How to make a do-it-yourself wood splitter drawings. Homemade device for chopping firewood

Reading time ≈ 11 minutes

Many families, even in the 21st century, have to heat their homes with wood in solid fuel boilers or cooking stoves, and their preparation is a rather time-consuming process. But to make your life easier, you can buy or make a homemade mechanical wood splitter with your own hands. Given the fact that the first option will require considerable financial costs, we will focus on the second and consider several options.

Working with a mechanical wood splitter

What kind of wood splitter can you make yourself

Mechanical wood splitter

All wood splitters can be divided into at least two main types, but they still have subspecies. All this classification of mechanisms is associated with the type of drive.

The wood splitter can be mechanical, divided into:

• a device with simple mechanics;
• with spring drive;
• inertial vertical mechanism.

To facilitate labor, an electric drive can be installed on it and at the same time it will be:

• cone or screw wood splitter;
• with one electric motor or complete with a gearbox;
• there are also hydraulic wood splitters, and although they are the most complex in design, they still take place when harvesting firewood.

Mechanical devices

The easiest way is to make a home-made mechanical wood splitter with your own hands, since the device of all its subspecies is as simple as possible and does not require large expenses, even if there are no suitable parts on the farm. But such a device has the highest efficiency only with small needs for firewood, for example, for heating a country house or cottage.

A device with simple mechanics

The simplest mechanical device

Such a simple mechanism, as in the photo above, is the easiest to assemble, and all the constituent materials are most likely to be found in the household. It can be a round or shaped pipe, a metal corner, besides, if there is a shortage of length, different profiles can be welded into one. An ax or a cleaver is perfect as a cutter - they will always be found in any house with stove heating. The device can be collapsible, and it will be easy to carry from place to place.

The assembly method here is extremely simple: a rod with a cutter is installed on a vertical rail with a sole in the form of a frame from any metal profile, but in such a way that it moves freely. Bearings are not even necessary for this - the movable assembly can consist of two welded ears (with holes) on the stand and a metal pin, which will simultaneously serve as a shaft for rotating the shoulder with a cleaver and fastening.

The problem here is that such a wood splitter has a lot of negative qualities. Firstly, the handle on which the cutter (cleaver or ax) is fixed should be as long as possible in order to spend less effort when chopping firewood, therefore, the device will require a lot of space. Secondly, even with a long handle, you will have to make considerable efforts. But be that as it may, even such primitive mechanics will significantly reduce the laboriousness of the procurement process.

Note. To make the handle shorter, you can weld the cutter to a thick round or shaped pipe, and then pour it with concrete. But the problem is that such a design will be heavy (the handle itself) and this will not make your work much easier.

Mechanical spring device

Spring splitter

With a slight refinement of the mechanics, a spring wood splitter can be made, which will require much less human muscle load. In fact, the assembly principle will not change here and the mechanics will remain the same, except that you have to weld a shelf on the rack to support the spring. The spring must be made of tool steel so that it does not deform when compressed.

Considering that the shoulder becomes heavy, it is not difficult to strike a block of wood - much more effort has to be applied after the deck is split, since there will be a return from the spring. Therefore, the choice of spring here must be given special attention - to make it easier to lower the lever down and easier to hold when recoiling. In addition, you need to take into account the physical strength of the person who will chop wood, as well as the length and knotty of the deck.

Note. To articulate the lever with the rack, it is best to use bearings - this will greatly facilitate the work.

Schematic diagram of the spring device

In the diagram above, you see the principle of operation of a spring mechanical wood splitter. Now let's talk about the most optimal dimensions of such a device. The minimum height of such a device should be at least 80 cm, but if the person who will use it is tall, then 80 cm will not be enough. The distance from the rack to the cleaver should be about 100-150 cm, and this is not counting the width of the cutter itself and the handle, that is, this is the length of the shoulder. To facilitate work on the cleaver, a metal blank or a pipe with concrete poured into it is welded, so that the result is 10-20 kg. An addition to the mass of the blank can become a cleaver if you make it yourself from a large sledgehammer.

Advice. To make it easier to move the spring wood splitter from place to place, an axle with wheels can be welded on one side of the support frame, and stands on the other to stop and level the frame.

Video: using a spring wood splitter

Inertial vertical mechanism

Inertial vertical wood splitter

A very simple option can also be called an inertial vertical wood splitter, which is quite easy to make with your own hands. To make such a device, you will need two pipes, where the outer diameter of one is about a millimeter less than the inner diameter (DN, DN) of the other. As a basis, you can use a thick sheet of steel (10-12 mm) or weld a frame from a metal profile (it can be tubular). And the most basic element, of course, is a cutter made from an ax, a cleaver or machined from tool steel.

Simplified sketch of an inertial cleaver

Now let's figure out how to make such a device and how it works. First of all, a rack guide is welded to the frame or frame in a vertical position about a meter high. To do this, you can use a round or shaped pipe, the main thing is to fix it well from below and for this it is best to use stiffeners on four sides. Then the cleaver is welded to a slightly larger tubular profile so that the cutter can be freely put on the riser, as shown in the drawing.

To split the deck, the cutter is simply lifted on the riser, and by the force of its gravity it falls on the block of wood. But the log does not always split the first time - it depends on the density of the wood, the length of the log block, knotty, and so on. In such cases, the butt of the cleaver is beaten with a log or even a small sledgehammer. You can, of course, raise the piece of wood along with the cutter and lower it again, but the first option is physically easier.

Motorized devices

The installation of an electric drive on a wood splitter will further facilitate the work of harvesting firewood. But in this case, the manufacture of the tool will turn out to be more complicated and school knowledge about electricity will not be enough. The fact is that for such devices, it is best to connect the engine through a starter, and also provide a control panel so that it can be turned off at any time - this is consistent with the safety instructions and common sense in particular.

Cone or screw splitter

Homemade cone splitter

Of course, making a homemade mechanical wood splitter with your own hands is much easier, but if you add an electric drive to it ... but do not rush to conclusions. Such devices are an electric motor with a smooth or helical cone on the edge of the shaft - this is their only difference. Here the deck breaks not due to impact, but due to the fact that a cone rotated by the engine sticks into it. You can start splitting along the edges (for large logs) or from the center.

Cone and Thread

Drawing of a screw cone with dimensions in mm

As you probably already guessed, it is much easier to work with a screw cone, as in the drawing and below, than with a smooth one, since in the latter case much more effort is spent on clamping. If there is a thread on the cone, then the wood is wound on it and it is pricked, even when there is a lot of knots, and you have to make almost no effort. But, nevertheless, the principles of operation of any type of cone wood splitter are exactly the same.

Screw cone nozzles of different diameters

To make a good machine, it is very important to properly machine the cone and cut the thread on it. If you have a lathe at home along with experience working on it, then you can make this part yourself, but in the absence of this, you will have to order it from a turner. The thread can be different, especially if the person cutting it does not have experience in working with such wood splitters. But there are those who have this experience and they say:

• the minimum landing depth on the gearbox is 70 mm;
• step - 7 mm;
• thread depth - 2-3 mm.

Electric motor and gearbox

The engine with a reducer fasten to a desktop

There are special requirements for the electric motor here: it is necessary that its power be at least 2 kW, but the speed should be low, from 250 to 500 rpm. The thing is that at lower speeds the workflow will be very slow, and at higher speeds it will be dangerous. So if you find a motor with such parameters, then you can fit the screw directly onto its shaft.

Sometimes you have to use a reducer

Unfortunately, it is not always possible to find an electric motor with the required parameters, in any case, with the required number of revolutions. In such situations, you will have to purchase a reduction gear if the revolutions are above the norm or an increase gear if there are few of them. But it is most convenient in such situations to use a pulley and a belt drive instead of a step-up or step-down gearbox. The larger the diameter of the pulley on the gearbox, the lower the speed and vice versa.

To correctly calculate the number of revolutions of the gearbox, you can resort to simple arithmetic. For example, you purchased an electric motor with a speed of 900 rpm and here you can resort to the 1/2 system. That is, you install a pulley on the gearbox shaft, which is twice the diameter of the pulley on the motor shaft, and as a result you get a speed of 450 rpm. But the transmission can be not only belt, but chain - in the second situation, gears are installed instead of pulleys.

Perhaps someone will have a question where the electric motor should be located. In this case, the table must be made with an additional lower tabletop or at least a shelf. The height of the top tabletop is determined by the height of the one who will work there, but not less than 80 cm. The cone above the work surface should be at a distance of 8-12 cm, although 20 cm is allowed as an exception, but not a centimeter more - this will not allow chopping short logs .

Video: working with a smooth cone

Hydraulic wood splitter

Hydraulic driven device

The hydraulic wood splitter can be called the most powerful among all existing analogues. To assemble such a unit you will need:

• electric motor;
• bed;
• cutting knife;
• powerful hydraulic cylinder:
• oil tank;
• pump.

Note. All these components are very expensive and such an assembly makes sense only if you are engaged in the preparation of firewood at a professional level.

Diagram of the hydraulic mechanism

Such a wood splitter works on the principle of a press and develops very high power. In this regard, the knife must be made of tool steel with a thickness of 6-10 mm (this parameter depends on the power of the drive mechanism). Often a knife is made like an asterisk, which allows you to split a block of wood in one go into 4 or even 8 parts. You can watch one of the ways to make a hydraulic wood splitter at home in the video clip below.

Video: the knife is designed for splitting into 8 parts

Conclusion

Whether you will assemble a home-made mechanical wood splitter with your own hands or supply it with an electric drive depends primarily on the amount of firewood being harvested. But be that as it may, any of these mechanisms will make your life easier.

The next day after chopping firewood, even if your health allows you to load yourself with such physical activity, you feel, to put it mildly, not very good. Everyone who has ever chopped firewood remembers this feeling - the hands do not rise, the back splits. What can we say when you have to prepare for winter! Before the start of the season, it is necessary to chop at least 5-6 cubes of logs. Not everyone has assistants ready to help out and do the hard work for you. For such cases, a separate tool for chopping firewood with a foot pedal has long been invented. It significantly reduces the load on the back and arms, while increasing productivity. Is it possible to make such a tool with your own hands, what you need to know about the design of the cleaver and the nuances of its use, we will tell in this review of the editorial site.

The basis of wood splitters of any type: mechanical, electric, gasoline - is based on the same principle. All of them consist of a cleaver, with a sharp blade sharpened to about 30˚, and a mechanism that sets it in motion. Moreover, the ways of creating this force can be different: piston thrust, and maybe physical effort created by a person. By the way, mechanical hand-drawn cleavers also exist.

Such a cleaver is one of the simplest devices designed for mechanically chopping firewood. Consider all the variations of devices in more detail.

For your information! The weight of the "head" of a traditional manual cleaver usually starts at three kg.

Mechanical devices for chopping firewood: from the simplest nozzles to lever models

Most often, two types of mechanical wood splitters are used in home workshops: spring and gear. Consider the designs of their main ones in order to decide which device will be easier to make at home.

Advice! For some types of work, you can get by with a conventional wood chipper. Crushers usually consist of a protective casing, a delimiter strip, a sieve, a body, most often equipped with an electric drive.

So, consider the types of mechanical wood splitters:

• Spring. The principle of operation is based on the reverse energy of a compressed spring. Usually there is a pedal or lever. Working with such a mechanism requires physical effort of a person.

The version of the cleaver in the photo consists of a metal frame. The design must be equipped with supports. The boom acts as a lever, the system is hinged. She, as seen in the photo, relies on a spring, which is sandwiched between two cups. On the other side of the lever is a cleaver and a handle.

Important! The design of the frame must be such as to prevent possible tipping of the cleaver.

This design has a number of advantages:

• does not require connection to electricity;
• simplicity of design;
• available materials;
• allows you to cut logs of different sizes.

Among the minuses is the mandatory control over the condition of the fasteners of the cleaver, the exact calculation of the length of the lever mechanism. Otherwise, you may get injured.

Let's return to the discussion of types of mechanical wood splitters. So, the second type remains.

• Geared. In this case, the cleaver is driven by a gear and a gear wheel. Sometimes this type of wood splitter is called rack and pinion, since its mechanism includes a long rail equipped with a gear or worm gear.

For your information! The wood splitter can be with two different types of blades: flat. It cuts a log into 2 parts and a cruciform one. In this case, the log is decomposed into 4 parts.

Mechanical for chopping firewood are distinguished by their compactness. Usually, home craftsmen prefer foot-operated devices. They are more secure.

Electric firewood splitter

Electric wood splitters are more advanced units. They can be both vertical and horizontal. Most often they work with a cone nozzle, which is simply drilled into the log. It makes sense to use such aggregates for large volumes of wood harvesting.

Vertical wood splitters are considered the safest. However, despite all the convenience, there is one caveat, the machines operate on a voltage of 320 volts. In addition, any unit requires a certain skill to work. It is important to ensure the free movement of all mechanisms, to carry out regular maintenance to prevent jamming and damage to the device.

Gasoline units for chopping firewood: features of use

Even more professional devices are those that run on gasoline. Such equipment is used in logging enterprises. The operator is only required to control the progress of the work. Such devices are not suitable for installation in . They are quite large and noisy.

What are the attractive devices for chopping wood with a foot drive

Mechanisms for chopping firewood with a foot drive are optimally suited for home, seasonal wood harvesting. They can easily split medium-sized chocks and free your back from overload.

If we talk about mechanical models of wood splitters, then it is almost impossible to injure them. Such a tool is intuitively easy to use and suitable even for the elderly, in fact, even a teenager can handle it.

Important! The smaller the diameter of the cleaver, the easier it will be to work with the mechanism. However, remember, logs should be selected exclusively for the working diameter of the unit.

The device is easy to fold, does not take up much space, suitable for use on or. If necessary, it can simply be removed to the barn.

For your information! On average, the weight of a mechanical foot splitter is from 8 to 10 kg. It is made mainly from durable steel.

Overview of the most popular models for chopping firewood

You can buy a tool for chopping firewood in specialized stores for special equipment or household goods. Usually they are not brought in large quantities, so it is better to speak with a store representative in advance to clarify whether the device is in stock.

Most often, Russian consumers praise Logmaster brand special tools.

Logmaster mechanical wood splitter

The wood splitters of this series are distinguished by high build quality and amazing performance.

Briefly about the characteristics:

• weight - 9.5 kg;
• drive type - foot;
• working force - 1200 kg;
• price - from 4,000 rubles.

Logmaster mechanical wood splitter

Mechanical log splitter ZIGZAG from Yardworks

Mechanical wood splitter ZIGZAG is one of the lightest mechanisms for chopping firewood. Provides a simple and quick splitting of logs without. By pressing the foot pedal on a steel wedge, a pressure of 1200 kg is created. Dimensions of processed log: diameter up to 25 mm, length 45 mm. The cost of such a model is 4900 rubles.

Mechanical log splitter ZIGZAG from Yardworks

Cleaver Hecht 6 with a foot drive of the popular manufacturer of municipal equipment and special tools Hecht

A handy tool for those cases when you urgently need to prepare firewood. All elements are made of hardened steel.

According to consumer reviews, the device is practically trouble-free in operation and copes even with damp firewood. However, remember, it can lead to rotting of wood, in addition, such canvases greatly lose volume as they dry.

Wood splitter Hecht 6 with foot drive

How to make a homemade hydraulic wood splitter: drawing and step by step guide

Simple schemes for making a wood splitter with your own hands can be found on the Internet. The easiest way is to create a spring mechanism. Here are some schemes (both the entire unit and the cleaver) that may be in operation.

However, many craftsmen set themselves an even more difficult task - to create a hydraulic wood splitter. Let's help with that too. We offer you an overview photo-instruction for the manufacture of such a unit.

Advice! Log feeding speed to the hydraulic cleaver blade is up to 5 cm/s.

After you have decided on the drawing, studied the photo of the hydraulic wood splitter with your own hands, you will need a small overview photo instruction:

Illustration	Action Description
	The first stage is the manufacture of the frame. In our case, the rear suspension from a Volkswagen Golf car was taken as the basis. The device turned out to be mobile.
	From above, 2 U-shaped channels are welded to the base as guides. In some cases, metal corners can also be used to strengthen the frame.
	At the back, a platform is welded to the hanger, on which the engine and other working elements are located. The oil pump ensures trouble-free operation of the machine.
	The knife has a very interesting design. It is able to cut logs into 4 even pieces. The nozzle may be removable.
	The device has a universal device and allows you to quickly cope with a large amount of firewood. In addition, it can be transferred from place to place.

And if you want to know more details about the hydraulic cutter for firewood, watch this video.

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:

1. For regular preparation of a large amount of firewood for heating a large house in a harsh climate;
2. The same, but the house is small and/or located in a place with mild winters, i.e. little firewood is required;
3. For the occasional preparation of firewood as an additional fuel (for example, for coal) or for heating utility rooms;
4. For episodic preparation of firewood for decorative heating appliances (eg a fireplace) or for heating a weekend winter cottage.

Hit or push?

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

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

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

Why don't hit

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

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

It doesn't get easier

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

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

But what is not necessary

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

When you need a lot of firewood

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

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

More about security

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

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 cross-layered, 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. The device diagram, appearance and 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 make a vertical-type hydraulic wood splitter with your own hands, see the video below:

Video: vertical type hydraulic wood splitter

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

Make or buy?

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

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

If you still do

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

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

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

Cleaver

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

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

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

Rack

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

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

The main disadvantage of a rack-and-pinion wood splitter is a bad external characteristic 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 logs for firewood in milder climates or for heating a small building, a screw wood splitter is most suitable. Its performance is low; using it requires a certain skill and fairly strong hands. But, contrary to popular belief, a screw wood splitter is not very sensitive to block defects, because. its working body splits the tree, screwing into it and sawing. As a result, the screw wood splitter is also economical: with a 2.5-3 kW motor, it can chop blocks up to 40 cm in diameter and 60 cm in height; with 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. The grip on the part of the churak under the right hand will weaken and will not turn the cleaver up, and the grip on the left side will press it to the stop. If the drive and the drive shaft cage are made correctly, the mechanism will stop and the situation will not develop to a menacing one.

Drive unit

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

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

Shaft support

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

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

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

screw-carrot

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

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

On the left, the usual design with a sawtooth profile thread: sawdust and small chips gives quite a lot, it does not overcome 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 both helical cleavers 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 block. How to make a lever splitter with improved kinematics yourself, see next. video:

Video: firewood cleaver on a spring

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

When firewood helps

Butt parts of woods and, especially, stumps from uprooting, as you know, give a lot of heat when burned. You can buy them for firewood inexpensively, and in some places in Russia 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 no more than 60 cm in diameter, then the resulting logs will fit in the furnace furnace. Their transverse dimensions are not optimal for the most economical combustion, but the fuel is also waste.

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

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

When firewood is sometimes needed

That is, for heating a 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 the wood of fruit trees is already difficult and does not always work. 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.

There are several types of wood splitter designs. The differences between them are significant. They differ in the complexity of manufacturing the structure, in the degree of safety when working with them, in the convenience and speed of work. Consider in detail each type of wood splitter separately.

Manual wood splitter crowbar

This wood splitter is the easiest to manufacture. The principle of its operation is based on the energy of hitting the cleaver with a heavy object. The effect is almost the same as if you put an ax on a log and hit the butt of the ax with a sledgehammer. But this crowbar is more convenient to work with and the speed of work is higher.

Its advantage is that it is safe to use, easy to manufacture, and takes up little space. Does not require the delivery of each log to it. With it it will be convenient to move from one log to another. While working with it, the back remains straight, which is important when chopping large volume firewood. No need to bend over each log to split it.

But it requires the use of human physical strength and during operation it makes a loud metallic sound. To protect against sound, you will have to work with headphones.

Scrap-cleaver consists of only two parts. The first part is directly a cleaver with a guide tube, and the second part is shock. The shock part can be external, that is, wrap around the guide pipe, or internal - enter the inside of the guide pipe. For this cleaver to be effective, one rule must be observed in its manufacture. The part of the cleaver with the guide and the blade should be as light as possible, and the impact part as heavy as possible, but within reasonable limits, since the impact part will have to be raised manually. The greater the difference in mass between these two parts, the higher the efficiency of the cleaver.

In the manufacture of a scrap splitter, the main thing is to observe the rule of a large difference in the masses of the parts of the splitter and maintain a sufficient stroke length of the shock part to create a strong blow. This length should be approximately 50-60cm.

To make the first part of the cleaver as light as possible, you need to use a thin-walled pipe as a guide and make the cleaver blade narrow.

If during the impact the vibration is transmitted to the hands, then it can be significantly reduced if the handles are made of wood. If the handles are made of metal, then they need to be welded onto the heaviest and most massive impact part, this will also help reduce vibration.

To smooth the stroke of the shock part and reduce the sound of metal parts rubbing against each other, a polypropylene pipe should be used between these parts.

To avoid rapid riveting of the metal at the point of impact of the two parts of the crowbar, the contact patch between them should not be too small.

For convenience, work with a scrap-cleaver of logs should be placed inside the old automobile wheel. This will prevent the split pieces from flying off the logs and they will always be in the same position.

Mechanical wood splitter on a spring.

This wood splitter, like the crowbar, uses the physical strength of a person. But physical strength is needed a little, only to unbalance the balancer with the cleaver. This wood splitter is a little more difficult to manufacture than a crowbar, but more effective.

The force that needs to be applied to split the logs is directed downwards, so there is practically no load on the back. Compared to a crowbar, it requires significantly less physical effort. The impact power depends not only on the physical strength of a person, but also on the mass of the cleaver. With this wood splitter, you can make a fairly powerful blow that will split almost any log. Pretty high performance.

But this wood splitter has large dimensions and weight. Traumatic, but no more than an ordinary ax. Requires the delivery of each log to it. A little more difficult to make than a crowbar.

The principle of operation of this wood splitter is based on the impact of a cleaver blade with a large mass. The task of a person is to bring the wood splitter's shoulder out of balance, that is, by moving down, you need to move the blade of the cleaver, and because of its large mass, it will go further by inertia. The return of the wood splitter arm to its original position occurs automatically by a spring.

Construction drawings of a wood splitter. Important points.

The drawings below show a wood splitter on a spring. In its manufacture, all pipes can be replaced with any others, the main thing is that there is enough structural rigidity. Instead of one thick-walled pipe with a section of 40x60x6 mm, two pipes welded together with a smaller wall thickness and a different section can be used.

The impact force of a given cleaver depends on the mass of its moving part. The greater the mass of the cleaver with the load, the greater the impact energy. The load can be collected from any heavy metal parts, for example, two pieces of rails can be welded. The main thing is that the load is as large as possible, ideally, it is necessary that the cleaver with the load weigh 50-55 kg.

The spring must be strong enough to keep the shoulder of the cleaver in a horizontal position. That is, there must be a balance between the mass of the cleaver with the load and the compression force of the spring. If there is not enough spring force, then you can add a second spring of smaller diameter by simply inserting it inside the first spring. The spring can be taken from the car, the approximate diameter of the spring is 110mm and the height is 450-500mm. In the compressed state, when the splitter arm is horizontal, the spring will be 300mm long.

An adjustable console will help to find a balance between the weight of the cleaver with a load and the force of the spring, the closer the cleaver is to the spring, the higher the console will rise.

Wood splitter drawing.

Wood splitter drawing.

Frame drawing.

Frame drawing.

Cleaver drawing.

Console drawing.

Bracket drawing.

Electric screw wood splitter

This wood splitter is the simplest among electric wood splitters. Because of this, it has gained popularity in recent years.

The principle of operation is based on splitting a log with a conical screw with a large thrust thread. This screw, screwing into the tree, splits it.

The screw wood splitter has significant drawbacks. It is energy intensive. Requires electricity. Compared to a crowbar and a wood splitter on a spring, it is difficult to manufacture. To make it, you need a conical screw with a thread, an electric motor, a gearbox, a chain with sprockets or belts with pulleys. Very traumatic. If handled carelessly, it can cause severe injury. There is a possibility of the propeller jamming in the log due to lack of torque.

We select the engine and increase the torque.

This type of wood splitter can be made with several design solutions. The most important thing is to achieve a large torque on the screw. This can be done in several ways:

• put a powerful electric motor 5-7kw.

• Use a heavy flywheel. The flywheel will make it difficult to start the engine, but with it there is less chance that the helical cone will jam in the tree. Since when spinning the flywheel, it gains a lot of kinetic energy, and in order to stop it, you need to create a lot of effort. Paired with a flywheel, you can use electric motors of small power 2-3 kW. The flywheel must be mounted on the motor shaft, and not on the intermediate shafts of the chain or belt drive. Only on the electric motor, the revolutions will be maximum, which means that the accumulated kinetic energy of the flywheel will also be maximum.

• Use a gearbox, belt or chain drive to reduce the speed on the cone screw and increase the torque. A chain drive is preferable to a belt drive, as it eliminates slipping of the chain and sprocket. In this case, you can use electric motors of low power, but with high revolutions of about 3000. By reducing the revolutions using a gearbox or chain drive by 5 times, we increase the torque on the screw cone by the same amount.

The chain or belt drive must be selected in such a way that the number of revolutions on the cone screw is approximately 500-700 rpm. At too high speeds, the log can be pulled out of the hands.

The height from the tip of the cone to the table should be 7-10 cm. If you make it higher or lower, then the logs will be hard to chop.

A plate must be welded under the cone, it will prevent the log from turning.

Safety precautions when working with an electric screw splitter.

It is necessary to work with a screw wood splitter without gloves. You can’t work in them, as the screw can catch a glove and tighten your hand. No belts or laces should hang from clothing that could get caught on the screw.

For an emergency stop of the screw splitter, an emergency stop pedal or a large emergency button must be provided. Moreover, it is not enough to turn off the power from the electric motor, since the shaft will still spin by inertia after the power is turned off. This is especially noticeable on machines with a flywheel. Therefore, for a quick emergency stop of the motor shaft, it is necessary to install an electromagnetic brake in a normally closed state on the machine. That is, without power supply, the brake is in a compressed state, when power is applied, the brake releases the shaft. Therefore, if the power is turned off, the brake will work and stop the motor shaft.

Logs to the cone wedge should only be fed vertically.

Electromechanical wood splitter with pusher and reducer.

This type of wood splitter is quite massive and energy-consuming. The cost of its manufacture is high, as it implies the presence of a powerful gearbox, but its performance is greater than that of a screw wood splitter.

The principle of operation of the wood splitter is based on a connecting rod mechanism. The gearbox turns the connecting rod, which slides along its guide towards the knife. The gearbox creates a fairly large force that can split almost any log.

Choice gearbox, motor and pulley diameters.

The gearbox can be used with a gear ratio of at least 1:20, but a gearbox with a ratio of 1:40 or higher is best suited. But not every gearbox with such a gear ratio is suitable. You need a gearbox that can withstand a lot of torque and not break. Therefore, when choosing a gearbox, you should pay attention to the diameter of the output shaft. It must be at least 40mm.

The number of revolutions on the output shaft of the gearbox should be within 11-14 rpm. To get such speed, you need an engine with a speed of 950 rpm and a gearbox with a gear ratio of 1:70. We get the speed of the output shaft of the gearbox 950 \\ 70 \u003d 13.5 rpm. If the engine and gearbox have different parameters, then to reduce the speed, it will be necessary to make an additional belt drive between the engine and the gearbox.

For example, a 1500 rpm motor and a gearbox with a gear ratio of 1:30. Calculate the diameters of the belt pulleys.

We consider to what speed the gearbox lowers. To do this, we divide the engine speed by the gear ratio of the gearbox. 1500 \ 30 \u003d 50 rpm. And we need speed in the range of 11-14 rpm. Therefore, it is necessary to additionally install a belt drive. Let's calculate what gear ratio should be on the pulleys to get 11-14 rpm. To do this, divide 50 revolutions by 14, we get 3.57. This gear ratio is a bit large for a belt drive. For one belt, the gear ratio should be no more than 1:3, otherwise the belt may slip when the log splitter comes across especially hard and knotty logs. Therefore, either a slower engine is needed or two pulleys are made and two belts are installed. Since this ratio is not much more than 1:3, it can be left as is.

Calculate the diameters of the pulleys. We will take a small diameter pulley ourselves for 150mm. Then the pulley of a larger diameter should be larger by the gear ratio we need. That is 150x3.57=535mm. Also, to reduce the likelihood of belt slippage on a small pulley, its diameter should be taken as large as possible. That is, a pulley with a diameter of 100mm has a greater chance of belt slippage than a pulley with a diameter of 150mm. On larger diameters, the belts will wear out more slowly.

Let's check the calculations. 1500 rpm divided by gear ratio 3.57 we get 420 rpm on a small pulley. Now we divide 420 rpm by the gear ratio of the gearbox 30 and get 14 rpm.

It is desirable to choose an engine with a power of 3 kW or more. If the engine is weak, then you can put a flywheel on its shaft, with it a low-power engine will stop much less from a lack of torque at the time of splitting knotty logs.

For this type of wood splitter, the metal frame must be powerful enough, otherwise there is a possibility of the gearbox breaking off from the frame or deformation of the frame itself at the time of heavy load. The frame is best made from channels No. 12 or similar rolled metal.

It is advisable to make a wood splitter knife from hard hardened steel; spring steel 65G is well suited for these purposes. Flat springs are made from this steel. So, if the farm has a piece of such a spring, then it is ideal as a knife.

IN crank length selection

The length of the crank, and, consequently, the length of the stroke of the pusher must be selected depending on the size of the logs. For example, logs about 40 cm long. We choose the same pusher stroke, that is, 40 cm. Since the pusher will not reach the knife a little by about 5 cm, the maximum distance between the pusher and the knife will be 5 + 40 = 45 cm. We take the length of the crank 2 times less than the stroke of the pusher, that is, 20 cm. This will be the distance along the centers of the shafts. The length of the crank is very important, because the shorter the length of the crank, the greater the force on the pusher.

Safety precautions when working with a wood splitter.

This wood splitter is quite traumatic. To make it less traumatic, an emergency shutdown button should be installed. It is desirable that this button be quite large and in the form of a mushroom. It is always easy to press such a button by simply hitting it with your hand. If you are right-handed, then the off button should be done under the left hand, since the right will be occupied by the log. Instead of an emergency button, you can install a pedal, then for the operation of the wood splitter, the foot must always keep the pedal depressed, and if the foot is removed, the wood splitter turns off.

When assembling a wood splitter on a connecting rod, some craftsmen make a gross mistake. They make sure that the connecting rod fits close to the knife with almost no play. You can't do that. Be sure to leave a gap of at least 5 cm. The log will split in any case, even if the connecting rod does not reach the knife a little, but in this case the hand will remain intact if it falls between the connecting rod and the knife.

Watch the video: electromechanical wood splitter with pusher and gearbox.

Electromechanical lath splitter.

This wood splitter can be called one of the most productive. Its movable knife is mounted on a gear rack, which is driven by a gear. In manufacturing, it is quite complicated, as it requires such parts as a gear rack, gear, flywheel, but the speed of its work covers all the disadvantages of manufacturing. I recommend watching a video about the work of a rack wood splitter and an overview of its design.

Harvesting firewood for the winter is a time-consuming and troublesome task. In addition to sawing, firewood must be chopped and put in a dryer or in a barn. The most difficult part of the work is the splitting. To simplify your life and save time, it makes sense to automate the process as much as possible.

How to make a wood splitter with your own hands, with photos and examples, their various varieties - mechanical, including spring and inertial, as well as conical electric - are the topic of this article.

Mechanical wood splitters

In cases where firewood harvesting is not massive and regular, the task is quite feasible with the help of mechanical wood splitters. They are distinguished by the simplicity and low cost of construction, they are made, in fact, from scrap metal.

The simplest mechanical wood splitter

The unit is very similar, both in appearance and in principle of operation, to a well crane. The difference lies in the fact that instead of a bucket, a cleaver with handles is attached. Racks with a crossbar are connected using hinges, the disadvantage is that the connection will often have to be lubricated.

The principle of operation of the wood splitter is simple - the chock is placed on a stand, the lever is jerked down, the cleaver, under the influence of force and gravity, picks up speed and splits the log. The process is repeated, getting thinner and thinner logs.

A fixture is assembled from improvised materials - pipes and corners, and an old ax without an ax handle is suitable as a cleaver. It is better to provide for the possibility of parsing the wood splitter so that it is more convenient to transport it from place to place.

The design has some drawbacks. First, to stop the cleaver after he splits the log, you have to make an effort. Secondly, the device is quite bulky - a long lever is required to reduce the applied force.

Despite the shortcomings, such a device greatly simplifies the process of chopping firewood. In order for it to work as it should, it is required to weight the stake with a blank welded to it, or a pipe filled with concrete.

Spring splitter

If the above-described mechanical wood splitter is modified, a smaller device can be made, while requiring less physical effort when working with it. For this purpose, a spring is attached to the frame, resting one against the crossbar, which also serves as a mount for the cleaver.

The principle of operation is similar to the previous device, except that the load after the log is split is damped by a spring. The main task is to select the stop and spring so that the greatest result is obtained with the least effort. For the convenience of adjusting the force, the emphasis is movable.

But if it is envisaged that the same person works all the time with a wood splitter, they make a stationary emphasis, its height, as well as the stiffness of the spring, is selected experimentally. The connection of the frame with the lever is made movable, on good quality bearings.

The height of such a wood splitter must be at least 80 cm. True, at such a height it must be installed on a platform or work in a bent position.

It is more reasonable to calculate the height of the wood splitter for your build, for this they calculate the height of the frame as follows - a convenient height for the location of the log plus the highest possible height of the logs to be split. Leaning in this case will be necessary only to install the logs on the stand.

Inertial wood splitter

For its manufacture, in addition to the cleaver, you will need a meter round pin, a piece of pipe of a slightly larger diameter and a massive platform to which the lower part of the pin is welded. The cleaver is welded to the pipe trim and put on the pin.

The principle of operation is that the cleaver is manually raised, a log is placed on the platform, then the cleaver is lowered with force. If the log is very strong, they hit the cleaver from above with a hammer.

Electric cone splitter

The principle of operation of the mechanism is that a steel cone with a thread of 3 depth and a pitch of 7 mm (most likely will have to be ordered from a turner) is put on the motor gearbox. Rotating, the cone works like a drill and breaks logs. Thicker logs start tearing at the edges and then tearing in the middle.

An electric motor is needed with a speed of 250-600 rpm, and a power of at least 2 kW. At low speeds, less than 200, the performance will be too small, and over 500 it becomes dangerous to work.

If an engine with the desired parameters is found, the cone is mounted on it without a gearbox. If not, they calculate how much to reduce the speed, and use the cone nozzle through the gearbox.

The main problem when assembling the structure is to find a suitable cone; with an electric motor and a gearbox, the situation is somewhat simpler. It makes sense to make such a device if it is necessary to harvest large volumes of firewood.

DIY wood splitters photo