Wood Chipper

[Treemonkey1000]

You might just hit up all of the chipper stores like Vermeer and Brush bandit to see if they have any trailer units with a smoked motor. My little Vermeer uses 25 HP kohler. Now if you could attach that to your tractor PTO with a little engineering that would be the ticket!
If I am doing my own tree work I tend to keep the 2" and larger branches on the good wood for myself. If I am out working at a customer job and want to get out of there I toss it all in the chipper to save myself some time.
As with anything good maintennance is the key for your chipper. Sharp knives and proper gap will make any machine a lot more efficient.

 

[rswyan]

I can't imagine putting anything over 2 inches into a chipper anyway. I cut anything down to an inch for firewood, and only turn the smallest stuff into mulch.

Some wood is not worth expending the effort on for firewood - it just isn't suitable for that purpose.

 

[jml755]

Sharp knives and proper gap will make any machine a lot more efficient.

Amen to that. When I got mine, it didn't seem to chip cleanly. Sharpened and reset the knives and gap to spec and it ran much better.

 

[Cliff_Johns]

If you don't chip large stuff, power feed may be an expense you can do without. Anything over 3" or so, I saw up and burn in the fireplace. I've had a Makissic 3pt chipper for a few years (bought used) and it's worked flawlessly. The limb feed requires no pressure, but you have to hold it and feed it into the hopper. The stuff that's less than an inch, goes into the shreader and that gets sucked out of your hands at amazing speeds.

MacKissic Inc.

In anycase, be careful. Wear good saftey glasses, a protective hat and earmuff type hearing protection and good boots. Make sure the area you are standing in is kept clear and that everyone else know not to approach you when you are chipping, including the dog.

Cliff

 

[RoyJackson]

...including the dog.

Cliff

Especially the dog!!

 

[jml755]

Cliff, Amen about being careful. Was chipping a small pile this weekend (see attached setup). Had my logger's helmet on, steel toed shoes, good work gloves. Alwasy very careful when working around the chipper. I was doing mostly smaller branches, a few 2"-4" limbs and as I was walking toward the hopper with a handfull of twigs, I caught my toe on something (probably a root sticking up) and tripped toward the hopper. Didn't fall down, but for a split second saw the hopper coming at me.
Anyway, made me think that I'm glad I don't have one of those larger commercial chippers that my shoulders would fit into. :thumbsup:

As a caution about feeding stuff into a chipper, my hands are pretty sore this morning from banging and vibration of the bigger stuff as it's fed in. In fact, one curved 3" piece twisted around when the knives caught it and whacked me in the forearm. Felt like somebody hit me with a baseball bat (probably the same amount of force). It's pretty tender as well this AM. Had to go to work today and recuperate from my weekend. :laughing:

One thing about my chipper is that although the hydraulic feed reverse bar is right at the chute, I'm thinking of wiring an e-stop push button into the ON/OFF switch and mounting it at the hopper chute. You know, one of those big red mushroom buttons. It won't stop the flywheel immediately, but if something happens, I wouldn't have to run around to the other side of the machine to shut it down.

 

[DennisArrow]

Having been needing a chipper for a LONG time now. We have 27 acres of Oak and Hickory woods, pasture, and yard to maintain along with our 1/2 mile road/driveway...........In addition we are in a very hilly environment and have to fight erosion with the goats doing their paths and deforestation........

So.......Got one of the TSC jewels that is pretty much standard for what is available from the box stores to include Northern Tool type stuff.............LOLOLOLOL......It lasted 30 minutes, was clogging after each 2 inch branch and the chute made of plastic cracked into 3 pieces........TOOK IT BACK and YES they gave me my money back with a smile..........

Watched and watched Craigs list and FINALLY GOD BLESSED me once again with :

Wood Pro Brush Chippers

$1000 cash money.............

Mine is the most heavy duty 24", a new engine with 1 hour on it, trailer towable.........so fantastic..........Yes I had to get new knives, 4, as they had never been out......Had to adjust the gap and boy does it WORK...............Have tried dried out 2-3" hickory/oak dead fall and it just grabs it and goes..........3 and 4" pine seedlings/trees that are like weeds by my road....thousands of them........go through by just chain sawing as close to the ground and run them intact through the chipper....................WOOOOOOHAAAA

God is so very good.........Dennis

 

[Redneck in training]

I was lookign at this model and wondered if anyone had any thoughts It has a power feed which is somethign Id like to have. I dont chip large stuff just the small limbs thanks
NEW WOOD CHIPPER PTO DRIVE TRACTOR farm 3 PT SHREDDER - eBay (item 260669458661 end time Oct-06-10 01:46:21 PDT)

That is a chipper we purchased this spring. One of problems I encountered was small pieces of wood entering into the feed roller drive belt slipping it from the pulley. Therefore I made several small modification such as covering the opening around the flywheel shaft and covering the feed belt. I also changed both pillow block bearings on the flywheel after on of the pillow blocks failed ($70 for two). We chip mostly "hedge" trees that have very hard wood. So far we have about 40 hours on the unit.