Chipper Please help identify this old skool pto chipper (pics)

[Mr Super Hunky]

I recently purchased this old chipper from a neighbor who knows nothing about it. Neither do I.

I hooked it up the PTO behind my 48hp Massey and it worked fine other than I discovered it has a broken blade and a broken anvil.

It is a direct drive shaft right off the pto with NO gear reduction and thus it only spins as fast as my pto will turn.

The original color of the unit appears to be industrial yellow. It has a 17 7/8 inch diameter flywheel that weighs around 100 lbs (guessing). It does not appear to have too many safety features. Actually, it has none!

While my tractors hp is plenty powerfull, I must run the engines rpm's at around 2,500 for the flywheel to spin fast enough (NO gear reduction), but at that speed it seems to chip great.

Has anyone seen an old chipper like this before?, if so I'd like your opinion as to what this may be. There is nothing written on it anywhere other than having a Bondioli & Pavesi driveshaft.

Thanks in advance for your input.

BTW, I paid $150 bucks for it. It's not a Wallenstein BX62 but it was $150 bucks!

When it comes to money, I get weak!!

 

[RobKinNH]

I think I just found one of these chippers on Craigslist. It's a "Machete" chipper.

 

[Mr Super Hunky]

Holy crap, that IS it!. GREAT find, I appreciate this SO much. Now maybe I can find the blades I need for it.

Mine doesn't seem to have the gear reduction like the one pictured in your reply. Maybe they had a few different models or maybe mine is missing.

In either event, thanks so much for this discovery. I was at a loss.

 

[milkman]

Is this the size you need, WOW they aren't cheap.
BRUSH CHIPPER KNIVES,WOOD CHIPPER,MACHETE JOLLYHOE - eBay (item 330377109554 end time Sep-09-10 18:25:35 PDT)

 

[Mr Super Hunky]

Thanks Milkman for finding these blades for me. Yes, they ARE the correct blades.

After RobKinNH determined what chipper this is correctly, I spent some time today and did some research.

Quick background: My chipper is a brand called "machete" which went out of buisiness 20 or so years ago when the owner died. The company was purchased by Schredderhotline.com who currently still sells a modern new version of this chipper.

This ealy older model that I have was known as the model 18 and is no longer produced. The blades (which I need) are still available at exorbitant prices as you have found.

I'm sort of bummed because my $150 yard sale "find" just turned into a $450.00 chipper. It also gets worse.

You see, the very early models (mine) had NO gear reduction which WAS offered later as an add on called a "speed up kit". This speed up kit (which is no longer available) consisted of a couple of carrier bearings, an additional shaft, a large and small sprocket along with a chain to connect them.

Even if I were to obtain all these needed parts and fab it all together, I would be looking at an additional few hundred bucks.

My $150.00 chipper is now getting closer to $600-$700 !. While that's still not expensive for a pto chipper, I'm getting closer to brand new Jinma territory in which I could just sell the chipper when I am done with it. Probably pretty easily too.

The only thing I am going to be doing with the chipper is cut the bottom branches from the pine trees on my property. Once that is done, I will have no more use for a chipper as the branches don't grow back on the bottom.

It costs $200-$300/day to rent a big machine and I don't want to be in a rush because I have very bad joints (Lyme disease) and want to take my time. I don't have tons of trees to do but I cannot get it all done in a couple of days either which is why renting doesn't make sense for me in my situation.

Maybe I can simply weld the broken blades back together, sharpen them and sell the unit to someone cheap as a $150 working chipper is not a bad deal for anyone. Especially if you don't have lot's of stuff to chip.

$300 bucks for a set of blades for an old school chipper is just nuts!

 

[Toyboy]

Can you do what I had to do, and that is get all the branches cut first and then rent the chipper. I spent 4-5 hours chipping and got it done in one day.
Just a thought.

 

[ADin]

I would think you could find a machine shop or someone with access to the right equipment to manufacture two blades if you have a blade to provide as reference. May still be high, but probably much cheaper than $275, especially if you are lucky and can match the thickness/width to standard stock and are willing to complete the final sharpening yourself. Even with working hardened steel, the blades are pretty basic given the right equipment to manufacture. Heck, you could probably make 4 for a relatively small increment over two. You would then have spares and/or you could try to sale online to subsidize your costs.

I've never investigated blades before so I don't really know the odds here, but I would also wonder if there are more common blades which could be modified (e.g. drill holes, 1/4 inch shorter, etc) that could also be made to work.

Good luck...

 

[Mr Super Hunky]

Toyboy and ADin, both are good ideas.

I could cut all the branches ahead of time but that still would be a LOT of branches to load in a day. I'm an hour and a half round trip out of town and it would just be too much for a day or two. I'm talking a moderately -heavily wooded area 10 acres. Plus, to be honest, I'd rather own a chipper. It's a cool and handy man-toy!

ADin, I have not explored having these blades made for me yet. I was told that the hardened tool grade steel that is used is $20/pound. I'm not really sure how that math equates to nearly $300 bucks but I'm smelling a good profit possibly?

Anyway, I think the problem with trying to match up with an existing blade of some sort is that the holes don't line up. I'm not about this either but it may be the case. If so, I'm stuck once again other than have something custom made or pay up!

 

[Dead Horse]

fresh cut pine is going to chip quite easily. For the task in front of you, I would take the broken anvil and knife to a welder who knows what he is doing and get them fixed. Remount them and chip away.......

 

[RobKinNH]

Not sure where your located, but I actually found two of those for sale on craigslist in the western NY area for around $500 each.