BearCat Chipper/Shreader Any Good?

[pennwalk]

Every chipper manual I've read warns the operator to not stand in line with the chute...

But if you are like me and don't always read the manual as completely as you should about the third or fourth time you get beaned by a sharpened chunk of wood you will start to think about standing to the side.

Chris

 

[RoyJackson]

Every chipper manual I've read warns the operator to not stand in line with the chute...

But if you are like me and don't always read the manual as completely as you should about the third or fourth time you get beaned by a sharpened chunk of wood you will start to think about standing to the side.

Chris

Yep, I think I'm an oddity in that I read and refer to the manuals frequently. Goes with being a Quality Assurance Engineer, I guess...

 

[s219]

I was chipping today wearing my Stihl helmet with the face guard down, and learned the hard way that you need to flip it up before spitting. Yeah.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I was chipping today wearing my Stihl helmet with the face guard down, and learned the hard way that you need to flip it up before spitting. Yeah.

:laughing:
I did that inside a snowmobile helmet once. Man I miss chewing. Really.

 

[Bogi]

I own a sc5540 and love it! The only advise I would give is keep the blades sharp. After an 8 hour day of chipping, I take out my blades and hone them on a fine stone. The time it takes to do this is made up on the next chipping. It chips effortlessly with real sharp blades. I rarely use the shredder.

 

[Artisan]

I own a sc5540 and love it! The only advise I would give is keep the blades sharp. After an 8 hour day of chipping, I take out my blades and hone them on a fine stone. The time it takes to do this is made up on the next chipping. It chips effortlessly with real sharp blades. I rarely use the shredder.

HA! Hey! you havn't paid the "dues" yet... :laughing: hehe

Thanx for the input, coincidential I was typing in your Hello thread as you
were typing in my chipper thread!

Yes, Sharp is good. I ordered a brand new set of everything blades for it. I am keeping the blades I pulled and will get them sharpened professionally once then try my hand at wetting a stone and keeping them that way.
This way I will always have a sharp set on hand...

 

[Artisan]

So...

The unit was stored close to the beach so the shredder blades were well
eaten into w/ rust. The Chipper blades were dull and someone did a wierd
job sharpening them, plus they were discolored as if they overheated
them while sharpening. PLUS the 4 chipper blades were not of equal
length nor weight.

I pulled all protective covers and greased up all zerts and cleaned and
cleaned and painted all the protective covers. I banged the dent
out of the hopper top and it looks COMPLETLY different now! I am VERY
pleased. It is turning into a nice piece of machinery.

So I ordered up all new blades. The chipper blades were easy to remove,
the 6 rows of 36 bladed shreadder deals were HARD. I started using
a punch trying to punch them out and after an hour I gave up, ON THE
FIRST ROW ONLY! Oh man, I went inside to see if I could order 6 new
shafts and some spacers and sure enough, there is a Kit so you can just
hack all that stuff out of your way and punch out small bits only as I said
in the past.

Today I got that portion all done / reloaded, it didn't help the instructions were
wrong, yep, WRONG, and after I called BearCAT they realized I was right
and they are re-printing their instructions now. What a pain, once I got
it figured out it went quickly.

I did a quick spin of the unit to make sure I didn't screw up, as in getting
the sequences wrong which would have been VERY EASY to do. I got er done.

Here is a video of it turning less all safety devices. I did it on purpose, I
wanted to see the blades spinning to make sure it looked symetrical.
All is well so far...the chipper blades which there are 2 styles, well,
the guy assumed my #554 was the same as a 70554 or 73554 and he
ordered up a set...WRONG, oh man...So they will come in tomorrow and
we should be done w/ phase one.

I sure would like to find a BLOWER for this for cheap!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6gkC5TKtak"]554-test.MOV - YouTube[/ame]

 

[pennwalk]

Artisan, Don't tell OSHA but I have chipped without the screen or cover and it does eliminate the piling up of chips under the chipper. I got to thinking that it was probably a bad idea so I don't do it anymore. My shredder blades are a mess and need to be replaced. Thanks for the tip about just cutting them out. I am looking forward to hearing how it chips for you.

Chris

 

[Artisan]

Hmmm"the long white space" is back....

Oh well, here I sit today w/o any new chipper blades. Someone dropped the ball AGAIN. I was told I would have them yesterday. Now, "maybe" Monday.

Burns my Donkey

 

[murphy1244]

Hmmm"the long white space" is back....

Oh well, here I sit today w/o any new chipper blades. Someone dropped the ball AGAIN. I was told I would have them yesterday. Now, "maybe" Monday.

Burns my Donkey

Well!!! What happened???? Shouls I buy that model ????