Wood splitter as a press

[Glenn]

It sort of depends on what type squeeze you want to put on things, how much, and how fast. 

You can get a 20 ton bottle jack and put out 40,000 pounds of squeeze, but it is not fast and you have to build a strong frame that will hold over 20 tons of pressure. 

[Frosty]

Sorry Tommie, I've seen enough of the trailers to turn me off to the series. It's not as bad as "The Last Alaskans" that one is just outright fraudulent were it not a Hollywood: swear lots, contrived drama, soap opera composed of folks who've obviously never lived in Alaska let alone the bush. 

Log splitters can make a fine forging press, a few thousand dollars will get you one with a 2 stage pump and a 20-25 hp engine. They go fast and push HARD. Make your own dies to replace the splitting wedge. It's a pretty easy conversion. 

Were I to give it a try I think I'd pick up a Kinetic Log splitter. They are WAY faster than hydraulic splitters and a 34 ton model runs around $1,800. Do a search for Kinetic Log Splitter" and watch some of the videos of the things in action. I'd link you but they're all commercial sites. The concept is simple, a powered flywheel and a rack and pinion drive. Pull the lever engages the rack, the spinning pinion drives it to the stop and it returns. 

I don't know how the return works, I THINK it's engaged at the bottom of the stroke, not a resistance trigger like a hydraulic splitter or press. I can think of a couple methods to trigger the return if the hammer die hits X psi resistance. 

A buddy and I were running a log splitter for about 5 hrs in the rain yesterday and it got me to thinking about them again. Splitting large rounds into pieces Deb can manage is a very Zen task. Just enough planning, handling and danger to put you in the zone nicely

Frosty The Lucky.

[Tommie Hockett]

Yeah my dad recently bought a log splitter. Before that we always used a maul... that is some work. But anyway I saw it on that show and thought it was a heckuva idea.  Since you can normally pick one up for 3-5 hundred used around here. But this is all just speculation since we are a lllooonngg ways away from needing a press of a power hammer. Just thought it was an awesome idea. My dad has an old log splitter ( we dont use anymore ) that is powered by a big bottle jack. The jack itself is no good anymore but it might be worth fiddling around with. Something like Glenn was saying about the jack. Just maybe get it set to the proper thickness of the unheated metal and then pump realllllly fast once you have it to temp haha.