Many owners of private apartments and houses in modern Russia are forced to use firewood or coal for heating. Wooden stoves are widely used today for heating various premises. To prevent the winter from being cold, it is necessary to harvest firewood.
If you have health and time, you can use an ax, however, if there is no opportunity, you can turn on your imagination and make wood splitter from an old washing machine.
Choice of design
In comparison with manual splitting of firewood, working with a wood splitter is much easier and more convenient. For such work, it does not take much effort to lift the chocks and swing a heavy tool. When working with a wood splitter, you only need to feed the hemp. All the hard work is done by the machine. Before assembly do-it-yourself wood splitter you should familiarize yourself with the instructions and features of the work. First, you should decide on the design of the device. There are several common options:
- wood splitter equipped with a hydraulics system;
- a device having a rack-and-pinion mechanism;
- wood splitter with a stepped screw design.
After all the options have been considered, you can come to the conclusion that a screw log splitter can be performed more simply and quickly. It is compact and easy to assemble. There are not many elements in it, the splitting process is characterized by high speed. Thanks to the screw log splitter, work can be significantly accelerated. First you need to understand the construction of the wood splitter.
Such a device has several basic details:
- frame;
- cone;
- a motor borrowed from a washing machine;
- drive mechanism.
The principle of operation of a homemade wood splitter is very simple. The motor from the washing machine will transmit power to the small pulley. The stump is pushed sideways on the cone. As a result, it splits in half. The structure is easily assembled by hand. However, before starting work, you should pick up certain materials.
Selection of materials
To complete the work, you will need to prepare a small list of tools. In addition, it is necessary to have basic skills in working with electric welding equipment. From the tools you need to prepare:
- welding machine and electrodes;
- pliers;
- drill;
- anvil and vise;
- ruler;
- grinding wheel;
- files and screwdrivers.
Finding all suitable materials will be more difficult. One of the main design details is the cone. Such an item is not usually sold in a store. However, creating it in a domestic environment is quite problematic. First, this part must be turned, cut a thread on a cone, held in an oven and cooled in water. This technology creates certain difficulties for making a cone with your own hands. However, there is another option. In any city you can find shops that sell cones designed specifically for homemade lumberjacks. In addition, there you can find all the necessary parts for such a device. Purchase a large and small pulley, bearings, gear and shaft.
In addition to such elements, you will need to create a strong bed. It can be welded from metal corners. In addition, for the bed, you will need a steel sheet and a gimbal of an old car. It can be purchased on parse for a symbolic price. In order for the wood splitter to be conveniently moved, you will need to attach wheels to the frame.Better that they be from a gurney or bicycle. It remains to find one more detail - the motor. It can be taken from an old washing machine. The operation of the device is impossible without a motor. For this reason, you should find an old washing machine and remove its electric motor. You should use a multimeter to make sure it works. In addition, to fasten the parts to each other, you will need to stock up on bolts and nuts.
Assembling the wood splitter
You can make a wood splitter with your own hands pretty quickly. Thanks to such a device, you can forget about the exhausting work of chopping wood. Work should start with making a solid bed. To do this, using a grinder, you need to cut a corner:
- 2 parts - 1.4 m each;
- 4 parts - 20 cm each;
- one piece - 45 cm.
After that, it is necessary to lay 2 pieces of 1.4 on the floor in parallel. They must be placed at a distance of 45 cm. The ends of the long corners are welded with the letter "P". Then you should step back from the welded joint 90 cm and weld the gimbal part between the corners. Then the steel sheet is laid and welded. It remains to make the legs. They are placed along the edges of the bed. Subsequently, wheels are attached to them. After that, you can tackle the gearbox. A shaft should be inserted into the suspension element. Pulleys are put on it.
The next step is the most important. The small pulley is then slid onto the motor shaft. It is necessary to fix the motor in such a way that it is installed as securely as possible. This is due to the fact that during operation, vibration of the wood splitter is inevitable. The pulleys are connected with a belt. Slip “eared” bearings onto the free end of the shaft. And securely screwed to the metal sheet. After that, the engine is connected to the machine. You can subsequently connect a network cable to it. Once this work is done, you should check how the motor works in tandem with the gearbox. If jamming and slippage are not noticed, the cone can be installed.
The screw wood splitter is an excellent household helper. It saves time and effort. When using it, you can forget about the hard work of preparation of firewood... In order not to get confused during assembly, you can draw an approximate design diagram.
