Chipper Woods 5000 / Crary Bearcat 70554 chipper problems

[louloulou]

hello, I have some newby stupid questions about my Woods 5000,
and I am looking for some real-world advice..

I am new to owning a PTO chipper, and just hooked up my Woods 5000 this week. Wow what a shredder! It gives new meaning to chuck-and-duck!

I am having issues with the chipper though. My Tomahawk 8 HP chipper works -much- better than the Woods unit - so obviously I am doing something wrong here.

The issue I have is bad performance. I have to SHOVE HARD on a 3" pine branch to get the chipper to gnaw at the branch, and it barely goes in. (i tried many branches, just in case I had some sort of a petrified tree branch!) This is obviously not right. My tomahawk would have devoured this same piece of wood, (and stalled the engine eventually) - so I expect my 23 hp kubby to do at least as well as the Tomahawk ! So, knowing that something is wrong I stopped forcing wood into the unwilling chipper and started to investigate. (Note that the engine and drum never "bogged down" the wood sort of just buzzed at the chipper teeth)

The blades felt sharp to me, and there were no obstructions to the drum etc. So then I read on line here, and talked to a few people, and decided to take the blades off of the chipper and look at them closely.

I am no chipper expert, but I do know my way around a tool box, and to me, these blades look and feel pretty sharp. I took a BUNCH of pictures, and I am looking for suggestions.

Are these blades dull by chipper standards?

Is the clearance to the anvil too large? Is this a big factor?

Are these blades the right size? note that they don't overlap
by very much (the inner to outer blade overlap is small) Perhaps
some previous owner replaced them with blades that are the
wrong size?

I was running the engine on the kubby at full speed, is it possible that I
was going too fast and that caused the chipper to "bounce off" and kind of
just "buzz" the wood instead of chop away at it? My Tomahawk has only
one knife, but the Woods has four of them, do I have to run the chipper
slower than full engine speed?


Anyways here is my photo shoot of my chipper:

 

[gwdixon]

Photos #1, 5, 6 have a metal bar or anvil that I don't recognize on my BearCat chipper. Maybe it is a Woods addition or a later BearCat model. The previous owner may even have added it. The parts manual doesn't show what the inside of the chute is supposed to look like. It is below anyway.

Since two of the four blades blades are inner and go over the bar and two blades are outer that don't go over any bar it would seem odd.

The blades look to be fine. They may have never been sharpened and are long enough to protrude over the chip holes as seen from the inside.

However, the symptoms indicate that the blades are dull. Try sharpening them first and see what happens.

Attached are files that may help. You can download the BearCat manual from the manufacturer. That .PDF file is too large to post here.

 

[gwdixon]

Oh, almost forgot. Here are the measurements for your knives.

Tennessee Saw and Knife - Brush Chipper Knives - Carey Bear Cat New Style Double Edge 70554 New 73554-70080

 

[RoyJackson]

Did you buy this chipper used? I'm guessing you did.
I agree...probably time to have them sharpened while they're out.

Two other things to consider:
1) Dried out wood is tough to chip...I've even stalled out my 30 PTO HP tractor with a length of 5" diameter dried out branch.
2) Your BX-25 has just under 18 PTO HP. That's on the low end of the recommended power for these chippers. You shouldn't have trouble with 2"-3" stuff...but anything larger might be tough.

But it really sounds like your blades are dull...

 

[Gordon Gould]

I agree that it acts like dull blades. A 3" piece of pine should self feed especially if it is green. You should be able to cut your self on the blades. Make sure the angle is right. This is what a sharp blade looks like.

 

[Baby Grand]

I see a little wear on the knives and what looks like the anvil, but nothing that looks real bad.


What is adjustable? First thing I would do is to measure the gap between each of the knives and the anvil with a feeler gage - it should be the same and match with the specs in the BearCat manual. Not sure if there's a way to adjust your chip size. When first got my used Patu chipper, the chip size was set to minimum and the gap with the anvil was almost line on line vs .040" recommended in the manual. The blades were sharp as dragon's teeth, but I had to push everything into it. I was very disappointed.

After resetting chip size to the large end of the spec'd range and gapping all 3 knives to .040" it behaved completely different and self feeds everything I feed it.

 

[RoyJackson]

BTW, this might help:
http://www.woodsequipment.com/uploadedFiles/Products/Manuals/51207.pdf
If you don't have the manual for the chipper/shredder

 

[louloulou]

Update:

I "flipped over" the old blades that were in the chipper, (they were double sided) and gave it a try. WOW!!! Holy crap! this thing is awesome. it DEVOURS branches like a fat kid eats birthday cake! I am so very, very impressed with this unit! It self-feeds, and it almost feels like it is "pulling" the branches in, like there is more than just gravity at work here.

What I find so surprising is that the "flip side" of the blades (while un used) were not --that-- much sharper than the side that would not feed at all. I guess the lesson to take home here is that the chipper is very, very sensitive to the knives becoming dull. ?!? Is this normal with chippers?

I also got a new set of knives, (showed up in the mail 5 hours after I flipped the blades) - they are shiny, new and very sharp. I will keep them on the shelf for now.

So, what are other peoples experience with this? anyone else have any pics of "somewhat sharp" knives that made their chipper close to useless? It fascinates me how sensitive these units are to the edge on the knife.

One last point / stupid idea:

The Woods 5000 can bring my Kubby BX-23 to a stop with a 4" timber that is more than 6' long. So, I had an idea.. If I were to remove 2 of the 4 knives the chipper would (ideally) be 2X slower, but require ~ 1/2 as much engine. The problem is that this will make the rotor unbalanced. What if I put one of the sets of knifes in backwards, so it was not in a cutting mode but more like a "ramp" - and thereby reduce the needed HP of the woods unit?


---Lou

 

[RoyJackson]

Update:

I "flipped over" the old blades that were in the chipper, (they were double sided) and gave it a try. WOW!!! Holy crap! this thing is awesome. it DEVOURS branches like a fat kid eats birthday cake!

One last point / stupid idea:

The Woods 5000 can bring my Kubby BX-23 to a stop with a 4" timber that is more than 6' long. So, I had an idea.. If I were to remove 2 of the 4 knives the chipper would (ideally) be 2X slower, but require ~ 1/2 as much engine. The problem is that this will make the rotor unbalanced. What if I put one of the sets of knifes in backwards, so it was not in a cutting mode but more like a "ramp" - and thereby reduce the needed HP of the woods unit?


---Lou

I'm happy the chipper works well for you! Great news!

As far as the chipper stalling the tractor...as I'd written, your Kubota's PTO HP is near the lower limit of the recommended power.
I would NOT remove or reverse any of the blades. If a 6' length chokes the chipper, I'd cut the lengths down to 5'...

BTW, even with my 30 PTO HP tractor, I cut the branch and trunk lengths down to 6' to 8' for ease of handling.

 

[TerryR]

Lou,

My experience with a Bearcat chipper is it is very sensitve to slightly dull blades. When sharp it will drag a 3 or 4-inch solid log in fast enough to lug my 29-HP JD - I have to yank it out before it stalls. But after a few hours, depending on what I'm chipping, it stops self-feeding, and becomes a bear to force-feed. That's why I think it's important to have a model that makes it easy to get to the blades. My old Bushhog chipper shredder was awful to get into. The Bearcat requires removing one bolt, and the whole top and chute swings to the side. Beautiful!

The blades can still feel sharp when they aren't. And it's possible to "sharpen" them with no improvement - you have to get the edge really sharp.