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Do-it-yourself hydro wood splitters. Wood splitter: selection and manufacture of home-made, based on the need for firewood and the mode of operation. A complete description of the process of making a cleaver with your own hands

Chopping wood for a physically developed person is more pleasant than a burden. And, of course, useful: this activity harmoniously loads all muscle groups. But - which is too much, it is not healthy. If chopping firewood is exhausting and / or does not leave strength for other household chores, then a wood splitter is, of course, needed on the farm. However, in this case, it is hardly advisable to choose a prototype according to the technical features of well-known industrial products, if only because there are dozens of varieties of their designs and the use of each requires security measures that are far from always feasible at home. Therefore, in order to make a wood splitter with your own hands, you must first determine for what purpose it is needed:

For regular training a large number wood for heating big house in a harsh climate;
The same, but the house is small and/or located in a place with mild winters, i.e. little firewood is required;
For the occasional preparation of firewood as an additional fuel (for example, for coal) or for heating utility rooms;
For episodic preparation of firewood for decorative heating appliances (for example, a fireplace) or for heating winter cottage day off.

Hit or push?

Churak splitting is considered a dangerous production process: a blank that has come out of the machine can flatten a person, and a chip that has flown off can pierce him through and through. It is impossible to completely exclude emergency situations when splitting wild wood - in this respect, the material is far from completely predictable. As a consequence, some sort of technical classification of raw wood splitting devices must be kept in mind in order to make a wood splitter reasonably safe in the home. Namely - it is shock action or pressure:

Mechanized impact splitters with an intermediate energy storage are highly efficient, economical, almost completely relieve the operator of muscular effort, but they are structurally complex and most dangerous in operation. Cope with any fools, incl. with butt ridges of elm and larch.
The same, manual ones without a mechanical energy accumulator are non-volatile, cheap, structurally simple. They can be used in the pressure mode and thus split the wavy and knotty blocks up to 25-30 cm long. Less muscular effort is required, and the safety of work is higher than with manual splitting with a cleaver on a chopping block. Inefficient; suitable for occasional and occasional firewood preparation.
Push splitters driven by an internal combustion engine or an electric motor are quite expensive (see below). Also almost completely eliminate the muscular effort of the operator. The performance is sufficient for a regular supply of firewood for a house up to 200-300 sq. m in winter with frosts down to -40 and below. Security is achievable maximum possible for this class of devices. Disadvantages - the complexity of the design and rather large energy consumption in the form of electricity or liquid fuel.

Note: churak (forestry term) - unprocessed timber without butt and crown or part of it. The use of colloquial synonyms chump, chump and chock is certainly legitimate, if there are no discrepancies in context.

Why don't hit

In mechanical impact wood splitters, a relatively weak engine spins the flywheel through a fluid coupling. Thus, the engine runs almost all the time at optimal speed and consumes a minimum of fuel / electricity. Then, with the flywheel, a crank with a pusher is engaged (hydraulic or frictional), feeding the churak to the splitting knife. The impact force is colossal: a flywheel with a diameter of 60-80 cm can be “pumped” with more energy than it is in a 100 kg bomb. Churak is not actually pricked, but cut with a knife, despite any defects in the wood.

Abroad, where energy resources and high-quality straight-grained wood are expensive, household mechanical impact wood splitters are produced and in demand, see the photo at the beginning. There is no import of such devices in the Russian Federation, and industrial ones are finalizing their resource and analogues to replace them are not being developed. The reason is that they are extremely dangerous. Modern composite superflywheels do not break, but it is impossible to stop the push from the flywheel and thereby prevent the development of an emergency situation into a threatening and dangerous one. Therefore, mechanical impact wood splitters with energy storage are not considered further in the article.

It doesn't get easier

The simplest non-volatile manual wood splitter is nothing more than a splitting ax. If you use it little by little, but regularly, so that skill and eye are developed, then it is even safer than mechanical and mechanized and more productive than the first. Provided that the configuration of the cleaver and ax are optimal and coordinated.

The splitting ax has undergone a long evolution and continues to improve. On the right in fig. given a drawing of the cleaver Strela, adapted for manual splitting of knotty and serpentine ridges; on the left - an ax handle for it (the cleaver is attached to it with a wedge). With an ax handle, whatever you want, whether you like to swing an ax or not, but the cleaver itself will still be very useful to us, see below.

But what is not necessary

For several years now, a find by a Finnish farmer has been circulating on the Internet: to chop blocks for firewood in a tire, see fig. on right. It is not clear what is good about the fact that the split chock will not fall apart, but will remain stuck in the shell. But something else is clear. If, during the usual chopping of firewood, you smear it with a cleaver instead of a churak on the block, the ax handle will painfully give into your hands. You can even not stay on your feet and hurt yourself. But if you miss with the same cleaver on the rubber, you can get on the forehead with a butt. So don't. Tire-wood splitter is a curiosity, but not useful at all.

When you need a lot of firewood

For mass preparation of firewood, pressure-type wood splitters with a hydraulic or mechanical rack and pinion pusher and a fixed working body - a cleaver are used. The pusher pushes the block onto the cleaver, which splits it into 2, 4 or 8 segments suitable for loading into the furnace furnace. In both cases, the rate of supply of the churak to the cleaver is determined most of all by the properties of the wood and is 4-5 cm/s. So that on the reverse stroke of the pusher, the engine does not “break through” and does not consume too much fuel / electricity, the reverse speed is taken at 7-7.5 cm / s. In this case, up to half a ton or more firewood can be prepared in the morning.

Note: do not prick raw freshly chopped churaki into segments. For a year they should dry from the ends in a separate section of the woodpile or woodshed. If you chop chocks still oozing juice on firewood, then the tree will lose up to 15-20% of its calorific value in the process of further drying. And you - acc. money for fuel.

More about security

A home-made wood splitter can be made similarly to factory ones with a horizontal or vertical supply of a churak, see fig.:

wood splitters vertical type more compact and allow the use of a more durable U-shaped bed. However, the probability of ejection from a vertical log splitter of a slanting, knotty, serpentine, crooked and/or with non-parallel saw cuts or its fragments is much greater than from a horizontal one; side paws here, as they say, for peace of mind. In addition, the operator of a horizontal wood splitter is normally outside the zone of expansion of parts of the churak in an emergency situation; it can only be hit by a ricochet. In a vertical wood splitter, the debris spread zone is almost circular and people around it are directly affected by them with full force. Therefore, it is better to make a wood splitter horizontal with your own hands from random improvised materials, and vertical only when there is very little suitable space. A typical case is a stationary wood splitter with an electric drive. It is impossible to leave it in the open air for safety reasons, and a vertical one can be placed in a woodshed.

Hydraulic

Hydraulic wood splitter in this segment is the most economical and productive. This is determined by the external characteristic of the hydraulic drive, see below, and by the fact that the hydraulic pump drive motor is operating in a stable mode. device diagram, appearance and a diagram of a hydraulic drive with one pump are shown in the figure: the drive motor rotates the hydraulic pump, which pumps oil from the tank into the system, and the distributor supplies it to the cavities of the forward and reverse hydraulic cylinders.

A significant drawback is that the owner-operator needs to have skills in working with hydraulic systems and their maintenance. Less significant is the need for periodic oil changes, which costs money. Another disadvantage (in this case small) - the power of the motor is taken both on the forward and on the reverse, therefore, in the presence of components (see below), craftsmen sometimes make hydraulic systems with 2 pumps for forward and, low-power, for reverse, see the video:

Video: homemade hydraulic wood splitter

Note: it is quite possible to make a vertical-type hydraulic wood splitter with your own hands, see the video below:

Video: vertical type hydraulic wood splitter

The safety of the hydraulic splitter is average: there is no return spring, and the switching time to reverse is quite long - about 0.5 s for the best branded designs. During this period, the "harmful" churak may have time to burst and scatter, even if the operator is experienced and his reaction is instantaneous.

Make or buy?

The first thing to decide if you have already liked the hydraulic wood splitter - is it not better to buy a ready-made one with a guarantee? A good diesel fuel unit for double splitting straight-layer blocks up to 20 cm in diameter can be found for up to 20 thousand rubles. A device for splitting chocks up to 30 cm with separate knots and streaks into 4 segments (which is optimal for a furnace) with adjustable height of the cleaver and a dump truck for logs (see the figure on the right) will cost up to 25-27 thousand rubles. For a high-performance wood splitter for splitting into 8 segments of knotty and twisted ridges up to 60 cm in diameter, you will have to pay more than 100-120 thousand rubles.

At the same time, a set of scattered nodes for a home-made hydraulic splitter will cost at least 60 thousand rubles. Even if you have parts of the old hydraulic system lying around in your shed, this is not an option. Firstly, worn-out units of hydraulic systems are of little repairability. Secondly, the hydraulic cylinders of special equipment are designed for a higher feed rate than the optimal one for chopping firewood. Accordingly, the pump will have to be supplied with an excessively productive one, and the motor to drive it is obviously more powerful. As a result, either fuel consumption will be significantly higher, or the emphasis is weaker than that of the factory prototype.

If you still do

Let's say your trash contains or you can buy cheap hydraulic system components from a mini-excavator or other mini-special equipment (these are just right). In this case, the hydraulic cylinder is selected (or the productivity of the wood splitter is determined) according to the splitting force:

Churak 20 cm in half - 2 tf straight-layer; 2.7 tf is a bit knotty/gray.
Churak 25 cm - 2.3 / 2.7 tf, respectively.
The same, for 4 segments - 3/4 tf.
Churak 30 cm for 4 segments - 3.5 / 4.5 tf.
The same for 8 segments - 4 / 5.5 tf.
Churak 40 cm for 8 segments - 5.5 tf / 7 tf.

Further, according to the feed rate of 4 cm / s and the volume of the hydraulic cylinder, the productivity of the hydraulic pump is determined and, according to the specification for the hydraulic cylinder, the appropriate pressure is selected. After that, a distributor is selected. Then the efficiency of the hydraulic system is set to 75% and the drive motor is selected with the required power with a margin of 5-10%. Additionally, according to the external characteristic of the drive motor, its most economical revolutions are looked at and whether they correspond to those of the pump. Hoses, valves and other fittings are selected according to the working pressure with a margin (for amateur design) of at least 50%.

Cleaver

The most important part of a homemade wood splitter is its cleaver. Hobbyists make it from old truck springs. In terms of the quality of the material, this does not get better, but the spring leaves are slightly curved, which reduces productivity and increases the risk of injury to the product. Best Option- the upper 1.5-2.5 cm of the head of the old rails. Prisoners for their knives also highly value railway wheel bandages and wagon buffers (they also went through a long cold hardening), but they are less suitable for a wood splitter in configuration.

The mutual arrangement of the cleaver's knives is also very important. The protruding horizontal knife (on the left in the figure) immediately makes the wood splitter traumatic and, most likely, a thin straight-layer pine block will also get stuck in it. The chock should be met by a vertical knife sharpened on a straight (symmetrical) wedge, pos. 1 in the center. The horizontal knife is 15-20 mm posterior and is sharpened on the upper oblique wedge, pos. 2. It is very useful to equip the vertical knife with a piercer from below (pos. 3 on the left) with a height of approx. 30 mm protruding approx. 20 mm forward. Such a cleaver will better split the clumsy blocks if they are placed on the lodgment with the smoothest side down. The sharpening angles are:

Vertical blade for soft and/or straight grained wood (except birch) - 18 degrees (3 blade thicknesses).
The same, for solid small-layer wood and birch - 15 degrees (3.7 knife thicknesses).
Horizontal knives - 15 degrees.
Pricker - 22-25 degrees (2.5-2.7 knife thickness).

Rack

A rack wood splitter is cheaper than a hydraulic one: a branded one can be bought for 8-17 thousand rubles. Its device is shown in Fig. - the pusher on the gear rack is fed by a small gear-tribe (or tribe). The gear ratio from the motor to the tribe shaft is calculated using a feed rate of 4 cm/s.

It is also easier to make a rack-and-pinion wood splitter with your own hands - the parts of a rack-and-pinion jack are quite suitable for the base (you can use old ones). In operation, the rack wood splitter is also easier: there is no maintenance of the hydraulic system. Its safety is the greatest: it is enough to release the pressure roller lever (or throw it reflexively out of fright), as the return spring will raise the rail above the tribe and throw it back.

The main disadvantage of a rack-and-pinion wood splitter is the external characteristic that is bad in this case (pos. P in the figure below): when the feed rate approaches zero, the stop increases sharply, and then also drops sharply to zero. That is, if there is a defect in the block in which the cleaver gets stuck, the drive will jerk violently (which can cause it to break), and then the effort of the tribe will be spent on pushing the rail away from itself, and not pushing it forward. It looks like this: the feed lever (if not released) beats painfully in the hand, the mechanism crackles, trembles, and may break. The initial section of the external characteristics of the hydraulic drive is soft: the greatest stop is created at zero feed rate. If the hydrowood splitter comes across a very stubborn blockhead, he will just as stubbornly shove and shove him onto the cleaver; maybe split.

The first consequence of the rigidity of the initial branch of the external characteristics of the rack-and-pinion wood splitter is that a large motor power is needed. Shift the values of the splitting force for the hydraulic drive in the list one position higher, and discard the 40 cm block and 2 / 2.7 tf for the 20 cm one - get the initial data for calculating the rack drive; however, its efficiency can be taken as 0.85. The second - an internal defect of the block, capable of slowing down the cleaver, may also be the bark that has fallen into a split. As a result, the rack drive is more suitable for low-performance manual mechanical wood splitters (see below) with an adaptive external characteristic of the "motor" - our muscles.

Note: The poor external performance of the rack and pinion can be improved to some extent by a chain drive from the motor to the drive shaft, see below.

When you need less wood

For splitting logs for firewood in milder climates or for heating a small building, a screw wood splitter is most suitable. Its performance is low; using it requires a certain skill and fairly strong hands. But, contrary to popular belief, a screw wood splitter is not very sensitive to block defects, because. its working body splits the tree, screwing into it and sawing. As a result, the screw wood splitter is also economical: with a 2.5-3 kW motor, it can chop blocks up to 40 cm in diameter and 60 cm in height; with motor from washing machine- more or less straight-layered with a diameter of up to 20-25 cm.

Note: screw wood splitters with motors from washing machines are made by many, especially since the rotational speed is suitable, see below. But in this case, it is not necessary to put the cleaver directly on the motor shaft - from lateral forces, the motor housing not designed for them will soon lead or, if it is silumin, it will crack. The cleaver must be planted on the drive shaft in the supports, and it must be connected to the engine shaft with a damping gear or clutch, for example. from a piece of durite hose.

The device of a screw wood splitter is shown on the left in fig. The working body is a conical screw with a shaped persistent left-hand thread; rotation speed 150-1500 rpm (optimally 250-400). Why is the thread left? Mainly because most people are right-handed and have a stronger right hand; if you are left-handed, then it will be much more convenient and safer for you to work with a right-handed screw splitter.

Churak is fed vertically to the screw cleaver, otherwise the situation shown at the bottom right in fig. Churak must be held by his hands (top right), so the screw splitter is a potentially dangerous device. The right hand, which is stronger and more dexterous (left-handed for left-handed people), keeps the rest of the churak from being pulled under by the cleaver (the wedge stop is also important in this respect, see below), which inevitably causes irreparable damage to the mechanism and almost always injury to the operator. Therefore, you need to chip off the logs from that part of the block of wood that is under the left hand (right for left-handers), and make sure that there is not too little left under the right (left). If the cleaver stumbles upon a viscous place (knot, twist) in the mass of wood, he can, as it were, wrap the churak around himself from above and bend down; the wedge stop under the cleaver prevents this situation.

Design features

The safety, performance and user-friendliness of a screw wood splitter with the same motor are highly dependent on the rational design and its correct execution of structural components such as the wedge stop, the drive mechanism, the drive shaft and its support. The efficiency of a screw wood splitter is more influenced by the configuration of the cleaver.

Emphasis

The wedge stop is a critical element of the whole structure. Its absence or improper implementation not only makes the wood splitter dangerous, but also reduces its performance, reliability and capabilities: a log splitter with the wrong stop takes smaller ones, slower, and wears out faster and breaks more often.

Leaving a cleaver hanging high without a bottom stop, and even with a drive shaft held only in bearings (on the left in the figure) is a gross mistake. There are more than enough opportunities to pull a piece of wood under you and tear yourself out of weak supports along with a bent shaft here at the cleaver, and it is difficult to split the block, biting into it high above the lower saw cut. But a simple steel plate instead of a stop (in the center) is no better: with those lateral forces that occur when splitting, it doesn’t matter here, 4 mm steel or cardboard.

The correct wedge stop of a screw wood splitter is a massive all-metal, securely attached to a solid frame, on the right. The length of the stop is such that the nose of the cleaver is free for 1/3-1/2 of the length of the threaded part. The width of the stop along its entire length is equal to the diameter of the cleaver in this section minus 3-4 thread heights, see below. The gap between the stop and the shank of the cleaver is not more than 1.2-2 mm; it is better if you can make a gap of 0.5-0.7 mm; let the cleaver rub against the stop a little in the work, it's okay, but it will last a long time and reliably. stop height approx. 2/3 of the diameter of the splitting shank; for 75 mm within 50-60 mm.

The essence of the action of such an emphasis is that the sticking and pulling up of the block at the beginning of the working stroke is easily parried by hand. When the cleaver is sufficiently screwed into the tree, you can no longer hold the tacked churak with your hand. But in this case, the pulled-up part will hit the bottom of the sidewall of the stop; maybe it will split off and fly off. The grip on the part of the churak under the right hand will weaken and will not turn the cleaver up, and the grip on the left side will press it to the stop. If the drive and the drive shaft cage are made correctly, the mechanism will stop and the situation will not develop to a menacing one.

Drive unit

The external characteristic of a screw wood splitter has an unpleasant feature similar to that of a rack and pinion one - zero thread travel at zero rotation. Only here it is not the rake that is repelled by the tribe, but the cleaver pulls the block under him. At the same time, if the cleaver stumbles upon a viscous obstacle in a tree, in most cases it is enough for him to break through at first, then he will go to cut a knot or a streak, albeit more slowly. In this case, the inertia of the drive can help: for a moment, the wood splitter, as it were, turns into a mechanical shock.

Inertia for rotation is provided by a belt drive with a fairly massive driven pulley, on the left in the figure, but without additional safety elements (see below), this solution is doubtful: if the “plug” is not torn off, and the flywheel pulley is heavy, then the whole mechanism may break and a dangerous situation will arise. The chain drive is much better in this respect, on the right in fig. The chain itself is heavy, and due to the play in the joints of its links, one strong, fairly long jerk breaks into a series of sharp, frequent ones, and the cleaver overcomes the “plug” more easily. Compare: what is the best way to drive a nail into the wall without bending it - to hit once backhand or with frequent small blows?

Shaft support

The inertia of the chain is still small, and if you have to chop clumsy chocks, it is still advisable to equip the wood splitter with a mechanical energy storage device in the form of a massive driven belt drive pulley. The safety of the device is then ensured by the introduction of a known weak link into the supporting structure of the shaft.

An example of such a solution is given in Fig. on right. The weak link here is a pair of cotter pins - a cotter pin-nut (pos. 1 and 2). Additionally, the friction clutch of the pulley 5 through a thick washer 3. The drive shaft 10 of a simple configuration, and ordinary ball bearings 4 (better yet self-aligning) are fixed with spacer cups 6 and 8 between the bearing journals and the rear axle and the pulley. The covers 7 are pressed into the housing 8, and the entire support assembly is attached to the frame in any convenient way.

The cotter pin is not fully cottered; 1-2 cotter pins are enough (selected by experience). The nut is right hand. If the jerk of the flywheel did not help the cleaver overcome the blockage, the cotter pin is cut off, the nut is unscrewed and the cleaver stops. The operator expresses himself as best he can, but nothing terrible has happened, and the breakdown is easily fixed.

screw-carrot

This is the name of the working body of a screw wood splitter for its external resemblance to a root crop. A wood splitter also saws a tree at work, so chopping wood with a screw produces quite a lot of sawdust, see fig. per season up to 10-12% of the fuel into dust is undesirable.In this case, changing the thread profile of the screw cleaver can help.

Drawings of 2 options for a cleaver-carrot for a screw wood splitter are given on the next. rice; the mounting dimensions are the same, for the drive shaft shank in the drawing above.

Left conventional design with a sawtooth profile thread: it gives quite a lot of sawdust and small chips, it does not overcome wood defects, it often gets stuck in dense thin-layered wood. On the right - a screw cleaver with a specially profiled thread, sawing wood a little, but well overcoming its defects. In addition, a special thread profiling made it possible to increase the cone apex angle from 19.85 to 26 degrees. The working body has become shorter; therefore, the same block will split faster. In addition, the special thread clings to the tree more weakly and it is safer to work with such a splitter. To cut a special thread, you will need a shaped cutter, but one and the other screw cleaver can be machined with your own hands on a desktop lathe, see video:

Video: making a "carrot" for a wood splitter in the garage

When you need a little firewood

In the southern regions and / or for heating utility rooms, little wood is required. It would be easy for a normal peasant to chop them by hand, and then let the missus just try not to serve the stopar for dinner. But - the problem: the right swing. Without it, swinging a cleaver is exhausting and dangerous, and developing a swing for chopping firewood is no easier than skills in owning cold weapons; see, for example, the fighter chopping wood in Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

A manual mechanical wood splitter, again, contrary to popular belief, saves little or no muscle effort when chopping firewood, but allows it to be done quite safely without owning the swing of a woodcutter. Its additional advantage is that it can work both in gravitational-inertial and in pressure mode. The latter allows you to slowly, slowly, but manage with the most stubborn blockheads of almost any diameter. The main thing is that their saw cuts are parallel and approximately perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the block, otherwise it will be much more dangerous to work.

The device of a manual mechanical wood splitter is shown in fig. The lever arm is taken from 1.5 m; the bigger, the better. Weight - depending on its strength, 10-50 kg. If the splitter is fixed motionless, this wood splitter works only as an inertial one: the lever is lifted by the handle and lowered with force onto the block. If the cleaver can be moved along the lever, then the wood splitter can also be pressure; the lever arm is lengthened by a pipe put on the handle.

There are a number of significant nuances in the design of a lever manual wood splitter (shown by arrows on the right in the figure). The first is a cleaver. A simple wedge cut from a rail is ineffective and gets stuck in the tree. Such a wood splitter works much better with the Strela cleaver (see above), especially since it can be inexpensively bought ready-made. The second is the spring, it is the most traumatic element in this design. The spring force is needed so that the free lever with the cleaver in the extreme far position is held approximately horizontally. It is necessary to fix the spring on the heels so that it does not come off them with the full swing of the lever; it is better to pass a swinging guide into the spring.

And the last thing - if the lever wood splitter is not rigidly attached to the supporting area, then its front legs must be made no less than the maximum lever arm + twice the diameter of the largest block. How to make a lever splitter with improved kinematics yourself, see next. video:

Video: firewood cleaver on a spring

Note: you should not make a mechanical wood splitter with a cleaver sliding along a support, see fig. right above. On the butt of the cleaver, you need to hit with a sledgehammer, and still it jams every now and then.

When firewood helps

Butt parts of woods and, especially, stumps from uprooting, as you know, give a lot of heat when burned. You can buy them for firewood inexpensively, and in some places in Russia just for self-delivery: they are of little use for cellulose, fiber for MDF and technical chips for OSB, chipboard and fiberboard. But it is not so easy to split such a clumsy block of wood inside and out for firewood. However, for harvesting at home a small amount of additional wood fuel to the main one, this task, which woodworking specialists are still struggling with, is quite solvable.

How? It is necessary to make a conical wood splitter: it does not forcibly split the block, but forces it to crack as it is more convenient for him. If the workpiece is not more than 60 cm in diameter, then the resulting logs will fit in the furnace furnace. Their transverse dimensions are not optimal for the most economical combustion, but the fuel is also waste.

The device of the conical wood splitter is shown in fig. on right. The diameter of the base of the cone is 80-150 mm, depending on the largest size of available blocks. The apex angle is 15 degrees for fine-grained and 18 degrees for straight-grained wood. Note. at 1/3 of the height of the cone from the base, it is replaced by an opening angle of 22 and 25-30 degrees, respectively. The jack is better to use rack. The fact is that the car jack is an emergency device that is not designed for frequent regular use. There is nowhere to simplify the rack jack, but the hydraulic one in the wood splitter will leak pretty soon. For comparison: a stamping hydraulic press that develops the same force is a solid structure weighing more than a ton.

One more nuance: it is better to make the adjusting rod of the cone cleaver a working one. To do this, it is made of a steel bar St45 or a stronger diameter of 24 mm. The thread is cut trapezoidal (you can use parts from an unusable main gas or water valve). The steering wheel is replaced by a lever gate. Then, together with an assistant, it will be possible to split the thickest, most vile of the vile churak. Frame - channels from 150 mm and pipes from 60x4.

When firewood is sometimes needed

That is, for the firebox decorative fireplace or temporary heating with improvised waste fuel; e.g. in the country. Abroad, specially for fuel for fireplaces, churaks of low-value soft wood are sold: poplar, aspen, willow, etc. And to them - wood splitters like the one in pos. 1 fig. below. The core of marketing promotion is that combs on a knife immediately give a splinter for kindling. But in general, the idea is strange: a churak, which can be split with a gentle blow of an ax, is put in a holder and hit hard several times with a sledgehammer. True, chopping firewood, on the contrary, is safer. Maybe it's relevant there. There is a saying in America (translated into Russian): "If the average American, in a hurry to get to work, does not slip and twist his neck in the shower, he will cut his throat while shaving."

Much more convenient and no more dangerous than a reciprocating wood splitter (pos. 2). He acts according to a well-known saying: a loafer was asked why he was chopping wood while sitting? “And I tried lying down - it’s uncomfortable.” The reciprocating wood splitter can be fixed both to the wall and to the floor. Cutting arm arm from 0.8 m for soft straight grained wood; for birch and pine from 1.2 m.

Split oak, etc. with a reciprocating wood splitter. or wood fruit trees difficult and not always possible. Therefore, in a country house visited in the cold season, a lever-operated wood splitter (pos. 3) will not interfere: it copes with blocks of any tree with a diameter of up to 25-30 cm; however, the performance is low. In this wood splitter, the sliding stop is pulled by the earring (shown by the arrow) when the pedal is pressed. The swinging lodgement is raised until the churak fits in it, then they are released and pressed on the pedal until the piece of wood splits.

Wood splitter hydraulic or wood splitter - a means of automating the preparation of firewood. Most often, a hydraulic splitter is called a "mechanical splitter". Moreover, many models were created by the hands of home craftsmen and qualified engineers.

Application and working principle

Mechanical and hydraulic are used in private households, or in small woodworking workshops. In any place, the machines perform mechanical cross-cutting, as well as splitting wood of various species.

A hand tool for splitting and bucking breaks very often, and it requires skill, effort and time. Machines and installations of a different, non-hydraulic type very often break down due to uneven loading.

Wood splitters factory

The construction equipment market offers several dozen models of hydraulic wood splitters in the price range from 10 to 200 thousand rubles. It is important to know that the price depends on:

weight;
power;
efforts;
engine type;
maximum for log length;
voltage (models with electric motor).

Power supplies for the engine are divided into 2 categories.

Electric motor. This energy converter acts on the pump. Moreover, the electric motor is used in the most primitive, household machines. It is very easy to maintain such models, and you can use them in the same garage or shed, given environmental safety. Assembled by hand or in the workshop, models with electric motors are the easiest to prepare for work, it is even allowed to be carried by hand. The main disadvantage is that they do not function without power supply.

Gas engine. It is installed on powerful models that can be transported to the place of firewood harvesting. A gasoline fired wood splitter is usually heavier, more expensive and more powerful. But it is also more functional due to mobility and greater power.

Homemade wood splitters

Most often used for domestic needs in preparation for the heating season. Moreover, the level of engineering thought of a rural worker can inspire the creation of household and professional equipment.

In this case, everything is clear with the household one, but the professional machine can work in line. Simply put, still have the function of feeding, trimming, unloading.

Anyone wishing to independently create similar installations to facilitate labor can familiarize themselves with drawings, diagrams and video instructions online. An example of a good self-assembled hydraulic wood splitter is this video:

What is included in the design of a hydraulic wood splitter?

A do-it-yourself hydraulic wood splitter must consist of certain parts. It is better to make parts according to their importance, and start from:

beds;
cylinder stop;
wedge-shaped blade (or blades);
pump;
liquid pressure distributor;
oil tank;
engine or motor.

How are they hand-picked?

The easiest way to assemble a working log splitter starts with welding a frame that needs to be fixed to the platform. The lower part of the platform is equipped with a car jack (at least).

At the top of the frame, a connector must be calculated. It is needed for splitting chocks of different diameters and different lengths.

The wood splitter in the photo was created by hand, but it is already designed for an industrial volume. It has a more complex design, which necessarily consists of a hydraulic jack on a stationary (non-portable) type bed. The creation of this installation requires a locksmith skill, safety calculation. Let, at first glance, the unit is not complicated, but the work of the operator with a negligent attitude will sooner or later lead to an accident.

Due to saving time and resource, wedge-shaped knives with 4-8 blades were created. The fact is that a standard knife divides a chock into 2 parts, and this model processes any log in one go.

A do-it-yourself hydraulic wood splitter at increased power (driven by a tractor, gasoline engine) should be equipped with a wedge-shaped knife with 4 blades, at least.

Hydraulic industrial wood splitter with log lifting - video

Hello everyone, in this instruction we will look at how to make a simple and powerful hydraulic wood splitter with our own hands. As the main working unit, the author used, which is operated manually, by human power. Due to the design features, the wood splitter works rather slowly, but there is still utility from such a homemade product. With the help of such a wood splitter, you can easily split even the most problematic chocks that have many knots.

Also, if you wish, you can upgrade the structure by installing an electric motor on it, which will drive the hydraulic jack. As a result, the system will be able to work at the touch of a button. So, let's consider in more detail how you can make such a wood splitter.

Materials and tools used

List of materials:
- ;
- thick sheet steel;
- I-beam or channel (for the frame);
- two springs;
- bolts with nuts;
- paint and primer.

List of tools:
- Bulgarian;
- welding machine;
- drill;
- roulette.

Wood splitter manufacturing process:

Step one. Assembling the frame
The wood splitter frame is its most important organ, huge loads fall here. For the manufacture of the frame, we need a channel or an I-beam. To begin with, we make all the necessary measurements and cut the blanks. We will need more pieces of sheet steel to make mounting plates and strengthen the entire structure.

The greatest attention should be paid to the racks, here you will have to maximum load. For their manufacture, the author scalded the I-beam with sheet steel, resulting in rectangular parts. When all the components are ready, the entire structure will need to be properly welded. We clean the metal well so that the product can then be painted.

Step two. We make a wedge
We need a wedge in order to split the chocks. This part of the structure must also be strong. The author decided to weld a wedge from thick sheet steel. We cut off two pieces and weld them in the form of a triangle on the top rack. The wedge can be sharpened to improve the performance of the homemade product.

Step three. Jack installation
The jack will rest against the lower rack. To begin with, it needs to be slightly raised above the frame, for this the author welds several steel plates to it. It is also important for us to securely fasten the jack so that it does not jump out during the process of splitting firewood. For such purposes, we need four bolts with nuts and sheet steel. From these components, the author made two clamps, with which the jack is securely attracted to the frame with nuts.

Step four. Production of a return device
After the chock is split, we need to return the jack to its original position. For such purposes, it will need to be equipped with springs. Among other things, we need to make a stubborn platform on which we will install the chock. The support platform is welded from sheet steel, ears are welded to it for attaching springs. And so that the support platform is securely fixed on the jack, we weld a piece to it in the center round pipe and install the nose of the jack into it.

On the frame, we also need to weld two ears for attaching the springs. We install hooks in the holes and install the springs. After tensioning the springs, the author cuts off the excess ends of the threaded rods.

After that, the design can be tested in practice.

Step five. Painting
So that the metal does not rust, and the wood splitter looks beautiful, we need to paint it. For high-quality painting, we cover the metal with a layer of primer, and then paint, the author chose black paint. When the paint is dry, the wood splitter can be assembled.

A do-it-yourself hydraulic wood splitter using the drawings, photos and instructions below will help the owner cut sawn firewood with minimal effort. Logs have an area several times larger than ordinary logs sawn from logs. They can fill the firebox (a large block of wood cannot be pushed into the narrow space of the furnace).

Chopped in summer period firewood is stored in a woodpile until the start of the heating season. Being in it, the logs dry out much faster: the wood is in contact with the surrounding air much better than can be observed with tree trunk trimmings.

A brief overview of the designs of mechanical wood splitters

The trading network sells several types of mechanical devices for chopping firewood. The main nodes are:

The bed, fixed and movable elements are fixed on it. Along the way, a bed is placed on the frame, sawn blanks are placed in it.
The fixed ax is a sharpened plate set perpendicular to the surface of the log.
The moving part is the actuator. Usually a pusher is equipped, with its help a piece of log is moved to the knife blade.
A drive mechanism and an energy device that creates force to perform the main work.

It is customary to classify devices according to the principle of operation:

Rotating cones - these mechanisms are screwed into the wood. The cone, when penetrating into the body of a block of wood, pushes the fibers apart. The structure is destroyed and the workpiece breaks up into several logs.
Dynamic action - the drive device is made on the basis of a flywheel. In this design, the moment of inertia accumulated during the rotation of a massive body is transferred to the pusher at the right moment. He pushes the fragment to the cutting edge.
Rack type - the transformation of rotation into translational motion occurs in rack and pinion mechanism. The pusher makes a reciprocating movement.
The hydraulic drive allows you to get a significant force on the actuator from a small engine.
Lever action mechanism allows you to develop high effort due to different lengths of levers. By pressing on a long lever, a higher force is obtained on a short one than was originally applied.

According to the location of the split log trimming on the wood splitting machine:

The vertical orientation allows the compact design to be installed in a limited space. Often, small hydro wood splitters are mounted next to fireplaces or stoves, where they are burned.
The horizontal arrangement of the bed allows you to put large logs in size. Even blanks of complex shape will be split into separate elements.

Pumps for driving machines for chopping wood from tractor hydraulics are used for mobile installations. They are used at a distance where there is no way to connect to the mains.

Devices used at sites with power supply are created on the basis of electric motors.

Development of a layout scheme for a wood splitter

Homemade hydraulic wood splitter is performed according to a certain scheme. It necessarily contains the main elements: 1 - a knife with a sharp blade; 2 - pusher; 3 - hydraulic cylinder rod; 4 - tank; 5 - pump; 6 - distributor; 7 - hydraulic cylinder; 8 - bed.

From the tank 4, the working fluid (oil) enters the pump 5. The hydraulic distributor 6 directs the flows into different cavities of the hydraulic cylinder 7. When fluid is supplied from the outside, the cylinder rod 3 moves the pusher 2 towards the blade 1.

If on the bed 8 at this time there is a fragment that needs to be split, then it will move to the blade of the knife 1 and split.

In order to independently start manufacturing an installation for mechanical chopping of firewood, it is necessary to arrange the main elements on the bed.

The frame itself must be made from a rolled profile (I-beams or channels). Since the effort will develop quite significant, the profile elements of numbers from 14 to 20 are selected (the number is the size in height, expressed in centimeters).

The bed is installed horizontally on the chassis. Such a decision is justified by the fact that in the future the wood splitter can be moved over short distances in the yards. During rainfall, the unit can be rolled under the roof.

For convenient placement of logs, a bed is mounted on the bed. It is made from sheet metal. A profile is set so that the workpiece is self-centering.

Chopped logs go beyond the knife. At the exit, stands are mounted. It is convenient to take firewood from them and transfer them to the woodpile.

It is possible to manufacture a machine with a semi-automatic mode of operation. The operator only feeds the blanks and removes the split fragments. But such designs are expedient in organizing the uninterrupted supply of blanks for felling. Auxiliary mechanisms are needed to transport sawn logs and orient them before serving.

An automated wood splitter is justified when organizing the removal of chopped firewood to a storage place.

It is much easier to assemble a structure in which the operator controls each movement of the pusher. The production cycle is carried out in the following order:

A batch of blanks is brought to the wood splitter.
Each log of a certain size is placed on a bed.
The distributor switches to supply oil to the external cavity of the hydraulic cylinder.
Pressurized pusher to press on the workpiece. She splits, falling on the knife.
The split logs are moved to stands outside the knife.
The operator switches the hydraulic distributor for the reverse movement of the pusher.
While the actuator returns to its original position, the operator takes the wood out of the installation.
Further, the cycle of splitting logs is repeated until the complete processing of the delivered batch of blanks.

The choice of equipment for the independent manufacture of a hydraulic wood splitter

The selection of equipment is possible only after assessing the strength characteristics of the split wood bars. It is also necessary to select a hydraulic pump according to its capacity and fluid pressure in the hydraulic system.

in the Moscow state university Forests in the early nineties conducted research studies to substantiate the parameters of cleavers for mechanical devices for splitting firewood. The table shows the results of experiments for different tree species.

The force of splitting wood when the cleaver moves at a speed of 2.4 m / s (4 cm / s)

*Type of wood*	*Average force on the cleaver, kN*
	*Log diameter, mm*
	*200*	*300*	*400*
	*Apex angle 15°*
Oak	17	27	44
Birch	11	24	41
Pine	5	13	21
Spruce	8	15	23
Elm	20	32	55
Ash	11	21	36
Aspen	7	14	22
Linden	2	3	5
Norway maple	11	22	39
Maple	13	24	42
	*Apex angle 20°*
Oak	24	33	51
Birch	16	29	48
Pine	8	15	24
Spruce	11	18	26
Elm	28	39	65
Ash	15	25	42
Aspen	10	17	26
Linden	3	4	6
Norway maple	16	27	45
Maple	18	30	49
	*Apex angle 25°*
Oak	26	38	56
Birch	18	34	52
Pine	8	18	26
Spruce	12	21	29
Elm	31	44	70
Ash	17	29	46
Aspen	11	19	28
Linden	3	5	6
Norway maple	17	31	49
Maple	20	34	52

From the presented table it can be seen that the force varies from 2 kN (0.02 t) for linden (log diameter 200 mm) to 70 kN (7.0 t) for elm (round log diameter 400 mm). The force when using a cleaver with a blade width of 200 mm, the limit value on the actuator should be expected to be about 31 kN (approximately 3.1 tons).

If logs with a large number of knots come across, then you need to count on an increase in load by 2 ... 3 times.

Which motor is needed for the drive can be calculated by setting the initial data. You need to focus on equipment that can be purchased in the distribution network or ordered in online stores.

When using a gear pump NSh-50 and a hydraulic cylinder with a diameter of 100 mm and a pressure of 130 kg / cm², a force of 11 tons (110 kN) will be provided. The speed of movement of the rod will be about 2 cm/s. The drive will require an electric motor power of 2.2 ... 2.8 kW with a shaft speed of 1450 rpm.

When using an electric motor with a speed of 2850 rpm, the rod with maximum force will move at a speed of 4 cm / s.

Many amateur craftsmen are interested in the question: “How to make a homemade hydraulic wood splitter with your own hands? Is it possible to create a device for use inside a house heated by an individual stove?

Step-by-step guide to making a wood splitter based on a hydraulic jack

From a hydraulic jack House master can make it yourself the simplest design. You will need:

I-beam number 16, it will be used to make the bed and supports.
Steel plate 8…10 mm thick. It can be used to make amplifiers, brackets and a knife.
Tension springs 250…300 mm long (2 pcs.). They will be needed to automatically return the pusher to its original position.
Hydraulic jack up to 6 tons.

You will need a tool:

angle grinder with cutting discs and petal wheel;
welding machine;
measuring tool;
electric drill with a set of drills.

Wood splitter manufacturing process

According to the dimensions of the hydraulic jack and the length of the logs, the dimensions of the future device are selected.

With the help of an angle grinder, blanks are cut, calculated according to the preliminary design.

The required workpieces are counted before starting welding. When designing, a specification of all elements used in the design is developed.

Preliminary docking of fragments to clarify the correctness of preliminary calculations and design.

Prepared supports for the frame. To give quality, all seams and surfaces are cleaned after welding of the elements to each other is completed.

To avoid failures, the main nodes are fixed on a flat area.

If necessary, after tacking, you can rotate the parts to be welded to ensure that all seams are welded.

The blade of the future knife is made of sheet steel. In the design, the knife will consist of two plates installed at an angle to each other.

The elements of the knife are connected by welding. It is mounted directly on the frame.

The jack is being fitted at the place of its future location.

Fixation is carried out using clamps made locally.

Pusher manufacturing. A 10 mm plate is used. To prevent the stem from moving to the side, a ring made from a suitable piece of pipe is used.

Springs are tried on, attachments to the pusher and rear support are being developed.

After the hinges are made, they are welded to the pusher, as well as to the rear support. Fixation is carried out with threaded hooks to make it easier to adjust the tension of the springs.

First, the product is coated with a primer.

Later painted with black paint.

The wood splitter is being assembled.

Then it is mounted on the wall.

The log is installed on the frame. By increasing the pressure on the jack, they achieve its splitting.

Video: do-it-yourself hydraulic wood splitter.

The device based on a car hydraulic jack is ready for use. It is simple in design and reliable in operation. It won't last one year.

There are many devices designed for chopping firewood. One of the most effective tools of this group is the hydraulic splitter. It works on the principle of pressure on a log using a press. The required load is generated by a motor and a strong hydraulic piston that pushes the bar against the cutting element.

Working principle and application

Hydraulic and mechanical tools for chopping firewood are used in small woodworking shops and private households. Regardless of the place, all machines work according to the principle mechanical bucking and splitting of wood species.

Manual models of wood splitters often become unusable. In addition, it takes a lot of time, effort and skill to harvest firewood with their help. Non-hydraulic equipment periodically breaks down, as the load in them is distributed unevenly.

factory fixtures

The market for construction devices offers a very extensive range of hydraulic splitters. Their cost varies from ten to two hundred thousand rubles. The price of this tool depends on:

According to the type of power source, wood splitters are divided into two main groups: with gasoline and with an electric engine.

The electric motor acts on the built-in pump. It is noteworthy that the electric drive used in household tools is of the simplest design. There are no problems with the maintenance of such equipment. In addition, such a cleaver can be used in a barn and garage, as it is environmentally friendly. The disadvantages include only the need for a power source.

A gasoline-type engine is installed on very productive high-power models, which are often placed directly on the firewood harvesting site. Gasoline cleaver, as a rule, is much more powerful, more massive and more expensive.

Homemade devices

"Homemade" are often used to solve everyday problems in preparation for the cold season. Some craftsmen manage to make truly "masterpiece" wood splitters - home-made hydraulic ones, using improvised materials and devices.

If you want to make a quality machine yourself, then you can use drawings, video instructions and diagrams to speed up the process.

A cleaver made independently at home must include certain details. So, Before assembly, you need to acquire the following items:

First you need to weld the frame frame. After its manufacture, the structure must be firmly fixed on the platform. At the bottom of the frame you need to put a car jack. At the top of the assembled frame, you need to provide a connector that will be used to split logs with different lengths and diameters.

The device in the photo is made by hand, but with its help you can quickly and easily harvest a large amount of firewood. Its structure is quite complex. As a basis, a hydraulic jack on a stationary frame was taken. To make such an installation, you must have certain locksmith skills. In addition, it is necessary to manufacture equipment, always taking into account all safety requirements, otherwise you may encounter very undesirable consequences.

In order to save resources and time in the future, it is better to install wedge-shaped knives with several blades in the installation. The bottom line is that an ordinary knife divides a log into only two parts, and such a model can process it entirely at a time.

If you do not have the appropriate skills and materials to assemble your own firewood cleaver, then carefully consider whether you need to spend time experimenting or “building a bicycle”. If in doubt, it is better to buy a tool in a specialized store. Moreover, the cost of the simplest models of wood splitters is quite affordable. And all financial expenses are fully compensated by the speed and convenience of harvesting firewood before the start of the heating season.