Wood Splitter Helix Press

JimDawson

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A customer asked me to build a press to form a 4 inch diameter x 1/8 inch thick split disk into helix. So having a few log splitters on the shelf, that seem like a good starting point.

Here is one kind of like what I started with, just a different wheel arrangement

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And the under side. These have reasonably robust hydraulics.
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First the support plates for the platen, 16 1/2 x 12 x3/4 inch thick A36 plate. This will become the two supports. That's a big ugly thing to be working on in the mill.:rolleyes: Getting ready to drill the mounting holes. 3/4'' MDF under as a spoil board.
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All bolted down and chewing through the first cut with a 1/2'' rougher. 0.375 DOC, 680 RPM, 2 IPM.
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And chewing through the platen. 5/8 A36 plate. I went an inch deep in this one to get into the unused part of the end mill, so 3/8'' of the end mill was cutting MDF. One pass at 2 IPM, 680 RPM.
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One of the more interesting setups I have done. Stack up anything that works.:grin: This is the bottom of the customer supplied forming die. I needed to drill & tap a couple of mounting holes in it. This was the only way I could come up with to hang on to it.
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And the holes drilled & tapped. This is an interesting die. The customer made this, it's all a weldment. It looks crude, but works well and is actually a nice design. I'll show some pictures of this later.

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This is all I have for now.....stay tuned for more.:)
 
OK, I got it done and delivered it this morning. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but these were taken just before I loaded in my truck.

The right side view showing the operating lever, and side guard I threw together. The guard covers a potential pinch point.:eek:
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Here is what I was making out of that big ugly plate that was on my mill. The bottom platen supports. The angle iron is to keep it from tipping over backwards, and to facilitate bolting to a bench.
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The working part of the die. This was customer supplied, it is crude looking but really a nice piece of work.
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And in action:
The flat disk. Ignore my crappy weld, I fixed it later.:mad:
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And squished in the press. The rectangular part of the punch sits in a pocket in the ram plate to keep it from rotating when pressing.

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And the result
And no, everything is square, the camera angle makes the ram look cockeyed.:confused:
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The customer is happy, and the operator is even happier. Going to save his arm. They were doing this on an arbor press, until they broke the arbor press by using a cheater bar.
 
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Very nice I've often wondered about using one of those splitters for a small dedicated press.
 
I have done something similar, using a 5 T horizontal wood splitting press. however I needed to keep the splitter function which is used more often than the press.

I started by making a piece that fits over the cutting blade which is fixed, this gives small platen that can be pressed against, but is easily removed for log splitting.

I then simply use the press in the horizontal position, so far have used it a few times to press in bearings, for this task it works well.

Sorry no pics, I'll try to remember tomorrow.

So I finally got time to take some photos, the first one,
#140 is the splitting blade on the end of splitter.
#142 is the full bed of the splitter with the pushing block on the left and the splitting blade on the right.
#143 is the plate I made to fit over the splitting blade to give a flat plate to push against
#145 shows the flat plate fitted over the splitting blade.
Its only 5 T but it has helped me out in pressing bearings in and out bending and even crushing a piece of copper tube, much neater than the hammer, and a lot less work.
 

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Jim, You are great at what you do. Thanks for just being here, and posting the stuff you do.
 
Jim, You are great at what you do. Thanks for just being here, and posting the stuff you do.

Thank you for the kind words. I hope someone can take away something useful from the stuff I post.
 
I bought a 25 ton wood splitter a week ago and I was already thinking about doing double duty as a hydraulic press. Basically, pull the splitter head off and install a ram instead. With 25" of travel, there is plenty of room for a bolster.
 
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