How to quickly make a wood splitter with your own hands. How to make a wood splitter with your own hands - accessible instructions with drawings and photos Make a wood splitter with your own hands

Chopping firewood is a time-consuming, difficult and not always pleasant task. But in the country, to which the gas pipe is not connected, you cannot do without firewood. Especially in winter, when you need to heat not only the house, but also the bathhouse, which is often used. Therefore, you have to swing an ax or purchase a special machine, which is called a wood splitter. True, it is not cheap. Therefore, many summer residents and country residents are made from improvised materials. Moreover, its design is not very complex, plus there is a fairly large range of it. So you can choose the option that suits you.

Types of homemade wood splitters

To make a homemade wood splitter, you need to choose the simplest option. There are two of them:

This is a fixed cleaver, on which a wooden chock is fed under pressure.
This is a rotating cone that cuts into the chock, cutting it in half.

Consider both options and answer the question of how to make a wood splitter yourself.

The first model of a homemade wood splitter

In order to assemble this wood splitter with your own hands, the following components and parts are required.

Electric or gasoline engine.
Hydraulic pump.
Hydraulic cylinder.
A metal plate with a thickness of 5 mm, which will need to be sharpened for one bevel.
Materials for the assembly of the frame.

The frame of the wood splitter is made of channel No. 22, on one of the ends of which a prepared cleaver is welded. A hydraulic cylinder is installed on the opposite end. By the way, this unit, together with a hydraulic pump, can be borrowed from any dump truck. It is filled with technical oil, it can be used. The main thing is that there is no air left inside the system.

A platform is installed across the channel next to the channel, on which a hydraulic pump is mounted. The engine is installed right there. All elements of the hydraulic system are interconnected by hoses. high pressure. When pressure is applied by the pump, the technical oil will press on the internal piston of the hydraulic cylinder, while its rod will be squeezed out of the housing. This creates a horizontal translational movement.

A plate is attached to the end of the wood splitter rod, which will act as a pusher. By setting the log with its end to the piston, and the other to the cleaver, during the translational movement, the chock will be cut on the sharp edge of the cleaver. That is, the principle of operation of a home-made wood splitter is that one of its parts pushes the log onto the second cutting one. In this case, the chock should lie horizontally and be cut along the end.

It should be noted that a homemade wood splitter of this type is not the easiest option. Its design is quite complex. Here you need to know the hose connection diagram, correctly adjust the pressure inside the hydraulic system, and choose the right engine for the hydraulic pump. Therefore, this wood splitter is usually assembled by craftsmen; it is beyond the power of a simple layman.

This design can be modified by replacing the complex hydraulic system with a mechanical one. This will require a rack and pinion, as shown in the photo above. When the gear wheel rotates, the gear rack moves. That is, the rotational movement turns into translational. The wheel sits on the gearbox shaft, the rail is fixed to the rod of the pressure device. The gearbox is connected to the motor. Such a mechanical wood splitter is easier to operate and maintain. Plus, it’s easier to assemble, and there are no complex nodes in it.

The second model of a homemade wood splitter

This is the easiest option because it does not have complex details. It is important here to make a cone on which a screw thread is cut. It makes it possible to pull the cut log towards you without any effort on the part of the worker. By the way, such cones for wood splitters are now sold in some online stores. So there is an opportunity not to make it, but to buy it ready-made.

The do-it-yourself screw wood splitter assembly scheme (drawings, photos and instructions are listed below) is very simple. There are several options that are significantly different from each other. The simplest is to fix the acquired cone on the motor shaft. As you can see in the photo, in its design there are landing screws that are screwed into the keyway of the motor shaft. It is through the screws that the torque is transmitted to the working body. In the longitudinal direction, the cone will not move, because the cut chock will support it.

But in order for the wood splitter to work, it is necessary to observe the basic parameters of the electric motor:

First, it must be powerful enough. The minimum power indicator is 4 kW.
Secondly, the rotation speed should not be large, because the torque is a huge load. Therefore, it is recommended to choose wood splitter motors with revolutions less than 1000 rpm.

The second version of a screw wood splitter with an electric motor (made by oneself) is a design that includes a gearbox. It is this unit that increases the power of the installation, so low-power motors can be used in it. For example, from washing machine old sample. The assembly diagram of such a wood splitter is well shown in the photo below.

To make a wood splitter with your own hands using a gearbox, you will need a few additional parts. Namely:

Two bearings.
One or two cases for them.
Coupling halves, if the gearbox and motor are connected directly. Or intermediate elements such as belts, chain.
A solid frame on which all parts and components of the wood splitter will be installed and fixed.

Such a homemade product, although it is more complex than the previous design, is stable, durable and reliable in operation. Here it is very important to accurately assemble all the nodes together, observing the coaxiality of the location of the rotating elements. For example, the shafts of the motor and gearbox, the output shaft of the gearbox and the shaft on which the cone is mounted.

As a modification of the model described above, there is a simplified version of the wood splitter, in which there is no gearbox, as a constituent unit of the wood splitter. Instead, two pulleys of different diameters are used. A pulley of a smaller diameter is mounted on the electric motor, a larger one on the shaft of the working body. And the greater the difference in the size of the pulleys, the higher the power of the wood splitter and the lower the rotation speed. For example, if the speed of the electric motor is 1500 rpm, then by installing a pulley twice as large on the shaft of the working tool as on the engine, then it is guaranteed that the rotation speed of the cone will be 750 rpm. At the same time, the capacity of the installation is increased by 30%.

Features of homemade wood splitters

As you can see, it is not very difficult to make a wood splitter with your own hands. But you need to understand that this home-made equipment is subjected to quite large loads. Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to such an element as a frame. It must be made from metal profiles must be strong and reliable.

Basically, the connections in the structure are electrowelded. Less bolted. But if the foreman does not have electric welding skills, then a bolted connection is the only possible one. Therefore, it is very important to correctly fit each element to the connecting element and correctly drill the mounting holes.

Attention! When connecting with bolts, you must not forget that Grover's washer must be placed under the nut. This is a small part that will not unscrew the fastening connection. Indeed, during the operation of the wood splitter, large vibrations are created.

If you are going to do a wood splitter with your own hands using bearings, then you should not make home-made housings for them for fastening. It is better to purchase ready-made steel or cast iron landing parts, you can use them. In principle, you can order this device to a turner, but these are again the same costs as in the case of acquiring ready-made ones.

Conclusion

So, now you know how to make a wood splitter with your own hands. It will seem to someone that this is a complex design, but many summer residents have long acquired their own wood splitters, made independently without the help of specialists.

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Chopping wood with an ax is very hard work, so many owners country houses who heat the stove with wood, try to buy or make a wood splitter on their own. These devices allow you to avoid the tedious swinging of the cleaver, thanks to which you can chop much more wood in one day, because you do not have to rest every now and then. From the article you will learn how to make a wood splitter with your own hands: drawings, photos, instructions will help you in its manufacture.

How a wood splitter works

There are three main types of wood splitters, which differ in the source of energy for influencing the log:

hydraulic;
electrical;
kinetic (manual).

Hydraulic wood splitters

This device works on the principle of a hydraulic press. The hydraulic cylinder pushes the log onto a sharpened wedge, which splits the wood. These log splitters are powered by an oil pump powered by a gasoline or diesel engine. Their main drawback is the high cost of high-quality hydraulic cylinders, control units and pumps.

Electric wood splitter

Electric (rack) wood splitters work on the same principle as hydraulic ones. Their basis is a rack and pinion gearbox that pushes the log onto a sharp wedge. Their advantage is the availability of parts and their low price. Such gearboxes are installed on other similar equipment. Electric (cone) wood splitters work on the principle of a self-tapping screw. The steel cone is threaded, so it screws into the log and breaks it.

Manual (inertial) wood splitter

The basis of this wood splitter is metal pipe(crane), with the help of a hinge mounted on a metal support. A wood splitter blade is installed on the pipe, as well as various steel reinforcing elements. Sometimes a counterweight is placed to make it easier to lift the pipe. To split the log, the pipe is sharply lowered. The blade, under the action of the inertia of the pipe and reinforcing elements, splits the log. The advantage of such a device is that it can be made from any steel pipes, which an employee of the nearest ferrous metal collection point will sell for several hundred rubles. The disadvantage of this wood splitter is that muscular strength is used for its work, so a person gets tired quickly.

Video: wood splitter with washing machine engine

Homemade wood splitter - what and how to do

If there necessary materials, then it’s easy to make a wood splitter with your own hands: drawings, photos, instructions are freely available on the Internet. For this you will need:

Helpful advice! The scheme of each wood splitter must be developed individually, for the available parts.

Rack wood splitter - scheme and manufacture

The easiest way is to make a rack wood splitter with your own hands: drawings, photos, instructions for which are posted on the Internet. Its basis is a powerful steel bed, to which a wedge, motor and gearbox are attached. To make it, take an electric motor with a power of at least 2 kW and two pulleys with a diameter ratio of at least 1:4. It is also possible to use gearboxes from various mechanisms with a ratio greater than 8:1. If you do not have an electric motor, but have a gasoline engine from a saw or trimmer, you can connect it. In this case, it will be necessary to further increase the gear ratio of the gearbox due to too high revolutions of such a motor. Make a wood splitter knife from sheet steel with a thickness of at least 1 cm, sharpening it at an angle of 90 degrees. To work with thick logs, it is necessary to make a compound knife so that its thickness is at least 5 cm, and inside it is reinforced with a steel blank of a suitable shape.

The rack and pinion gear should be 4–6 cm higher than the bed and located at a distance from the knife equal to twice the length of the log. In addition, it is necessary to make a carriage that will ride along the frame. The height of the carriage must correspond to the installation height of the rack and pinion gear. On the front (facing the knife) side of the carriage, install a transverse plate that will play the role of a pusher. For it, use sheet steel with a thickness of at least 7 mm. Install any hinge on the carriage that will allow you to raise and lower the rack, and also make a spring mount to raise the rack above the gear. Install and secure the return spring, which will move the carriage towards the gearbox. On the bed, install a lever that will press the rack against the gear. With this lever you will control the operation of the wood splitter - when the lever is pressed, the rack comes into contact with the gear and moves forward. If necessary, cut the rail with a grinder - it should be slightly shorter than the distance from the feed plate to the knife.

Hydraulic wood splitter - materials and drawings

To make a hydraulic wood splitter with your own hands: drawings, photos, instructions for which you will find below, you will need:

electric or gasoline engine with a power of over 2 kW;
oil pump;
oil tank;
high pressure hydraulic hoses;
control block;
hydraulic cylinder;
I-beam or p-shaped metal beam;
metal corner with a shelf size of 30-40 mm;
sheet metal 0.5–2 cm thick (it is advisable to stock up on pieces of different thicknesses).

From an I-beam or U-shaped beam, make a frame. The larger the width of the beam, the more load the bed will withstand and the more difficult it will be to transport the wood splitter. Therefore, the optimal width of the beam is 10–15 cm. Mount the hydraulic cylinder above the beam at a height of 5–7 cm and install a pusher made of sheet metal 7–10 mm thick at the end of the rod. Make a case for the knife so that it can be moved along the frame.

Helpful advice! Changing the length to the knife will allow splitting long logs, but it will make it difficult, if not impossible (due to huge loads), splitting thick logs. So choose what is more important to you.

Chopping firewood is a useful activity for any physically strong healthy man. But sometimes there are large volumes of firewood, which must be prepared in a short time, in this case they use a special tool. A wood splitter is a device that is difficult to do without when you have to chop massive wooden ingots.

Features of homemade models

A wood splitter is especially necessary in private households, where it is necessary to heat the house using firewood. You can make such a tool with your own hands, it is not difficult and will save a significant amount of money. Working with a massive tree is a rather risky business, you can get injured, so you should use good tool observing the necessary safety regulations.

Mechanical units that help split solid wood and heavy logs tend to accumulate energy, they are economical, they are easy to manage. In working with such devices, muscular strength is not needed. The units can handle any logs and wood ingots. They work in push mode and can handle logs up to 35 cm long, no physical effort is required.

Push action devices have an internal combustion engine drive, and can also be connected to an electric motor. They are not cheap, but with their use, the muscular efforts that need to be expended are almost completely eliminated. Using this device, you can heat the house up to 350 square meters, while frosts can be Siberian, up to -35 degrees Celsius.

This unit is safe, among the shortcomings one can point to a rather complicated design and high energy consumption.

The reverse stroke of the pusher is usually no more than 7 centimeters per second. In a few hours, one person can prepare more than half a ton of firewood. It is impossible to work with damp wood; it is recommended to put wooden blanks in a woodpile under a canopy in the warm season. In about three months, the tree will “fit” to the desired condition. A raw tree does not provide enough heat, the thermal conductivity is much lower (by 25%), the cleaver often gets stuck in it, sometimes it is extremely difficult to extract it from there. A home-made wood splitter can be made no worse than a factory one, that is, it will have a horizontal and vertical feed of the workpiece.

For orientation, it is worth saying what the approximate monetary savings can be:

a solid unit that runs on diesel fuel and is designed to split ingots 25 cm in diameter costs from 20 thousand rubles;
a machine that can "deal" with workpieces up to 35 cm, splitting them into 4-5 fragments, costs about 30 thousand rubles.

Specifications

The most simple design wood splitter is a cleaver axe. To work with him, you need some practical experience. For woodcutters with experience, the cleaver can be the main tool for processing massive wooden blanks, the size of the ax handle of this tool is up to one meter. Last years the cleaver is made from innovative materials, which makes it possible to use it more efficiently in the labor process.

The ax handle made of lightweight durable fiberglass material allows you to work with this tool more efficiently. For two thousand years, while the cleaver ax exists, it has been continuously improved. The ax handle made of modern fiberglass completely eliminates vibration, painful recoil in the palm.

To harvest firewood in large quantities, push-type wood splitters are usually used. They have a rack or hydraulic pusher. Such a device pushes a massive wooden blank onto a cleaver, which, in turn, splits it into several small pieces. The workpiece feed rate is about 5 centimeters per second. Wood splitters with a vertical design have a greater margin of safety, and they are more compact. The disadvantage of this device is that there is a risk of ejection of the workpiece, in which there are such "difficulties":

many layers;
many knots;
there are various wrong cuts.

The horizontal wood splitter is safer. The worker does not run the risk of falling under the flying wood chips, because its speed is sometimes very high. The vertical unit has a circular dispersion of fragments, therefore, from the point of view of safety, there are questions about this unit. Hydraulic wood splitter:

productive;
spends a minimum of energy;
safe to operate

Of the shortcomings, it should be noted: to work with such an apparatus, certain experience is needed. And also under heavy loads, liquid can flow out of the device. The unit is easy to maintain, spare parts for it can always be found on the market.

The hydraulic wood splitter does not have a return spring, as well as a rather long time for switching - about 0.55 seconds. The time interval is quite significant, because the workpiece can split and fall apart into many fragments. Such wood splitters have a common drawback: their engine runs through a fluid coupling and sometimes cannot cope with the loads. The engine usually runs in standard mode, while consuming a little fuel. Engagement is attached to the flywheel (it is usually hydraulic, there is also a fractional one). This lever is a clutch with a pusher, which ensures the supply of chocks to the cleaver knife.

Enough energy is enough to split almost any wooden ingot.

Tools and materials

To create a screw cleaver you will need:

power plant from 1.5 kW;
shaft with mounted bearing;
drive belt;
threaded cone;
metal 6 mm thick;
corners 6, pipes 45 mm.

You will need tools:

jigsaw;
welding machine;
turbine;
screwdriver;
screwdriver;
scotch;
hammer;
wire cutters;
pliers;
tape measure and triangle-ruler.

How to do?

Before starting work, it is necessary to prepare drawings and assembly instructions. A simple wood splitter with an electric motor can be assembled at home. Indicative in this regard is a hydraulic wood splitter, which can be made in the garage. The hydraulic system can be supplied from a mini-excavator or some other equipment. Performance will be determined by the splitting force:

20 cm half - 2 tf;
straight layer - 2.7 tf;
25 cm - 2.4 tf;
30 cm into 4 parts - 4 tf;
30 cm into 8 parts - 5 tf;
40 cm into 8 parts - 6 tf.

The power of the hydraulic pump is determined by the feed rate, which averages 4.5 cm. Then the efficiency is calculated and the engine is selected, its stock should be 15% more.

And also accessories are selected with a margin;

hose;
valve;
dampers.

An important working element is the cleaver itself. It is made of durable metal (car spring or rail, for example). The workpiece is usually met by a vertical knife, which is sharpened on a straight line (symmetrical wedge). The horizontal knife stands a little further (18 cm), it is spent on the upper oblique wedge.

The vertical knife for better safe work is superimposed from below, the height is about 35 mm, while the tool protrudes 25 mm. This design will allow you to work with complex wooden elements, provided that they are placed on an even side at the bottom. Sharpening angles are as follows:

vertical knife designed for soft wood - 19 degrees (three knife thicknesses);
for hardwood (including birch) - 15 degrees (3.8 knife thickness);
horizontal knives - 16 degrees;
the impaler has an angle of inclination of not more than 26 degrees (minimum 20 degrees), the thickness of the knife is 2.6;

The rack wood splitter is simpler, it is cheaper than a hydraulic unit (it costs no more than 20 thousand rubles). Making it yourself is not very difficult. The pusher is fed using a gear rack, the gear connection to the shaft works in such a way that the movement occurs no more than 4.5 cm per second. To do this, you need elements - just disassemble the old jack. The rack wood splitter does not have hydraulic units, its maintenance takes a minimum of time.

Such a unit, from a safety point of view, is more preferable. The scheme of operation is as follows: it acts when the lever is lowered, then the return spring element will raise the rail and tilt it back. The disadvantage of such a unit is that with a decrease in the feed rate, the stop increases rapidly, and then also unexpectedly drops to zero. If there is a cavity or some other flaw in the workpiece, the unit will be subjected to too much load, this may happen spontaneously, which can cause the machine to deform or even break.

The hydraulic drive always works softer, the largest thrust coefficient occurs when there is a feed rate that approaches zero. If a workpiece that is too strong gets into the feed of the hydraulic unit, it will be pushed against the splitter non-stop, which can lead to damage. For a rack-and-pinion wood splitter (based on all of the above comments), a more powerful engine is needed. To calculate its power, you can simply shift the splitting forces that exist for the hydraulic drive: an ingot with a diameter of 20 cm is 2.6 tf, and the efficiency will be about 0.87.

Too thick dried bark often interferes with the movement of the workpiece. As a conclusion, one can notice: rack units are appropriate when the amount of work is relatively small, the work is done using muscle strength.

For small pieces of firewood, a vertical screw wood splitter may well be suitable. This device has low productivity, it is not afraid of various flaws in wood blanks. An electric engine for its operation can be low-powered, only 2.8 kW - from washing machine, driven on a pulley. With a low-power engine, such a unit will be able to “cope” with elements up to 42 cm in diameter up to 65 cm high. To create it, you will need an engine from a washing machine, the rotational speed of such a power plant may well be suitable. The disadvantage may be that, by mounting the cleaver directly on the engine shaft, the engine housing can lead, and it will break.

In the work, the main role is given to the nozzle in the form of a cone, which has a thread and rotates at a speed of 160-1550 rpm (the operating frequency is usually 300 rpm). The carving is done on the left due to the fact that for the most part people are right-handed, their right hand is physically better developed.

The workpiece on the screw splitter enters it along a vertical plane. During the movement, the workpiece (its movement) is corrected by hands. This formulation of the question does not have the best effect on the level of safety, therefore, one should take into account the fact that the screw wood splitter is a dangerous device. The worker is required to constantly monitor that there is not too little material left under the right hand. If the cleaver gets stuck, then the process of winding the workpiece will take place. To prevent such incidents from occurring, a spacer should be mounted under the cleaver.

The assembly and operation of the screw unit can be affected by the rationality of the design, as well as the location of such nodes:

wedge stop;
drive pulley;
work of the main shaft.

And it is also important what shape the cleaver itself is, how it is sharpened, such parameters will certainly affect the operation of the unit itself. The wedge stop is also important, it determines the safety of the unit and affects performance and reliability. If the emphasis is chosen incorrectly, then there will be problems with the engine, the operation will occur with a high voltage of the power unit. Performance will be noticeably lower. You can not leave the cleaver on weight without the presence of a lower stop. The wedge stop is attached to the base on the right. At the same time, its length can be such that the nose is longer than the length by 1/4-1/2 of the thread distance.

The stop parameter corresponds to the diameter of the cleaver in a similar section (in this case, 4 heights of the threaded part are subtracted). The distance between the shank and the stop is about 1.8 mm, however, if the gap is 0.8 mm, then it will be even better. At first, the cleaver will “interfere” a little, but after a short time, grinding will occur, and the product will last for quite a long time.

Vertical stop is 2/3 of the shank. For 76 mm, the limits are limited to 52-62 mm. Pulling up the workpiece has to be intercepted manually, after the cleaver has entered the tree quite deeply. If the cleaver is already too deep into the material, hold it with bare hands will be impossible. The pulled up lower part will hit the side of the stop. In this case, damage and defects are possible.

The unit must be made in such a way that the cage and the drive of the main shaft are made according to the instructions, in this case nothing will happen and there will be no damage. In a screw wood splitter, the inertial impulse for rotation is carried out by transmission through a pulley. In this case, the pulley must slip if a "plug" occurs, otherwise an accident is inevitable.

In this regard, transmission using a chain is more rational and practical, there are noticeably fewer “gags”. The chain itself has a lot of weight, so the transmission is more rigid and allows you to overcome "obstacles". If the workpieces have too many knots, then you will need to install a drive, which is presented in the form of a powerful driven pulley.

There is a screw-carrot, this unit really resembles a root crop. The unit is simple in device and assembly, you can work with it when harvesting a small amount of firewood. And also this device can saw wood, so splitting with a screw provides a sufficient amount of sawdust. On the farm, this is sometimes in demand if there is a poultry house on the territory that needs to be heated.

A wood splitter with a sliding splitter is another option. The shoulder is taken into account 1.6 meters. Overload can be up to 40 kg. If the wood splitter is stationary, then in this case it can work as an inertial lever, that is, it can be lifted by the handle, and then lowered onto the workpiece with force. If the cleaver is dynamic, then it can be easily moved along the lever, in which case it can be pressed. At the same time, the shoulder is significantly lengthened. The lever wood splitter has a number of features:

it is best to use the Arrow cleaver, it is not difficult to buy it;
the lever is held on a spring in a horizontal position;
the spring must be well fastened so that it does not fly off;
often a spring is passed into a moving pendulum guide.

If the mechanical unit is not attached to the base, then it is made with a diameter that is not inferior in size to the lever arm (a size is taken that is 2 times the size of a wooden blank). It does not make sense to create "mechanics" with a fixed cleaver that slides along the guide. Even if you hit the cleaver with all your might with a sledgehammer, it will often jam.

Often they also use a cone-shaped wood splitter, which in a private household (when relatively little firewood is needed) can cope with rather weighty ingots (up to 55 cm in diameter). The cone is made with a size of 82-148 mm, the angle of inclination is about 16 degrees if the tree has small layers, and 19 degrees if the layers are straight. A third of the height of the cone changes the opening angle of 26-32 degrees. It is best to use a rack jack. A rack jack is preferred because it is very simple and reliable, and is not afraid of heavy loads. There is more work to be done with the hydraulic device, and it is more vulnerable to excessive loads.

One more detail is important. The control rod of the cone cleaver is usually made to function, using reinforcement or a steel grade St47 rod, with a diameter of at least 22 mm. The thread is made in the form of a trapezoid (sewer valves are often suitable, where the steering wheel is removed and replaced with a lever).

You can also make a wood splitter in the form of a saber with your own hands, such a device is also called a saber. The lever arm here is at least 0.9 meters, made of soft wood (pine, birch). You can work with such a wood splitter only with soft tree species. And also in the dachas they put wood splitters of a lever-operated principle of operation for the winter, which can break workpieces up to 35 cm in diameter. The performance of such a unit is low, but to chop wood for dinner, such a device is quite enough. With the help of the pedal, the shifting stop rises, then it is released and pressed on the pedal, so the workpiece is stratified.

You can even make a wood splitter from a wheel, we will consider the technology below.

From the jack

A wood splitter can be made from a jack, which is driven manually using physical force.

You will need the following materials:

hydraulic jack;
steel sheet 5 mm;
channel or corner No. 8;
primer;
springs;
bolts and nuts.

List of tools:

Bulgarian;
welding machine;
drill;
triangle ruler;
marker.

It is important to properly fix the vertical mounts, they will bear the lion's share of the load. You will need a corner No. 8 or an I-beam for these purposes. Then a wedge is made, which cuts wooden blanks. This element is made of steel or a corner. It is also recommended to sharpen the wedge well, then the work will be more productive. The jack will be placed at odds with the lower rack, which must be slightly raised above the base. To do this, you need to weld a few flat scraps of sheet steel. The jack must be well fixed so that it does not jump out during operation. The element is additionally fastened with clamps with nuts.

You will also need springs that will return the element to its original state. You should also make a reliable bed, which is best welded from steel. In order for the support base to be firmly attached to the jack, it is additionally welded to it round pipe. And you will also need to weld the fasteners for the springs. They put the device mainly in a corner, it can be additionally “grabbed” with bolts to two walls.

From the rim

A wood splitter can be made from a wheel disc of a tractor or a truck. Concrete can be poured into the cavity of such an element to build up mass. A vertical mount, similar to a guillotine, is welded to the central block. The disk rotates, and the "guillotine" falls and hits the plate, which is attached in the center. It is not easy to work on such a unit; practical experience is needed.

Security measures

During operation, safety measures must be observed. The energy that is spent on splitting wood elements is quite significant. The spreading speed of chips can be high. Before starting the drive, check all locking elements:

bolted connections;
joints;
pulley fastening;
cable;
engine mount;
knives must be in good condition, without chips and signs of corrosion.

Long-sleeved clothing should be loose-fitting and heavy-weight, and should also be:

good work boots;
gloves;
glasses;
headphones.

Equipment should be located on a flat, stable surface that is “not afraid” of powerful vibration. A reinforced concrete slab is an ideal basis for basing such a unit. On the machine, only parts that correspond to the format of the equipment can be processed. And a few more tips:

when operating the machine closer than three meters, it is not recommended to approach it;
the working area should always be fenced off with a signal tape made of paper or PVC material;
equipment should only work under the supervision of an employee;
during operation, you should carefully monitor so that foreign objects do not get into the unit;
preventive inspection and test launches should be carried out regularly;
All work on the repair of equipment is carried out with the engine disconnected from the network.

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, choosing a prototype technical features well-known industrial products in this case is hardly advisable, 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 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 in the same way as factory-made 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. 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 drawback (in this case, small) is that the power of the motor is taken both on the forward and on the reverse, therefore, in the presence of components (see below), craftsmen sometimes make hydraulic systems with 2 pumps for forward and, low-power, for reverse, see . 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 has or you can buy cheap hydraulic system components from a mini-excavator or other mini-special equipment (these are just right). In this case, the hydraulic cylinder is selected (or the productivity of the wood splitter is determined) according to the splitting force:

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

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

Cleaver

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

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

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

Rack

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

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

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

The first consequence of the rigidity of the initial branch of the external characteristic of the rack 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 (for left-handed people, the left hand) 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 a fatal breakdown of the mechanism and almost always an 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.

Leave the cleaver hanging high without a bottom stop, and even with a drive shaft held only in bearings (on the left in the figure) - 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 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 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 drive mechanical energy in the form of a massive driven pulley of a belt drive. 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 trunnions and the rear trunnion 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 needed. 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.

Manual mechanical wood splitter again, contrary to popular belief, it saves little or no muscle effort when chopping wood, but allows it to be done safely enough 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. The diameter of the base of the cone is 80-150 mm, depending on the largest size of available blocks. The apex angle is 15 degrees for fine-grained and 18 degrees for straight-grained wood. Note. at 1/3 of the height of the cone from the base, it is replaced by an opening angle of 22 and 25-30 degrees, respectively. The jack is better to use rack. The fact is that the car jack is an emergency device that is not designed for frequent regular use. There is nowhere to simplify the rack jack, but the hydraulic one in the wood splitter will leak pretty soon. For comparison: a stamping hydraulic press that develops the same force is a solid structure weighing more than a ton.

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

When firewood is sometimes needed

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

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

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

A do-it-yourself wood splitter is a mechanism designed to facilitate the process of splitting large logs for a stove or fireplace. The attractiveness of the tool is expressed in the fact that anyone can make their own from inexpensive materials.

Device classifications

The design has many classifying factors. Wood splitters are distinguished by:

the field of operation (private use, large enterprises);
tree laying method (vertical, horizontal, mixed);
type of engine (electric, gasoline, tractor-drawn, combined);
method of transportation (mobile and stationary);
principle of operation (hydraulic and screw (conical)).

Homemade wood splitters most often equipped with an electric or gasoline engine. The remaining parameters are individual and are selected for personal needs. For everyone who puzzles with the question: “How to make a wood splitter with your own hands?” we will provide instructions for assembling the hydraulic and screw unit.

DIY hydraulic wood splitter

Most often, the hydraulic system for the operation of the device is borrowed from the tractor. An electric motor driven by a tractor or gasoline can also be used. The hydraulic wood splitter includes the following components:

bed;
pump;
oil container;
motor;
hydraulic cylinder with stop;
blade;
distributor.

Making a wood splitter with your own hands with drawings, photos and instructions will not be difficult for people who are at least a little versed in the mechanics of a hydraulic installation.

For convenience, we will show a drawing of the mechanism and make a brief assembly guide.

Hydraulic wood splitter assembly instructions:

We fix the hydraulic jack on the frame.
A wedge-shaped blade is mounted on the other end, which will allow you to work with logs of different volume and length.
In the middle of the structure we have a platform for stacking logs. When interacting with the handle of the jack, the stop will push the wood towards the wedge knife, which will successfully split it.
After splitting, the springs will return the stop to the starting position.

Such a device is not distinguished by its high speed of work, however, whatever one may say, it is much easier than chopping firewood with an ax.

DIY screw (conical) wood splitter

The principle of operation of this type of wood splitter lies in the property of a rotating metal cone to split logs due to the existing thread on the surface.

Do not try to make a cone yourself. This is a very laborious and painstaking task. It will be more profitable to buy a ready-made version, properly made and suitable for your future design.

To make a screw copy, you should use this article and watch a video about homemade wood splitters.

It is one of the most common wood splitting tools. It is easy not only to use, but also to assemble with your own hands.

Instructions for assembling a screw wood splitter with a cone-shaped splitter:

Decide on the power source of our unit. The drawing example shows an electric motor.
It is necessary to choose the right cone. Depending on the size of the device and the split logs.
Make a plan for the location of all elements of the device on the desktop.
Make bases for the entire structure. The working platform looks like a steel table with a fixed cleaver shaft.
Weld a kind of keel to the table to prevent log particles from getting under the rotating device.
Attach power supports for installation and place the splitter in its working position.
Connect the engine. The device is ready to go!

The engine is preferably mounted under the table. It will be protected from accidental damage and wood chips.

The principle of operation of the cone splitter

The power unit (in our case: an electric motor) imparts a rotational movement to the cone. You should carefully bring the log and gently push towards the cleaver. The cone smoothly cuts into the structure of the tree and splits it in half.

A screw wood splitter with a washing machine engine is the most convenient and functional option for home use.

In addition, it is possible to avoid the cost of purchasing a new engine. It can be used by removing it from an old washing machine.

A wood splitter is an indispensable device in a private house or country house. A large amount of information on the Internet allows you to make a wood splitter with your own hands using video or text instructions. The flexibility of the design scheme allows the use of a wide variety of components. There is always the opportunity to choose and build a unit for your individual conditions and needs.