Heavy-Built Wood Splitter

Heavy-Built Wood Splitter WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Wood Splitters 29-4-41 A while back, I started looking for a heavy-built wood splitter but every one I looked at cost $2,000 or more and was built too light. I finally decided the only solution was to build one myself. I'm a semi-retired welder, having operated my own one-man shop for over 35 years, so I already had all the tools I would need to do the job. Former customers and friends donated some of the parts I needed. One customer gave me a control valve and another had an unused axle with springs and tires removed from a camper trailer. A friend who worked at a forklift company had a cylinder and pump that I could use. And I had an old Cub Cadet lawn mower with a good 12 hp Kohler engine and starter, generator, and a battery. In my shop, I had all the scraps of steel needed for a beam, platform, fenders, wedge and push-plate. I used a chain drive to the pump to slow down the pump so it wouldn't stop the engine when the cylinder comes to the end. It took me four days to put it all together and $50 for the engine. The result is a splitter I'm proud of and that really does the job. (Bob Duncan, 14252 Thirteen Mile Road, R.R. 4, Denfield, Ontario, Canada N0M 1P0 ph 519 666-1709; email: bjduncan@sympatico.ca)

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