Low-Cost Backhoe Log Splitter

Low-Cost Backhoe Log Splitter WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous “I got darned tired of having a backache every year from splitting firewood ” says Canadian inventor Jim Forester “That’s when I came up with the idea of using my backhoe to split wood ” Forester’s simple and unusual approach to splitting evolved after he spent a few months thinking about the problem “I came up with several different ideas ” Forester says “but a lot of them wouldn’t work Eventually I figured it out and once I did it only took a few hours in the shop to make it ” First he cut a 12-in wide by 24-in long piece from 1/2-in flat steel He drilled three 3/4-in holes 10 in on center along both sides about an inch from the edge Then he welded that piece to the lift arm of his backhoe just above the bucket hinge A 12-in piece of I-beam bolts to that plate “With 3 holes on each side I can adjust the position for shorter or longer chunks of wood ” says Forester Inside the 24-in wide bucket is the splitting part of his invention It’s made of two pieces of metal from an old wood chipper welded together into a cross pattern Vertical plates on each end bolt to the sides of the bucket and hold it in place near the top of the bucket To split wood he places a chunk on top of the cutter and retracts the bucket’s hydraulic cylinder “I can put in a 12 to 16-in block of wood and it splits into 4 really nice pieces when I roll the bucket in ” says Forester “I’ve got hydraulic controls alongside the boom arm so I don’t have to be in the cab to split the wood The bucket can be moved to the most comfortable height ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jim Forester 720 Ernestine Ave Thunder Bay Ont Canada P7E 1W8

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