where he ended up in life...
NASA _genuinely_ wouldn't surprise me! 🤣
@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE He left to become a full-time blues musician. A harmonica player. He was darn good.
@@vibrolax h... *_huh!_* I _cannot_ say I saw that comin'... lol
It he's happy and successful, props to him!
I was envisioning him cobbling together so sorts of awesome robots and rig-ups. Hopefully he at least dabbles here and there. 👍
@@DUKE_of_RAMBLE He moved from hardware into statistics, but held onto the blues.
Simple is better.
is that an automatic finger remover
No, no it isn't. It's a automagic arm remover.
I was thinking nail clippers.....just don't sneeze.
on the upside my wood chipper is gonna be much more blood free now
Keep your dick the hell away from that thing!
@@arduinoversusevil2025 No PLC, so it's an analog arm remover :)
You need to angle out the outer blades. There's a whole bunch of additional load and split wood damage that's occuring because the inner blades are acting like wedges to drive the wood into the outer wedges... You could even angle out the inner blades gently to even further lower the loads ;)
That is why the outer blades were staggered behind the inner ones. By staggering the outer blades the angle of attack on the wood is change so that the split piece will always be smaller than the gap between blades. I agree a little relief between the center blades might be a good modification though. If you look at around 4:06 you can see that they may already indeed be angled slightly to create the relief needed.
I was thinking that when I first saw it tack-welded together. The thing would chooch a lot better if the blades were fanned out, at least as much as the angle of the cutting edge per blade.
Seems like an oversight he would normally catch if someone else did it. Maybe beer was involved.
I envy your expertise, Drew.
@@randomidiot8142 That's Uncle Bumblefock yer talkin' about.
My grandpa had a Hydraulics shop back in the 90s. One of my favorite things they were building was a log splitter that was powered by a crate VW Beatle engine. I think it could have been classified as a rock splitter.
That's going to be a pretty sweet log splitter. May want to angle the back of those blades out so it opens up allowing the wood to have the room to pass through. Otherwise you're just forcing wood through The same space plus the width of the blades.
Dude only welders are allowed to correct engineers you know this
@@2naturesownplace as a steam fitter I completely agree
That's why he set the second blades back further than the center blade. The wood has room to move over after the initial split before the next blade/split and so on. And the top blade is beveled up so no problem there. It's always going to be tight no matter what you do. Just think of it this way, you'll always leave the last pieces stuck in there, who cares.
@@jeramiet154Nah, your hand is the last log.
@@2naturesownplace Correct. Welders can correct everyone.
Upgrade idea: put a huge feed ramp on the side to automatically feed a log in when the ram is all the way back and feeds logs in for you so you don’t have to be within 10 feet of that death trap.
You also need a ramp for split wood so it gets pushed into a box or a wheelbarrow.
And there is also the upper half of the logs which remain unsplitted, you need a ramp to feed them back onto the log ramp to split them a second time.
Then the splitter is fully automatic and while the machine splits the wood you can stack the wood or cut the logs to length with a chainsaw.
@@Henning_S. ...Or visit the hospital knowing you will have plenty of wood split on your return
Powerful door bell switches and garage door kitty crusher technology.
Great video. I love the description of the process as you're doing. Don't change a thing. Love it. You made my day. I am a 58 year old student at Skagit Valley College Marine Tech Program. Your video is used as a resource in our hydraulic class.
4:23 and I finally found a good use for a Crescent Wrench! awesome, I've owned like six of these knuckle busters for 50 years and it turns out I've just been using them wrong!
The more you know!
That splitter in action is eerily similar to those coin pusher arcade games.
And I like the idea of rectangular profile stove wood for stacking. I had never seen it split other than pie slice profile.
Plus as bonus you get instant kindling form the bits that fall off.
It's easier to split with an axe if you split of those side parts leaving a squarish shape.
The advantage of triangular wood is that it is easier to ignite than square wood because of the thinner edges...
I remember from your older video my favourite saying:
"Grinder and paint, makes me the welder I ain't"
I've always assumed that the reason there are (usually two) levers is to stop pillocks from operating them with their hands in the way.
By the way I've seen loads of home made splitters at farm sales in the UK and no matter how heavily built they are always bent or cracked.
As Mr. Goldblum once said, Pillocks find a way.
People insist on cutting very wet wood, which is about 10x harder to do
thats why you put both levers in one hand
Never leave your lever hanging
@@78Ratje
What if it’s only a button? Asking for a friend.
My first homemade log splitter was made from junkyard parts and I had no idea the flow rate of the pump/motor. It was about twice as fast as yours with a large excavator cylinder. It went BANG and would shoot the pieces off to either side if you had a piece of hardwood or something tough. It also heated up the oil badly, live and learn
Reminds me of the red handled Ekco french fry cutter I inherited from my mother. You have to put in a second potato to clear the last bit of the previous potato from the cutting die.
Then a 3rd potato to get the second out. Then a forth, fifth, and it just never ends. An endless cycle of french fry cutting. That's how they get you. This is what Big Potato doesn't want you to know.
Gotta hand it to the dewclaw, he draws a great diagram. I like that he drew the H bridge as an H, it makes a confusing concept easier to understand just by laying it out carefully.
I work for a pretty sizable building automation company, and your spiel at 5:08 warmed my heart.
If we're over complicating something, lets do it as simply as possible. That escapes some people.
I'm glad you are willing to admit a failure instead of going down with the ship.
Sell them to the hipsters as Artisanal Rustic Timbers.
Simple and dangerous? That's no way to talk about your best buddy.
The second I saw the blades mounted parallel, had to fast forward to see the fail. The wood is being compressed through the cutters. They need to be splayed outwards by the thickness of the blade.
As I was going through old stock at work. I saved a handful of valves for... This exact reason. Weird....
For your hand too, has been chosen to be removed.
Yeah, those looked good, I need two for my planer to override the switchback mechanism that at times jumps back the wrong way.
This is the electromechanical equivalent of "Here, hold my beer..." What could *possibly* go wrong?
Very cool project!
That stroke looks a bit shorter than the barrel would make one assume exists. It might be worth doing a little investigating on that cylinder to see if the oem put a sleeve on the rod to limit the stroke inside the cylinder. They might have needed the pin to pin length on a larger cylinder but not the stroke. If this is the case it could be removed.
My eyes could be deceiving me though. Id start by comparing the barrel length to the stroke and see what that leaves you for a piston height. If it seems excessive, i would poke and prod a little further. IDK, I'm probably being overly optimistic based on my lack of specifics.
The bracket holding the cylinder might be making it look longer than it actually is.
I have a customer who was interested in (productive) splitting. After all the researching was done, we concluded that in order to do it hydraulically (meaning reasonably strong and reasonably quick cycle times), a minimum of 60ish HP was needed.
In my opinion, the only good reason to split wood hydraulically is so that you have something, namely a hot cylinder, to keep your hands/gloves warm. There are flywheel splitters that are very fast and make virtually no heat. In fact, I saw one that ran on a clothes dryer motor and was unbelievably quiet. Your mileage may vary.
That said, I designed a controller that was intended to control an oil filter crusher, which is essentially the same process as a trash baler, which is essentially the same process as a log splitter. I even sold a couple to a sock (yes, for feet) manufacturer, because they bale raw socks waiting for further processing.
I am at 1:58 in the video, and my prediction is that the wood will jam in between the inner and outer blades. Even if it does not outright jam, it will waste a lot of fuel cramming the wood through- probably enough fuel to dwarf the cost of the machine.
Ave and this old Tony just have a knack for narrating their videos.
as a pixie enginerd by day, those symbols in the CAD drawing make my brain hurt
Cardboard Aided Design uses different specs and standards.
I knew the round peg would go in the square hole.
Hell, summer is already over in Canada, start getting the firewood ready.
Just being a standard youtube comment know it all but if you add a cycle start mushroom pb instead of the limit switch you won't miss a cycle when it opens and automagically starts closing again and also a manual toggle can disable the auto mode. My grandfather once found a manual lever for his home brewed log splitter that would do an auto return when the pressure spiked at the end of travel. This brought back memories of the first day he started it and sprayed hydraulic fluid 100 ft in the air because of bad seals. Thank for the memory. RIP Papa.
Nice moves. Hard and fast safety last
I've heard that every tool has a hammer end but I never realized that saying applied to chipping hammers as well!
Solving practical problems as a way of life sounds just right. And thank you for making me think about bacon.
I always feel more edified for having watched your videos. Thank you.
The cork stuffer lives on
All you need now is a high capacity log magazine
Says it on my hard hat. “If I wanted an expert opinion I would talk to myself!”
This is fan-f**king-tastic. I'm reminded of an old highway directional sign I wired for a cable TV company,many years ago. Picked it up at a gov auction for a song and the circuit board was fried(which back then cost a pretty shiny penny). I thought to myself, "well self, it's basically a turn signal,a bunch of turn signals",so, that's what I used, turn signal relays and toggle switches. Turn this series of switches on to make the little blinkey arrow to the left, this set of switches to the right, ECT. Worked for many years.
I think that calls for 2 of just about every sticker in the book. Maybe 3 of the "Don't stick your fingie where you don't stick your dinkie"
I really need some of those around the shop. HR might not like them, but that's ok, we have a weekly meeting anyways.
There is (almost) nothing more satisfying than the crackling sound wood makes as it's shoved through a hydraulic splitter, Especially if it's a hardwood biscuit that spit a steel wedge two feet into the air.
I thank u for u Canadian poetry , u make my life easier to live .
5:02 LockPickingLawyer would be proud!
If be laughing harder if I wasn’t jealous as hell.
The sounds them split logs make as they are squeezed through gaps that are too narrow is terrifying !
Would it be more efficient to have the blades arranged in a radial pattern a bit like wheel spokes ?
With absolute respect, this video justified my $1500 37ton chinaesium log splitter...
My first comment ever. Favorite channel on youtube.
Here I was hooking the uncovered PTO shaft of the farm's log splitter to a 1948 Allis Chalmers WD45 while wearing a raggedy flannel like a schmuck my entire youth. Unfortunately no hyperbole was used in the creation of this comment.
That’s why Confucius say; he who wear raggedy garb soon clutch bloody stump.
Why do my eyes feel like they have sand in them? What I like is it generates kindling at the same time.
AvE, Red Green would be proud!
And I dig the adjustable metric slag hammer.
I love those universal crescent wrench hammers. Good for any occasion!
I'd don't know your plan, but I'd mount the limit switches on the i-beam under the eletrical box, then attach an op-rod to the ram. Keep the switches away from the 300 pound gorilla and his 20 ton rod
weld a piece of all thread to the op-rod going back, then he can adjust the nuts to trip the limit switches at different lengths if a new ram with more stroke is ever installed. A time delay before the push stroke begins would be a good idea also to give a few more seconds to install the next log.
Why’s your man AvE only got the one arm?
He built an auto log splitter.
Oh…
It needs an audio scream sensor to disable and retract the ram, and then call 911 or 999 depending.
I love it when I learn something new about electrodigicals, thanks buddy!
I got a crescent wrench shaped wire brush too!
With a long enough ram you could extrude 2x4s
A splitter with high speed return and could add a pad and another relay to pause the forward motion until there is a new log sitting ready to be split. That will prevent it from going forward when you don't want it to saving appendages and time waiting for it to return on a ghost push.
Hi AVE,
I love your channel and the stuff you do. You remind me so much of myself in my shop. If I may make one suggestion though it would be that your vertical splitting wedges should have a increased angle so the wedge aligns with the bevel of the inner ones. This will make the splitter more efficient and allow you to keep the cycle times up without working it so hard squishing the wood between the inner and outer wedges. Thank you for sharing your build with us. As always, you did a great job explaining the guts of the controls. Thank you for your videos.
Now you just need a hopper so you can fill it with logs, and go have a drink while it splits wood
I call this the extra leg remover. Now you can be like Peg and get ur socks at half price!
God damn it.. You've done it!!
At three times the price of a log splitter with hours of your life lost, you created a log splitter. I knew we would be friends.
This is a perfect example of work smarter not harder.
The flux helps hide the bad welds
The "lever" makes you feel like you're really doing something...lol.
Words to live by. A grinder and paint make me the welder I ain't!!!! 🇨🇦❤️
The word "Jenga" is ancient europomean for "you win again, gravity!"
Have the top part angled so the part that gets cut off slides back into the splitter instead of the pile.
I have to admit, I didn't think those welds would hold. But I seent it with my own eyes, gotta believe it now. Well done, sir.
Sounds like you watch Vice Grip Garage lol
Even a small weld can hold a ridiculous amount of weight.
Yeah I’d at least add 5 passes on each bead personally I prefer to take the time to do it now than waste the time fixing it when I need it to work
It will fail eventually, I was working with a splitter very similar to this and it was built as beefy as could be and after long enough the welds had to be redone and it was a bitch and a half with the top plate there. Worked great for the first 1000 cords or so of wood. After that it was down to maintenance, keeping everything sharp enough and in place, finding what’s leaking and all
It’s all tensile strength, it’s a lot stronger than bending strength
When I made a splitter, I used a 3"- 24" cylinder with a gas 5 hp motor, hoses, lever, and a pump! Split oak! It was back in 1976 win I was burning wood!
Ought to check out the log splitter on FabRats channel. Chevy V8 ran through a Turbo 400 running a nice corkscrew. All controlled by a boat throttle lol. Great vid
That was (is) a great build...
I have a baler been sittin' here for years. I decided, after watchin' everybody shock load them at full speed on the same gear tooth per revolution, that since I have a Muncie SM465 with a u-joint yoke on the back, may I'll input through that with a Briggs. Likely won't have the power to split 6 ways, but I'm sure it'll do a 4 way. Plus using the shear to lop off poles up to, say, 5"?
Here I am pulling levers like a sucker!
Say it in a Homer voice
I can open my eyes when hearing that sound.
Yup that's mildly terrifying.
Working maintenance for a large manufacturing company, I am amazed at some machines with very simple and basic functions but are still controlled with PLCs.
Cheaper to change the program than the electricals. A lot of simple machines are bloated because of the clipboard warriors and essential specifications for production by the end customer.
That welding looks good enough for the girls I go out with
hell those welds look BETTER than the girls I go out with! At last call ya cant be picky.
Reminds me of a brake rotor splitter in a junkyard, forgot in which channel I saw it. Looked and worked just as dangerously 👍
My dad made a log splitter attachment for his bobcat out of a hydraulic ram for a 90's bobcat, an I beam for the main body, another I beam stood up for the back stop. Took him like 5 design tweaks and catastrophic failures to get it so it splits any log you throw in it, he has even done super hard woods which it does with many groans and creaks that make you squint and pucker with anticipation.
This is a pretty mint log splitter. I just ran into the same problem you did with the stroke of the cylinder on my pneumatic shrinker stretcher I'm building. I saw my problem with adjustable linkages. Maybe just slide the cylinder back and let the next log take care of it?
Won't help, the remaining gap will remain the same.
In my course of study for my fluid power degree, we were not allowed to design circuits deemed by our genius instructor as "log splitters". He meant not one pump, one valve, one actuator. Didn't matter to him if the application lifted the landing gear on a space shuttle, it was too simple for us to discuss. I wonder what he would think about this. At least this one didn't start with the ole "I got this 5 horse engine....."
There's two valves.
No wonder 💩 is so unnecessarily complicated. They teach the sense right out of you and charge you for it.
looks like a win . love the mulity spliting
Simple and dangerous. The best of both worlds.
Gotta love good old fashioned relay logic. Simple, Robust, and makes ya look a fuggin genius to build something from scratch that works with no touch screen or human input. One question, the delay at end of stroke, is that time delay built into the relays or is that more from just the valves themselves being a little slow? And if valves, is that a pretty reliable/consistent actuation delay?
The valves and relays should be nearly instantaneous, as you don't want delays on operating those. I think you can add a delay to the relay with a capacitor and maybe something else.
I'm guessing that the low pressure in the newly-activated piston chamber takes a little while to get up to operating pressure.
I get happy every time someone ditches the Arduino for some transistors or relays.
it show that people still smart enough to actually use electronics.
I’m going to try that, it’s cheaper in a way. But you cant change the function just by writing, you have to destroy the old one
Id guess most of the time delay is the hydraulic action of the operation. It takes time for it to build up and switch direction.
@@mookfaru835 Destroy or repurpose, Relays got a lot of life in them for home-gamers. Tens of thousands of cycles, and most the time difficult to kill. Build something, use it, run out of use for it, salvage your components and build something else. Adding more functionality is pretty easy after the fact if you build your understanding of "Line Voltage Logic" Timers, Relays, Limit and pressure switches. Projects like this are great learning tools. Just maybe less so with the potential crushing Hazzard, then again good practice for your E-stop circuit design as well.
just make a buttress or a box for the front of the pusher to take up space when it runs short ie not enough space for a new log
Suppressing my weld-rage at your cold amps helps me understand why weld vid comment sections are the same stuff Claudius poured in the kings ear but goes in our eyes
Also 💯 on the new chipping hammer. Love it thanks
I can see where're your going with this, but did you ever consider loading the wood into an air canon? Make the wood itself a piston. You might need a reusable sabot.
Turn the second log sidewards for a half stroke then flip her 'round the right way for the finishing move
You can't align the splits good enough to help much.
How you going to pull that log out out of the teeth after a 20 ton ram got done with it?
Nice job AvE!!! looks pretty efficient!!
"The only thing missing from this abortion is the coat hanger"
I love you man
Adjust stroke to accommodate a magazine on top. Cut up pieces to fit. Bam automagic
5:30 but how is it supposed to tell your fridge that Amazon needs to order more stump grease?
Pre-roll ad: Injury Lawyers 4 U, in which a farmer gets into a horrible-sounding yet unspecified accident.
Me: Ah, the video has started already.
As an American inappropriate person I appreciate your box. I worked with some maple syrup boys that used the same. Nearly half alike confused structures.