How to assemble a hydraulic wood splitter. Do-it-yourself mechanical cleaver (spring wood splitter)

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 preparation of a large amount of firewood for heating a large 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 flying chip 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 types of technical classification of splitting devices raw wood you need to keep in mind to make a wood splitter safe enough in everyday life. 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 are 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 super flywheels 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 the 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 the revolutions” 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.:

Vertical-type wood splitters are more compact and allow the use of a more durable U-shaped frame. 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) is that the power of the motor is taken both on the forward and on the reverse, therefore, if there are components (see below), craftsmen sometimes make hydraulic systems with 2 pumps for forward and, low-power, for reverse, see . video clip:

Video: homemade hydraulic wood splitter

Note: it is quite possible to do it by hand hydraulic wood splitter vertical type, 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, hydraulic cylinders of special equipment are designed for great speed feed than optimal for chopping wood. 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. The convicts 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 with a 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 churak 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 blocks for firewood in milder climates or for heating a small building, it is most suitable screw wood splitter. 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 a motor from a 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. Grab for part of the churak under 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 a 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 entire 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 because of 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.

On the left is the usual design with a sawtooth profile thread: it gives quite a lot of sawdust and small chips, it doesn’t matter if it overcomes wood defects, it often gets stuck in dense small-layer 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 wood, 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 cleaver 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 churak. 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 it’s 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. Cone base diameter - 80-150 mm depending on largest size available fools. 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.

Chopping firewood by hand is a difficult and tedious task, because even for heating a small house, you need not 5 or more cubic meters of firewood for the winter. Therefore, it is not surprising that people are looking for different options for wood splitters that make this job easier. Next, we will talk about:

various types of wood splitters;
their advantages and disadvantages;
do-it-yourself wood splitter manufacturing method.

What are wood splitters

Everything homemade wood splitters can be divided according to the method of impact on the log, the principle of operation of the mechanism and the type of mover. According to the method of impact on the log, they can be divided into:

upwards,
top down;
horizontal;
conical.

The main difference between wood splitters is in the way they act on the log. Some press from above on the knives located below, others, on the contrary, press from below, and the knives are on top. In terms of efficiency, both methods are the same, so everyone chooses the method of influence that is easier for him to implement. Compared to vertical impact devices, horizontal wood splitters are slightly less efficient, but much easier to manufacture. In fact, this is the same vertical wood splitter, but laid horizontally. Separately, there are cone wood splitters that do not chop, but tear firewood with a special screw. If you have a turner friend or you know how to work on a metal lathe, then it’s easier for you to make such a wood splitter, especially since it effectively breaks logs of any thickness, most importantly, put the log on the table.

According to the principle of operation of the mechanism, they can be divided into:

rack;
hydraulic;
kinetic.

Rack wood splitters work on the principle of a rack and pinion gearbox - that is, a combination of a small gear and a rack. Their advantage is a huge working stroke, so even long logs can be split. The disadvantage of such devices is the need for an additional gearbox, because the gear ratio of a small gear and rack is not enough to generate the desired pressure. Hydraulic wood splitters are made on the basis of a jack or a hydraulic cylinder, therefore they create huge pressure and are suitable for chopping logs of any diameter. Devices based on jacks are simpler and lighter, but can only act on the log vertically, from the bottom up. Devices based on a hydraulic cylinder do not have this disadvantage and can use any scheme of action on a log, but it is much more difficult to manufacture and configure. Kinetic devices are only suitable for top-down impact, and in most cases they work on muscle power. Therefore, their efficiency is low and they are not suitable for splitting thick (60 cm or more) logs.

According to the source of energy, wood splitters are divided into:

manual;
electrical;
gasoline;
diesel.

Kinetic and jacking wood splitters can be attributed to manual devices, because they are driven by muscular strength. All other units differ only in the type of engine. Electric ones are inexpensive, but only work where they are. electrical network. Gasoline and diesel devices are noticeably more expensive due to the high cost of the engine, but such wood splitters can be used even where there is no electricity, for example, in the country.

How a wood splitter works

Understanding the principles of operation of the wood splitter will help you choose the right type of device. Indeed, one needs this unit for splitting thick and long logs, almost logs, while the other needs to split small logs. In addition, usability and productivity are important, as well as the number of operations that must be performed to split one log.

The general principle of the impact of most wood splitters, with the exception of those that tear wood with a screw, is the same. The log is placed between statically fixed knives and the apparatus is turned on. He presses the log against the knives and, thanks to the enormous pressure, splits it into separate firewood. The kinetic wood splitter works differently - in it the knife is mounted on a lever with a spring that facilitates lifting, and the log is placed on a fixed platform. Due to the large mass of the lever at the moment of impact, inertia is converted into kinetic energy and splits the log.

How to choose a wood splitter model

First of all, you need to decide what you need a wood splitter for. Indeed, for chopping a small amount of thin logs, it is easiest to make a kinetic manual unit, however, if you need to process 5 or more cubic meters of chocks of various thicknesses every year, then it is better to choose a different model. After that, it is necessary to determine the principle of operation and the available materials. If you have access to inexpensive or free jacks, or hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic pumps, then choose a hydraulic splitter scheme. If you have access to various rack and pinion gearboxes, as well as pulleys different sizes and belts, then choose the rack option. If you don't have any, then the best choice- a cone apparatus, because making a cone and assembling any gearbox is easier than making a rail, screw gearbox or looking for a hydraulic cylinder with a hydraulic pump.

After that, decide on the source of energy. Remember, if you want to use the unit not only at home, but also take it out to chop wood in other places, then you need to choose a gasoline engine. It costs a little more than an electric motor with a gearbox, runs on any gasoline and weighs a little. A low power diesel engine will cost 3-5 times more than a gasoline engine, will be 2-3 times heavier and very picky about fuel quality. Therefore, it makes sense to put a diesel engine only on a complex device with a large number of functions, for example, a crane for loading large logs.

Wood splitter - diagrams, drawings, photos and instructions

Below we will give drawings and photographs of several wood splitters that will help you understand their device, as well as give instructions for their manufacture. Of these, you can choose the option that is best suited for your conditions and opportunities. However, first we will divide the wood splitter into components:

log supply system;
log feeding system drive;
bed.

A knife is a device that splits wood. In most cases, this is a sharpened steel plate with a thickness of 10 mm or more. For a knife, the reliability of attachment to the frame and the ability to move from place to place are important in order to change the working length of the wood splitter and adjust it to the length of the log.

The log feeding system is the mechanisms and devices that move the log along the bed or otherwise put it on the knife. The feed system drive is the mechanisms and devices that connect the engine and the feed system, and also allow you to control the operation of the log feed system.

The bed is the support of the wood splitter, which ensures its stability in any conditions.

Knife

The knife can be of any shape, and the angle of its sharpening is from 40-90 degrees. It can consist of one plate or several, the main condition is the reliability of fastening to the frame, otherwise it will be torn off and it will not be possible to split the log. The more blades of the knife are fixed on the frame, the smaller it will split the log, so sometimes they make a shape according to the maximum size of the log, in which the knives are placed so that they split the log on the firewood of the right size.

In this photo you see a knife with three blades - one vertical and two horizontal. The blades are connected by welding, the height of the horizontal knives is adjusted by a pin under the bed. Such a knife can be adjusted to the optimal size of firewood (lower part), and the upper firewood, if necessary, can be split again.

A knife of this type does not split, but breaks the wood. This is due to the conical shape and high torque. Such a knife easily splits the thickest logs, regardless of the type of wood.

A manual or kinetic wood splitter works like a regular splitting ax, that is, it splits firewood due to kinetic energy. Despite the fact that it is easier for them to work than swinging a cleaver, it is still very hard work, and the device itself hardly splits logs over 50 cm thick.

Log feeding system

All feed systems are divided into two types - rack and pinion and hydraulic. Rack ones create less pressure, but are much easier to manufacture and quickly return to their original position, so more logs can be split with their help in the same time. Hydraulic ones are more complicated and more expensive, and also work a little slower (if you increase the motor power and put in a more efficient pump, then their speed will be compared with rack-and-pinion ones), but they create much more pressure, so they are better suited for chopping thick logs. Both types of log feeding systems work from any engines, in addition, jacking devices do not need an engine, but their operating speed is many times less than conventional hydraulic ones.

This is the most expensive type of drive, because you will have to buy or otherwise get not only a hydraulic cylinder, but also a hydraulic pump with a control unit. These units can be removed from decommissioned dump trucks, bulldozers or some other equipment. In addition to the cost of buying units, you will have to spend money to pay for the services of a good hydraulics who can get these mechanisms working.

In this wood splitter, a log lifts a regular car bottle jack, which is in the trunk of most drivers. Its only advantage is its low cost and simplicity of design, but it is hard and difficult for them to work. After all, you have to swing the jack with your foot and, having split the log, bend over to lower the jack with the help of a special crane. In addition, this type of jack can only be used for splitting logs with an even cut.

Such a jack has all the disadvantages described above, except for the restriction on logs. Thanks to its horizontal position and latches, it easily splits any logs. However, after splitting the log, you have to bend down and manually, using a special crane, lower the jack rod.

This type of feeder provides sufficient pressure to split even large logs. In the inactive state, the rack rises slightly above the gear, so the latter rotates idly. When the rack is pressed against the gear, it begins to move forward and pushes the log in front of it. The length of the toothed part of the rack is chosen such that the pushing part of the entire device does not reach the knife a little. When the toothed part of the rack passes beyond the gear, the latter ceases to influence it, because there are no teeth on the smooth part, however, due to contact with the last tooth, it prevents the rack from returning to its original position. To return the rack back, they stop pressing on it, so the vertical spring lifts the rack above the gear, and the horizontal spring returns the entire system to its original state.

In this figure, you can see how the return mechanism of the rack-and-pinion wood splitter, which we talked about above, is arranged and works. Powerful return springs provide greater productivity of the wood splitter, because it quickly splits the log and returns to its original state even faster.

Feed system drive

Regardless of the type of motor used, a gearbox is needed, because the motor shaft speed is much higher than necessary, and the torque is much less. The simplest and therefore popular type of gearbox is a belt drive. The transmission coefficient depends on the difference in the diameters of the pulleys on the motor and the wood splitter - the greater the difference in diameters, the more the gearbox reduces the rotation speed and increases the torque. At the same time, the larger the diameter of the pulley on the wood splitter, the higher the difference between the specific rotation speed and torque of this pulley and the same parameters of the wood splitter shaft. The result is a double conversion of torque and rotational speed.

bed

The bed has two purposes - to ensure the stability of the entire structure and to support the log so that it does not jump out or fall from the wood splitter. Therefore, I develop the bed based on the selected configuration of the device and the available units. A horizontal bed is, most often, a strong table (for a conical wood splitter) or a beam (for all other types) on four legs. Mounts for knives are provided on the bed, because they need to be sharpened periodically (we recommend doing this before the start of the wood splitting season), as well as changing the height of the installation for better splitting large logs. The bed can be made mobile, in this case, instead of legs, two or four wheels with a fixation system are installed.

If it is impossible to make a fixation system, then lowering legs are a good way out. They can be made both hydraulically and screw driven. This approach will not only eliminate the need to install brakes, but also provide maximum stability on uneven ground. In addition, the bed can be hinged, designed to be attached to a truck, car or tractor. If the machine you are attaching the bed to has a hydraulic drive or a power take-off shaft, then you can use its motor as an engine for a wood splitter. This will reduce the cost of manufacturing the unit.

It is impossible to give clear instructions for assembling a wood splitter with your own hands, because such instructions imply access with the same components and tools. In addition, there are many videos of creating wood splitters with your own hands on the Internet, so we will only give general advice. Before you develop the drawings of the wood splitter that you decide to do it yourself, make a list of the equipment available to you. A lot of useful things can be found at ferrous and non-ferrous metal collection points, as well as at storage sites for decommissioned equipment. To create any wood splitter you will need welding inverter and the ability to use it. If you do not have such a device, then buy it, if you do not know how to use it, learn how. Without it, you cannot make a normal wood splitter.

If you decide to make a conical wood splitter, then be sure to consider the direction of rotation of the engine, because it is necessary that the thread on the cone be cut in the direction of rotation. Otherwise, the cone will not screw into the wood and break it. If you have chosen a belt drive, then consider the possibility of shifting the motor to adjust the tension of the belts. If you got the hydraulic cylinder and other parts in a landfill, then ask the hydraulics to check their condition and, if necessary, repair. Remember - the simpler the design of the wood splitter, the easier it is to make it, while a simple rack wood splitter is in no way inferior to a complex and expensive hydraulic apparatus when chopping medium-sized logs. However, for chopping logs with a thickness of more than 60 cm, it is advisable to use a conical or hydraulic apparatus, because the rack and pinion will not be able to create the necessary pressure.

Now you know how to make a wood splitter with your own hands, how to make drawings for it, and also saw photos of actually working devices. In addition, you learned about the advantages and disadvantages various types and models of wood splitters, so you can choose the most suitable combination of this unit for your conditions. You have learned what is needed to draw up a diagram and drawing of a device, so you can design and build a wood splitter yourself.

Nowadays, stove heating is gradually becoming a thing of the past. In most private houses, as well as in apartments, there are batteries; in addition, electric convectors are used to heat the room. However, many summer residents and rural residents are in no hurry to part with Russian stoves. Well-made ovens have many advantages: they provide a lot of heat, you can cook delicious dishes in the oven and make homebaked bread. And if the house has a stove, then you need to prepare firewood for the future.

Of course, you can buy firewood from an ad in local newspapers. Usually there are many such ads, but heating material manufacturers often deceive buyers by offering low-quality goods at a high price. Therefore, most fans furnace heating prefer prepare firewood yourself. In Russia, chopping wood was traditionally considered a male job. But if the cutting device is comfortable and not heavy in weight, a woman or teenager will do a great job with this job. Easiest to work using a cleaver made by hand at home.

Why it is worth making a cleaver

The cleaver is the simplest device for chopping firewood. Of course, you can buy such an ax in a specialized store or order it on a thematic website. However, the cost of such devices industrial production sometimes it reaches twenty thousand rubles. It makes sense to buy such things only if a lot of firewood is used to heat the room. If we are talking about a small house in which a family of three or four lives, buying such a “gadget” is unprofitable. It is much easier to make a cleaver with your own hands, and here's why:

The simplest do-it-yourself cleaver looks about the same as an ordinary ax, but with a small feature.

Ax making process

The little "secret" of a do-it-yourself cleaver is that it has a shifted center of gravity. The “secret” cleaver is an ax with a curved wooden stick neatly embedded in the blade. During cutting, this stick acts as a lever and helps to split the logs without much effort. Due to the shifted center of gravity, the force that the woodcutter puts into the blow increases several times. In order to make a device for chopping firewood with your own hands, you will need:

First, a handle is machined on a lathe, the master can adjust the length “for himself”. It is not recommended to make the handle too short, as it will be inconvenient to work. If the handle is too long, this will reduce the force invested in the blow. Perfect option - measure the length of the handle on a standard ax industrial production and adhere to this length (with minor errors in one direction or another, taking into account the physical constitution of the one who will chop the wood). If the woodcutter has long arms, the handle may be slightly shorter than normal. And, conversely, for a person with short limbs, it is better to lengthen it a little.

The second stage of work is the manufacture, sharpening and the most reliable fastening of the blade to the handle. Further, the center of gravity shifts at the cleaver, for this a long curved stick is neatly built into the blade. After that, the homemade cleaver is ready for use.

How to chop wood correctly

Many summer residents chop wood, putting a log on the ground, but experienced woodcutters categorically do not recommend doing this, and here's why:

This is dangerous, because you can hit the leg with an ax and get seriously injured.
This is inconvenient because the woodcutter has to bend down low. It is especially difficult to bend over obese people.
This has a bad effect on the quality of firewood, since a log lying on the ground instantly becomes damp.

It is best to use a special metal structure, resembling a machine tool in its shape. In the middle of the machine there is a chute into which a log is placed: here it is securely fixed and does not pop out. When the log, or “block”, lies flat in its place, the woodcutter takes the cleaver and raises it up for a blow and, with a sharp movement, lowers it onto the log. If the blow is made correctly, the block splits into pieces. The main thing is to correctly calculate the impact force, then these parts will turn out to be even and neat, but this comes with experience.

Never raise the cleaver too high, because the impact force from this will not increase, but, on the contrary, will weaken. Also, do not swing the ax before making a blow: the woodcutter does not need to waste extra strength.

Log storage

When all the firewood is split, they need to be put in a woodpile. A typical mistake of many summer residents and rural residents is that they dump ready-made firewood in a pile. This cannot be done, because a shaky structure can quickly fall apart if at least one log lies unsuccessfully. But the most important thing is that firewood piled up does not dry well, which means that they can become infected with fungus and mold.

You need to stack firewood carefully, in much the same way as children, when playing, stack the designer's cubes. Wood logs, beautifully stacked in a woodpile, look spectacular and make a good impression on the neighbors in the country. It is also convenient to get them when it becomes necessary to bring a few poles home. It is necessary to store firewood only under a special canopy so that rain does not fall on it. If they are in the open air, you should cover the wood from the rain with a tarpaulin or plastic wrap.

People who buy firewood through an ad, often complain about the dampness of the imported wood. In this case, the logs must be dried immediately and only then folded into a neat stack.

Chopping firewood with a homemade cleaver is not as difficult as it seems. The main thing is that the ax is comfortable and sharp enough . There is a common misconception about that with a sharp ax you can easily injure yourself. In fact, lumberjacks most often get injured precisely because the cleaver is not sharp enough. Having made an ax with your own hands and adapting it “for yourself”, a summer resident or a villager will be able to significantly facilitate the annual work of procuring fuel for a Russian stove. It is much easier and cheaper than buying expensive equipment or buying someone else's firewood of dubious quality.

Many owners of private houses heated by stoves and solid fuel boilers, wood splitters are used to harvest firewood for the winter. Not everyone can purchase industrial units because of their high cost. To make a wood splitter with your own hands, it is enough to have its scheme on hand and follow the sequence of work performed.

What it is

Equipment designed to split a piece of wood into logs is called a wood splitter.

For professional harvesting in industrial volumes, wood splitters are produced. These complexes are capable of trimming a log into blanks of the required length and chopping them into logs. Finished products from working area removed by the conveyor.

Wood splitters are used at sawmills to split logs into logs of the required size.

A household wood splitter is intended only for splitting chocks into logs, but the log must first be sawn into blanks. Performance and uptime this equipment limited. With the help of household wood splitters in the private sector, firewood is harvested for a bathhouse, a fireplace and for the winter.

Logs after splitting can be used as fuel for a boiler, fireplace or stove

Kinds

Devices are produced with vertical and horizontal arrangements of the workpiece. In the first version, the workpiece is placed on the frame and the cleaver is lowered from above. The advantage of vertical wood splitters is that curved chocks can be placed on the bed, but they will have to be held by hand, strictly observing safety precautions. In the second type of wood splitters, the workpiece is placed in a horizontal chute and moves to the knife. These devices are more practical and safer than vertical ones, but they take up more space.

According to the type of energy used, cleavers are divided into:

Kinetic (manual);
Mechanical.

The first type of cleavers works by using human power and does not require additional technical means. These products are the most economical and most popular because of the low cost, ease of manufacture.

Scrap Cleaver

It is a long metal rod with a pointed cone on one side and a handle on the other. The cleaver is lifted with hands and with force lowered with a cone onto a log. Productivity is low, and work requires a lot of physical effort.

The wood splitter is excellent for cutting heavy and thick softwood logs.

Cylindrical manual

Compact and easy to carry. It is used for preparation of a small amount of firewood (for a fireplace or a bath). A frame with a blade directed upwards is fixed on the stand. The blank placed inside the frame is struck with a sledgehammer. The blade divides the chock into logs.

For a private house, one of the simplest and safest options is a cylindrical manual wood splitter.

spring

The most common and productive among kinetic devices. The workpiece is split by the working part, fixed on the beam and shock-absorbing spring. Requires little effort.

Mechanical wood splitters according to the type of work are distinguished into:

hydraulic;
Cone (screw);
Rack.

In a spring wood splitter, the main force is taken by the spring

Hydraulic

The advantages are smooth running and creating a large load on the workpiece.

Despite the creation of a large force of the working stroke, the hydraulic wood splitter does not have a high working speed

Energy from an electric or gasoline engine is transferred to a hydraulic cylinder. Working fluid enters the rod, which moves the stop with the workpiece to a permanently fixed knife. The force generated by the hydraulic cylinder can reach 10 tons. The stroke of the rod and the direction of movement are regulated by the distributor. It also protects the mechanism from breakage if its power is not enough to split the chock.

Screw

The principle of operation is based on screwing a cone-shaped working element into the workpiece and splitting it into 2 or more parts. They produce screw devices in 3 versions, with a difference in the methods of transferring energy from the engine to the working cone. The cone is fixed directly or through a flywheel on the shaft of a low-speed electric motor (up to 5 kW, 400-500 rpm).

The cone-shaped cleaver is most often used in gasoline and electric models.

From the engine, the torque is transmitted to the cone using a belt or chain drive. The pulleys are selected so that the speed of the cone does not exceed 300-400 rpm. Sometimes the motor transfers energy to the cone through a geared motor. This design is relatively complex and is mainly used in industrial wood splitters or craftsmen.

For productive work, the drive power must be at least 1.5 kW

Rack

The operation of the device is based on the method of operation of the rack and pinion. The movable transmission rack is operated by a gear mounted on a reduction belt pulley connected to the engine. Pinion and rack contact provides the control handle. The toothed rack moves along guides mounted on a reinforced frame, and on the other side of which there is a cleaver. The reverse stroke of the rail is made due to the return spring. Rack wood splitters are distinguished by reliability, economy and excellent performance.

The cleaver in the design of the rack wood splitter is attached to the rail, which moves due to the gear

According to the type of traction, wood splitters can be divided into:

Electrical. Power is supplied by an electric motor. These devices are low maintenance and easy to use. Installation indoors is possible. The downside is low mobility due to attachment to a source of electricity
Wood splitters with a gasoline engine have more power and productivity. They are used both in everyday life and in industrial preparations.
Tractor-drawn wood splitters. The working cylinder of the device is connected to the hydraulic system of the transport, which significantly increases the speed and working life of the wood splitter. These models are used when it is necessary to prepare a large amount of firewood in forestry or on a farm.
Combined traction. It is used on industrial wood splitters and can be of two types: tractor hydraulic drive and electric motor, tractor hydraulic drive and gasoline engine.

For solutions domestic problems most often used manual and electric wood splitters, less often - gasoline.

Factory models are much more efficient and have a presentable appearance.

Before buying or manufacturing any wood splitter, you need to pay attention to the following technical characteristics:

The splitting power of the hydraulic device should be within 3-7 tons.
The acceptable speed of rotation of the working cone of the screw wood splitter is 400-600 rpm.
The working length (distance between the piston and the knife) indicates the maximum longitudinal dimension of the workpiece to be split. In household wood splitters it is 0.5-0.6 m, in industrial - 0.5-1 m.
The presence of a piston stroke limiter increases productivity and saves resources when processing short workpieces.
The optimal piston speed when moving forward (working) is 4 cm / s, backward - 7.5 cm / s.
The engine power in hydraulic wood splitters is 1500-2300 W, in screw - 3000-4000 W.
Dimensions and portability of the device.

Making a wood splitter with your own hands

The purchase of a factory wood splitter is not always economically justified, especially since some types of this mechanism can be assembled with your own hands from simple materials.

spring

To create it, you will need the following material:

Channel;
I-beam;
Pipes or corner for the frame and stiffeners;
Metal corner;
Square tube;
Automotive spring;
A piece of pipe with a diameter slightly smaller than that of a spring;
Hinge assembly;
Cleaver;
Weighting agent (piece of rail or channel with a thick shelf).

For a stationary wood splitter, you can pour a concrete base by inserting a rack into it. In this embodiment, it is not necessary to make a frame. All parts of the wood splitter, except for the hinge, are connected by electric welding. Cut off pieces of the channel for the bed and the I-beam for the base. The length of the support is 0.6-1 m. The height of the base is selected individually. The support is connected to the frame, strictly maintaining an angle of 90 o. For structural stability, pipes are welded horizontally to the ends of the bed. The connection of the bed and the base is reinforced with spacers.

To increase the stability of the structure, it is necessary to install spacers

A piece of a channel 40-50 cm long serves as a platform for the spring. On one side of it, a hole is cut out with a grinder for connection to the base. A spring guide is welded to the other edge. To determine the place of attachment of the platform, it is necessary to subtract the length of the spring from the height of the support. The platform also needs to be reinforced with spacers from the corner.

In order to determine the place of attachment of the platform, it is necessary to subtract the length of the spring from the height of the support

In the upper part of the base, a seat 8-10 cm deep is cut out for the outer element of the hinge assembly. Then prepare the channel for the cleaver. To do this, on one side of the channel 0.5-0.7 m long, at a distance of 10-15 cm from the edge, a rectangular hole is cut out of such a length that the base beam does not interfere with the channel put on it. In the center of the hole, the inner rod of the hinge assembly is welded. A spring seat is attached to the second edge of the channel.

The beam will move with the help of hinges

The distance from the base to the lower and upper cups for the spring should be the same.

A cleaver is welded to one side of the metal square from below at an angle of 90 °, and a weighting agent is on top. The second side is connected to the channel for the cleaver so that the total length of the resulting arm is 1-1.5 m. The resulting assembly is put on the base so that the outer elements of the hinge fall into the seat on the beam, fixing them by welding. A spring is put on the landing cups. For ease of use, a handle is attached near the cleaver.

The rail welded over the cleaver will act as a weight

To make the device mobile, 2 wheels are attached to the frame from the base side.

Video: how to make a spring wood splitter

Tapered or screw

The main active part of this wood splitter is a threaded cone, which splits the tree, screwing into its structure like a self-tapping screw (“carrot”).

The splitter of a screw wood splitter is a cone-shaped element, also known as a "carrot"

In order to make this mechanism, you must:

According to the drawing, make a cone from a ST-45 cylinder with a diameter of 55 mm and a length of 14.5 cm at an angle of 30 o.
On a lathe, apply a thrust thread to the cylinder with a pitch of 6-7 mm and a depth of 2 mm.
The finished cone is put on the shaft and secured with a pin.
On the opposite side of the shaft, 1 or 2 bearings are mounted and a flange is welded (an asterisk for a chain or a pulley for a belt).
Supports are welded to the bearings to fix the mechanism to the table.
A spacer is placed between the shaft and the engine to tension the belt or chain.
The conical design with an electric motor using supports is fixed on a table made of dense, strong wood with metal legs.
The cone is fixed at a height of 10-15 cm from the table surface.
The engine, belt or chain is covered with a metal casing for safety reasons.

During operation, the cone slowly cuts into the log and breaks it into several pieces.

If it is problematic to make a cone on your own, then it should be purchased at a specialized store.

The direction of the thread does not matter, but when cutting a right-hand thread, there is a possibility of spoiling the cone

Video: how to make a "carrot" in the garage

Rack

First you need to decide on the drawing according to which the unit is manufactured. It is necessary to take into account the desired performance, the type of wood and the place of installation. Based on these data, the engine power and the parameters of the rack and pinion mechanism are calculated.

The basis of the rack wood splitter is a powerful steel frame, to which the drive and frame are attached

The mobile frame is made of profile pipe and corner. For a stationary wood splitter, the frame can be made from a heavier channel and I-beam.
When welding the frame, verticals and horizontals must be strictly observed, which will further affect performance and safety.
The design must be stable, the wheels on the frame must be securely fixed and have a fixation for the duration of the work.
The length of the rail should be 1.5 times the distance to the cleaver.
The log feed speed is selected individually and is regulated by the selection of the reducing number of pulleys.

The horizontal stacking mechanism in the form of a trough ensures optimal movement of the workpiece towards the splitter.

Video: homemade rack inertial wood splitter

Hydraulic wood splitter from a jack

The simplest hydraulic wood splitter is made according to the following scheme:

A vertical frame is welded from a channel with a base for a car jack. The height of the frame depends on the length of the workpieces to be split.
In the center of the upper bar of the frame, a conical wedge is installed on a screw gear. To do this, the necessary thread is cut in the hole on the frame.
The workpiece mounted on the jack rod is first fixed from above with a wedge using a screw. Further, using a jack, the chock is strung on a wedge and split into logs.

A car jack is suitable for the manufacture of a hydraulic wood splitter

There is no universal technology for creating a hydraulic wood splitter. It all depends on the hydraulic system available, which consists of:

Hydraulic cylinder with pusher;
hydraulic pump;
Distributor of working fluid flows;
oil tank;
Electric or gasoline engine.

The frame is constructed from a metal channel, an I-beam, a corner and a profile pipe. For mobility, it is recommended to place it on a finished chassis or wheelset.

An example for the hand-made creation of this unit can be factory models or piece copies of craftsmen, whose photos and videos are published on the Internet.

An example of a horizontal design of a hydraulic wood splitter with an oil tank

Video: improvised hydraulic device

Safety

To work safely with a homemade device, the following rules must be observed:

The process of harvesting wood should be carried out in closed clothing, gloves and goggles, so as not to be injured by a chip flying off the workpiece.
The workpiece must be firmly seated in the chute and not move during movement.
When the piston moves, it is forbidden to stretch your hands to the knives and correct the shifted workpiece.
Any manipulations with the workpiece are performed after the unit is turned off and all its components are completely stopped.
Work on repairing or replacing the units of the wood splitter is carried out by disconnecting the electric motor from the mains supply.

Wood splitters greatly facilitate the preparation of a large amount of firewood, saving time and effort. However, to provide firewood for a fireplace or bath, there is no need to purchase complex expensive equipment. It is much more pleasant and healthier to use an ordinary ax.

Wood splitter on suburban area is the solution to a huge problem. Chopping a large amount of firewood with an ax is a difficult task, requiring a lot of time. Therefore, many residents of suburban villages today use wood splitters. True, a ready-made factory machine costs a lot of money, so the craftsmen themselves make this equipment using parts and assemblies from other machines or household appliances.

Today there are two types of wood splitters, which are based on two different working bodies. This is a cleaver (sharp, in the form of a knife, vertically mounted plate), on which a pusher pushes a wooden chock with effort. Such a wood splitter is called rack. And a cone on which a screw thread is cut. Making one and the other wood splitter with your own hands (using drawings) is not a problem. The main thing is to find all the necessary parts, the main of which are the engine and the working body.

Screw splitter

Of the two above designs, the simplest is the screw wood splitter. If you look at the picture below, you will understand what it is made of and how it works. It's actually simple design no complicated knots. It consists of an electric motor, a screw cone, a pair of bearings, a shaft and a gearbox. By the way, the latter can be in the form of a belt drive, a chain, a factory gearbox with a gear drive can be used.

As for the motor, best option- it is electric, although you can also install gasoline if a large wood splitter is going to be installed. By the way, you can use an engine from an old one for a small machine washing machine operating on 220 volts. Although it is low-power, but by installing a good gearbox, you can increase its power by two to three times. The main thing here is to choose the right elements. For example, you can install a small pulley on the motor shaft, and install a large pulley on the shaft on which the cone is mounted. And the greater the difference between the diameters of the pulleys, the more powerful the wood splitter will be.

Attention! A very important indicator is the rotation speed of the working body. It should not exceed 500 rpm. Therefore, it is necessary to choose the right gearbox for the electric motor.

Now about the choice of bearings. In principle, any will do, the main thing is that the shaft made for them should correspond to the loads acting on it. For small wood splitters, a shaft with a diameter of 25-30 mm can be installed. Accordingly, bearings with an inner diameter corresponding to the outer diameter of the shaft itself are selected for it.

The bearings themselves are mounted on a wood splitter in a special housing made of cast iron or steel. The housing can be separate for each bearing or the same for two at once. You can order the case to a turner, but it is better to purchase used structures, which can always be found at any scrap metal dump.

The bearings are attached to the frame with bolts. The frame itself at the installation site must be very strong, therefore, it is in the places of attachment under the bearing housings that a metal profile (corner, channel) is installed, which is welded to the frame of the wood splitter by electric welding. The very base of the machine is assembled from pipes or corners.

And the most important element of a screw wood splitter with a 220 volt engine is a cone. Let's start with the fact that it is made of tool steel, very durable. Therefore, it is not easy to make it yourself, even for a turner at home. But this is not necessary, because screw cones are sold freely today. It is important to choose the right size for it, because it will depend on which chocks can be cut. Here is the ratio of the dimensions of the cone to the dimensions of the cut logs, with the same length of the tool.

Diameter -70 mm, bevel size - 1.1. With these parameters, the split depth will be 450 mm.
Diameter - 80 mm, bevel - 1.2, splitting depth - 550 mm.
Diameter - 100 mm, bevel - 1.5, splitting depth - 750 mm.

The photo above shows the dimensions of the cone, and also describes the indicators of the screw thread. Pay special attention to the direction of threading. She should be on the left. That is, when screwing the cone, it should crash into the log, while pulling it towards itself. In fact, with the help of a thread, an additional movement of the workpiece is performed - translational. While the working body itself rotates. This is very important for household-type cone splitters (220 volts), because they will not have a feed unit. Everything will be done by hand. It is this option that will create conditions under which it will not be necessary to use a lot of pressure on the cut wooden chock.

The choice of cone depends on its design. There are two of them: with a shank and with an internal mounting hole. In the first case, in the shaft on which the cone will be installed, a hole for the diameter of the shank will be checked from the end. The latter is inserted into the hole of the shaft and fastened in it with a locking screw, which is screwed into the side of the shaft. In the second case, the shaft itself is inserted into the cone mounting hole, where it is fixed with two locking screws (bolts). The photo below shows the second screw cone design.

Wood splitter dimensions

The arrangement of nodes and parts of the wood splitter can be arbitrary. There are no strict restrictions here. The main thing is the convenience of its operation, so the height of the machine must correspond to the height of a person. There are, however, average recommended dimensions that can be taken as the basis for the assembly.

Machine length - 85 cm.
Height - 65 cm.
Width - 45 cm.

Experts also recommend installing the engine under the table on which the wood will be cut. Firstly, it will reduce the length of the wood splitter, and secondly, the table is the protection of the motor from chips and chips that fly during the cutting process. If the equipment design contains open rotating parts (belts, chains, half-couplings connecting the rotational elements of two units), then they must be closed. These are the safety requirements.

As for the material used to make the wood splitter, it is best to use metal corners size 40x40 mm and sheet steel 1 mm thick.

By the way, this design of the wood splitter allows you not to use an electric or gasoline engine. You can completely abandon the motor, using human power. To do this, a handle must be attached to the gearbox, with which it will be necessary to turn the shaft. Such a mechanical wood splitter is simple, but inconvenient to use, because two people will have to participate in chopping firewood: one turns the handle, the second feeds the chocks.

Simplified design of a screw wood splitter

As you yourself could see, it is not difficult to make a screw wood splitter with your own hands. Of course, if it is possible to find all of the above parts for the machine. But there is an easier option. For him, there is no need to use a gearbox and bearings, an intermediate shaft and a complex frame. All you need is an engine and a screw cone. To give you an idea of what we are talking about, look at the photo below, which shows this simple wood splitter.

That is, a cone is mounted on the motor shaft, which is attached to it with two locking screws. Their ends enter the groove groove of the shaft. And it's a very secure mount. The only thing you need to pay attention to is the electric motor itself.

Its power should be within 4 kW. You don't need more power.
The shaft rotation speed should be within 750 rpm, preferably less.

The dimensions of the engine do not matter, it can be small in size, but the motor can be raised by installing a small frame or stands made of metal round timber under it. The photo above shows that the engine, on the contrary, was lowered, because the height of the shaft was very large.