My woodsplitter project

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Ya'll ready to close this thing out? Me too! I got a lot done today. Only a few little things left and itll be done!

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this morning I dug the used hydraulic tank out of the plastic bag it has been hibernating in. It looks rough but it holds. It's sitting on my paint and work-it-over tree stump so something is about to happen.

WHACK! 4 lbs of sledge manliness laid against it's head. BOOM!



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I hammered for about 15 minutes, an eternity for a weenie armed pecker neck like me. My muscles ached but I got the little frame on the bottom straightened out pretty good.



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And as I went to upload the next picture I accidentally copied all my pictures for today to a subfolder in my working folder. No problem i thought. I'll just delete the folder. FAIL!!!!

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All of my pictures for today were deleted! Gone forever. GREAT! thanks computer!

I'll try to blab my way though it though. Bear with me....

So I banged out the little brackets on the tank flat. Then I took it over to the splitter and laid it on the side spot over the wheel. I moved it around so I had room to get a wrench on the drain nut and semi-centered it. Then I marked it with a soapstone pencil. I had to cut about 4 inches off one side and about 2 off the other.
Pictures would really be nice here.


Then while I had the torch out I set the grass on fire. Actually I was aiming at my pusher bracket but metal flew everywhere. I put the fire out (had pictures of that too) and put a big bucket of water under my work area. It worked to keep the fires out.

So that was my tank and my pusher cut. The pusher fit my cylinder now that I had a notch cut out of it, and my tank fit with just a little over hang to weld on.

I also put my paper with the four engine holes on it over my mounting plate and marked the holes in spots where the bolts wouldn't hit the support brackets below. I torch cut those too. They turned out pretty good.

Again, no picture so here's a guy cutting from the internet..



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Lame huh? I'm sorry

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Well after all my cutting and fitting I went ahead and painted my tank with bedliner stuff so it would be easy to touch-up after being abused on the road. I knew I'd have to scrape some off to weld but it was easier to paint before I welded it on. I also painted the pusher with bedliner.

And the engine mount.

Then I welded the tank to the frame above the left side (facing forward). Next I attached the pusher and saw that it was good.

then I dragged out the old motor I have (14 hp Kohler) with a pump on it. It used to pump concrete somewhere in another life. I redid the carb and fuel pump and now it runs great! Again no pic, but here's something similar to mine, except mine is crusty with concrete and old age.



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I had four bolts that were too long for bolting the engine down so I put nuts on them, then washers, then bolted them through the mount into the engine. they held well. The engine on the back like this really makes the whole thing balanced. Pick up on the front just a little and it'll wanna lay down backwards. Maybe i should put a skidplate under the back?





That covered the engine, pump (also painted black), engine mount, hydraulic tank, and pusher. And that's where I left it. I still need to fill the hydraulic tank with fluid and run hoses around and about. But here's how it looks right now.



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I have zero idea how to hook up the switch that makes it pressurize the cylinder or whatever the other piece is that's left. i'm waiting on info from my father-in-law now to see where everything is supposed to go. With luck I should be able to try it out in a couple of days!


Edit: Again I'm sorry for the pics! I could just shoot myself.



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I got a picture recovery program off the internet so I'm trying it now. Wish me luck.

[GMCDAC]

Hello Pepsi,
I follow your threads and really like how none of this stuff intimidates you. You jump right in there and get it done along with all of your dedicated helpers! About the only suggestion I have is when welding on a painted surface grinding all the paint off where you want to weld can improve the quality of the weld by not having to burn paint and then impurities from the burnt paint can lodge in the weld too.

The problem of the sun reflecting on the inside of the helmet and lense also happens indoors with shop lighting. I took an old hard hat liner and attached it to my helmet and it makes a huge difference in visibility. I just used double sided foam tape on the top and I had a couple of brass banner grommets I installed where the adjusting knobs are but just holes punched would be fine. This helmet is a "Cummings tools" auto darkening that cost $39.95 7 or 8 years ago.

It's was last spring I filled my torch bottles that I think are the same size as yours. Both bottles cost less than 30 bucks to fill. I bought my bottles from the welding supply shop that fills them. They just exchange instead of making the customer wait to fill the ones they brought in.

Keep it coming---DAC

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Originally Posted by David R Leifheit

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Interesting. About $10 a piece is what I pay for full tanks of that size. I have a set, in their own little carrying package. Cutting with them though, you will go through the Acetylene -very- quickly.

I trade mine in at Tractor supply. It's about 64.00 for the two little tanks filled. wish I could find a place for $10.00!

Originally Posted by David R Leifheit

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Harbor Freight. I bought an 80 Amp stick welder from them (never used wire feed so I didn't get that one). It is also a 110 (or 120) volt unit I can plug into a "normal" outlet. Bearing in mind -all- my outlets are 20 Amp (house was seriously overbuilt) and can handle a lot. I think it draws only 15 amps when running, which would max out a normal home circuit. Even at 80 amps I was blowing holes in my work, had to drop it to 60 to do the welds on my trailer.

I *think* normal retail is somewhere around $100, but I never buy anything unless it is on sale (I am a cheap son of a gun). Also picked up an auto darkening welding helmet for around $35 from them as well. Saves your eyes (and you thought they Oxy/Acet was bright!) plus allows you to see what you are doing without taking the helmet off since it goes clear when the arc isn't struck. Probably senses the UV from the arc...

nice! I just fell into a Lincoln Tombstone welder, but it takes 50 amp lines. The miller only needs 15 amps so I don't know how that works. Newer technology I guess. The Lincoln blows my breakers. The miller with all the same power on 220 v line doesn't even run enough to kill the oven with them both going. But for $2000 it'll only ever be a borrowed machine for me.

I might try to upgrade my breaker to 50 amps in the future.

Originally Posted by GMCDAC

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Hello Pepsi,
I follow your threads and really like how none of this stuff intimidates you. You jump right in there and get it done along with all of your dedicated helpers! About the only suggestion I have is when welding on a painted surface grinding all the paint off where you want to weld can improve the quality of the weld by not having to burn paint and then impurities from the burnt paint can lodge in the weld too.

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I wouldn't say none of it intimidates me. All of it does, but I like to learn new stuff. Working on Cecilia has made me a little more confident too. I thought I needed to get more welding practice in and this looked like a project I could fiddle with and even if I messed it all up I wouldn't be out anything but time. I could always tear the broken parts out and try again.

A friend of mine used to say something like, "Its just metal. redo it if you dont like it." That stuck with me. If I bugger it up I always think "I'll just fix it. It's just metal".
sometimes I have to say that two or three times before it looks good enough but I learn every time.

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Originally Posted by GMCDAC

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The problem of the sun reflecting on the inside of the helmet and lense also happens indoors with shop lighting. I took an old hard hat liner and attached it to my helmet and it makes a huge difference in visibility. I just used double sided foam tape on the top and I had a couple of brass banner grommets I installed where the adjusting knobs are but just holes punched would be fine. This helmet is a "Cummings tools" auto darkening that cost $39.95 7 or 8 years ago.

My tombstone welder that I can't use yet came with an auto dark helmet too. I have two of those now. They're the bee's knees for sure. I put one on the other day and put the other on the Powder puff so she could watch the welding. She thought that was a very grown up thing to do. She might actually try to weld a little in spring.

Originally Posted by GMCDAC

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It's was last spring I filled my torch bottles that I think are the same size as yours. Both bottles cost less than 30 bucks to fill. I bought my bottles from the welding supply shop that fills them. They just exchange instead of making the customer wait to fill the ones they brought in.

Keep it coming---DAC

That's two people with better prices than I'm gettin now. I might just make the trip into town. It'll cost me $10.00 in gas but if I'm saving $30 it'll be worth it. Guess I'll call around when I change these two out!







Thanks for reading my mess guys. I'm really sorry about the pics for the last session. I ran that recovery thing for 30 mins and it didnt find anything so I guess they're gone. I did find this one though because I sent it to someone for help with the hose rigging.

These are the parts I'm left with and I dont have any idea how to plug them into the system. One is the handle that activates the cylinder. the other? No clue.



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[FetchMeAPepsi]

With everything put together nearest I can tell I started routing hoses. The headaches soon followed. My pump is metric, my cylinder is JIC threaded, which I didnt know existed until this, and the hydraulic hoses I got from tractor supply are "PIPE" threaded. WHAT?

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The hoses took me three days to figure out and Im still waiting on adapters from online. The short version (long version in a minute) is I got a 60 inch long 3/4" hose that runs from the tank to the pump intake. I had to use a 1 1/4 inch to 3/4 inch pipe reducer (Lowes) to get the hose tied to the tank's oversized hole. I put pipe tape on every connection to hopefully keep them from leaking. I hear pipe dope is better but I dont have any and I never used it before so I dont know that I can get it back apart in case (when!) I make mistakes.

The Redhead is holding this. Those are not my purple boots

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Then I got a 24 inch long 1/2" hose to run from the lever to the top cylinder connection, and a 36 inch long 1/2" hose for the bottom cylinder connection.



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Then I made The Redhead who was my helper for one of the days hold her fingers in the pump and switch intake to keep them from leaking.

Just kidding! She's showing the next hose routing. It's 1/2 inch hose that has a 22mm connector on one side and a 1/2 inch JIC connector on the other side. I had to custom make it at NAPA. If anyone is building this for their house hopefully you can get matching parts!

This was a 36" long hose, btw. Going from the output on the pump to the intake on the switch.



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This is a 3/4 inch hose 36" long going from the output on the switch to the tank. This is the return line. I had to use a pipe reducer on it too.



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And that's as far as I got with it. I'm waiting on adapters for 1/2" JIC to 1/2" Pipe and 3/4" JIC to 3/4" PIPE. They should be here Thursday.

And now the long version.......

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[FetchMeAPepsi]

Ugh.

I measured my holes and connections from the tank to the pump to the switch to the cylinder to the tank again. Measured with a tape measure. Almost everything was close to standard or so I thought.

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I bought my hoses from Tractor Supply. $159.00 for one 3/4" x 60" hose, one 3/4" x 36" hose, one 24" x 1/2" hose, and two 36" x 1/2 hoses. Way more than I planned on spending. If it could have taken the pressure I'd have used garden hose and clamps.

I got my hoses back and I think OK here goes! I'll be splitting these logs in minutes! WRONG.

None of the hoses would fit my JIC fittings. Whats a JIC fitting you ask? Well it seems to be those fittings that have a tapered end to them without threads. Well they have threads, just not on the taper.

So I bought some adapters, another $35.00. And they didn't have all of them so I had to order some online.

Then I couldnt find anything that would fit the pump or the cylinder. It turned out the pump hole was METRIC!

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So I had to go to NAPA and have them build me a $45.00 one foot long hose that I used as an adapter from my cylinder and pump. Four hoses, $199.00 with tax.



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:p oop:


I got the pieces back and three of the adapter hoses didnt work. Thankfully NAPA is awesome so they just redid my hoses for free. I got them back and they're all JIC hoses so my pipe hoses dont fit. Now I'm waiting on an adapter from the tank to the pump, from the pump and cylinder to the switch, and...well i think thats it. But still it's annoying. I'm so close I can taste it. I was very frustrated.

I didnt even feel like grinding down my welds on the tank or freshening up the paint from the engine mount welding. And I enjoy painting.



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The lesson learned from all this is beware getting free parts. I could have bought a new cylinder AND engine for all the $$ I spent on this hose crap. And my hoses would fit!

[GMCDAC]

Dang, I have been buried with some issues and intended to take pics of the hydraulic system on one of my garden tractors that works the same way but just couldn't get to it. I don't think it would have helped anyway since your parts are a wide variety.

You will get through it as always!

DAC

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Thanks Dac! Im holding out hope that it'll come together with the ordered parts. If not I'm going to take the $200 worth of stupid hoses back to NAPA and go to the local Mahindra (spelling) tractor store because I found out all their stuff is metric and I can probably get them to run hoses all around for me.

I'll keep you guys updated

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[Rick]

Question: How long are you going to continue with this a"wood splitter" project??? If this is going to continue, "PLEASE DELETE ME" from this website. I have had enough. I am not at all interested in "wood splitters".

Rick Rusconi

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Originally Posted by Rick

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Question: How long are you going to continue with this a"wood splitter" project??? If this is going to continue, "PLEASE DELETE ME" from this website. I have had enough. I am not at all interested in "wood splitters".

Rick Rusconi

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Well, I guess I'll keep going with this until it's finished or I freeze to death. I hate quitting stuff when Im learning so much that transfers over to trucks so easily.

I'm sorry you got upset about it but it is in the Other Rides And Projects section. And I'm posting because so many people asked me what I was doing that took me away from Cecilia.

Sorry you arent liking it. I'll try to jazz it up a little and make it more interesting.

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[GMCDAC]

Wow! Someone needs to stay away from the "Other Rides and Projects" page then, as there will be stuff like this on it! I wonder who forced him to click "my woodsplitter project" and then forced him to read it? Maybe he should be deleted as he wished with that attitude.

DAC