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Harvesting firewood requires considerable effort: they need to be sawn, chopped, put in a firewood rack to dry. Most of the energy goes into chopping wood. A wood splitter can facilitate and speed up the process. They are presented in sufficient quantities, but they cost solid money. At the same time, you can make the simplest wood splitter with your own hands from scrap metal – pipes, corners, etc. Everything will require literally several thousand – if there is no metal, it will have to be bought.
Mechanical wood splitters
If the volumes of firewood harvesting are small, a mechanical wood splitter can easily handle them. They are distinguished by their simplicity of design, the minimum number of complex nodes, and the fact that the costs are minimal, even if there are no suitable pieces of iron on the farm.
Do-it-yourself simple wood splitter: mechanics
The simplest mechanical wood splitter resembles a well crane. The design is one to one, only instead of a bucket a cutter and handles are fixed. The connection of the rack (racks) and the crossbar can be made the simplest – articulated. All you need is a good lubricant.
The principle of operation, probably everyone understands. The block of wood is placed on a stand, the lever is sharply pulled down, due to the force of inertia, the cutter gains significant strength and splits the block of wood. The process is repeated until logs of the required thickness are obtained.
It is easy to assemble such a mechanical wood splitter with your own hands, and, literally, from what is – pipes, a corner of any size, even an ax can be used as a cutter. In addition, such a design can be made collapsible – so that it can be carried.
There are many cons. Chopping firewood requires a lot of effort. Moreover, more effort is applied to stop the course of the cleaver after the log has fallen apart. The second minus is that such a wood splitter occupies a solid area, because the longer the lever, the less effort must be applied. However, even such a primitive mechanical device greatly reduces the complexity of the process.
In this design, the cleaver must be heavy. Therefore, the blade itself is welded to an all-metal blank. A more affordable option is to weld it to a pipe (round or square) and fill it with concrete. Agree, to make such a wood splitter with your own hands is within the power of anyone who knows how to handle a welding machine.
Spring splitter
There is a modified design of a manual mechanical wood splitter, which, with smaller sizes, splits firewood better, requires less effort. In this model, the main working unit is the spring, which is fixed on the frame, and its upper part rests against the stationary crossbar, on which the cleaver is fixed.
In this design, the main force – to hold the cleaver after the log has split – is assumed by the spring. Accordingly, the main thing is to choose a spring and an emphasis so that minimal efforts are applied, but they are sufficient to split even complex, knotty logs. The stop under the spring can be made movable. Then you can adjust the parameters for specific conditions. In reality, “reconfiguration” is required for a specific person. If one person will work with the tool, then you can do everything stationary, choosing the height empirically.
It is equally important to make a movable articulation of the frame and the lever on which the cleaver is fixed. The best option is bearings. They must be of high quality, preferably self-levelling.
The minimum height of a homemade wood splitter is about 800 mm. But then you either have to work bending over, or install the machine on a table / bed. A more comfortable option that requires minimal effort – made to fit your height. Determine at what height it is convenient for you to stand the log, add the height of the log itself to this figure, you get the height of the bed. In this case, you will also have to bend over, but only when you install the chock on the stand, and not every time the cleaver is lowered.
To add mobility designs, a frame is welded, on one side of which wheels are fixed, and stops are welded on the second. Making such a wood splitter with your own hands is somewhat more difficult, but if there is a spring and bearings, this is such a difficult task.
Wood splitter inertial vertical
Another easy DIY option. To make such a wood splitter with your own hands, you need two pipes of a larger and smaller diameter. You will also need a heavy plate – the base, and, in fact, the piercing part – the cutter / splitter.
The design is one of the simplest, little effort is required. A thick-walled pipe, or better, a pin, is fixed on a massive platform. The height is about a meter. This is the lead pipe. A cleaver moves freely along it, which is welded to the rings of a pipe of a slightly larger diameter than the leading pipe. He splits firewood as follows: lift up the cleaver and release it. You can give a little acceleration down. Due to the force of gravity, the log splits.
But this mechanical wood splitter does not immediately split all logs. To increase its effectiveness, a weighting agent can be made on the cleaver. It can be “added” as needed. The second option is to hit the column with a hammer a couple of times. This method is good if the cutter is stuck in the wood. An alternative is to lift the block together up and down sharply. But it’s easier to swing a hammer.
Wood splitters with electric drive
A manual wood splitter, of course, facilitates the preparation of firewood, but it still requires solid physical effort. Not as much as they are spent waving an ordinary cleaver, but still … An electric motor helps to make efforts even smaller. Based on it, wood splitters of various designs are made. But making such a wood splitter with your own hands is more difficult. Here the device is more complex, and at least minimal knowledge of electricians is required – it is advisable to connect the motor through a starter, moreover, with the “start” and “start” buttons.
Screw (conical)
One of the most common models is a cone or screw splitter. The difference between them is only in the absence / presence of a thread on the piercing element, which in this model is made in the form of a cone.
Blocks of wood split due to the fact that the cone rotated by the motor crashes into the wood, gradually tearing it apart. In large logs, the edges are first chipped off, then the middle is torn.
Cone and Thread Options
First, the cutting part was turned into a smooth cone. If you use a smooth cone, when working, you have to lean quite heavily on the block of wood so that the cylinder “bites” into the wood. The process is much easier if a thread is cut on its surface. In this case, the log is, as it were, screwed onto the screw, and then splits.
The main thing is to correctly make a cone with a thread. If you have a lathe and work experience, you can try to do it yourself. If not, you will have to order. The thread is made different, but the following parameters are recognized as optimal: pitch 7 mm, depth 3 mm (minimum – 2 mm). Another important point is the depth of the seat on the motor gearbox – at least 70 mm.
If there is a cone with threaded threads, making this wood splitter with your own hands will not be difficult.
Electric motor and gearbox
We need an electric motor powerful enough (2 kW and above or 5-9 l / s), but with a low speed: 250-600 rpm. At 250 rpm and below, it punctures very slowly, and if the rpm is more than 500, it is dangerous to work, as it can tear the log out of your hands.
If you managed to find an engine with such parameters, you can put the spike (screw) made directly on the crankshaft (pictured above). If there are more revolutions, it is necessary to install a reduction gear or make a chain or belt drive to reduce the speed.
The ratio is calculated depending on the engine speed. For example, there is a 900 rpm engine. Having made a 1:2 gearbox, we get 450 rpm. Just the best option.
Gears can be belt or chain. Chains work many times louder, require constant strokes, and it usually costs more to grind sprockets with the required parameters. The belt drive is desirable double (as in the photo above). In this case, there will be less slippage.
Where to place the motor
If the design provides for a gear, it is better to put the motor at the bottom, and fix the screw itself on the work surface. Choose the height of the work surface according to your height so that you do not have to work on an incline.
There is also such a parameter as the height of the screw above the work surface. The gap from the table to the cylinder should be in the region of 8-20 cm. You should not place it higher – it can turn blocks of small diameter. The optimal distance is 8-12 cm. Even small logs do not turn.
Hydraulic wood splitter
The hydraulic wood splitter is the most powerful, but also the most complex and expensive to manufacture. In addition to the bed, motor and cutting blades, you need a hydraulic cylinder with sufficient power. They are not cheap. In addition, an oil tank and a pump are also needed.
The hydraulic splitter for firewood develops solid efforts, therefore, in its manufacture, metal of considerable thickness is used – 6-10 mm, depending on the drive power. The developed effort is quite enough to break up the chock into 6-8 logs at a time. Because knives are made in the form of an “asterisk”.
In the manufacture of knives, they are separated from each other by several centimeters. So that there is only one in operation. For example, first – horizontal, then – vertical, then – right and at the end – left. At the same time, reinforce each of the knives by welding reinforcing plates on the back. Steel is desirable to use hard, after sharpening it according to the same principle as on cleavers.