Logging Equipment - How to Build Log Splitter

Logging refers to felling trees either to obtain timber or for forest management. In forestry, the process also includes transportation of wood from the forest to a sawmill or lumber yard outside the forest. Various logging equipment, ranging from chainsaws to log splitters are used in this multi-million dollar industry.

A log splitter is a logging instrument used to split a log of wood into two or more halves. Log splitters are divided into two categories - mechanical log splitters and manual log splitters. In manual log splitters, the hands or feet are used to pump the wedge to split the wood. In the foot operated log splitter you can hold the large piece of wood with your hands. They are also lighter and make less noise. Mechanical log splitters work either on electrical force or on hydraulic force, or sometimes on even both. Mechanical log splitters score over manual log splitters when it comes to speed. They are much more efficient than their manual counterparts. The manual log splitters have the advantage of low costs, which make them quite affordable. Even you can build your own log splitter.

How to Build Log Splitter

The most important log splitter parts include a cylinder, valve and short hoses. To make it more stronger and efficient, an engine or a pump can be added to it. The equipment required to build a log splitter include an I beam of six inches or bigger, a cylinder, a control valve, hydraulic hoses, a hydraulic tank which can hold up to 5 gallons of liquid, pump and engine, a wedge and a triangular push block support. While choosing the cylinder for your log splitter, make sure that you choose one with a working pressure of 1500 psi. The equipment is either operated by the engine or the hydraulic power generated by the pump, tank and valve. The machine has a capacity of splitting a load of wood within half an hour. Take four equal sized blades of iron or steel and cut each at the end at an angle of 45 degrees, such that it forms a trapezoid. An ideal blade would be 8 x 5 inches cut out from ¼ inch thick plate of iron or steel. In order to sharpen the blades, run its edges along the grinding wheel on either side at an angle of 45 degrees. Take two blades and line them up together such that they form a point. Clamp both the blades at the edge and weld them together using a gas welder. Let the blades remain in the vice, and line up the second and third blade on either side. Gas weld them to the first blade in the vice to form a four-blade point. Take an iron pipe 16 inches long and 2¼ inch thick or thicker than that, and cut a section using a metal saw sporting a carbide-tipped blade. Mark four aligned connection points, making sure that they match the orientation of the four blades. You can use a protractor to measure these points. Cut along these marked regions to form a notch of an inch in the pipe. After lining the first blade on one of the notch on the pipe, slide the entire fabricated blade structure into it. First, attach it to the pipe by tack-welding, and then use gas welder and filler bar to strengthen the assembly. Lastly, grid out these welds as sharply as possible, and your four-blade homemade log splitter is ready. You can use it with or without hydraulic power.

Even the manual log splitters which can be operated by hand or foot ease the enormous amount of exertion required to cut wood with an axe or a saw. Thus, a log splitter proves to be an important logging equipment which saves crucial time and doesn't require tiring physical efforts.