A Christmas Miracle
Been working on our log splitter.
Last year I was splitting some green Texas Live Oak logs .. very hard and tough. On one log the skid on the bottom of the wedge caught the edge of the log, lifted it and put everything into a bind and suddenly POW! The welds holding the wedge broke. We were done for the season so I pulled the splitter behind the shop and parked it.
This week I towed it over to a welding shop and had the wedge re-welded properly. Getting it back home I fired it up and running the splitter, the hydraulic cylinder was very jerky and hard to move. Extending the splitter completely I could see that the piston rod of the hydraulic cylinder was bent! The hydraulic cylinder is around 2 1/2 feet long and the piston rod is at almost that long. In the middle it was bent to the point that the end that holds the wedge was about 3/4" too high, putting everything in a bind.
We decided we would try to straighten the piston rod. Looking at YouTube we found a video of a guy straightening a similar one to ours. His was on a backhoe. So we went to to work. My son-in-law cut a block of aluminum to go under the piston rod at the bend. I disconnected the wedge from the pistol rod and wrapped a log chain around the end of the rod. We used a hydraulic jack under the I-beam that wedge runs on and carefully jacked the piston rod until it was bent slightly down. Releasing the pressure it went back, but slightly lower from where it had been. We did this 3 more times, going slow and bending a bit further than the previous time. The whole time we were asking the Lord for help. The last time we bent it, at one point we stopped and wondered, should we go further? I said, "Release the pressure and see where we are." and Lane did so. The rod came up and stopped with the pin hole perfectly aligned with the hole in the wedge! Lane put a straight-edge on the piston rod and it was perfect! I was able to shove the pin into the hole without any problem. It could not have gotten any closer.
I do not believe in luck. I believe in Divine help!
The splitter is now back in service and working great.
PS ... this splitter is a home-made rig on a trailer. The hydraulic cylinder is off a front-end loader. We bought it from an old guy who built it and used it until he couldn't get around anymore. The welds are crappy but mostly hold. After we bought it we discovered the lug nuts are spot-welded to the rims. On the splitter it says "KORN LIKKER PRODUCTS" which pretty much explains how it is built. It is tough and it does work.