Made-It-Myself Skid Steer-Mounted Log Splitter

Made-It-Myself Skid Steer-Mounted Log Splitter TRACTORS Skid Steer Loaders Jim Ostry of Bruno Neb improved his firewood production efficiency with a self-propelled log splitter “I called it that because it’s mounted to a skid steer Splitting is done from the seat I made mine but there are companies now making them ” Ostry’s creative process went through multiple variations “I could write a whole life story on how this log splitter came about ” he says “In short as a person gets older sometimes you have to change things to make them work better for you ” First he made a hydraulic lift to move blocks of wood “But then I got even older so I made a self-propelled log splitter It split the wood onto the pile or dump trailer then I stacked the small pieces or loaded my outside boiler unit ” The splitter became an evolving project “Some of my additions included decking This ensured wood that needed more splitting wouldn’t fall to the ground I also added a hydraulic lift deck to raise blocks of wood onto it ” Ostry still owns this splitter It’s been a few years since he put it to use but it still has its place and he’s sure it’ll come in handy again He got the idea to build a log splitter on a skid steer at an auction selling a small 3-pointed mounted 4-in beam splitter with a blown-out hydraulic cylinder “I purchased it for $125 thinking I’d mount it upside-down on the skid steer and use it to break down the bigger blocks of wood so they’d be easier to handle with my regular splitter ” Unfortunately the beam turned out to be a little weak for the hydraulic power of the skid steer causing it to twist and bend into the shape of a banana Ostry added steel to the top of the beam to give it more of a backbone “This cured the problem until I decided it needed more splitting wedge so I doubled the length and added cross wedges to turn it into a four-way splitting wedge ” While this improvement worked well it caused the beam to resume twisting “So I added even more reinforcing which took it from a 4 by 4-in H-beam to a 4-in wide and 10-in tall beam with reinforcing inside that can no longer be seen I also learned from this experience that if you have flex it steals power ” Ostry is pleased with the result “What I like about this style of log splitter is you can pinch a log crosswise hold it in the air and then cut it into blocks with a chainsaw It makes getting a trailer load of wood rather easy I just pinch a block in the wedge raise it over the trailer and finish the split by dropping the pieces into the trailer No manual labor required ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Jim Ostry Bruno Neb vasek10_20@yahoo com

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