Help With Champion Model 10 Splitter

[timesofplenty]

Howdy, last week I got a Champion 10 splitter. When I got it home, the knurled roller wasn't turning and the old old grease was pretty dried out. I took it 1/2-way apart, cleaned, lubed, reassembled and evewrything was turning as it should.

I printed the instruction sheet for the Landis and set-up the blade. Ran a test piece through it and it split, but very very thin.

If I raised the top roller, the material wouldn't feed.

I adjusted the top roller higher, and (I think) added tension to the springs, and was able to get a few splits ~1.40mm-2.00mm.

However, I'm still having a very tough time getting the material to feed through the machine. I'm starting with pieces that are ~3mm thick, and they won't feed through most of the time.

Is there not enough tension on the springs?

The leather is not soft, and the blade is very sharp.

I'd like to be able to set the machine for ~1.60mm and leave it.

Any pointers on how to get this going?

thank you,

Scott

[bruce johnson]

I would suspect the milled feed roller is slipping. There is a spot for the set screw in that roller to seat into the shaft. It doesn't just bind against the shaft, it seats into it in one spot for a positive movement. You may need to take that set crew out, then slowly move the roller around with a flashlight in the screw hole to find where it should seat.

[timesofplenty]

I would suspect the milled feed roller is slipping. There is a spot for the set screw in that roller to seat into the shaft. It doesn't just bind against the shaft, it seats into it in one spot for a positive movement. You may need to take that set crew out, then slowly move the roller around with a flashlight in the screw hole to find where it should seat.

Thank you. That was the problem when I got it, but I did fifure that out.

The set-screw is now properly in place and the bottom roller is always turning, but the workpiece doesn't always feed through.

[amuckart]

If the bottom roller is just slipping against the leather part of the problem may be that the blade isn't sharp enough. With my Sørensen splitter I found that what I'd think of as 'very sharp' in knife terms was only just sharp enough and what I needed was scary sharp to get good results.

I don't know if you have any experience with woodworking tools but the blade on my splitter is about as sharp as a really sharp smoothing plane. If it won't pop hairs off the back of my arm with the lightest touch and zero slicing motion it's not sharp enough. This is a very good site for learning how to sharpen things to scary sharp, and the jigs he shows are pretty easily adapted to splitter blades.: http://www3.telus.net/BrentBeach/Sharpen/sharpen.html The Book Of Sharpening by Leonard Lee is also a very worthwhile investment for anyone who works with edged tools.

My splitter was in much the same shape as your one when I got it, and I had to clean it out pretty good to get it running well. I also had to lap the flat side of the blade and completely rebuild the edge because the corrosion had done for the fine angle. If there is any patination or the slightest pitting anywhere near the edge of the blade then you won't be able to get it sharp.

If the blade is scary sharp then there may not be enough pressure between the rollers. Try taking the blade out and with the thickness set to zero, raise the bottom roller until it's about a paper-thickness away from the top roller then with the thickness set to maximum put the blade back in and adjust the blade carrier until the blade is about a paper thickness away from the top roller, level it all out and give it a go.

I've just cleaned up another crank splitter so I'll be setting it up in the next few days. I'll take pictures of my process when I do and post them on the board.

[timesofplenty]

Super, thank you. I'll do as suggested, hopefully sometime before the weekend.

If the bottom roller is just slipping against the leather part of the problem may be that the blade isn't sharp enough. With my Sørensen splitter I found that what I'd think of as 'very sharp' in knife terms was only just sharp enough and what I needed was scary sharp to get good results....

My splitter was in much the same shape as your one when I got it, and I had to clean it out pretty good to get it running well. I also had to lap the flat side of the blade and completely rebuild the edge because the corrosion had done for the fine angle. If there is any patination or the slightest pitting anywhere near the edge of the blade then you won't be able to get it sharp.

If the blade is scary sharp then there may not be enough pressure between the rollers. Try taking the blade out and with the thickness set to zero, raise the bottom roller until it's about a paper-thickness away from the top roller then with the thickness set to maximum put the blade back in and adjust the blade carrier until the blade is about a paper thickness away from the top roller, level it all out and give it a go.

I've just cleaned up another crank splitter so I'll be setting it up in the next few days. I'll take pictures of my process when I do and post them on the board.

[amuckart]

One other thing I discovered last night is that if you need to raise the bottom roller significantly -- as I do on a splitter I just reassembled -- it's much easier if you remove the top roller and physically lift the bottom roller with your fingers so you can spin the nuts down instead of fiddling around in that cramped space with a spanner.

[PEU]

Hi, sorry for resurrecting this old thread, is there a place where I can see the dissasembly and reassembly of one of these machines (or similar) I want to understand how they work, Im planning on making one for me and a friend. We do knife sheats.

Thanks a lot in advance!

Pablo