Adjusting wood chip size?

nomad · May 9, 2004

I bought a Chinese 6" wood chipper that has a long thread about it here. A great tool. But I have a small problem; How are we adjusting chipped wood size on it? It's chipping the woods into about 1/4" (?) and would like to adjust it to smaller sizes. How to do? Maybe, I misunderstood and it doesn't have such a feature.

Tom_W · May 9, 2004

We had a bandit chipper at work. Chip size depends on how close the blades are to the anvil. On the bandit, the anvil is adjustable not the blades. My question is why do you want to reduce the size? Is your engine bogging down? You should have an adjustment for when your blades are sharpened. Find the anvil and look for at least 2 adjustment bolts. Be sure to be very careful when adjusting. Too close is no good.

nomad · May 10, 2004

Thank you for the answer. Actually, reducing the chip size is not my need. One of my farmers friends will use chipped tree branches as organic fertilizer and he claims that big size chips (chipped from tree branchs) will not mix/melt? in the soil quickly and he adviced me to make the size smaller. Maybe, he is wrong. Thanks again.

markie61 · May 10, 2004

I just bought this chipper last week. The owner's manual does not speak of an adjustment for chip size. I guess because it is a chipper, not a shredder. It makes sense that smaller chips will decompose faster than larger ones, but all will in time.

I love this chipper - it's truly the most bang for the buck!

Mark

Junkman · May 11, 2004

I just read about using wood chips as a fertilizer and the thread was common with the advise that wood chips will deplete the soil of nitrogen. I don't remember what forum it was on because I visit many. You might want to look into this further..

beenthere · May 11, 2004

Smaller chips will naturally break down faster, and as mentioned, nitrogen will be needed to help that process along. Do you have any idea how he adds nitrogen to his soil?

If there is a way to change (slow down) the feed rate of material going into the chipper, that will make a smaller chip too. If there is no feed on it, then the knife anvil (as mentioned) will need to be adjusted relative to the knife(s).

markie61 · May 11, 2004

( change (slow down) the feed rate)

The feed rate on this chipper is fixed. A belt pulls power of the flywheel shaft and drives a feed roller through a single-speed gearbox. If you slow the engine down to slow the feed rate, then the flywheel slows down too. The ratio remains the same.

Still, this is a GREAT chipper for $1200-1400!

Mark

Bird · May 11, 2004

( It makes sense that smaller chips will decompose faster than larger ones, but all will in time )

Being one of those who tilled in large quantities of wood chips in the vegetable garden, I got a fair amount of experience with that. I had a little 5hp Craftsman chipper/shredder that saw a lot of use and did a very good job, but of course it was slow. Two different years, when the power company was trimming trees in the area to clear them away from power lines, I got them to dump several big truckloads of chips for me. Once I put one load on the garden just as it was. It did eventually decompose, but I was not happy with that because the chips were too large. However, taking those big chips and feeding them through that little chipper/shredder went pretty fast and they came out in great shape. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

beenthere · May 11, 2004

So you just need to change the belt pulley size(s) to change the feed rate in relation to the flywheel rotation. That should work okay if the chip size is important enough to go to that much work.

GregJ · May 11, 2004

I have been mulching and composting wood chips for a couple of years now. They will deplete nitrogen from the soil if they are not broken down before tilling into the soil. I have been trying to stay ahead and compost them for at least 6 months and then spread them on as a topping. My chipper makes very small chips, so in 6 months they are well on their way to being completely broken down. Mother Earth News just recently had an article about using mulch and refered to this as the "Ruth Stout" method. The next year, when they are broken down further, I turn them into the soil and it looks great. No problems so far.

Greg