Chipper Chipper vs Chipper Shredder

[Tom_H]

Ralph,

True, The the Mac TPH-122is lower weight. The reason I chose the DR over the 122 is that it doesn't take as large dia. material as the DR.

What was the model of Mac that you had that was shredder only? I don't see a shredder only model in their lineup??

 

[swines]

I'm Trying to make this same decision and have lots of questions. While it appears that a combo unit will be superior to a chipper only I wonder if it is worth the extra cost. I don't know how many leaves and debries I would be shredding. You all who shread, what are you shredding? I mostly trim trees and cut out saplings from oak mesquite, ceder, youpon and elm. They mostly are 1/2-3"'s in diameter, but many oak limbs can be 4"+. Would the chipper make the smaller stuff look like mulch or is a shredder better for that. A 6"jimna chipper is 1500.00 locally and a 4.5" chipper shredder is 2900+ shipping, so 2X the cost.

I hate burning and could use the natural vegitation to make mulch piles, but would also like to do it as cheaply as possible. Any advice? MP

I live in New Mexico. We have a lot of four-wing salt bush that spontaneously grows everywhere and takes over. You bust them out using the FEL bucket and haul them to the chipper area. The bush may be anywhere from 4-6 feet high, and is made up of many multiple branches. However, none of the branches will be more than 1-inch in diameter.

Trying to feed that through the chipper is waaay time consuming. If you chop the stems apart, you can get clumps that feed in large gulps right through the shredder. Takes maybe 10 minutes per bush. If you tried to feed that through the chipper it would take forever because the branched ends of the stems would have to be small enough to feed down the chipper chute.

We use the shredder for everything up to 1-inch in diameter. Things larger than 1-inch get fed through the chipper. The shredder makes chips (just smaller) like the chipper. We use the chips for both compost and ground cover around trees.

My wife feeds all of the leaves through the shredder first and then into the compost pile. The leaves breakdown about 2-3x faster after being shredded.

 

[RalphVa]

I don't recall what the MacKissic model was that I sold for Gravely mount. I let it go with the manual. It was probably a very old one. Nevertheless, the hammers were in perfect condition. Don't think it was used much.

Ralph

 

[pennwalk]

I have a Bearcat chipper/shredder. It is a great machine but there are times that I want a real chipper. By that I mean a machine that will self feed branches and deposit the chips where I want them. Manually feeding branches is hard work. With my machine it is necessary to trim down the branches to get them in the hopper. What the Bearcat is great at is reducing the stuff you rake up from the lawn. That mixed stuff part sticks, part leaves, maybe garden waste, acorns. It will chip branches but it is harder and slower that a chipper. When chipping with my Bearcat I have to stop periodically to either move the machine or rake the chips out from under it. Any of you guys from OSHA stop reading now. I have operate the chipper/ shredder without the screen and guard and it will throw the chips quite a way but you couldn't do it if there were any people around. Works great out in the fields. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that a chipper and a chipper/shredder are two different tools and they do different jobs and you may not be happy if you get the wrong one.

Chris

 

[pennwalk]

Homebrew is so right about dirt. Chipper blades are called knives and the need to be sharp. I've got two sets of knives. I start to think about putting sharp knives on after 10 hours but if I get some dirt in there They might only last an hour. I don't even try to sharpen mine myself because I couldn't do the kind of job I want on the grinder. I take them to the sharpening shop for something like $15 they come back beautiful. Never burned. The guy always wants to show me how they will shave the hair off his arm.

Chris

 

[cmhyland]

Sharp chipper knives would seem to put far less stress on the equipment and make things work smoother and easier. So it would seem a good investment in time, money, and labor to keep the knives sharp.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Mgray]

That's not to say it can't be done but to have an efficient chipper, the blades need to be sharp.

I was going to post a question but I did a search on the subject first. I just came in from using my Bearcat 554 Chipper/Shredder for the first time. I didn't actually chip everything that I thought I was going to, and the pile is still there for the most part. The chipper just wouldn't handle the big stuff. Anything over 1.5" diameter just about vibrated my hands off. I looked at the Bearcat website and it said that it would handle up to 5" so I knew something was wrong. I suspected that the blades might need to be sharpened. I looked at the blades and I could see that they were a little dinged up in a few places but I didn't really know if that would make a difference. I don't really mind sharpening the chipper blades so much as I do thinking about the shredder blades. There are so many more of those and they have a contour that I expect will make the task much more time consuming. I should be able to do the chipper blades on the bench grinder but the shredder blades look like I'll have to use a Dremel for that job. Well, at least I know what I have to do now.

Thanks
Mark