Adjusting wood chip size?

Taylortractornut · May 15, 2004

Thanks the 3ph came as a backwoodsgift . It runs my 15 horse power lathe and 2 other welders. I wished i had a natural gas foundry for the seel that way i could fire some of my other parts and also use to heat treat it. The last electrode i bought was 500 dollars and lasted 45 minutes. My little homebuilt foundry for aluminum and brass runs off propane. This is just a hobby shop lol. 7 welders 2 hand torches, one table torch 2 lathes a ,mini mill, horizontal bandsaw, power hacksaw,chop saw,and a small drill press, Im eye balling a 12000 pound drill press at an out of business factory that I can get at a bargain with a full bit set. I work out of my shop when the dirt moving is slow but i really like to use it only as a hobby shop. Folks askme why I have such a hobby shop and I tell them I have a serious Tool Fetish.

nomad · May 18, 2004

Taylortractornut, how do you say, WoW?
We can call you like "modern blacksmith"?
I think your need now is a CNC machine so that you can get rid of some of those machines. Used CNCs musn't be so expensive there.

By the way, returning back to this topic; while I was operating my chipper my neighbour cherry farmers asked me if there is any chipper with feeding method is not manual by hand. They want the trimmed tree branches on the ground to be collected (by a rake or the like?) and fed them into the chipper hopper directly (without touching the hand.) These fruit farmers are a really lazy people. Okay, anyone knows such a chipper?

Egon · May 18, 2004

These fruit farmers are a really lazy people. Okay, anyone knows such a chipper?

Nomad I've found just the machine. A couple of passes and the branches will dissapear. more passes and the chips get smaller.

Egon

nomad · May 19, 2004

The machine you are talking about is the nature? Then, till we see them branches disappear, we will lose those 10 hairs too on our bald heads.

Egon · May 19, 2004

Just keep that disk a disking. Them's branches will dissapear Nomad.

Egon

Taylortractornut · May 20, 2004

I ve seen some self propelled and tow behind chippers that have small knuckle boom/ grapple loaders on them. I have seen them advertise in Equipment World Magazine. I have used a tow behind a few times with a grapple to feed itself. We had it at TVA but i dont recall the name. It was handy to go out with a loader and 4in 1 bucket they would drop a pile of brush and we would hoist it and set it in the feed rolls. The knuckle boom could reach 15 feet on a 360 degree rotation and had a free swinging grapple. You could grab a log and hold it and grab a few more and put 3or 4 branches in at once.
Nomad Im not a blacksmith at all those guys are artists. Im just a Tinker. I was trained in a trade school on CNC but never took to it as most CNC jobs here are production work/boring. CNC isnt really practical for alot of my jobs i sideline I do wish I had an EZtrac manual/CNC Milling machine. They are pretty handy. Really may shop is a a place to fall back when work is slow but mainly a place to keep me out of trouble lol.

nomad · May 22, 2004

That grapple loader, I thought to add to my chipper, will make the chipper less effective, time and money consumer. Therefore, I have stopped thinking about this and now continuing to feed by hands. I am thinking nowadays about adding somethings like rotary rake tines, but, working in the same axis of the chipper.

Yes, CNC machining will reduce your work time and you may find yourself on the street, and we know how the streets of the world today are. My grand father was always saying that "if you want to pray bad about a person, don't pray for him/her to be without money - just pray for him to be without work." Somethings never change in the world.

DocHeb · May 22, 2004

( They want the trimmed tree branches on the ground to be collected )

Heavy duty flail mowers with hammer flails (rather than blades) can be used to mulch the branches in place in the aisles between the trees. For an example, see the Seppi Orchard Mowers offered through the St. George Company.

I have only seen them on the web, and have no personal experience with them.

nomad · May 22, 2004

You have no experience with them, because they are a Canadian company in Ontaria (their web site says.) Egon must have some experiences with them?

Mulching mowers maybe useful, but they won't do what is asked here. The chip sizes must be as small as possible (for quick decomposition in the soil) and the only machine that does cut the wood/tree branches into so small size chips are the wood chippers. Mulching mowers will mix the wood (trimmed tree branches) pieces with the soil without cutting them in small sizes.