wood splitter cylinders question

Im sick of trying to find, rent, borrow a wood splitter for occasional use so im thinking about building one. I have a heavy "I"beam to use and lots of heavy scrap steel around for the rest of it.

The thing i dont have is a big enough cylinder, I do however have 2 DA lift cylinders off a loader we dont use anymore. Would it work to stack the 2 on top of eachother and "T" the lines?

I have another loader tractor with a really fast engine mounted hydraulic pump that i will more then likely use for the power supply, just wondering if the cylinder setup will be sufficient or not.

Why not total dia is how much force total. Figure the dia of the cyclsx pressure total force. ex 3in cycl 7sq in but one 6in cycl is 28sqin so one 6 is better than 2 3in ones

My brother made his own splitter with an I-beam; he used a standard lift cylinder powered by the hydraulics of his 400 Case. He put a control valve on the splitter that hooked into the tractor hydraulics.

Doubt that he uses it anymore as he spends the winter in AZ.

I used a steering cylinder off an 8 ton Goer that were used by the US Army. They had property disposal sales back then. I bought the two stage pump and control valve from Northern Hydraulics. I used a 4" I-beam, but if I was building another splitter I would use a 6" I-beam. I used a 10hp Tecumseh engine off a Sears tractor. Hal

It depends on what you want to split.

For tough wood, e.g. hickory and hard maple - you need 20 tons of force and sometimes 30 tons.
For small and not-so-tough wood you can get by with 10 -15 tons of force.

Keep in mind that a pair of 2" cylinders offer less then a single 3" cylinder. A pair of 3" cylinders offer just a hair more then a single 4" clinder, etc.

It's all about pressure versus surface area of the cylinder piston when it comes to splitting force.

It's all about hydraulic flow versus cylinder volume when it comes to cycle speed. That's why good splitters use dual pumps (two stage). This way an 8 horse engine can do the splitting work of a 25 horse engine.

A 3" cylinder hooked to a 2000 PSI pressure source can make around 7 tons of force. Hook the same to a two-stage pump that can make 3500 PSI and you can get 12 1/2 tons of force.

A typical store-bought splitter will have a 4" cylinder and a 3500 lb. two-stage pump and makes over 22 tons of force.

A professional HD splitter will often have a 5" cylinder and a 4000 lb. pump and make 39 tons of force on the "split" stroke. They all have less power on the "retract" stroke since the rod takes away surface area from piston. But cylinders also have less volume on the retract stroke so they can cycle back faster.

2" cylinder/1500 PSI pump = 2.3 tons
2" cylinder/2000 PSI pump = 3.1 tons
2" cylinder/4000 PSI pump = 6.2 tons

Two 2" cylinders/2000 PSI pump = 6.2 tons
One 3" cylinder/2000 PSI pump = 7 tons

Two 3" cylinders/2000 PSI pump = 14 tons
One 4" cylinder/2000 PSI pump = 12.5 tons

Two 4" cylinders/2000 PSI pump = 25 tons
One 5" cylinder/2000 PSI pump = 19.6 tons

One 5" cylinder/4000 PSI pump = 39.2 tons

Made mine, cyl is 4in x24 in, H beam 12in x6-1/2, honda clone 6-1/2 hp engine, got the pump and valve from norther hyd, made the blade, had all the other stuff. Splits anyting buy sycimore, got about $350. in it.

Seen a home made wood splitter a couple days ago. Nothing big and fancy. Just a simple average sized splitter like you'd see all over. The cylinder rod was 3-1/2 - 4 inches in diameter(Didn't actually measure it). Talk about over kill......

LJD, you know your hydraulics. Here is a question, I have a 28 ton Huskee, with a honda GCR 190 engine, 2 stage pump, 11 GPM, if I am not mistaken the cylinder is a 4 1/2".

I have looked at just about every major brand of splitters in this category, and I found an Oregon brand on Bailey's 28 ton, I think about identical, however it has a 16GPM pump and cycles at 12 seconds, think my Huskee is 17 ? I don't have all the exact info, spec's in front of me. I also believe the reservoirs are about the same 6 gallons.

My question is, what would happen if I was to put the 16 GPM pump on this, is it feasible, or something mismatched? Would it speed up the cycle time if was compatible ? I also realize faster means to be more careful with hands, arms etc, but maybe it worth doing ? Thought I would ask an experience hand such as yourself.

I am very thankful to have this splitter, 2nd hand, was within my budget, and I have put it to the test with some dense crotch wood, hard maple, some really twisted and knotted up large pieces of willow,boy does that 2 stage pump shine when you put chunks like those through it. As is this will handle everything I need to put up the wood I have here. I thought the design of these were pretty good for what they are, and that I could put a drop on 4 way wedge and the log holder on it, going from a 10lb hammer and wedge, very thankful I found a deal on this, not many 2nd hand of these horizontal/verticle ones show up, they move quickly, the older style ones like Didier and so on + all the "home" built ones are plentiful around here, but they don't suit my needs.

from the looks of this, i need to find ATLEAST a 4" cylinder then. thanx LJD

Yeah, I'd bite the bullet and do it right the first time. I built mine and had limited parts. Used the hydraulics on a Ford 3000 which doesn't have a lot of pump volume even though it puts out over 2kpsig of pressure....Once I got a large enough cylinder on there, (rebuilt it a couple of times) not a 4" but a 3" I had on hand, it does pretty good, just takes forever.....obviously the larger the piston the more area has to be filled with fluid and the longer it takes.

On tough jobs, the top of the wedge is exposed, like the picture posted here, and I have a large sledge hammer which I give it a smack when the pump's pressure relief pops off. That helps.

I don't split all that much wood and didn't figure buying anything would justify the task.

One thing I did learn and that was to split it the way it grows...bottom to top. You can put a log on there the wrong way and nothing will happen; turn it around and presto.

Other thing is to have a sharp pointed entrance and after a couple of inches put a wedge on the blade. I notice some storebought units only have a sharpened piece of steel. I guess if you have a big piston and 2 stage pump that works ok, but for the cobbled up system, it doesn't work...it just goes down into the wood and sits there....no split.

Mark