What not to feed a woodchipper

[oosik]

I had several old homestead out buildings on the property. All grouped in one area about 200 feet west of my house. Over the years I've clean up this area. I was considering running the old lumber thru my chipper. Then I checked this lumber closely. There are nails of all sizes - everywhere in and on this lumber. Now I have a very specific place where I burn this stuff. I run a big 'ol magnet over and thru the ashes after I burn. I alway get a bucket of old nails.

 

[nyone]

Why would you take rakings from the ground and throw them through a very expensive chipper? Just the amount of dirt and junk thrown through could be bad.

 

[oosik]

Many chippers do not handle "viney" material well. That's where a shredder comes into play.

What is raked up from the ground should never be run thru a chipper. The chipper blades are uber sharp and can easily be damaged by what might be in a raked up pile. Rocks, nails, chunks of wire, chunks of metal, etc.

I've had my Wally BX62S for nine years now. I've chipped more than 8000 young green pines. The blades are still on their original side and are sharp as razors. I probably - with due care - won't need to reverse the cutting blades for another five to seven years.

At that rate - I'll either get too old to do any thinning/chipping or I will have croaked - before the blades need sharpening.

 

[RoyJackson]

Many chippers do not handle "viney" material well. That's where a shredder comes into play.

What is raked up from the ground should never be run thru a chipper. The chipper blades are uber sharp and can easily be damaged by what might be in a raked up pile. Rocks, nails, chunks of wire, chunks of metal, etc.

Agree 100%

 

[GeneV]

What not to feed a woodchipper...

 

[RoyJackson]

What not to feed a woodchipper...


View attachment 758077

Fargo!!!
Great movie!!!

 

[scaredychicken]

The final solution - we quit drinking beverages that came in aluminum cans.

the wobbily pops aluminum cans, get shredded down to a dime where i live every few months i have enough dimes for lunch money

 

[5030]

I sharpen chipper knifes as a side business, own a knife sharpener and I can sharpen any knife or anvil except the Vermeer 'cone head' anvils. Do them for mostly commercial tree companies locally but ocasionally non commercial owners as well.

Things you don't want to go through ANY chipper is any type of metal (nails, screws, bolts or glass ort even plastic parts as the plastic will melt and adhere to the knives).

String vines like grape vines don't chip will either and neither do pine tree branches.

The clearance between the knives and anvil is very important and rule of thumb is the clearance needs to be set with an old plastic credit card, how most commercial operators set theirs.

When the knives get chipped or the anvils get rounded off, the chip quality degrades. Anvils usually have 4 working edges and can be flipped and re used 4 times and most knives will have 2 working edges as well.

Never seen a knife fracture like that in the pictures. I'd say the knives were improperly heat treated. All knives are hardened and then normalized (stress relieved). I'd say the pictured ones were never normalized and were brittle and I cannot believe the anvil escaped damage or the anvil mounting for that matter. I'd be having a hard look at the mounting to see if it was impacted at all.

Commercial units have many times the power of residential units and commercial units can really eat up a set of knives as well but I've never seen knives fracture like them before.

 

[RoyJackson]

I chip only branches, including pine branches, and trees up to about a 6" trunk...nothing else
Never leaves or anything else.
My chipper, a Woodmaxx-8H, is a dedicated chipper...not a chipper/shredder.
I had a Woods 5000 chipper shredder years back that would chip up to 5" and shred. I kind of wish I'd kept it as it was a great implement.
But at all times, I know exactly what's going down the chute...never any metals or other stuff...

 

[Raul-02]

Hugel

When doing 800 to 1200 small pines - the bark will abrade the skin right off the palms of your hands. This spring time thinning of my pine stands takes a month or so.

ever looked into hugelculture