My woodsplitter project

[BarryGMC]

Chill Rick.

[Jeannie]

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

PM Sent.


Pepsi, good luck with your project. Your topics are highly rated, entertaining and informative. Please continue to keep us updated.


-Jeannie
6066 GMC Club

[FetchMeAPepsi]

My last two fittings came in today.



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I put them on with more teflon tape. And I found out one of the fittings NAPA put on was bigger than the others so I had to add more tape, but just a bit.



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Then I started pouring my 5 gallon bucket of cheap-o hydraulic fluid from Tractor Supply into the tank. Even the cheap stuff is like 35.00 for 5 gallons. Ouch!



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Then I closed up the tank and poured fluid in through a funnel. Finally i gassed her up, started the motor and gave it a second to pump some oil in.

Then I tried the switch and Sqqqquirrrtt!!! One of my hose connections had a blowout.





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So I re-taped it and tightened it up. Then I tried it again and the motor spun down like it was really tryin, but the cylinder didn't move. I thought Hmm, maybe I hooked it up backwards. So I opened the hoses from the cylinder. One was bone dry.

The other one was pressurized all up and leaked as I took it apart. I moved it over the tank so I wouldn't lose this expensive oil.



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Then the stupid thing popped loose out of the blue.



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I wasn't too happy, but with a little batter and onion I guess I was ready for the fryer.



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The hose that had oil went to the top of the cylinder so i figured it was on the wrong place. I swapped it.



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And still no movement from the cylinder. IDK what's wrong now. Maybe the cylinder is frozen? It is used so I guess I'll work on figuring out how to test it.

[GMCDAC]

I doubt this will be a help since my setup uses an old power steering pump and the valve is different than yours, but this would work exactly the way you are trying to get that one to work. It is pressurized both directions.

I don't do online photo hosting so I can't caption each picture.

Pic1 Valve and pump. Push foreward on the lever to extend the ram, pull the lever back and that retracts the ram. The line closest goes to the pressure side of the pump. The return line (low pressure) is on the opposite side of the valve.

Pic2 Bottom of the control valve. Both of these hoses coming out of the bottom go to the cylinder. The "A" hose goes to the stationary end of the cylinder and the "B" hose goes to the ram end of the cylinder. If you can't read the letters, A is on the left, B on the right. Ignore the pump pressure hose on the far left for the moment.

Pic3 The hydraulic cylinder.

Sorry it is so filthy but even though this is a vintage and kind of a rare garden tractor, it's a workhorse.

DAC

[GMCDAC]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and shoot a guess for your hose routing after looking at your valve pictures again.

"In" on the valve should be the pressure side of your pump. "Out" on the valve should return to your oil tank. The other two sticking straight up in your last pic would be the ones going to the cylinder and could probably be reversed depending on which way you want the lever to move with the ram. The suction side of your pump should come from a fitting on your tank that is always submerged in oil. I'm wondering if that fitting that blew apart is proper sizes. You shouldn't have to build up the threads with teflon tape to make it tighter.

DAC

[Rockdriller]

Keep workin' on it.....you're getting close...

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Dac, you were right on. The hose that blew off is one that NAPA put together for me and instead of doing 1/2 inch they did 5/8 inch. so I had to get this:



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I taped it up and put it on the new hose:



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Then I fired it up and pressed the plunger. The hoses held great! Then the motor died. The cylinder didn't move a bit. I started the motor up again and slowly pressed the lever so it put gentle pressure on the cyl from the inside then I banged the crap out of it with a sledge hammer. I worked my way up to "hard as you can hit" power. It moved 1/8 inch. I think it might be frozen.



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[GMCDAC]

Originally Posted by FetchMeAPepsi

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Dac, you were right on. The hose that blew off is one that NAPA put together for me and instead of doing 1/2 inch they did 5/8 inch. so I had to get this:



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I taped it up and put it on the new hose:



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Then I fired it up and pressed the plunger. The hoses held great! Then the motor died. The cylinder didn't move a bit. I started the motor up again and slowly pressed the lever so it put gentle pressure on the cyl from the inside then I banged the crap out of it with a sledge hammer. I worked my way up to "hard as you can hit" power. It moved 1/8 inch. I think it might be frozen.



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Glad you got the fitting situation sorted out. Is that a rebuildable cylinder? maybe it could be taken apart and freed up?

DAC

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Originally Posted by GMCDAC

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Glad you got the fitting situation sorted out. Is that a rebuildable cylinder? maybe it could be taken apart and freed up?

DAC

I don't know. I don't see any screws or anything on it to take it apart. Have you done one before?



I ran down to Tractor supply today and picked up another cylinder to see if that was the problem.



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It was. The new cylinder is 36" stroke (that means it can push out 36") and it's 2" around on the pusher part. The brand is Grizzly. It seems perfect for my splitter. I also found out that I wasn't mashing the switch far enough in either direction. My logic said that if you want the plunger to move slowly then mash the switch slowly. I didn't want it to slam out of there and break something (like me!) so I mashed on it slowly. That's not how hydraulics work apparently. You have to slam them all the way on or off. Not in between. I didn't know that.


At this point I was pretty excited. I ran over and grabbed a log, put it on the splitter, and mashed it to ON. It expanded perfectly until it hit the log against the blade, then it blew upwards and off to the side like a dog stretching. The pusher needs wings tying it to the beam. Oops.

I took a soapstone and marked the bottom of the pusher where the beam runs under it.



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I only have a few scraps of plate left to use for anything, but it should be enough. I plan to use one piece as a spacer and one piece as a "grabber" to grab on to the beam and guide the pusher down to the blade.



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I thought about welding them but then I'd never get them off

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so i drilled three holes on each side and I'll run bolts through them.




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[FetchMeAPepsi]

For my reference here's the elbows I put on the cylinder to go from 3/8 holes in the cylinder to 1/2 hoses I had. That got rid of two different NAPA hoses. I'm takin those suckers back!



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I did three holes in each side. The holes are 5/16" around and through all three steel plate pieces. Drilling time took about 3 minutes per plate and one drill battery was used up for every 2 holes. I have several batteries though, but if you dont and you try this you might use a corded drill for sanity.



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Holes go through three plates.



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Measured for the bolts. See how it says about 2 inches?



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By the time I got to tractor supply (where they sell bolts by the pound) I thought it was 3 inches so I got bolts too big. But luckily I got the bolt, two washers, and a lock washer. They all took up enough space that the bolts tied down nice and tight. I got grade 8 bolts for strength, apparently they're the toughest.

Then I tied it down to the beam. It fit perfectly.



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All that was left was to fire it up and mash the handle. Guess what happened?

This:



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And summa this:



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And for fun I did somma this!



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Within 15 minutes I had somma this:



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It cut oak, catupla (very dense) and some huge idunnowhat logs. I couldn't find anything it couldn't cut! Guess who's havin a warm fire tonight? Oh yeah!

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This is probably my last update on the wood splitter. I have really enjoyed this project aside from the mistakes I made (and money spent) getting it right and working. I plan to do some touch-up painting to get things right and I need to grind up and paint the pusher plate's "wings" to get it look better. I also need to put some bolts on the tank to hold the switch in one place because right now it's just dangling around.

I tell you one thing though, putting metal together and creating something from it makes you feel more in touch with your roots of manhood than anything. I now feel confident that I can pull parts off of my truck and weld them together. I can probably cut out bad spots and weld new ones on, then clean up the welds. Heck, I can probably even build new metal pieces in some cases if I need to. All it takes is time. I'm glad I jumped into this with both feet. I'd do it again without a second thought. Thanks for reading

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