Construction of the kinetic splitter

Cool! I would just edit the YouTube video to have a short insert of how the structure works at the very beginning, for those who don't know what this splitter is.

But it has power. The flywheel, however, is a lot of accumulated energy. No auger splitter can compare. Only that the auger doesn't cut off the hands and this one could easily.

Plus for the workmanship, however, I fear that this little gear wheel may need replacing at some point.

>>21842428
You will fall unwillingly and cut in half.

Beautiful work. I envy your workshop and skills. I am a fan of hydraulic splitters. I myself once fancied a sawtooth splitter which is a pleasure to work on, which I show below.

Very aesthetically pleasing workmanship.
I get shivers down my spine looking at these machines....
Too exuberant an imagination I think.

I will say frankly that once the toothed bar clutch has been refined and the safety improved due to the speed of reasoning, it could exist as a commercial project.

There are many models of this type of splitter on the market. The one shown here looks solid, but if something like wings were added to the sides to form a "V" trough then the billets would centre themselves relative to the splitting wedge. I have not seen such a solution in kinetic splitters, and it would make this splitter more competitive. This is the solution used by the Swedes in my Kisa-Super Kombi I presented above, and it really does make work a lot easier.

What you do is, for me, technical artistry; I really like it when an idea is transferred into "material" and in such an elegant way.
Your counterpart in electronics is, in my opinion, my colleague @tytka; he also creates masterpieces, even small masterpieces.
A big plus from me.

@Sqerty a lot of ingenuity and a lot of work, but for that a work of art was created.

Friend by chance this topic was displayed to me and out of curiosity I entered here. I have an orchard so I have some wood. Let me put it this way, you didn't check the market and reinvented the wheel only others have already made the round you square. Why reinvent something that is already proven. I wouldn't even go near it and I don't even think about the work involved. Look at how it works - you push it in and it immediately hits the block with maximum force and high speed, let it bounce or your hand will be crippled. The design is also on some teeth. All in all, in tractors or machines they could have given some teeth instead of hydraulic cylinders too, but they didn't for a simple reason. Hydraulics are irreplaceable, they are very strong, durable and have more advantages than any other solution.

I have the equipment because as I mentioned I have apple wood. Blocks like you have are made with an axe for relaxation (my grandfather took wood from the forest all his life and chopped it with an axe, which is why he lived for almost 100 years) so you would be healthier and safer splitting it with an axe because it's birch pine. I would give you a log from an apple tree trunk and your splitting machine would break its teeth.

I bought mine from a man who did this kind of DIY but he had a clue and there is a motor that drives the hydraulics.

There the cylinder moves at the correct speed the operator can see what's happening and has time to react even if something goes wrong I let go of the control lever and the cylinder stops. It happens that the carp gets stuck, because apple tree carp can be as hard as oak, so I don't push it because it's a pity for the ram to push the carp into the chisel. It's like putting wood not lengthwise but crosswise and then it's harder to cut such wood. Hydraulics can handle it, but why push into the metal and try to bend it. Get the carp good and it won't resist.

I'll tell you this, if I were going to buy now and I had these two splitters - yours and the one I have (we assume the same parameters, the price is the same and even yours is cheaper) - I would even pay extra and buy a hydraulic one. I have the knowledge and comparison and even practice because I chopped wood and, as I mentioned, the carps from the apple trees are so hard that even a pudzian wouldn't smash them. So the most important thing is safety and your... sorry, when I look at the video it gives me the creeps.

Henryk2005 wrote:

Hydraulics are indispensable they are very strong durable and have more advantages than any other solution.

You haven't seen much yet. I remember metalworking machines from technical school: guillotines, punchers and others for fast, lossless cutting some would cut through several cm of steel without a stutter all fitted with a huge flywheel. The machine that everyone respected had a flywheel of about 5000 kg. It was practically possible to cut with it every turn of the wheel, but nobody was clever/bold enough. You had to push down on the mushrooms with both hands and then use your foot to run it for safety.
I understand that you chose hydraulics for safety reasons, but believe that machines without hydraulics can also be safe (the author's machine needs refinement in this respect). And I recommend chopping/cutting the apple tree while it is still wet, because even when it is dry, the hydraulics can get damaged.

Sqerty wrote:

The splitter is engaged by the pressure of the toothed bar against a spur gear connected to the flywheel.

Hedgehog... So much work, so much material, and now it's all a piece of cake! Why? Because this contraption is very, very dangerous for the operator and bystanders. After all, you are already completely out of control of that kaffir flying towards the block when you press the lever. And you should be in control, just like in a normal splitter built by professionals - by taking your hand off the handle or by letting go of the grip, the machine makes an instant stop. My good advice: don't use it while there's a mishap - dismantle it and forget it! Remember Murphy's Law: if something can go wrong, it is bound to go wrong.

Henryk2005 wrote:

you push and immediately with maximum force and high speed bang on the block let it bounce or your hand will fall in there you will be crippled.

If your hand falls in - it's outright.

collie2 wrote:

Jesus.... So much work, so much material, and now it's all a piece of cake! Why? Because this device is very, very dangerous for the operator and bystanders. After all, once you have pressed the handle, you are no longer in control of the kaffir flying towards the block.

Completely.
Likewise with a chainsaw; all you have to do is inadvertently dock the chain to your leg and you can cut it off in no time.
How can this be, how can chainsaws be allowed to be used?

Seriously, if you don't know how to use a chainsaw, or if you get the urge to cut yourself, don't do it.

If you touch the chainsaw unintentionally, you won't cut your leg off, at most you'll only injure yourself severely, because if you feel pain, you'll instinctively release the button on the handle and the saw will instantly stop. I'm not even talking about the appropriate clothing for each machine, because you are a jack-of-all-trades and you probably hack up trees in briefs and flip-flops and without a visor with a chainsaw in summer. In the video, the OP is standing next to a block being rammed by a flying pile driver. If you happen to find a forgotten nail in the block, or a broken drill bit, or even a knot that pops out of the block like a bullet when the pile driver hits it, you can talk to the OP about "splitting it", even without safety goggles.

I wonder if it's worth building in safety features.
I imagine the splitter has already had a few thousand motoring hours.
What's the chance of something getting out of whack and tripping without a pry bar?
Second life situation - I borrowed a neighbour's:
It's simple - here you put it down, there's a lever and in you go....
It's one thing to work with a conscious designer with a technical imagination, quite another to work with a casual user.
And how else with gratitude %
Is it possible to make it so that operating the handle requires both hands?
Or required holding and letting go releases the drive?

Perhaps all we had to do before was at least look at the professionally made kinetic splitter, which is "designed for maximum speed, efficiency and safety"? That is, as the description reads:

SAFETY AND FULL CONTROL:
- Two-handed operation system (Start-Stop)
- Two-lever safety against accidental start-up
- Covered working area
- Protective cover for the work table
- Safe and comfortable operation even for less experienced users.

When it comes to safety, the video below shows the boss of all bosses. I often go back to this video to improve my mood

collie2 wrote:

kinetic operator - capo tutti capi kinetic earmuffs and safety glasses has? Ma.

At the cut in the 5th minute of the video you can see that he should still have at least crotch protectors.

What a stunner.

In the States, they reportedly call it 'The wheel of death'. And rightly so. More action with this invention below.

Andrzej_Tomaszewski wrote:

I am in favour of hydraulic splitters.

The author's splitter, despite using kinetic energy, works like a hydraulic one and not like "the wheel of death".

As an aside - I'm curious Fellow @Sqerty did you do any design "on paper" for this or did everything "in your head" just arise ?

Erbit wrote:

it works like a hydraulic

As far as the splitting method is concerned, i.e. pushing the billet onto the wedge, you are right but that is where the similarities end. What the kinetic splitter, on the other hand, has in common with the "wheel of death" is the lack of control over the splitting process itself due to its "instantaneous" nature and the inability to stop, back off/abandon when something goes wrong. On a kinetic one you put a knotty dry log or unintentionally lay across and move the handle it's gone, there's no turning back and you watch what happens. The most benign situation will be when the teeth in the machine fly. Most hydraulic splitters are accused of being slow. It depends. Look how my Kisa Super-Kombi >>21842581 works. When needed- it peels right off at 4.

First of all, I would like to congratulate my colleague Sqerty for his very cool ideas and willingness to make videos and for his hard work. I am always interested to see people who, like me, like to tinker and build something out of something.

As for the splitter, with my kinetic I have eaten my teeth on it,in a few points I will try to outline my problems I have had it (and maybe suggestions, thoughts, what strikes my eye or what I would improve ).

1 The blade , what steel did you use - I the equivalent of hardox 500 , which makes the cutting knife really sharp and I don't have to sharpen it every now and then.

2 Piston base - I don't see any play there, more than once I've had a log or bark get between the base and the I-beam and block the piston retraction.

3 Toothed bar - I used an M4 module made from C45 steel bought from EBMiA.co.uk, I think - not hardened, and I'll tell you why later.

4 Trigger - or rather pressure roller , I did as you did - except that I don't have a lathe so like a closer thick walled tube I ground with various inventions on a drill to fit the bearings into it and it holds , but as I think I gave more bearings.

A strong trigger mount is of huge importance , poor pressure , play between the shaft teeth and the slat will cause them to wear quickly - and the loads are high.

5 The pinion shaft - this is simply a tragedy I had an unhardened one made of C45 steel milled into the shaft. From a knotty tree it lost its teeth after a few hours of use. Making such a shaft was bordering on the miraculous, only one craftsman made such a shaft at a decent price - as some business jans wanted 2000 zloty for one - can you believe it?!
The steel that was used was 40HM (and here it was important that it was hardened). And it was a shot in 10, after hours of working with normal or knotty wood there is no sign of wear on the teeth. In my opinion, it is better to risk the teeth on a toothed bar than on a shaft.

On the other hand mate, what steel was used in your gear wheel ?

6 Flywheel - why only one ? I have 2 wheels with similar weights each around 55kg, I think an even load on each side is important. I would forget to add, turning such a 40 cm diameter wheel will not be cheap either, I managed to buy one on the cheap.

8 Engine - What rpm does it have (as we know 3 KW)? At my place there is a petrol Chinese fake honda 6.5 HP with a reducer giving 1800rpm (without it 3600rpm max). AI tells me that this 6.5HP is about 4.8 kW.
Jenak I probably don't use higher revs like 900-1200 (it's halfway up the throttle control lever) due to the fact that the faster the wheels turn the teeth on the shaft do too, and the slat also needs to mesh quickly and decisively or the teeth get wasted.

9 V-belt - there is no overload clutch of any kind here, I have the V-belt tensioned so that on one side it spins the wheels and on the other the engine pulley slides over it when a tree gets stuck on the blade.
Also due to the overload I would not want to wreck the engine mechanism.

10 Distance of material between the piston and the blade. In my opinion, the block between the piston and the blade should be at least 20 - 30 cm before the piston impales it on the blade. This is simply my observation from the fact that it is only when the teeth mesh that the piston moves into action, and here there is often not enough of this "momentum to transfer the energy well". This is especially important on a knotted tree (the effects are poor when you barely let go of the plunger and here the block cannot penetrate the blade well).

And that's probably it for the more important points about the splitter. Overall, do I regret making it ? No - for maybe needs it is sufficient, but it does have some limitations like heaviness with large knots and crooked cut wood especially one where the crooked cut is on the knot and on both sides of the block, but such I cut with a chainsaw and it goes nicely then.

Obviously the original from the USA is different from those built "at home" and I have this impression that the shaft which has completely milled holes was not by chance designed that way , what do you think ?

And to the great health and safety experts. This machine is safe if you know what you are doing. I've worked on it for a few seasons and I know it. And experience tells me

- Let go of the crooked knotty tree, here you don't even know how it will behave in a hydraulic - it can always strain and shoot out.

- Stand on the side of the splitter - behind the piston pushing the block (don't have the block in front of you between the blade piston).

- Don't keep your hand on the trigger - just enough to engage the list on the shaft (you may get a bouncing trigger on your hands)

- Never put the knotted side on the blade of the knife - always on the plunger - otherwise there is a good chance that the blade will not go into the tree.

Thanks for reading my experiences, I hope they are useful to someone