#232 

I absolutely agree with Richard Browne below: DEFINITELY better to move the stop-plate FORWARD - with a big ol' hunk of wood? - preventing eventual (expensive!) damage to both your movable joints and hydraulics in the process! Come on, Kelly, THIS IS GREAT ADVICE! 😀👍👍

Love it! Got the original, saw how small it was, returned it for the XL. It splits my ~7x16" firewood into smallwood and kindling in a flash. ru-vid.comUgkxSRemO77LrM90rx_It_Wh6ZnKAS0H2A8t Good for debarking too. It's so fun I now have too much kindling and have to fight the urge to split the big pieces. I usually split dried cedar, but I've split dried oak too. The edge on mine has stayed razor sharp. I mounted it on a couple pieces of pressure treated 4x4 to hold it steady and quiet the ringing. Several reviews and videos show people having trouble keeping the wood straight. How do I put this gently?... You have to be smarter than the wood. Don't try to split knots, or badly curved grain. And hold the wood (with leather gloves) and tap it once to set it on the blade before giving it a good whack. And you have to know how to swing a hammer. If you don't know what wood grain or knots are, and you can't swing a hammer without hitting yourself or things around you, I suggest buying firewood and kindling pre-split. But if you're smarter than a log, this beautiful tool will make splitting firewood into kindling safer, faster and way more funner! I highly recommend it, and get the XL.

Drop the steel tubing down lower, close to where the hydraulic arm attaches to the maul. That will probably reduce the amount of leverage on the top of the maul, which would reduce the amount of pivot at the attachment point.

Mr.Kelly you could back off the detent just a bit so the Handle kicks out at a lesser pressure. Now there is probably a fine line so small adjustment could make a big difference. I think you will eventually wear out the hole in the rod of the cylinder. Just my 2 cents but probably worth looking at.💪🏻💪🏻🍺🍺

I have built a bunch of splitters. I would drill holes in the top flange of the Ibeam and put a 1/2 bolt where it would contact the heel of the wedge guide @ 18" opening. No failures in thousands of cycles.

You like your wood split more or thinner than me. Thats the pleasure of having your own splitter isn't it. I used to do it all with a monster maul I bought in the eighties. I'm 61 and its just taking to long now. I bought 4 acres and had to clear out a bunch of trees. They wanted 10,000 dollars for this. I said no. Guess who did it. His name was me, myself and I. I'm way the duck ahead. I bought a 30 ton county line at tractor supply. I love this mother Rucker. It sure is better than swinging my 18 pound monster maul from all those years. Hey thats nice of you showing us how you did something to better your situation. What I was doing was after I split a piece of wood. I would throw it into my little tractor garden trailer. Then when the piston went back. I would tap the handle so it wouldn't retract all the way in. But I was taking the wood to another stack and not stacking it right next to where I was splitting the wood at. Anyway I'm happy as hell. My problem is lifting these heaving rounds onto the splitter. So I took one of my ramps and put it onto my splitter. Then I roll the heavy ass round up the ramp. This has helped my back out a lot. Meanwhile I'm working on a swingarm for the splitter. It will have a battery operated winch on the top of the swing arm with a 50 foot cable . My back will be very happy after I get this swing arm done. Yea your idea is good man. Keep thinking Guy. Cause its good for the mind and the body.

Good video man!!! Thanks for telling us at the start that you weren't going to mod the hydraulics or engine. I watched the whole video because you took the time to do that and not lie to us. The only thing I'll say you could do to speed up is once it cracks the wood you don't have to run the splitter all the way down to the end, your Wood is already split and there is just a little piece of bark or sliver of wood holding it on which you can break away easy. it'll save you a bunch of time in the long run. Anyway great video and thanks!!!

In my opinion from watching this video. It may help the splitter if you added tw 4x4 blocks stacked to the end of the splitter since you are already stopping the wedge once it breaks the wood apart . It would do about the same thing but help the splitter from wear

I like the 4 was splitter that drops over steel wedge. Helps speed up cuts and protects original wedge. Worst case if I ruin it can pull off and only 59 bucks. Thanks for sharing.. Same splitter and great machine!

Had never thought of doing something like that. Pretty ingenious idea Andrew. Looks like it makes a real difference for you too. Am thinking of buying a tractor supply splitter and will see how things hold up for you. Enjoyed it! Side note, working this weekend so might miss the live stream, hate working every other weekend but have to pay those bills! Will try to pop in for a minute and say hi on my way to work. Thanks, Doug

Love the ingenuity! I decided on a kinetic splitter and ordered a Generac 10 ton electric. My plan is to buy several split cords to start off ( 180 a cord around here, and they're chunky pieces) and split those down a bit. I own a landscaping business so dont have a ton of time to get logs, buck them up then split so pre split, seasoned wood is the way to go for me right now.

I have a smaller splitter. I also made a limiter and it saves time and I have extra convenience. Have a good time!

That is pretty neat idea. I have the same machine. we usually split with two people. I usually handle all wood moving and loading on the splitter. The other just runs hydraulics. We slam through the wood. It is really time comsuming by yourself. By the end of the day we are tired. That machine wares us out lol.We usually load the rounds in the loader. It seems alot easier on the back. Nice to have the larger ones elivated to put on the splitter. Then we load into the side by side and the loader bucket as it empties. Then i stack and just keep moving the wood. It really seems all in the setup and what works for you. Also somehow we always seem to have a round on the ground near the rack of the splitter to set wood for spliting. Usually a place to set the halves of larger rounds awaiting the final split. If you dont enjoy it soon it is just like work. So be safe and keep all your fingers!

Excellent video and great idea, mine drives me nuts when it does that I never actually measured the time like you did, but I think I’ll just both of 2 x 4 on there and call it good. Thank you for the good video

hi there real good idea i have done something similar but with a different splitter . on yours i believe i would drill a large whole threw those two up rights and use a pin . then if you happen to get a large round just pull the pin out . it also gives you the ability to pull the pin and let the cyd go all the way back to the original parking spot . just dropping another idea good job john

You can buy stroke regulators for the cylinder shaft itself. They are used on ag equipment all the time. Just an idea....

After using my 5 ton electric splitter for 15 years, I realized I could just put a 4" 2x4 at the end to speed up the cycle time. Made a big difference. Same idea as yours.

Good mod. Only suggestion would be to have lowered the metal bar you installed to just a hair over the cylinder rod. If you look back at your video you can see how the entire head torques upon return. This would be mitigated by placing the bar close to the rod.

You are now putting all the pressure and torque at the tops off the log kickers, with time and many cycles it will affect the welds or bolts holding these down. Would suggest to you that you have an equivalent steel or wood bar at the bottom in order to spread it out more evenly.

Great video! Well done.

Thats funny, i just watched a RU-vid video the other day where a guy hose clamped a long rod to the big part of the ram so it stuck past the distance he needed. I can see where that would save time. Thanks for sharing Andrew.

I have an different opinion your putting extra load on the cylinder seals. It would be beneficial to put the 4 x 4 at the other end and you’re shorting the stroke in the same manner without exerting any unnecessary loads on your hydraulic cylinder. But I do like it.

I most definitely like your idea I think I will put foam or something to protect the rod and then slip a pipe over the rod 👍

The easy speed-up hack is to put the block of wood at the butt plate end. This way you still get the benefit of the dislodging bars.

Very interesting. Enjoyed it and might consider doing something similar with my champion splitter!

Hydraulic stop rings work good too. Use them on my splitter and my hay rakes as well

Love it!!! I think I will use a 4x4 piece.....

Nice tip on reducing cycle time! 4.5sec rated cycle time for the Eastonmade Ultra.

You do an awesome job with your wood splitter and it's great how you share your knowledge and experience with your viewers. Take care.

Hello from a fellow splitter with the same issue. The big difference is that I don't turn around to stack mine like you do. I either fling them over towards the stacking rack or into the tractor bucket to drive them over there. So, based on your idea which is "dirt simple", What if you just built out a 6" sturdy steel box at the "dead end" of the splitter rather than it blocking off at the wedge end? Seems like it would work just as well and it would not change the internal hydraulic detent inside the cylinder, just shorten up the stroke.

I do see your wedge tipping forward every time it hits that tube and I did not see that happening as much when you were using that piece of wood. I think if you could somehow lower the attachment point of the tube to somewhere just above the attachment point of the cylinder to the wedge, that pivoting motion won't be as bad.

They make limiters to "clamp" on the rod of the cylinder. They are called "Cylinder Stroke Control." Takes 2 seconds and inexpensive without harming cylinder. You can add as many as needed to get desired stop and return point.

Toss your splits in a wheelbarrow. When its full, throttle back and stack. Also, you buy hydraulic cylinder limiting collars that slip onto the piston. They used them on batwing mowers. Should be heavy duty enough for a splitter.

Did this last year to mine lol now I find your video my production is alot faster

I made a stroke limiter that I found on Jonas Champion’s RU-vid channel. It will work on your splitter as well. Very easy and efficient. Cost me about $10 dollars in parts. It can be set up for whatever length wood you want. I cut all my wood at 16” so I set it up to stop at 17 and 1/2 “.

Well it’s simple mathematics really, you’re saving nearly 50% on the stroke, so you’ll get done in half a day what you’ll normally get done in a day!

There's another video on utube where a guy takes a piece of strong cord and essentially does the same thing. It was incredibly simple and and worked very well too. One end of the cord ties to the upright farthest from the lever, lays in front of the other upright, and then it tied to the lever. When the wedge retracts, it pushes on the cord which in turn pulls the lever forward. So, I'll be doing that on my splitter.

Great video Andrew! 2.5 seconds times 1,000 strokes is a lot of savings! The thought of creating a foot activated split controls has crossed my mind, but that might be a bit too dangerous having two hands potentially in the danger zone. The way it operates now, at least one hand (your right hand) isn't likely to get hurt.

Keep an eye on that wedge to ram connection. Saw a guy ruin the hydraulic cylinder on another channel with ram stops. I use a short block of wood on the bottom end, sometimes I go to far and split it but I always have plenty of cutoffs

A way back video here... back in the day before all the new high speed splitters you have now... I was hoping to see an engine mod to speed mine up as I'm still using htis model. :-)

i split lots of wood and that first few seconds add up, good job ill try it.

Makes more sense to position a spacer against the front stop rather than behind the wedge. A couple different thickness blocks of wood for different length logs could sit passively against the front stop. These front blocks could have side cheeks or even a slide-over keeper, but probably unnecessary. This would avoid the tipping torque created by your rear stop, which will accelerate wear of the guide track. Are the side guides really pinch points ? There appears to be clearance between them and the wedge. Could have delivered your main concept in a couple minutes and additional points in another 2 minutes - 5 minutes max.

I have seen videos of sheared pins and ends of cylinder shafts broke off from doing this !! The proper thing to do is to take up the access space on the other end where your stop block is !!

If you put a clamp-on stop on the cylinder ram you can set your stroke with zero pinch points.

Man, I’m gonna catch my death out here, it’s in the mid-40s here and rain, and I’m got to try this out. If I don’t catch the covid19, then, it will be a bad cold, the pneumonia bug, but someone with better explaining vocabulary than mine. My wife will kill me. Heck, my home, shop are total electric, but, I love to do, to watch people with their tools doing stuff! Great vlog, thanks for sharing.

You’re also saving the time for the wedge to return to the 16 inch position before it starts bleeding again. So basically you can double the time savings

It makes a hell of a lot of difference, I see that cylinder jump up when ever it hits the mode you put in. I'll give you my two cents worth here if you extend the connection between the splitter and the cylinder by welding a strong piece of pipe between the two an gus the pipe I think the cylinder won't jump up saving you some ware and tear on your splitter. My thoughts

At 12:04 that piece could have been turned after the first split two be made into 4 .hope you get what I'm trying to say.and you probably already do this at times I just hadn't caught it yet.Love y'all's chann keep up the hard work.

Nice job!!

Thank you, very good young man.

You should put a bunch of wood in your tractor bucket and bring it closer to you and leave bucket up all most waste high and save your back. Hope stopping the wood splitter that way don't break the bolt on the piston.

All you needs are a few spring loaded hydraulic cylinder collars. Go to your local farm store.!!

I purchased a Countyline 25 ton log splitter after a lot of research and your videos helped me make the call to go with this particular splitter. I have split a couple cords of wood and so far really like the tool with one exception. The exhaust and heat from the engine seems to blow around my legs when it is in the horizontal position and the fumes can get too much at times. Have you had this issue? I've placed a small piece of plywood between the muffler and my legs which stops most of the fumes and rotating the splitter to use whatever breeze there is to move the exhaust away also helps but would like a more permanent solution to modify the exhaust routing. Thanks, Also liked the ice maker you built!

Good Idea 👍🏽

Ok last comment about it I promise at 15:03 same thing you turn the wood after the first split and create four pieces immediately..

what you can do is move down the 2x2 steel pc to the middle of the push ram and that way will have less tension

I’d be swapping that wedge out with that back plate and mounting or better yet a 4 way where the back plate is if it was me !

You want the best mod you can do....weld a 1 inch protrusion on the base and watch how the wood gets torn after multiple splits you should be throwing 4-6 pieces at a time falling apart as they hit the pile

Have you considered putting the spacer at the other end?

Man that modification and makes a big difference. Some people say no it don't but when it's your time it does make a difference. I saw how you was waiting. That was seconds wasted. Trust me I know what you mean. Right now I'm on the road Trucking 🚛 every second of my driving accounts. When you got 750 miles you need to do in 11 hours for a 1500 Mile Road Trip every second count.

Mine is vertical,like it much better,no lifting.

What about a block on the bottom to bring the top of log closer to the start of the stroke.

I thought this was the pivot rod that you were going to showcase. I need to go find that video.

I do this except I put the block of wood on the base plate it works good

I noticed without the steel stopper you run the ram almost all the out but with it you stop it before it gets out to far, that is where you are saving alot of time. plus youu need to lower the steel stopper!

I noticed with this wood, you don't need to run the wedge all the way to the end either. That's saves even mpore. Before, I saw softer wood that would not pop apart. Man this test ran very fast!

Where did you order that cradle/log holder that is on your log splitter. That would be a game changer.

Would it be better to take space on the stop plate end?

Same log splitter. When I retract my splitter it won’t auto neutral. When it returns all the way “open”, mine stop tripping the neutral in the control valve. Have you ever had it stop going into neutral. I would like to use your method, but it’s not working properly. Ever fixed or replaced your control valve?

You just need to do all your wood splitting in fast forward, it gets the job done so much quicker. 😊

Must only advice would be to use two pieces of steel, stacked on top of one another. Because your stop block is so high ( and away from the cylinder) your getting a lot of stress down where the cylinder hooks to the wedge. Great idea though! Adam Maine, USA

I have a simpler solution. Tie some rope onto the furthest catch from the handle. Run it across the catches and tie it to the handle so that when the splitter head comes back, it will pull the rope which will pull the handle forward stopping it.

Could you put ram collars on to shorten the stroke

To save even more time ,I noticed at times you could be splitting some pieces that have been split just by turning in a position where four pieces can come from just a simple turn of the wood and not taking the pieces completely apart.ill put in a time from this video to try to explain my meaning.if you didn't understand from my rambling..I split wood alot and just noticed a few different things that's all..God bless you and Tiffany and your family.

I think using an axe is totally free, more fast and easy way to split this logs. And of course no annoying noise.

N the big chunks you took full strokes with the splitter, mostly, but with the smaller pieces, some you took as little as 2” strokes with the splitter on that cherry-wood. Now that’s some straight-grained wood.

I can see moving your blocking tube as low as possible without touching the ram shaft. That would help the wedge not to pivot as much. Great idea in reducing cycle time.

Andrew, also check out Donn DIY (Europe). See wood processor. He converted a small electric splitter to lift tree limbs, cut wood to length, & split it with multi- blade.

At 11:27 just by turning the already split piece without separating it you could create 3or 4 pieces of firewood instead of two and then splitting those two into four.

The number one thing found in wood from our property, was bullets.

Do you have a video of building your wood shelter?

I have a splitter that has an aluminum sleeve with a nylon bolt that slides on the cylinder shaft. You slide it where you want the ram to stop and tighten the nylon bolt hand tight. The aluminum sleeve hits the valve lever disengaging it. All you’d have to do is add a longer handle so it sticks below the valve to hit the sleeve.

Those splitters are terrible to run from my personal experience. My 60 ton splitter went down this season and I had to borrow my buddies huskee 20t. (Exactly same as yours) Godly slow. And don’t have much power. I found the slide got jammed quite often with bark and dirt The tiny wedge and push plate. I was constantly having to reposition the wood I’m used to a big 15x15 push plate. And a wedge that’s 12” tall. Just put the wood on and shove it thru The trick to fast cycle time is just spend 140$ on a 16gpm pump Instead of the factory 11 gpm pump it has

Look at an Easton made log splitters you have a foot pedal and keep two hands on the wood

I dont think it is, but if that piston rod is threaded in to the splitter head. In time it could rip the threads out. Or in the case of a bolt thats a stress in a way it was not designed for in reverse travel. Could last 30 years, or it could last 30 hours. Time will tell.

The "sending" pressure hose is labeled about 5,220 psi, the "return" pressure hose is labeled about 2,200 psi, so there isn't 25 tons of force on the return stroke. I don't know how much, but not as much.

You like putting your hand near that bottom edge....youll learn

I have seen when people do things like that then eventually what will happen is the ram will either share the PIN for the wedge or it will break the ram off from the wedge bar I would be careful doing that.

Interesting approach.....following 🪵🪓👍👏

Any amount of time you can save adds up and adds up.

What about adding a 2x4 or 2x6 flat under the hydraulic cylinder so it catches the stripper cleats at the bottom so when the wedge comes back it catches them by the weld instead of the top. This would put less pressure on them.

You are going to mess up the bolt holding the wedge on the cylinder, it's not designed to stop like that you can see the pressure being put on the cylinder when it hits the block of steel , go check out Chris from the wood yard , he had the same type of machine , his the bold hole got egg shaped and was breaking bolts every few day , good idea tho

If the end of the ram is threaded at the wedge, there is a chance of pulling the threads out of the wedge and off of the ram. I have seen that happen on units that people have tried the same thing that you are trying. Good luck

What engineers call a "time and motion study". Won't work on a splitter like mine that the wedge and ram are reversed from yours. I suppose I could weld something to the sides of the beam, allowing clearance for my ram to slide past it on the beam, and then put something horizontal across those welded pcs, but for the most part what I did below gets me back to the splitter quick enough I can throw the auto return out fast enough it doesn't retract the full amount anyway. What I did after many years of use was order a custom Cross valve.....now mine detents in forward as well as reverse.....meaning I can put a log in place, hit forward and do something else while it splits....I don't have to stand there holding my hand on the forward lever position. Log splitters will not come with this option, it's considered unsafe (your hand on the lever being the safety), and the guy I ordered my valve from specifically said "NOT for a wood splitter". But as long as you accept the risk (and I consider it minimal personally, but that is my decision to make), it does increase productivity quite a bit. The other thing I did was build a large work table than the one on your machine. This give me a place to set the splits from the previous cycle so while the current cycle is splitting, I can be removing the first splits into a stack....you are doing the same, only on the backward stroke. The next thing you could do to increase efficiency is move your cut rounds closer to the splitter. I use my tractor bucket to push the pile right up behind me so instead of taking a step or two to get a round, I simply turn and there it is. Required pushing the pile forward from time to time, but I consider that time in the seat my 'rest' period, take a sip of water, then get back off and return to splitting.

When you are doing volume every second counts and it adds up!

Adjust your return detent so as not to require as much pressure

I liked your video, and you have a new sub. I'd like to recommend a small change to your disclaimer at the beginning of the vid. I think you might be better served by saying the video is for "entertainment purposes" , rather than educational. Keep the content coming, you're doing a good job...cheers.

So I’m seein this 7 months after you posted, any regrets? My thoughts would be the 4x4 would be less stress on the wedge pin, more give, just my humble opinion

I do not think you have to worry about high pressure on the return stroke hitting the 4x4. Since after kick out, the valve is in neutral. bra.

I love your videos - but watching you split one piece at a time drives me crazy when you talk about efficiency splitting firewood. You can take a whole round 10-12” and split it once, but the sides back together then split it 2-3 more times by keeping it all together and in a few quick passes you’ll have 6-8 pieces. You can at least put back together the small chunks and double split them. That’ll save you more time than the 2 seconds on the splitter itself. Just trying to help. Keep it up and keep Em rolling....